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Learning styles in the classroom? What BS! (But Bing Chat doesn’t care.)
One of the most enduring myths in education is that of learning styles. I had written about it back in 2009 in a blog post titled: Teaching to learning styles: What hogwash. But it a myth that does not seem to go away, maybe because it seems to have some kind of...
ChatGPT3 is bulls*** artist
Back in 1986 the philosopher Harry G. Frankfurt wrote an essay titled "On bullshit" which he then expanded into a book, published in 2005. Essentially, the essay and the book are a rumination on the distinction between "bullshitters" and "liars." He argues that:...
ChatGPT3 writes a Mathematical Proof (in verse)
Many years ago I got interested in writing poetry about mathematics (all archived on my Math-Poetry page). Just to be clear, I am not a good poet (far from it) and I am even less of a mathematician—but it was a fun exercise to engage in. That said, a couple of my...
Bringing Design to Education: IDC Talks
I was recently invited to speak at a series organized by alumni of the IDC School of Design, IIT Powai. As an alum of the same institution it was a great honor to be invited. You can see the entire series here (and I must say there are some awesome speakers there). My...
How to fix your Indian accent using AI
Featured image design © Punya Mishra (background image courtsey PxHere) There are many meanings to the phrase "having a voice." It can mean whether you are present and acknowledged within a space - but most literally it means what you say and how you speak? And...
ChatGPT as a blurry jpeg of the web
Ted Chiang is one of the greatest, insightful writers working today. I had written previously about one his short stories in a post titled: Truth of fact and feeling: Unpacking McLuhan (2/3) about his short story The truth of fact and the truth of feeling. (If you...
Aesthetics and science education: Beauty at Work podcast
Beauty at Work is a podcast that "explores how beauty shapes our lives and the work that we do" hosted by Brandon Vaidyanathan, Associate Professor of Sociology at The Catholic University of America. In its first season the focus is on beauty in science. As part of...
Creative Provocations: Speculations on the future of creativity, technology & learning (New Book)
I am excited to announce the publication of a new book, edited by Danah Henriksen and yours truly. Titled Creative Provocations: Speculations on the future of creativity, technology & learning, it is part of the Springer series on Creativity Theory and Action in...
15 years of blogging
January 1, 2008. 15 years ago, almost to the day - I posted my first note to this website (screenshot below). My first blog post, dated Jan 1, 2008 I have had a web presence since 1998 - hand coded, HTML pages, traces of which are still available on the Wayback...
Flip/Flop: Goodbye 2022 – Welcome 2023
Since 2008 our family has been creating short videos to celebrate the end of one year and the beginning of another. Our videos are always typographical in nature with some kind of an AHA! moment or optical illusion built in. This year’s video is no different. Check it...
Celebrating 10 Years of Re-imagining Creativity, Technology & Learning
10 years ago, we, the Deep-Play Research Group (DPRG), were invited to write a series for the journal TechTrends around the broad and intersecting themes of reimagining creativity, technology, and learning. A decade is a significant chunk of time to devote to a series...
Speculative fiction and the future of learning
One of the most fun projects I have been part of was working with authors of speculative fiction around the futures of learning. This was the result of a collaboration with the Center for Science and the Imagination, Slate magazine and New America (supported by the...
Modeling human behavior: The new dark art of silicon sampling
A couple of months ago I had written this post, On merging with our technologies – which was essentially quotes from a conversation Ezra Klein had with the novelist Mohsin Hamid. I finished the post with a quote speaking the dangers of predictive technologies on human...
TPACK in EDTECHNICA
I have been a huge fan of EdTechBooks for a long time. Their philosophy of making quality textbooks freely accessible for all resonates with me deeply. It is no surprise that I was excited to hear of their latest initiative: that of creating a living encyclopedia of...
Exploring Organizational Creativity & Mindfulness with Ravi Kudesia
Recently our on-going series on creativity, technology and learning for the journal TechTrends has focused on the relationship between mindfulness and creativity, particularly in educational contexts. Our first article set the stage for a deeper dive into this...
Silver Lining for Learning wins 2022 AECT Award
I learned, this morning, that the Silver Lining for Learning team (the webinar series I co-host with Chris Dede, Curt Bonk, and Yong Zhao) won the 2022 AECT Distinguished Development Award. For a completely unfunded, passion project that started at the beginning of...
Things we hold on to (in a shifting world)
Title image created using Dall E 2, with input by Punya Mishra My colleague Jill Koyama shared an essay published in the Refugee Research Online journal, titled "It's all in the bag: Refugees and Materiality."...
Complicating the idea of Design Thinking (in Education)
“Design thinking” is one of the latest buzzwords in education. Proponents argue that design thinking is a tried and tested process for fostering innovation in education while critics suggest that it is the latest fad to sweep through, and will, like others before it,...
The utopian/dystopian futures of online learning: New book chapter
I was invited to wrote a chapter for an edited book titled "The future of online education," edited by Stephen Paul McKenzie, Lilani Arulkadacham, Jennifer Chung and Zahra Aziz. It was an opportunity for me and my co-authors Melissa Warr and Ben Scragg to engage in...
Educational Futures Thinking: New book chapter
The philosopher George Santayana (1910) famously stated, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” (p. 284). In other words, the “best” way to prepare for the future is to study the past and through that, identify patterns and trends, and then...
McLuhan on Silver Lining for Learning (5/3)
This is the fifth of what was supposed to be a three post-series about how media influence our thinking. The first post, uses the invention of writing and print to unpack the meaning of McLuhan’s statement, “The medium is the message.” The second post, focuses on a...
Uncertainty, Creativity & Mindfulness: New chapter
Danah Henriksen, Carmen Richardson, Natalie Gruber and just published a chapter (titled: Uncertainity, Creativity & Mindfulness: Opening Possibilities and Reducing Restrictions Through Mindfulness) in the edited volume: Uncertainty: A Catalyst for Creativity....
On merging with our technologies (Unpacking McLuhan 4/3)
This is the fourth of what was supposed to be a three post-series about how media influence our thinking. The first post, uses the invention of writing and print to unpack the meaning of McLuhan’s statement, “The medium is the message.” The second post, focuses on a...
The Postman always rings twice: Unpacking McLuhan (3/3)
This is the third of three blog posts about how media influence our thinking. This is the second of three blog posts about how media influence our thinking. The first post, uses the invention of writing and print to unpack the meaning of McLuhan’s statement, “The...
Truth of fact and feeling: Unpacking McLuhan (2/3)
This is the second of three blog posts about how media influence our thinking. The first post, uses the invention of writing and print to unpack the meaning of McLuhan’s statement, “The medium is the message.” The second post, focuses on a story by Ted Chiang that...
Unpacking McLuhan’s “The medium is the message” (1/3)
This is the first of a series of blog posts about how media influence our thinking. This, the first post, uses the invention of writing and print to unpack the meaning of McLuhan’s statement, “The medium is the message.” The second post, focuses on a story by Ted...
Rethinking Creativity, Race, Culture & Education
Episode 115 (dated July 30, 2022) of the Silver Lining for Learning webinar series focused on critiquing existing research on creativity - which for the most part has focused on the psychological and cognitive aspects of creativity. The guests on the show (Lori Patton...
The futures of higher ed with Phoebe Wagner
The Center for Science and the Imagination at ASU runs a series of short stories and virtual gatherings that explore issues related to transformative change. Essentially they solicit and publish a (super-short) short story that explores “themes of community,...
Creativity and Mindfulness at Work
The next article in our series around mindfulness, creativity, technology and learning focuses on the work of Dr. Erik Dane. (This is part of a larger series that we been working on now for almost 10 years for the journal TechTrends). The first article set the stage...
The fictions we create (& how they create us)
The fictions we create (& how they create us) This is a story about a multi-year quest and its resolution (thought not necessarily in the way I was expecting). It is also a story about stories: stories in books and stories that we make up. And how these stories,...