From the Hechinger Report:
Mimi [Mizuko] Ito is a cultural anthropologist studying new media use, particularly among young people in the United States and Japan. She focuses on the changing relationship to media and communications among youth and is a co-author of "Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out: Kids Living and Learning with New Media...." Ito, a professor at the University of California at Irvine, just completed a three-year study about youth digital media usage. She found that social networks and other online groups open up whole new worlds of learning that schools have traditionally failed to explore-and that time online is highly important for teenage development. "Facebook is the biggest educational property we have in kids' lives now," said Ito, who is research director at the Digital Media and Learning Hub at UC Irvine. "I'm not saying it's educational in the way you want it to be. I'm just saying it's where they are doing most of their learning."

For the full story, please visit http://hechingerreport.org/content/qa-with-mimi-ito-facebooks-educationa....