Back to Faculty/Researchers

Prof. Mitchel J Resnick

LEGO Papert Professor of Learning Research
Head, Lifelong Kindergarten Group (Media Lab)

Primary DLC

MIT Media Lab

MIT Room: E14-445A
(617) 253-9783
http://www.media.mit.edu/people/bio_mres.html

Areas of Interest and Expertise

Role of Technology in Learning and Education
Design of Computational Systems for Nonexperts and Children
Decentralized Systems and Decentralized Thinking
Informal Learning Environments
Learning in Virtual Communities
Lifelong Kindergarten

Research Summary

Mitchel Resnick is the LEGO Papert Professor of Learning Research at the MIT Media Lab,
where he leads the Lifelong Kindergarten research group.

His Lifelong Kindergarten research group developed the Scratch programming software and online community, used by millions of young people around the world. The group has also collaborated with the LEGO Company on the development of new educational ideas and products, including the LEGO Mindstorms robotics kits. Resnick co-founded the Computer Clubhouse project, an international network of more than 100 after-school learning centers where youth from low-income communities learn to express themselves creatively with new technologies.

Resnick earned a B.A. in physics at Princeton University (1978) and MS and PhD degrees in computer science at MIT (1988, 1992). He worked as a science-technology journalist from 1978 to 1983.

Resnick is author of the book Lifelong Kindergarten: Cultivating Creativity through Projects, Passion, Peers, and Play, which won the PROSE award for Education Practice in 2018. He is also author of Turtles, Termites, and Traffic Jams (1994), co-editor of Constructionism in Practice (1996), and co-author of Adventures in Modeling (2001) and The Official ScratchJr Book (2015). He was awarded the McGraw Prize in Education (2011), the AACE EdMedia Pioneer Award (2013), the ISTE Making IT Happen Award (2018), and the LEGO Prize (2021).

Recent Work

Related Faculty

Victor Moran Rodriguez

Visiting Scientist

Valentina Sumini

Research Affiliate

David W Sweeney

Director of Communications