Making connections between the movie The Prestige, and the design of 2 activities to build trust and a shared vision in teams... As I have settled down at ASU and the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College, my responsibilities have grown as well. I started as...
Wordclouds, mathematics and building a better teacher
Wordcloud created from all the words in the wikipedia page for "mathematics education" What does a teacher need to know to intelligently integrate technology in their teaching? Or better still, what is it that teachers need to know to become effective...
Mathematical insight on reality & you (yes, you!)
I have always been intrigued by the manner in which everyday ideas get "mathematicized" (if that's a word). For instance, the other day, on a bus-stop by my office I noticed an equation written on the wall. I have no idea why it was there, but...
Wordplay
Just some visual wordplay that I have indulged in, just for the heck of it. Nothing really special, though I am partial to the "Explore, Create, Share" design. That was the motto of the MAET program at MSU that I directed for years. Innovate 2 on Creativity...
CR8IVTY: New License Plate
My new year's gift to myself!
Goodbye 2016, Welcome 2017
Since 2009, our family has made short videos to welcome the new year. These videos are great fun to create, often requiring days of discussion, planning, construction, shooting and editing. They are always typographical in nature, often with a visual twist...
Happy Hanukkah: New Ambigram
In keeping with the holiday theme (see Christmas ambigram below) it seemed appropriate to create a design for Hanukkah. That task actually turned out easier than I had expected - with some natural symmetries that I could take advantage of. The "U" at the...
What we get wrong about 21st century learning
Click on diagram to download a hi-res version Back in 2013 we proposed a framework for 21st century learning based on a synthesis of a range of reports, books, and articles (Kereluik, Mishra, Fahnoe & Terry, 2013 & diagram above). That article...
Why Theory: Or the TPACK story
Note: There are two key updates / correction to this post The first has to do with a couple of things that I either got wrong, or rushed over. More about that at Update on "The TPACK story" or "Oops!"The second has to do with an update to the diagram itself that came...
Infinite Regress: New ambigram / visual pun
You have wakened not out of sleep, but into a prior dream, and that dream lies within another, and so on, to infinity... The path that you are to take is endless, and you will die before you have truly awakened — Jorge Luis Borges Borges’ quote of reality being a...
A new understanding of our confusion
Reflection ambigram of "Chicago" Over the past two-and-a-half years we have worked with STEM educators in Chicago Public Schools as part of the MSUrbanSTEM project. We have presented about this project at a few conferences over the past few years, and...
Math & Visual Wordplay: New video
The word "math" written such that it has rotational symmetryi.e. it reads the same even when rotated by 180-degrees. The relationship between mathematics and visual wordplay is one I have played with and writing about for a while (More here). I just discovered...
Ganesh, new ambigram, & old video
One of the big parts of my life over the past decade or more, has been the Ganesh Festival celebrations in Lansing with friends and family—Good food and good times. Of course this year I have to miss all the fun - being here in Phoenix. I have kept up with all...
New TPACK book chapter
The Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA), New Delhi, recently published a book titled “Resource Book on ICT Integrated Teacher Education.” Edited by Dr. Manas Ranjan Panigrahi it is available as an Open Educational Resource...
Bridging the theory/practice gap: A visual exploration
Theoretically there should a reciprocal relationship between Theory and Practice - but it is the gap that every academic bemoans. This posting is prompted not by any particular insight into these matters but rather to share a set of visuals (ambigrams, memes,...
Handbook of TPACK for Educators, 2nd Edition
The TPACK framework, as we know it today, was first introduced to the world in 2006 in an article in TCRecord (Mishra & Koehler, 2006). An important part of the story of the success of the framework was the publication of The handbook of technological pedagogical...
Episteme6 @ Mumbai: 2 presentations
This past December I was at the epiSTEME 6 conference in Mumbai. It was jointly organized by the Homi Bhaba Center for Science Education, TIFR and the Interdisciplinary Program in Educational Technology, IIT Bombay. I presented two papers there, oneabout...
Happy Thanksgiving, 2 new ambigrams
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I wake up every day just feeling incredibly lucky for what I have - and to have a special day devoted to celebrating that idea... how very cool. So here are two new and unique ambigram designs to celebrate this wonderful day. The...
TPACK Newsletter #25, October 2015
TPACK Newsletter, Issue #25: October 2015 (Updated) Welcome to the twenty-fifth edition of the (approximately bimonthly) TPACK Newsletter! TPACK work is continuing worldwide. This document contains recent updates to that work that we hope will be interesting and...
Beirut, Nairobi, Paris
After I had posted my "Paris, City of Love" design on FB, my friend Pilar Quezzaire posted on my wall the following question: What about Beirut and Nairobi, Punya? Can you make one for them as well? In another posting she linked to the...
Paris City of Love
Paris has been on my mind for the last 24 hours (as it has been for many others around the world). I have been lucky to have had the opportunity to spend some time in the city - and Paris is one of my favorite places in the world. Paris, anyway you look at it (a new...
Friday the 13th
A design for Friday the 13th (shamelessly building on an original idea from Nikita Prokhorov) Enjoy.
Happy Diwali
Happy Diwali! Reflect on it 🙂
Ambigrams & Math: In one embeddable ebook
Over the past two years Gaurav Bhatnagar and I have written five columns for the Math education journal At Right Angles on the topics of mathematics and visual wordplay, specifically Ambigrams. In this five articles we have explored everything from symmetry to...
Synthesis: A creative cognitive tool (2 articles)
Over the past couple of years my research team (the Deep-Play Research group) and I have been writing an on-going series of articles about rethinking technology and creativity for the 21st century. Published in the journal TechTrends, these articles have been great...
Creativity, Digitality, and Teacher PD
It has been almost 5 years since my research interests shifted formally to issues related to creativity, technology and teacher education. This line of work (though less influential than my TPACK related work) has led to multiple journal articles and research studies....
Creativity, Technology & Teacher Education
Danah Henriksen and I recently edited a special issue of the Journal of Technology and Teacher Education (Volume 23, Number 3, July 2015) devoted to Creativity, Technology and Teacher Education. This special issue is organized thematically around eight articles...
Mathematical paradoxes & ambigrams: New article
I have always loved paradoxes so it is with great pleasure that the fourth article in our series on Art and Math (co-authored with my friend Gaurav Bhatnagar and published by At Right Angles) focuses on paradoxes and visual wordplay. It was great fun coming up with a...
Poetry, Daisies And Cobras: A Class With Manjul Bhargava
An amazing presentation by Manjul Bhargava (Fields medal winner in Mathematics) to school children in India. See how he effortlessly combines poetry, nature, music and mathematics. Watch an excerpt on YouTube below or the complete video here....
Deep-Play on Michigan Radio Stateside with Cynthia Canty
I am a huge fan of Stateside with Cynthia Canty, a radio show on Michigan Radio. So imagine my excitement when I was interviewed by her about my ongoing exhibition (Deep-Play: Creativity in Math & Art through Visual Wordplay) at the MSU Museum. The interview was...