Research Interests

Dr. Kumpulainen’s scholarship demonstrates a broad mastery of current and historical scholarship in research on interaction, learning and education involving theory informed investigations of technological designs to support teaching and learning in early childhood, K-12, postsecondary education and in informal learning environments. Her ongoing research focuses on children’s digital literacies, digital agency and digital learning practices with evolving technologies in formal education and in informal learning environments, such as homes, museums, science centers, libraries, outdoors, and in digital and immersive worlds. She engages in the design and investigation of technological innovations, novel instructional methods, pedagogies and curricula for learning and educational change. She has researched and developed pedagogies, learning environments and tools for children’s Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) learning, multiliteracies learning, and for children’s environmental and climate change education. She also engages in interdisciplinary research and development projects with academic, industry and community partners. Her recent design is an open source augmented reality application MyArJulle designed to support children’s mobile and multimodal storytelling.

Research Highlights

• Digital Mediation of Children's Interactions with the More Than Human World  
  Contemporary society is saturated with digital devices that are transforming children’s play activities, their social relationships and their interactions with the “natural” world. This project investigates how children deploy digital devices to interact with the “natural” world and how this influences their literate practices, emotional engagement and identities. These issues are investigated longitudinally across countries, Australia and Finland, and in relation to key contextual issues of social class, material conditions, and pedagogical approach. Through a children’s learning commission on how to use digital devices sustainably, children become researchers of how to mitigate the effects of human activity on the “natural” world. Peter Renshaw, University of Queensland (PI), Ron Tooth, University of Queensland (co-PI), Kristiina Kumpulainen (co-PI), University of Helsinki. Funding: Australian Research Council (2019-2022).

• iMAKE
  The iMake project addresses digital literacy practices and digital competence development among young learners in the context of school-based makerspaces. Kristiina Kumpulainen, PI. Funding: Academy of Finland (2017-2020)

Teaching