Jennifer Jenson, PhD

“I started thinking about technology and its links to education and gender way back when Sun Microsystems was a hot tech company in Silicon Valley and I went and spent a summer as an intern there. Even today, the challenges remain the same — how to better support women and girls’ access and skill development related to digital technologies generally and videogames in particular as they are posed to be the creative industry of the 21st century.

My research has, over the past three decades now, examined the use and role of technologies inside and outside educational settings. That has meant my research has looked at, for example, how technology is implemented and integrated in K-12 schooling, video game play in after school clubs, video game design to support learning, and game design and development as a way to support the acquisition of STEAM related competencies and skills and the misogynist and vitriolic cultures of video game play and making.

For me, play is central to learning, and with that, I’ll confess that Frogger is my all time favourite game – it taught me so much about crossing the street.”