Mizuko Ito facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Mizuko Ito
Ito in 2023
Born	(1968-07-22) July 22, 1968 (age 57) Kyōto, Japan
Education	Ph.D.
Alma mater	Harvard University (undergraduate) Stanford University (graduate)
Occupation	Anthropologist
Spouse(s)	Scott Fisher
Children	2
Relatives	Joi Ito (brother)

Mizuko Itō, also known as Mimi Ito, was born on July 22, 1968. She is a Japanese cultural anthropologist and a learning scientist. She works as a Professor at the University of California, Irvine. There, she leads the Connected Learning Lab.

Mizuko Ito is very interested in how young people use technology and media. She studies how digital tools change our relationships, who we are, and our communities. Her work has been shared in many popular places like Wired, CNN, and The New York Times.

Early Life and School

Mizuko Ito grew up living in both the United States and Japan. In Japan, she went to international schools.

She studied at Harvard University for her first degree. She graduated in 1990, focusing on East Asian studies. Later, she went to Stanford University for her advanced degrees. She earned a Masters degree in anthropology in 1991. In 1998, she received a Ph.D. in education. Her research looked at how kids play with computer games. She earned another Ph.D. in anthropology in 2003. This research was published in a book about children's software.

Researching Digital Media

Mizuko Ito has done many studies on how teens and young adults use new media and technology. She has worked on projects that help us understand how people learn with digital tools. Her research often focuses on two main areas:

Japanese Youth Culture

Ito has studied how young people in Japan and the U.S. use Japanese popular culture. Early on, she looked at how children played with things like Pokemon. She also studied how Japanese teens were among the first to use text messaging and camera phones. This work was shared in a book called Personal, Portable, Pedestrian: Mobile Phones in Japanese Life in 2005.

Later, she researched `otaku` fan culture. This is a term for people who are very interested in Japanese pop culture, like anime and manga. This research led to the book Fandom Unbound: Otaku Culture in a Connected World, published in 2012.

Digital Media and Learning

In 2006, Ito received a special grant to study how young people learn differently. This was part of the Digital Youth Project. It looked at how kids use digital games, social media, and mobile phones for learning. The findings from this big study were shared in the book Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out in 2013.

This project was a big part of the MacArthur Foundation's effort to understand digital media and learning. Ito helped lead a research center for this work. She also chaired a network that studied how people learn through connections.

Connected Learning

Mizuko Ito has continued to work on "connected learning." This idea is about how learning happens best when it connects a young person's interests, their friends, and opportunities in the world.

In 2017, she started the Connected Learning Lab (CLL) at UC Irvine. This lab brings together many experts to research and design new ways of learning with technology. The CLL works to make learning fair and focused on the student. They get funding from groups like the MacArthur Foundation and the National Science Foundation.

Some reports from these projects include:

• "From Good Intentions To Real Outcomes: Equity By Design In Learning Technologies" (2017)
• "Influences on Occupational Identity in Adolescence: A Review of Research and Programs" (2019)
• "Asset and Action-Based Approaches to Civic Learning: A Review of Frameworks, Evidence and Approaches" (2022)
• "The Connected Arts Learning Framework: An Expanded View of the Purposes and Possibilities for Arts Learning" (2023)

Digital Wellbeing

Since 2019, Ito has been studying how teens' use of digital technology affects their wellbeing. This research looks at how social media and other digital tools impact young people's health and happiness.

One important report from this work is "Social Media and Youth Wellbeing: What We Know and Where We Could Go," published in 2020. She also helped lead an effort to support new ideas that help young people have healthy relationships with technology.

Helping Communities

Mizuko Ito is also involved in starting and leading community groups.

She is a co-founder and leader of the Connected Learning Alliance. This group wants to create a world where young people's interests and cultures help them find education, community, and job opportunities.

With others, she also co-founded Connected Camps. This is a group that offers online learning programs. Kids can learn coding and digital arts using popular games like Minecraft and Roblox.

In 2018, Ito helped start the Connected Learning Summit conference. This is an annual event where people discuss connected learning.

Personal Life

Mizuko Ito lives in Southern California with her husband, Scott Fisher. He is a researcher who works with virtual reality. They have two adult children. When her children were younger, she used to share pictures of the school lunches she made for them online.

Mizuko Ito's brother is Joi Ito. He is the president of the Chiba Institute of Technology in Japan.

Selected Publications

• Ito, Mizuko, Daisuke Okabe, Misa Matsuda, Eds. 2005. Personal Portable Pedestrian: Mobile Phones in Japanese Life.
• Ito, Mizuko. 2009. Engineering Play: A Cultural History of Children's Software.
• Ito, Mizuko, Daisuke Okabe, Izumi Tsuji, Eds. 2012. Fandom Unbound: Otaku Culture in a Connected World.
• Ito, Mizuko, Kris Gutiérrez, Sonia Livingstone, Bill Penuel, Jean Rhodes, Katie Salen, Juliet Schor, Julian Sefton-Green, S. Craig Watkins. 2013. Connected Learning: An Agenda for Research and Design.
• Ito, Mizuko, Sonja Baumer, Matteo Bittanti, danah boyd, Rachel Cody, Becky Herr, Heather A. Horst, Patricia G. Lange, Dilan Mahendran, Katynka Martinez et al. 2013. Hanging Out, Messing Around, Geeking Out: Kids Living and Learning with New Media.
• Ito, Mizuko, Crystle Martin, Rachel Cody-Pfister, Matthew H, Rafalow, Katie Salen Tekinbaş, Amanda Wortman. 2018. Affinity Online: How Connection and Shared Interest Fuel Learning.
• Ito, Mizuko, Candice Odgers, Stephen Schueller, Jennifer Cabrera, Evan Conaway, Remy Cross, and Maya Hernandez. 2020. Social Media and Youth Wellbeing: What We Know and Where We Could Go.
• Ito, Mizuko, Remy Cross, Karthik Dinakar, and Candice Odgers. 2023. Algorithmic Rights and Protections for Children.

See also

• Digital anthropology
• Connected learning