Yasmin Kafai

Kafai was born in Germany and has worked and studied in Germany, France, and the United States. In the U.S., she worked with Seymour Papert at the MIT Media Laboratory and was a faculty member of the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies.

Kafai is a pioneer in research on computing, gaming, and learning.{{cite news |author=James Ryan |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/07/02/technology/profile-on-the-job-with-putt-putt-freddi-fish-and-pajama-sam.html?scp=1&sq=Yasmin%20Kafai&st=cse&pagewanted=1 |title=On the Job With Putt-Putt, Freddi Fish and Pajama Sam |newspaper=The New York Times |date=1998-07-02 |access-date=2011-01-27}}{{cite web |author=Pamela Mendels |url=http://partners.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/04/cyber/education/12education.html?scp=2&sq=Yasmin%20Kafai&st=cse |title=Changing Girls' Attitudes About Computer |publisher=The New York Times On The Web |date=2000-04-12 |access-date=2011-01-27}} Utilizing constructionist theory, she examines technology designs and culture, and helped to set the foundation for programmatic initiatives on games and learning. Kafai was an early developer and researcher of Scratch, an educational programming language that allows young people to creatively participate as programmers in the development of virtual projects.{{cite web |url= http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2009/11/48421-scratch-programming-for-all/fulltext |title= Scratch: Programming for All |publisher=Communications of the ACM |year=2009 |access-date=2011-01-27}} She is also an active voice on the involvement of girls in gaming and programming{{cite news |author=Katie Ash |url=http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2009/10/21/01girlgames.h03.html?qs=kafai |title=Getting Girls Engaged in Digital-Game Design | newspaper=Education Week |publisher=Education Week: Digital Directions |date=2009-10-14 |access-date=2011-01-27}} and on the impact of virtual gaming on real-life social behavior in youth.{{cite magazine |author=Sharon Duke Estroff |url=http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/print-this/family/activities/undercover-club-penguin |title=Undercover in a Kid's Online World |magazine=Good Housekeeping |date=2009-01-09 |access-date=2011-01-27}}{{cite magazine |author=Sandy Hingston |url=http://www.phillymag.com/articles/feature_is_it_just_us_or_are_kids_getting_really_stupid/ |title=Is It Just Us, Or Are Kids Getting Really Stupid? |magazine=Philadelphia Magazine |date=2010-11-26 |access-date=2011-01-27}}

Kafai is an editor of Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat: New Perspectives on Gender and Gaming (2008), a collection of essays that builds on the groundbreaking book From Barbie to Mortal Kombat (Cassell and Jenkins, 2000).{{cite journal |jstor=10.1086/651047 |title=Book review of Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat: New Perspectives on Gender and Gaming |journal=Signs |publisher=The University of Chicago Press |date=Summer 2010 |volume=35 |issue=4 |pages=1029–1030}} Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat presents new developments in gaming, gender, and learning, and why gender-based stereotypes persist in gaming.{{cite web |url=http://reviews.media-culture.org.au/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=3391 |title=Review of Beyond Barbie and Mortal Combat: New Perspectives on Gender and Gaming |publisher= MC Reviews |date= 2010-06-14 |access-date=2011-01-27}} Kafai's 1995 book Minds in Play: Computer Design as a Context for Children's Learning helped to establish the field of gaming and learning. She also wrote Under the Microscope: A Decade of Gender Equity Interventions in the Sciences (2004), contributed to Tech-Savvy: Educating Girls in the New Computer Age, and has written several journal and book articles.

• Kafai, Y. B. & Burke, Q. (2016). [https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/connected-gaming Connected gaming: What making video games can teach us about learning and literacy]. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.{{Cite book|title=Connected Gaming|url=https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/connected-gaming|access-date=2021-06-10|series=The John D. And Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning |date=23 December 2016 |publisher=MIT Press |isbn=9780262035378 |language=en}}
• Kafai, Y. B. & Burke, Q. (2014). [https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/connected-code Connected code: Why children need to learn programming]. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.{{Cite book|title=Connected Code|url=https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/connected-code|access-date=2021-06-10|series=The John D. And Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning |date=11 July 2014 |publisher=MIT Press |isbn=9780262027755 |language=en}}
• Kafai, Y. B. & Fields, D. A. (2013). [https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/connected-play Connected play: Tweens in a virtual world]. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.{{Cite book|title=Connected Play|url=https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/connected-play|access-date=2021-06-10|series=The John D. And Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning |date=11 October 2013 |publisher=MIT Press |isbn=9780262019934 |language=en}}
• Kafai, Y. B. (1995). Minds in Play: Computer Game Design as a Context for Children's Learning. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.{{Cite web|title=Yasmin B. Kafai {{!}} Penn GSE|url=https://www.gse.upenn.edu/academics/faculty-directory/kafai|access-date=2021-06-10|website=www.gse.upenn.edu}}

• Holbert, N., Berland, M., & Kafai, Y. B. (Eds.). (2020). [https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/designing-constructionist-futures Designing constructionist futures: The art, theory, and practice of learning designs]. MIT Press.{{Cite book|title=Designing Constructionist Futures|url=https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/designing-constructionist-futures|access-date=2021-06-10|date=27 October 2020 |publisher=MIT Press |isbn=9780262539845 |language=en}}
• Buechley, L., Peppler, K. A., Eisenberg, M., & Kafai, Y. B. (Eds.) (2013). [https://www.peterlang.com/view/title/22130 Textile messages: Dispatches from the world of electronic textiles and education]. New York: Peter Lang Publishers.{{Cite book|date=2013-01-01|title=Textile Messages|url=https://www.peterlang.com/view/title/22130|access-date=2021-06-10|publisher=Peter Lang Publishers|language=en}}
• Kafai, Y. B., Peppler, K. A., & Chapman, R. N. (Eds.) (2009). [https://books.google.com/books?id=s3kkAQAAMAAJ The computer clubhouse: Constructionism and creativity in youth communities]. New York: Teachers College Press.
• Kafai, Y. B., Heeter, C., Denner, J., & Sun, J. (Eds.) (2008). [https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/beyond-barbie-and-mortal-kombat Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat: New perspectives on gender and gaming]. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.{{Cite book|title=Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat|url=https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/beyond-barbie-and-mortal-kombat|access-date=2021-06-10|date=19 September 2008 |publisher=MIT Press |isbn=9780262113199 |language=en}}
• Kafai, Y. B., & Resnick, M. (Eds.) (1996). Constructionism in practice: Designing, thinking, and learning in a digital world. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

{{Reflist}}

• [http://www.gse.upenn.edu/ Penn GSE]
• [http://yasminkafai.com/ Yasmin Kafai]
• [http://computationaltextiles.blogspot.com/ Computational Textiles as Materials for Creativity]
• [http://spotlight.macfound.org/all/by-author/a188/ Spotlight on Digital Media and Learning]

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Category:University of Pennsylvania faculty

Category:Technische Universität Berlin alumni

Category:Harvard University alumni

Category:UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies faculty

Category:University of Pennsylvania Department of Computer and Information Science faculty