Posts related to: Fun
Kant, Borges, LLMs, and a Bollywood Movie: Concepts, Percepts, and Serendipity

Kant, Borges, LLMs, and a Bollywood Movie: Concepts, Percepts, and Serendipity

Intro: I am not entirely sure of the point of this post: a somewhat random associative rumination that brings together a German philosopher, a blind Argentinian author, a not-so-famous Bollywood movie, and large language models. All I can say is that these connections...

Drawing with Circles: Vibe coding the Fourier Transformation

Drawing with Circles: Vibe coding the Fourier Transformation

In my presentations I sometimes talk about my four years in engineering school as being something of a disaster. The way I present this fact is through this image, and the math/science types get the pun - Four Year / Fourier Transformation! A slide I typically use in...

Making Waves (& Flocking Birds): Creating Science Simulations with AI

Making Waves (& Flocking Birds): Creating Science Simulations with AI

I've been experimenting with AI-assisted coding for a while now—in fact my first attempt was back in early 2023. Since then I have engaged in multiple explorations using AI to transform concepts and intuitions directly into functional code. This approach bypasses...

Small pieces, meaningful connections: Why I love the open web

Small pieces, meaningful connections: Why I love the open web

One of blogging's greatest pleasures, often unspoken, are the truly serendipitous connections one makes. Not networking in the conventional sense, but unexpected encounters with people who find something on my website that connects with them and they reach out. These...

Reflecting on a Semester of Discovery, Creativity and GenAI

Reflecting on a Semester of Discovery, Creativity and GenAI

This past spring semester I taught (with Nicole Oster and Lindsey McCaleb) a masters/doctoral seminar on Human Creativity x AI in Education. I had wanted to write this post after our last class meeting over a month and a half ago—but travel and life kept getting in...

The Stranger Who Changed My Life: A tribute to Bill Atkinson

The Stranger Who Changed My Life: A tribute to Bill Atkinson

Bill Atkinson was someone I had never met. But he changed my life. I learned of Bill's passing a couple of days ago. It was not that I had thought about Bill a lot but the news of his death brought back memories and a recognition of the critical role he had played in...

Modem Futura Podcast: AI, Education, and the Human Heart of Learning

Modem Futura Podcast: AI, Education, and the Human Heart of Learning

I recently had the pleasure of joining Sean Leahy and Andrew Maynard on their podcast Modem Futura for what turned into a wonderfully sprawling conversation about AI and education—one that went far beyond the typical “robots in classrooms” narrative that dominates so...

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...

Human Creativity to the Power of AI: The Event

Human Creativity to the Power of AI: The Event

When Nicole Oster, Lindsey McCaleb and I were discussing the design of DCI691: Human Creativity × AI in Education before this semester started, we envisioned a space where we (students and faculty alike) could collectively explore the fascinating boundaries between...

SITE 2025: Lost and Found

SITE 2025: Lost and Found

I spent the last week in Orlando at the SITE 2025 conference. During this conference, I set a new personal record for losing everything from my belongings to an election, from water bottles to conference panelists and more - all leading to unexpected tensions and...

The Mirror and the Machine: Navigating the Metaphors of Gen AI

The Mirror and the Machine: Navigating the Metaphors of Gen AI

A couple of weeks ago I was invited by Eamon Costello to present a talk at the Education after the algorithm: Co-designing critical and creative futures conference being held in Dublin. And no, I didn’t get to go to Dublin for my talk—had to do it from here in...

The Promise & Paradox of Creative AI: A Presentation

The Promise & Paradox of Creative AI: A Presentation

I'm excited to announce my upcoming presentation at the Second International Seminar on 'Design Education in the Post-AI World' taking place tomorrow (Saturday) at the Centre for Design Studies in Indore, India. This seminar holds special significance for me as it's...

Dewey or Don’t We Care? Addressing the Novice’s Dilemma in Learning with GenAI

Dewey or Don’t We Care? Addressing the Novice’s Dilemma in Learning with GenAI

In my previous blog post on the Microsoft Research study about GenAI and expertise I ended with a troubling realization that GenAI may not be the best options for learners. As I wrote "This analysis raises particularly thorny issues about AI use in education. If...

Incorrect Scientific Simulations as an educational tool: Vibe coding the wrong way

Incorrect Scientific Simulations as an educational tool: Vibe coding the wrong way

What happens when you drop a ball while running? Will it fall in front of you, at your feet or behind you? Most people are convinced it will fall behind them. Makes perfect sense, right? Where will the ball fall? Then there's the famous textbook problem of a monkey...

When Ghalib meets AI: One student’s experiment

When Ghalib meets AI: One student’s experiment

In my previous post about rediscovering Ghalib through metal and rap, I mentioned sharing his work in my creativity class. What I didn't share was the remarkable ripple effect this had. Every week, students take turns writing reflections on our class discussions and...

The Avengers, Creativity & the EdTech Midgame

The Avengers, Creativity & the EdTech Midgame

If last week we had Bollywood, could Hollywood be far behind? Here is the fourth blog post from students in my class on Human Creativity x AI in Education, documenting what we do each week. The only edit I made to their post was including the image and description of...

Code, Kathak, and Confusion: A Story of Learning with GenAI

Code, Kathak, and Confusion: A Story of Learning with GenAI

One of the students in my Human Creativity x AI in Education class is an accomplished Kathak dancer and last week we got into a discussion of how she could bring this personal interest into projects we were exploring in the class. How could GenAI help? So yesterday,...

AI schools, para-social relationships and more: New episodes of AIR|GPT

AI schools, para-social relationships and more: New episodes of AIR|GPT

I am a co-host of a relatively new podcast called AIR | GPT with Caroline Fell Kurban, Liz Kolb, Ruben Puentedura, and Helen Crompton. Our conversations are masterfully orchestrated by Emmy Award-winning executive producer Errol St.Clair Smith. For the uninitiated,...