Niall Ferguson
MA, D.Phil., is the Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History at Harvard University and William Ziegler Professor at Harvard Business School. He is a resident faculty member of the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies. He is also a Senior Research Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford University, a Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and a member of Muzzy Lane's Advisory Board since 2006.
A prolific commentator on contemporary politics and economics, Niall Ferguson writes and reviews regularly for the British and American press. He is a contributing editor for the Financial Times. He has appeared on Time magazines list of the world's hundred most influential people, and Foreign Policy magazine recently named him as as one of the top one hundred global thinkers. He was recently asked by the British government to play a play role in reshaping the history curriculum of secondary schools in the UK. A number of his books have been produced as award-winning documentary mini-series, including "The Ascent of Money", which recently won the International Emmy Award for best documentary. His works include The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World, The War of the World: Twentieth Century Conflict and the Descent of the West, Colossus: The Rise and Fall of the American Empire, and many others.
Henry Jenkins
Ph.D.: Provost's Professor of Communication, Journalism, and Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California.
Henry holds a Masters in Communication Studies from the University of Iowa and a Ph.D. in Communication Arts from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He joined USC in Fall 2009 after spending the past decade as 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 twelve books on various aspects of media and popular culture, including Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture, Hop on Pop: The Politics and Pleasures of Popular Culture and From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Gender and Computer Games. His newest books include Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide and Fans, Bloggers and Gamers: Exploring Participatory Culture. He is currently co-authoring a book on "spreadable media" with Sam Ford and Joshua Green. He has written for Technology Review,Computer Games, Salon, and The Huffington Post.
Jenkins is the principal investigator for Project New Media Literacies (NML), a group which originated as part of the MacArthur Digital Media and Learning Initiative. While at MIT, he was 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
Eric Klopfer
Ph.D.: Assistant Professor of Education and Director of the Teacher Education Program at MIT
Eric teaches building and using computer simulations for science education, with particular interest in using handheld and wearable computers to engage learners in simulations. He recently received a NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Science, Math, Engineering and Technology Education. Eric is widely published on computer-supported collaborative learning and how simulations can be used to understand complex subjects such as biology and ecology. He focuses equally on teaching teachers to use technology and helping students to learn by using technology.
Michael Berson
Ph.D.: Professor of Social Science Education at the University of South Florida in Tampa; coordinator of the Doctoral Programs in Social Studies Education
Michael teaches secondary social studies methodology at the undergraduate and graduate levels and courses on technology in the social studies. He served as the 2002-2003 Chair of the College and University Faculty Assembly (CUFA) of the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS), and as vice president of the Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education (professors who teach teachers). Michael conducts research on global child advocacy and technology in social studies education.
Kurt Squire
Ph.D.: Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the Educational Communications and Technology Division of Curriculm and Instruction
Kurt's focus is on the use of games for teaching. He and colleague Jim Gee run the Room 130 research group examining games, learning and literacy. He is also a visiting Research Fellow at MIT and co-director of The Education Arcade, a research and service project investigating the educational potential of digital gaming. Kurt earned his Ph.D. from Indiana University in Instructional Systems Technology. His dissertation examined learning through playing Civilization III in three learning environments. He is also a former elementary and Montessori teacher. Squire's dissertation focused on how playing Civilization III mediated students' understandings of world history.
David Staley
Ph.D.: Director, The Harvey Goldberg Center for Excellence in Teaching, Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of History, Ohio State University
David leads technology-in-the-classroom initiatives within the OSU History Department as well as through outreach with K-12 educators. He is the author of Computers, Visualization and History: How New Technology Will Transform Our Understanding of the Past. From 2003-2008, he was the Executive Director of the American Association for History and Computing (AAHC), where he also serves as lead editor for the association's book series "History, the Humanities and New Technology." David writes frequently on historical methods and historical pedagogy and has recently published History and Future: Using Historical Thinking to Imagine the Future, a book dealing with the relationship between historical methods and the study of the future. In addition to written works, he has produced visualizations in both scholarly journals and at professional meetings.
