Just came across this on Nina Paley's blog... and it just blew me away! [youtube width="425" height="355"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_HXUhShhmY[/youtube]
Serendipitous Connectability… a short history of an idea
A while back I had written about the idea of "serendipitous connectability;" the idea that the web allows us to "to run across things that are stunning in their ability to connect to us in powerful, emotionally touching ways." I was prompted to do this by clicking on...
Milap09
I took photographs at the Milap 2009, the annual cultural program organized by the Indian Cultural Society of Greater Lansing. Click on the photo below to view the photos (hosted on Flickr).
Bad poetry time: Clerihews
Just when you thought I had run through all the bad poetry I can spew (see here for my palindromic poems) here is another set of poems I had all but forgotten about. A few years ago I got hooked into writing Clerihews. For the uninitiated: The clerihew is a bit of...
Palindromes in video and poetry
Leigh Wolf just sent me a link to this extremely creative YouTube video. The funny thing is that I had seen this a while ago but I didn't get it. Of course now that Leigh explained it to me, it seems so obvious. Anyway, the narration is crafted in such a way that it...
Yet another periodic table…
The ongoing saga of mis-representing the periodic table for any darned list of objects continues... Here is a new one sent in by my friend and colleague Patrick Dickson: A periodic table of Typefaces. Now I won't beat a dead horse here, (Nashworld has a great posting...
Gary Marks, Lifetime achievement award
Gary Marks is the director/founder of the Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE)and also the Executive Officer of the Society of Information Technology in Teacher Education (SITE). As a part of the 20th anniversary celebrations of SITE, Gary...
TPACK tshirt now available
The ambigram design I had first presented here is now available through cafe-press in a variety of formats. Click here to buy t-shirts, buttons and more... Just to be clear, the prices for all the items are exactly what cafe-press charges. Matt and I make no money of...
TPACK Ambigram
I have been wanting to create a TPACK ambigram for a while now... what would be better than combining my two greatest loves - technology integration in teaching WITH ambigrams! Finally after some subtle prodding by Matt Koehler I have finally done so. This is a...
The benefits of doodling!
Finally science has proved what I knew all along, doodling is a sign of an alert mind and may actually help memory!! Another justification for this, I guess.
Optical illusions go live…
If you love optical illusions you have to see this... just absolutely brilliant. The moment she pulls out the driver's license is priceless. And of course the face / vase flip-flop at the end is cool too. See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor. This...
Visualizing periodic tables (What not to do)
Sean Nash (of Nashworld) sent me a link to A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods of Management. This is a very cool looking representation developed by Ralph Lengler & Martin Eppler at the Institute of Corporate Communication at the University of Lugano,...
Gandhi, ambigrams, creativity & the power of small pieces loosely joined
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 Technology Showcase: The Usual Suspects
I have been invited by Patrick Dickson, Byron Brown and Jon Sticklen to offer a lowkeynote address (note emphasis on lowkey!) for MSU's Second Annual Faculty Technology Showcase (more details here). I have created a small presentation to go with my lowkeynote, slides...
Finding myself in EduPunk
Matt Koehler introduce me to the idea of edupunk. As this Chronicle story (Frustrated With Corporate Course-Management Systems, Some Professors Go 'Edupunk') says, Edupunk seems to be a reaction against the rise of course-managements systems, which offer cookie-cutter...
Appreciating Joel Colbert at AACTE
I just spent a couple of days in Chicago at the Annual meeting of the American Association for the Colleges of Teacher Education. On Friday evening was meeting of the Innovation and Technology Committee the highlight of which was a gift of appreciation that we gave...
Presentation/Workshop at Twente
I just completed a presentation at the symposium organized by the Department of Curriculum Design & Educational Innovation, University of Twente. Later this afternoon I will be conducting a workshop on creativity and the TPACK framework. The slides for both the...
Cool clock design
Just thought I would share an example of interesting clock I saw during my stay here at Twente, made almost entirely of cardboard! front view back view Enjoy
Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries
... Or Why I love the web. I stumbled upon a piece (Lotus Blossom) by Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries the other day... and it was like nothing else I had ever seen. At some superficial level it looked like kinetic typography, but both simpler and more complex at the...
Rate of change of technology
I just stumbled upon this image from a 1950 issue of Popular Mechanics. The tag line below the image says: Because everything in her home is waterproof, the housewife of 2000 can do her daily cleaning with a hose. Though it is easy to make fun of this image it can be...
Photos from Twente
I have uploaded a set of photos from my walk around the Twente University campus onto Flickr. You can see the entire set by clicking on the image below. Enjoy.
Playing with light and shadows
Stumbled upon the creative work of Kumiya Mashita. It is amazing just how much can be created with just light and shadows. Just brilliant. Here are some examples:
Sitar Hero!
Why I love the Internets 🙂
On beauty in banality
Does beauty transcend banality and inconvenience? If this story about a violin virtuoso, Joshua Bell, playing on the subway station is any indication, we do not have "a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever...
On messing with your mind
A fascinating series of illusions to reveal just how complicated a phenomenon perception is. I was particularly impressed by the "rubber hand" illusion. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQtbcgBWobA
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....
Technology, creativity & illusion
Marco Tempest is magician who loves technology, or a techno-geek who happens to be a good magician. He brings an unique amalgam of high-tech and magic to his shows (see this article for details), but that is not what is most impressive about his work. What is...
Ambi-poetry: A mathematician reinterprets ambigrams
My friend Gaurav Bhatnagar (I had blogged about his new book, Get Smart: Math Concepts here), for some reason, known only to him, has decided to create a poetry-blog based around my ambigrams. Each posting consists of one ambigram (taken from my large collection of...
Another New Year’s card
We just created another New Year's Card / Video. Check it out: Shreya's Magic Touch [youtube width="425" height="355"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOrRsXaFE3o[/youtube]
Solving the rubik cube, blindfolded
A YouTube video of Soham solving the rubic cube blindfolded! [youtube width="425" height="355"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymi-iG8uhR4[/youtube] [Thanks for Michael Gondry for the idea.]