Punya Mishra’s Web whatnmnmn

Did you know that any email sent to barackobama@Gmail.com goes to an Indian software developer! Strange but true!

I have been teaching summer course in our master’s program for years now and for the most part have found them to be the most enriching teaching experiences I have had. These are intense 8 hours a day, 5 days a week programs that typically go on for a month. [We are currently experimenting with a hybrid version but that’s a story for another day.] I haven’t written much about these programs, despite having taught them multiple times, but for one book chapter that was written many years ago (but for one reason or other was published just last year, in 2007). Read the rest of this entry »

In a previous post I mentioned a new study on children and the internet recently completed by Warren Buckleitner for Consumer Reports Web Watch. Anyway, towards the end of the post I mentioned how the final report includes links to YouTube videos of the actual data and how that shifts the interpretive balance of power from researcher to reader. This is not to say that the researcher has no role at all, clearly it is their agenda, interests, style that is driving the project, but rather that by allowing readers to see the raw data (once again, within limits, since there is editorial control of this by the researcher) it changes the control the researcher has over the conclusions and the meanings one can draw from the research. What I didn’t realize just how deeply YouTube was used in this research… Read the rest of this entry »

Ira Socol has a great post on his blog (SpEdChange) titled Humiliation and the modern professor, in which he speaks to the issue of students bringing laptops to the classroom. Some professors have banned laptops from their classes (I personally know a couple who would like to, and at least one who has). It seems to me, that Ira makes a great case for why students should be allowed to bring laptops into the classroom. Read his post to find out why… On a more personal note, Read the rest of this entry »

Musings on local newspaper headlines, 2001 A Space Odyssey, media and creativity, and ending with some thoughts on the meaning of life… a lot to fit into one blog post but again I had the weekend to work on this. Read the rest of this entry »

Matt and I will be at New Orleans next week for the AACTE Annual Conference. The last time I went to New Orleans must have been in 2000 or 2001… so I am looking forward to going there. There are three specific things we will be involved with.

• Meeting of the AACTE’s Innovation and Technology Committee, Thursday, February 7 from 4:15-6:15 p.m. Norwich Room on the 3rd floor of the Hilton New Orleans Riverside
• Book signing for Handbook of TPCK, Friday, February 8, 2:00 - 3:30. We are expecting the following authors/editors: Matt Koehler, Punya Mishra, Mario Kelly, Nancy DePlachett, Marcela van Olphen, Raven McCrory, Joel Colbert…Having never participated in a book signing before… I am kind of excited, even though this is an edited book, and I have just one chapter in it, co-authored with Matt. That said, it is a book on TPCK, which is cool.
• AACTE Major Forum, Saturday, Feb. 9, 2008 at 10:30 a.m. in the Versaille Ballroom
  I have blogged about this event before… more details, and copy presentation coming soon.