Dr. Deborah A. Fields seeks to understand the power of connected learning by studying how students’ learning is enriched when school, home, friends, and playful online spaces collide. As an associate research professor at Utah State University and an independent research consultant, her work focuses on the creative artifacts that students make (like sewable electronics or e-textiles) and online communities they inhabit that create intersections between their interests, communities, and identities. Most recently she has co-developed and researched an e-textiles unit for the Exploring Computer Science curriculum and collaborated on a comparative study on kids’ DIY media online.