Punya Mishra is a Professor in the Mary Lou Fulton College for Teaching & Learning Innovation (MLFC) at Arizona State University (with an affiliate appointment in the Design School). He is a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Center for Universal Education; and AI Innovation Fellow at the Learning Engineering Institute (LEI).
He is internationally recognized for his work in educational technology; the role of creativity and aesthetics in learning; and the application of collaborative, design-based approaches to educational innovation. He has received over $11 million in grants (most recently a Fulbright-Nehru Fellowship); published over 200 articles and edited 5 books. A recipient of AECT’s David H. Jonassen Excellence in Research Award, with over 82,000 citations of his research, he is ranked among the top 2% of scientists worldwide (#91 in social science) and ranked #44 (#5 in psychology) among educational scholars with the biggest influence on educational practice and policy.
Punya has extensive leadership experience in higher education. He currently heads the AI in Education, Learning Futures Collaborative; serves on ASU’s AI Advisory Committee; and leads the AI and Technology working group of AACTE’s EdPrepLab. An AERA Fellow (2024), TED-Ed educator (2023), he co-hosts the award-winning Silver Lining for Learning webinar as well as AIR|GPT podcast. He is an award-winning instructor, an engaging public speaker, and an accomplished visual artist and poet.
Must reads
Webinars & Podcasts:
Value Laden (archived)
Apple | Spotify | Simplecast
Blog Posts
Of Pride & Prejudice (and a Smart Drunk Intern)
How many students feel pride in the work they are made to do for school? My guess is very few. Pride if anything comes from the final grade not the work itself. The work too often is just meant to be seen by the teacher. I have been thinking about this idea of pride...
27 Windows on the Universe (09): Metaphors as Windows
I thought I was done with this series about the human side of science, drawn from interviews with 27 cosmologists. Earlier posts explored, how this project started, the method, the role of wonder and beauty, the craft, how scientists think, what keeps them going and...
27 Windows on the Universe (08): The Last Window
This is the last post in a series about the human side of science, drawn from interviews with 27 cosmologists. Earlier posts explored, how this project started, the method, the role of wonder and beauty, the craft, how scientists think, what keeps them going and how...
Paths Crossing at the Digital Maidan: Keynotes, Forewords, and Futures
This post is long overdue. I was in Bangalore, back in December 2025, for the Quest 2 Learn Summit organized by the Quest Alliance. Quest and I go back to 2008, when I first attended one of their conferences. Our paths have kept crossing since: the Quest to Learning...
The Mirror and the Black Box: AI Metaphors and What They Mean for Learning
The latest installment of the Rethinking Technology & Creativity column in TechTrends is published. This one, co-authored with Danah Henriksen, is called "The Mirror and the Black Box: AI Metaphors and What They Mean for Learning." (Full citation and link below.)...
The Classroom and Beyond: Teacher Education in a GenAI World
Danah Henriksen and I have a chapter in the Third International Handbook of Educational Change (2026), edited by A. Lin Goodwin, Andy Hargreaves, Victoria Showunmi, Corrie Stone-Johnson, and Jennie Weiner. In our chapter, "The Classroom and Beyond: Teacher Education...
27 Windows on the Universe (07): The Ecosystem
This is the seventh in a series about the human side of science, drawn from interviews with 27 cosmologists. T Earlier posts explored, how this project started, the method, the role of wonder and beauty, the craft, how scientists think, and what keeps them going and...
27 Windows on the Universe (06): The Drive
This is the sixth in a series about the human side of science, drawn from interviews with 27 cosmologists. Earlier posts explored, how this project started, the method, the role of wonder and beauty, the craft and how scientists think. This one is about what keeps...
Look What You Made Me Do: The Dawkins Saga, Part II
A week or so ago I wrote a letter to Richard Dawkins — part tribute, part diagnosis — about his now-famous two-day conversation with Claude (or rather, "Claudia"), in which one of our most celebrated skeptics concluded that the chatbot might well be conscious. The...
… or check out some random blog posts
TPACK & 21st Century Learning @ AACTE
I was recently in San Diego for the annual conference of the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education. I had served as a chair of the Innovation & Technology Committee for a while, and the committee invited me to participate in two different sessions....
Multiple representations of the periodic table and learning
Mishra & Yadav (2006) was a paper based around my dissertation research. It took a while to get published and I am including it here for the record. My dissertation (Mishra, 1998) was maybe the first place where I made a specific mention of the triad of...
Happy Diwali
Diwali is one of the most important of Indian/Hindu festivals. The best part of Diwali (at least for the children) are the fireworks. Click here to enjoy a pollution-free Diwali Card. Enjoy (and don't forget to click on the night sky!)
Avani Amol Pavangadkar…
... was born on the 7th of October, to Amol and Kanchan. [Amol was my partner in crime in the making of Hari Puttar!] We went to visit her yesterday and I took some pictures. Enjoy. View all the pictures
EPET @ SITE in New Orleans, the video
Sandra Sawaya has created a video from photographs taken during our recent sojourn to New Orleans for SITE2013. I think it captures a bit of what we did over there - lots of photos of food and friends, and some presentations. Enjoy.
How cool is that!
I just read on CNN that Obama's likely nominee for energy secretary is physicist and Nobel Laureate Dr. Steven Chu. What a contrast to the previous administration's science policy. (Actually it is still the current administration!) Has a novel prize winner ever served...
Engineered for Attachment: The Hidden Psychology of AI Companions
Note: This post was co-authored with Melissa Warr and cross-posted on the Civics of Technology website as Artificial Intimacy: How AI is Engineered to Hijack Human Connection (published: April 27, 2025). Authors’ note: We had almost finished writing this post,...
The opposite of truth
Niels Bohr, the 1922 Nobel Laureate in Physics once said: The opposite of a correct statement is an incorrect statement. The opposite of a profound truth is another profound truth. I was reminded of this when I saw this TED video. Check it out... (h/t Andrew...
TPACK @ PLP: cool webinars, great resource
Leigh Wolf pointed me to an fantastic resource for teachers and educators interested in learning more about TPACK. These are a series of online interactive webinars titled TPACK Fridays and are organized by the Powerful Learning Practice (plpnetwork.com). What is...