June Ahn
Professor | UC Irvine
Irvine, CA, UNITED STATES
June Ahn is a Professor of Learning Sciences and Research-Practice Partnerships at the UC Irvine (UCI) School of Education.
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Biography
June Ahn is a Professor of Learning Sciences and Research-Practice Partnerships at the UC Irvine (UCI) School of Education. He is also a Senior Associate Dean at the UCI School of Education, and he conducts research at the intersection of participatory design, technology, education, and community partnerships.
June is the founding director of OCEAN (Orange County Educational Advancement Network), which supports Research-Practice Partnerships at the UCI School of Education.
Prior to UCI, June was an Associate Professor at New York University (NYU) in the Digital Media Design for Learning and Games for Learning programs. He was an Assistant/Associate Professor at the University of Maryland (UMD), College Park, in the College of Information Studies with a joint appointment in the College of Education. During his time at UMD, June was a faculty member at and directed the Human-Computer Interaction Lab (HCIL, one of the oldest HCI labs in the country).
Areas of Expertise (5)
Data Use and Analytics
Human-Computer Interaction
Learning Technologies
Research-Practice Partnerships
Educational Technology
Accomplishments (3)
Distinguished Paper Award (professional)
2019 International Conference on Research in Equity and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology
Best Paper Award (professional)
2012 Association for Information Science and Technology Annual Meeting – SIGUSE
Lilly Fellowship (professional)
2012-2013 Center for Teaching Excellence, Teaching Award
Education (3)
University of Southern California, Los Angeles: PhD, Urban Education Policy 2010
Columbia University: MA, Computing and Education 2006
Brown University: BA, Computing in Education 2003
Affiliations (3)
- International Society of the Learning Sciences : Member
- Association for Computing Machinery : Member
- American Educational Research Association : Member
Links (6)
Media Appearances (3)
Artificial Intelligence in Schools
KABC tv
2023-09-07
Artificial Intelligence has the potential to change our world in ways that we're just beginning to understand. Technology is already being used by educators all over the world. Joining us now to talk about AI in schools is UC Irvine, Professor June Ahn.
Get the Funk Out
KUCI
2023-03-06
Years of emphasizing high-stakes tests may have dampened the joy of learning and, some argue, insufficiently prepared students to thrive in a modern workforce that values innovation and creativity. Some schools have implemented practices like capstone projects, ePortfolios and work-based learning programs designed to give students a sense of purpose in their learning and equip them to succeed in their future careers or college pursuits.
$1.1M grant from Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative formalizes partnership between UC Irvine and Anaheim Union High School District
UCI News online
2023-02-03
“Major questions remain about how to best implement these programs and what kinds of impacts one might expect from successfully enacting these kinds of practices,” said June Ahn, associate professor of education and one of the lead researchers on the project. “Our partnership will work from what AUHSD is already doing, to help provide an evidence base that other districts can build from as a model.”
Event Appearances (5)
Unpacking play and learning through the experience of teachers and students
Annual Meeting of the American Education Research Association
Parents and co-designers and co-researchers in playful learning landscapes projects
Annual Meeting of the American Education Research Association
Expansive ways of knowing and improving: Using equity tools and approaches to support equity of participation in learning activities
International Society of the Learning Sciences Annual Meeting
Co-designing a Learning Mobile application using a Culturally Sustaining Approach
Annual Meeting of the American Education Research Association
Supporting occupational identity development through ai-assisted self-reflection and mentor interactions
International Society of the Learning Sciences Annual Meeting
Research Grants (5)
Co-designing AI Assisted Family Math and Science Learning in Health Care Environments
Heising-Simons Foundation $500,000
2024-2026
The Smart Playground: Computational Thinking through Robotics in Early Childhood
National Science Foundation $2,996,534
2023-2026
Fraction Ball: Embodied Fraction and Decimal Learning
EF+Math Foundation $2,100,000
2023-2025
Evidence and Continuous Improvement of the Career Preparedness Systems Framework: Partnership between UCI OCEAN and Anaheim Union High School District
Chan Zuckerberg Initiative $1,100,000
2022-2025
Co-designing Technology with Latinx Families to Promote Playful Learning in the City
Heising-Simons Foundation $662,778
2021-2024
Articles (5)
Buckets of fun: Impacts of fraction ball activities on students' math-related emotions
Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology2024 Rational number learning can cause frustration and negative emotions for elementary school students. Fraction Ball, a play-based math intervention, allows students to actively learn rational numbers through engaging and interactive activities. Based on a cluster-randomized trial with 16 teachers and 360 students, our pre-registered analyses showed moderate positive impacts of Fraction Ball on overall students' self-reported math-related emotions.
Leveraging cultural forms in human-centred learning analytics design
British Journal of Educational Technology2023 In this article, we offer theory-grounded narratives of a 4-year participatory design process of a Learning Analytics tool with K-12 educators. We describe how we design-in-partnership by leveraging educators' routines, values and cultural representations into the designs of digital dashboards.
Designing culturally situated playful environments for early STEM learning with a Latine community
Early Childhood Research Quarterly2023 Children from underserved, minoritized, and immigrant families have less access to early out-of-school STEM learning opportunities. Playful Learning Landscapes increase the accessibility of early STEM learning in everyday public spaces (e.g., bus stops, grocery stores) by merging principles of guided play and STEM learning goals with local community's values.
"Money shouldn't be money!" : An Examination of Financial Literacy and Technology for Children Through Co-Design
IDC '23: Proceedings of the 22nd Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference2023 Financial literacy is the use of knowledge, skills, and behaviors around managing financial resources. Despite its importance, less is known from a Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and child-computer interaction perspective about what financial literacy means for youth, especially the role of digital technologies.
Reminders, reflections, and relationships: insights from the design of a chatbot for college advising
Information and Learning Sciences2023 In the USA, 22–40% of youth who have been accepted to college do not enroll. Researchers call this phenomenon summer melt, which disproportionately affects students from disadvantaged backgrounds. A major challenge is providing enough mentorship with the limited number of available college counselors. The purpose of this study is to present a case study of a design and user study of a chatbot (Lilo), designed to provide college advising interactions.
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