Design for democracy

Dabbling to see: A rant

Jun 9, 2010

My friend and colleague Leigh Wolf forwarded me this article on Edward Tufte: The Many Faces (And Sculptures) Of Edward Tufte. I have been a fan of information design guru Edward Tufte's work for years (decades?). I love his emphasis on clarity and simplicity in...

Gandhi, ambigrams, creativity & the power of small pieces loosely joined

Feb 21, 2009

This is an extended piece on the manner in which the web, small pieces loosely joined, can lead to “serendipitous connectabilty” (something I had written about earlier here). All this is situated in a story that connects cognitive scientist Douglas Hofstader, Oriya...

MSU’s Ed Psych ranked #1

Apr 30, 2008

Academic Analytics (academicanalytics.com) is a subscriber service that ranks specific PhD programs nationwide on a broad number of domains based on faculty productivity. The index takes account, for an academic year, of faculty program level productivity measures...

Blast from the past: Theories and memory

Feb 6, 2015

Ambigram for the word "Theory" by Punya Mishra My first real research study was one that I conducted back when I was a graduate student under the mentorship of Bill Brewer. It was designed as a classic educational psychology memory study and though I have done little...

e. e. cummings on the battle for identity

May 6, 2009

Patrick Dickson just quoted e. e. cummings (one of my favorite poets) and I just had to look it up. To be nobody-but-yourself — in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else — means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can...

Looking for IT in India

Jan 25, 2008

A few days ago Jack Schwille, assistant dean for international studies in education, sent an email out to all faculty and students at the college of education announcing a talk by me titled: "Help Punya find IT in India?" This presentation was to be fifth in the...

How to author 85,000 (or is it 200,000) books…

Apr 28, 2008

Andrea Francis just emailed me a note about Professor Phillip Parker who is the world's fastest book author. He has over the past five years over 85,000 books to his name. He is also the most eclectic. As the article says, "He has authored some 188 books related to...

Scrivener vs. Writer

Jan 6, 2008

A NYTimes article on word-processing versus writing (or scrivenering??): An interface of one's own. What stood out was this description of writing being more than just the putting of words on a screen -- but rather of seeing it this complex, often non-linear...

Happy Thanksgiving

Nov 24, 2016

I feel lucky (and quite undeserving) for all that I have been given in this life. It is no surprise that Thanksgiving is my favorite day of the year. To celebrate Thanksgiving 2016 here is a new version an ambigram that I had made before.