June Ahn
Professor UC Irvine
- Irvine CA
June Ahn is a Professor of Learning Sciences and Research-Practice Partnerships at the UC Irvine (UCI) School of Education.
Media
Social
Biography
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
Accomplishments
Distinguished Paper Award
2019
International Conference on Research in Equity and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology
Best Paper Award
2012
Association for Information Science and Technology Annual Meeting – SIGUSE
Lilly Fellowship
2012-2013
Center for Teaching Excellence, Teaching Award
Education
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
- International Society of the Learning Sciences : Member
- Association for Computing Machinery : Member
- American Educational Research Association : Member
Links
Media Appearances
How Educators Can Maximize AI Right Now: Reflections from Our Team
Digital Promise online
2025-04-14
Led by Digital Promise in collaboration with the Anaheim Union High School District, aiEdu, and the University of California, Irvine, represented by Professor June Ahn, the summit ensured that the bulk of the programming featured educators and centered student voice. As one student participant shared at the summit, “Conversations about AI in education shouldn’t just include students; they should start with students.”
Commentary: Let’s redefine student success to measure what really matters
EdSource online
2025-02-19
June Ahn, UC Irvine School of Education professor and Michael Matsuda write, “In collaboration with UC Irvine professor June Ahn and the nonprofit education technology organization eKadence, Anaheim Union is developing and piloting an AI-enhanced learning strategy that redefines how student talent is measured.”
Anaheim Collaborative: New Ways to Measure Students’ Progress
Carnegie Corporation of New York online
2024-12-04
June Ahn at the University of California, Irvine, is the district’s research partner. With support from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, his team is creating an AI tool that analyzes students’ performance and reflections so that teachers can understand a student’s growth so that they can quickly see how to improve instruction.
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
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
Co-designing AI Assisted Family Math and Science Learning in Health Care Environments
Heising-Simons Foundation
2024-2026
The Smart Playground: Computational Thinking through Robotics in Early Childhood
National Science Foundation
2023-2026
Fraction Ball: Embodied Fraction and Decimal Learning
EF+Math Foundation
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
2022-2025
Co-designing Technology with Latinx Families to Promote Playful Learning in the City
Heising-Simons Foundation
2021-2024
Articles
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.
