Punya Mishra is Director of Innovative Learning Futures at the Learning Engineering Institute (LEI) and Professor in the Mary Lou Fulton College for Teaching & Learning Innovation at Arizona State University (with an affiliate appointment in the Design School).

He is internationally recognized for his work in educational technology; the role of creativity and aesthetics in learning; and the application of collaborative, design-based approaches to educational innovation. He has received over $11 million in grants; published over 200 articles and edited 5 books. A recipient of AECT’s David H. Jonassen Excellence in Research Award, with over 67,000 citations of his research, he is ranked among the top 2% of scientists worldwide (#91 in social science) and ranked #62 (#11 in psychology) among educational scholars with the biggest influence on educational practice and policy.

Punya has extensive leadership experience in higher education, having previously served as Associate Dean of Scholarship & Innovation (at MLFTC), where he led a range of initiatives that provided a future-forward, equity driven, approach to inter/trans-disciplinary educational research. He has also served as director of doctoral programs (at MLFTC) and the award-winning Master of Arts in Educational Technology program (at Michigan State). He currently is a member of the steering committee of ASU’s Leadership Academy, AACTE’s Technology and Innovation Committee, and editor-in-residence for the Journal of Teacher Education.

An AERA Fellow (2024), TED-Ed educator (2023), he co-hosts the award-winning Silver Lining for Learning webinar as well as the Learning Futures podcast. He is an award-winning instructor, an engaging public speaker, and an accomplished visual artist and poet.

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Popular Topics: Gen AI <Posts & Pubs> | 5 Spaces for Design <Posts & Pubs>| TPACK | Design |Creativity | Ambigrams

Blog Posts

AI, Human Rights, and Education: A Virtual Panel Discussion

AI, Human Rights, and Education: A Virtual Panel Discussion

I recently participated in a virtual panel organized by the Federation of Post-Secondary Educators of British Columbia (FPSE), examining the intersection of AI: Human rights, and Education. The event brought together five panelists from different institutions and...

Engineered for Attachment: The Hidden Psychology of AI Companions

Engineered for Attachment: The Hidden Psychology of AI Companions

Note: This post was co-authored with Melissa Warr and cross-posted on the Civics of Technology website as Artificial Intimacy: How AI is Engineered to Hijack Human Connection (published: April 27, 2025). Authors’ note: We had almost finished writing this post,...

Exploring the TypeVerse: When Typography Meets AI Poetry

Exploring the TypeVerse: When Typography Meets AI Poetry

Back in January I wrote about my typographical designs where letters do double duty and how I was collaborating with Claude to create poetic/verbal responses to my designs. What started as simple visual puzzles—like "THINK INFINITY" with the shared "IN"...

Who Ordered That? On AI, Education, and the Illusion of Necessity

Who Ordered That? On AI, Education, and the Illusion of Necessity

On April 22, 2025, The Washington Post reported on a draft executive order from the Trump administration that outlines a sweeping plan to embed artificial intelligence into K-12 education. The order calls for AI to be integrated into teaching practices, teacher...

Can AI Be a Therapist? A Friend? What Are We Even Doing?

Can AI Be a Therapist? A Friend? What Are We Even Doing?

I was recently invited to a webinar organized by the AZ AI Alliance, titled: Thorny Topics: AI and Student Mental Health Along with Dr. Kristen Mattson (University of Illinois), Mica Mulloy (Brophy College Prep) and host Luke Allpress, we jumped into some of the most...

Artificial Intimacy: How AI Exploits Our Social Brains

Artificial Intimacy: How AI Exploits Our Social Brains

A recent study published in the Harvard Business Review (How People Are Really Using Gen AI in 2025) provides compelling insights into the evolving landscape of generative AI use. The research involved analyzing posts from Reddit, Quora and other articles over the...

… or check out some random blog posts

The incredible drowning man (returns)

It's good to be back at Twente, meeting old friends and making some new ones. I had a pretty light day yesterday, which was good because I had gone around 30 hours without any sleep. After checking into the hotel and getting a short but much needed nap, I took a walk...

Like to learn, but hate school

In this TCRecord piece, Daniel T. WIllingham uses what we know about cognitive psychology to explain  Why students don't like school. He suggests that although most people believe that humans are good at thinking, it is actually the weakest of our mental faculties......

Robert Frost writes a paper

First it was Lewis Carroll and Jabberwocky and now it is Robert Frost and his poem Stopping by the woods on a snowy evening that receives the EPET treatment. Here is poem #2 in our series of famous poems rewritten from a graduate school perspective. Thanks to Diana...

The search for pattern, beauty & intelligent life…

Connecting birds nests to "crop circles under the ocean" leading to some thoughts on perception, beauty and finding intelligent life in the universe (or maybe even on this planet). The other day I found a bird's nest on my front lawn. Most probably it had fallen down...

Learning science with the body

Learning science with the body

We often think and understand the world using our bodies. Our senses and movement shape how we form and process knowledge. Paul Reimer, Rohit Mehta and I explore this idea and its educational implications in a new article published in iWonder: Rediscovering School...

Master’s course wins ATT Award

Just got the news from Carrie Albin, Outreach Coordinator of our Educational Technology Certificate Program (which is part of our Master's in Educational Technology program) that our CEP810 (Teaching for Understanding with Computers) course earned first place in the...

Education in an evolutionary perspective

I just discovered Peter O. Gray's blog on Psychology Today, titled Freedom to Learn: The roles of play and curiosity as foundations for learning. This is an awesome blog and really worth reading. Here are two of his posts that I strongly recommend. The first states...

Putting technology first

Don Norman has a great essay titled Technology First, Needs Last that I strongly recommend. We have been making a similar argument in some of our more recent pieces, see here and here... What do you think of Norman's ideas? Read it first and come back here to discuss...

Is your head in the McClouds!

Scott McCloud is a pioneer in his field - the field of comics. (I had previously posted about him here). I just discovered (via Presentation Zen & Matt Koehler) a TED talk he had given back in 2005. It is a wonderful introduction to McCloud the man and his ideas....