Advancing knowledge and practice wherever people interact with information and technology

Dr. Anne Jonas (Ph.D. ’21) returned to the I School on Monday, January 23, 2023 to present her dissertation, “Blank Slate: Freedom, Connection, and Accountability in U.S. Virtual Schools.”

Her research addresses the topic of virtual schools and their promises, precarious relationships with labor, and current shortcomings. “The main focus of my dissertation is looking at how diverse the experiences of virtual schooling can be, and really taking it seriously as something that has arisen in the context of the problems with public school education,” Jonas said.

Ken-ichi Ueda, co-founder and co-director of the platform iNaturalist and I School alum, will deliver the keynote speech at the School’s commencement ceremony at UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall.

Ueda, who graduated from the Master of Information Management and Systems (MIMS) program in 2008, developed iNaturalist for his MIMS final project. iNaturalist, which the New York Times recently called “the nicest place online,” allows users to post pictures of flora and fauna online in hopes that other nature enthusiasts band together to identify the specimen.