Chris Csikszentmihályi (pronounced Cheek-sent-me-hi) is the Muriel Cooper Associate Professor of Media Arts and Sciences and directs the Computing Culture Group at the MIT Media Lab. A 2007 Radcliffe Institute Fellow, he has worked in the intersection of new technologies, politics, media and the arts for 15 years, lecturing, showing new media work and presenting installations in four continents and one subcontinent. His work aims to create a new technology to embody a particular social agenda. For example, he designed his piece “Afghan Explorer” to defend the First Amendment by creating a tele-operated robot reporter to bypass American military censorship. Csikszentmihályi has lectured and presented to government agencies and arts, humanities and science and engineering departments across the globe. He served on the National Academies’ “Information Technology and Creativity” panel, and has recently won fellowships from the Langlois and Rockefeller Foundations. (MFA, UC San Diego; BFA, Art Institute of Chicago)

Mitchel Resnick, Professor of Learning Research at the MIT Media Lab, explores how new technologies can help people (especially children) learn new things in new ways. His Lifelong Kindergarten research group developed the “programmable bricks” that were the basis for the LEGO MindStorms and PicoCricket construction kits. Resnick co-founded the Computer Clubhouse project, an international network of after-school learning centers for youth from low-income communities. Resnick’s group recently developed a new programming language, called Scratch, which makes it easier for kids to create their own interactive stories, games, music, and animations — and share their creations on the web. Resnick earned a BS in physics from Princeton, and an MS and PhD in computer science from MIT. Before pursuing his graduate degrees, he worked for five years as a science and technology journalist for Business Week magazine. He is the author or co-author of several books, including Turtles, Termites, and Traffic Jams.

Henry Jenkins is the director of the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program and the Peter de Florez Professor of Humanities. He is the author and/or editor of nine books on various aspects of media and popular culture, the newest books of which include Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide and Fans, Bloggers and Gamers: Exploring Participatory Culture. Jenkins recently developed a white paper on the future of media literacy education for the MacArthur Foundation, which is leading to a three year project to develop curricular materials to help teachers and parents better prepare young people for full participation in contemporary culture. He is one of the principal investigators for The Education Arcade, a consortium of educators and business leaders working to promote the educational use of computer and video games. He is one of the leaders of the Convergence Culture Consortium, which consults with leading players in the branded entertainment sector in hopes of helping them adjust to shifts in the media environment.