Note: This post originates from collaboration and discussions between Melissa, Punya, and Nicole. However, it is written from Nicole’s point of view as a current student, reflecting our efforts to explore student perspectives when considering the integration of AI in...
Racist or just biased? It’s complicated
Note: This is a continuation of the shared blogging of Warr, Mishra, and Oster. In this post, Melissa wrote the first draft to which Punya and Nicole added substantial revisions and edits. “Science” is social. We build on each other’s ideas. We critique each other’s...
Cats on the moon: How OpenAI, Google, Meta, Microsoft & Apple are Dealing with Hallucinations
Note: Warr, Oster, and Mishra are at it again with a shared blog post. First (really terrible) draft by Punya, which was cleaned up by ChatGPT and then went through cycles of editing by all of us. Note: An addendum written after Apple's announcement of its own...
GenAI is Racist. Period.
Note: The shared blogging with Melissa Warr and Nicole Oster continues. I crafted the student essay, Melissa generated the data using her magical GPT skills. I wrote the first draft which was then edited by Melissa and Nicole. Imagine you are a...
Creative Learning for Sustainability in a World of AI: Action, Mindset, Values
How can we ensure that education keeps pace and remains relevant In a world where technology evolves at lightning speed and global challenges seem more daunting than ever? In a recently published article, Danah Henriksen, Rachel Stern and I propose a framework that...
Why are we surprised? Hallucinations, bias and the need for teaching with and about genAI
By Punya Mishra, Melissa Warr & Nicole Oster Note: This is the first post in an experiment at shared blogging by Melissa Warr, Nicole Oster and myself. Over the past months we have found ourselves engaged in some fascinating conversations around genAI, education,...
“Tipping” the Scales: When Metaphors (Quite Literally) Blur Reality
Should we tip machines for the work they do for us? Does that question even make sense? What follows is a reflection on metaphors, technology, deceptive design, AI and more... Read on. Metaphors and more In her book God, Human, Animal, Machine, Meghan O’Gieblyn...
The Absurd One-Sidedness of the Ethics of AI Debate: A rant
It seems no conversation about AI and education is complete without discussing the importance of the ethical use of the technology. There are numerous reports and academic articles about it (this and this and this ... I could go on and on). There is, however, one...
Education & the Rise of AI Influencers
I have been thinking hard about the nature of generative AI, what sets it apart from other technologies that have come in the past. It seems to me there are two key factors. The first is its ability to engage in dialogue, in natural language and the second are its...
AI is WEIRD: Part II
Note: The image above is an original design - showing "AI" embedded in the word "WEIRD" Generative AI is weird... as I had written in my previous blog post, identifying some key characteristics I had described in a recent Keynote presentation. In the process of...
OECD Global Forum on the Future of Education: Bucharest, Romania
I have been in Bucharest for the past few days participating in the OECD Global Forum on the Future of Education. It has been great fun, meeting lots of new people, developing frameworks around AI and education and more. A few resources and photographs from the...
Questioning Assumptions: Podcast episode
I was recently invited as a guest on the Better Learning Podcast. I had a great conversation with the host, Kevin Stoller (and boy does he have a voice designed for audio!). Turns out that we both went to Miami University, though our paths didn't overlap or intersect....
BAIS: Implicit Bias in AI systems
I don't usually post about articles written by other people (however much I may like the study or the authors) but I am making an exception this time - mainly because I believe that this is a critically important piece of research that deserves wider recognition. In...
Design\Ethics\AI
Technologies like remote proctoring software and advanced language models are no longer futuristic concepts. They're here, and they're reshaping how we learn and how we teach. But with these advancements come critical ethical considerations. The deployment of these...
You have been terminated: A case for humane design
Good design cares about details. Good design is humane. Bad design is neither. Designers must bring this attention to detail and humanity to every aspect of their work. And this applies even the invisible parts. This, caring for the "invisible" details, is captured in...
Vinit Masram (1988 – 2023)
I found out about Vinit Masram's passing a week or so go. I did not know Vinit personally, having met him just once, at IDC's Golden Jubilee celebrations in 2020. But the news of his death hit me hard. I had been a fan of his work for a long time - having stumbled on...
Artificial Intelligence, Math / Truth & other ambigrams
Lovers of mathematics relish challenges, enjoying the manipulation of numbers and geometrical figures, seeking and creating patterns. Their fascination sometimes extends into language and other seemingly unrelated domains. An intriguing example of visual wordplay,...
6 Videos (on the 5 spaces for design in Education)
Learning Sparks is a new initiative at ASU that feature short, 5-minute, videos showcasing the expertise of a range of ASU faculty members. These videos are carefully crafted, with high-production values seeking to capture big ideas in bite-sized chunks. A few months...
Plugin’ into superpowers
I have been playing with couple of the newly released ChatGPT plugins (you have to have the paid version to use them) and want to share some of my early experiments. The two I am going to talk about are the ChatWithPDF and the Wolfram plugins. Short answer, they are...
Qualitative research in an age of AI
Qualitative data can be extremely rich, complex and insightful, allowing us to uncover the complexities of human experiences, perceptions, and interactions. It can also be complicated and messy. And the way we make sense of it is through the one-two punch of thematic...
Gilbert Daniels, the gardener who changed our world
Note: I wrote and submitted this piece as an op-ed to the Indianapolis Star to be published on April 14, 2023, exactly 3 years after they had published Gilbert Daniels' obituary. It would have helped set the record straight about his amazing contribution to the world...
Tell me a story: Delightful design in an airport
“Design doesn’t need to be delightful for it to work, but that’s like saying food doesn’t need to be tasty to keep us alive” — Frank Chimero I am always looking for examples of good and bad design in the world around me. Good design is rare, functional and at the same...
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...
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,...
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...
My favorite(?) failure
I was recently asked to write a chapter for a book that my colleague Ron Beghetto was editing with Laura McBain, called My Favorite Failure. Failure is never fun - and to pick one that was your favorite, is like deciding what your favorite form or torture is....
Systems level change in education
How do you design for change in complex systems—like education? Implementing large-scale changes within educational systems can be a challenging task. Doing so requires many actors, working at different organizational levels (and perhaps across organizations), to not...
From being to becoming: Keynote by Shawn Loescher
It is rarely that I hear a talk that blows me away. We have all seen the TED talks, and their mutant offspring. The over-hyped music and catchy taglines; the speaker in front of a rapt audience; the crafted delivery with its carefully punctuated pauses and reveals,...
The value of school: Part 2
Note 1: This is the second of two posts on the value of school by Kevin Close and Punya Mishra. Read the first post: What value do schools bring? Note 2: These two blog posts became the basis of an article with Kevin. Full citation and link below: Mishra, P., &...