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For educators, parents and learners Carol Dweck's research on the benefits of a Growth Mindset is naturally appealing. Those who have a growth mindset achieve better results than those who don't, are more resilient and accept challenge willingly. After two years of incorporating a growth mindset philosophy we are finding that the reality of shifting a student's disposition away from a fixed mindset and then maintaining a growth mindset is significantly more complex than at first imagined.

"For educators, parents and learners Carol Dweck's research on the benefits of a Growth Mindset is naturally appealing. Those who have a growth mindset achieve better results than those who don't, are more resilient and accept challenge willingly. In response schools have embraced the notion and classroom walls are adorned with posters identifying the characteristics of growth versus fixed mindsets. Teachers make efforts to shift their students towards a growth mindset and parents consider how they may assist in the process. After two years of incorporating a growth mindset philosophy we are finding that the reality of shifting a student's disposition away from a fixed mindset and then maintaining a growth mindset is significantly more complex than at first imagined. Numerous forces and influences play a role and progress is unlikely to match a linear curve. Where schools have made steps in the right direction, is in raising awareness of the two mindsets. In this regard the placement of posters and discussion around the role that our mindset has in our learning are steps in the right direction. Demonising the fixed mindset is perhaps an unnecessary step and our students may be better served by understanding that we all have times when we fall into a fixed mindset. Education of how we may recognise such times and apply strategies of mindfulness and metacognition would avoid shifting already vulnerable learners on to the circle of shame. Awareness is however far form the end of the journey towards reaping the benefits of a Growth Mindset."

"NASA recently occupied the headlines, not for a shuttle launch or moon walk, but for successfully crowdsourcing a test of the Robonaut 2, a robotic astronaut assistant. NASA was so impressed with the quality of the 3D modeling submitted by the community that the agency has already organized two more challenges - and it's only the latest group to jump on the crowdsourcing bandwagon. It's time for higher education to be next. Of the few pioneer universities that have applied a crowdsourcing - or in this case, studentsourcing - model at their institution, all have experienced impressive results."

"One of the hardest parts of building a career in 2019 is making sure you stay ahead of the curve. It can be hard to anticipate what skills the economy of tomorrow will require and which jobs will disappear thanks to technological developments. In order to make sure that workers stay in high demand among employers today and in the future, they need to constantly be learning new skills. LinkedIn analyzed hundreds of thousands of job postings in order to determine which skills companies need most in 2019. They found that employers are looking for workers with both soft skills and hard technical skills, and matched these skills with LinkedIn Learning courses that are free for the month of January. The most in-demand soft skill in 2019? Creativity. For those looking to cultivate this skill, LinkedIn recommends the following courses: Creativity Bootcamp, The Five-Step Creative Process, and Creativity: Generate Ideas in Greater Quantity and Quality."

"I've been exploring the new PuppetMaster app and I am enchanted. I see serious potential for this free, intuitive, open-ended tool to encourage creativity across a wide range of ages, from pre-school to adult! PuppetMaster allows children to animate anything and to record their action and sound to create movies. It encourages the creation of visual art in any medium and it encourages active storytelling and sharing. And the learning curve is tiny!"

"Adobe Photoshop is considered the gold standard in photo editing software. In fact, it can be hard to picture (see what I did there) a world without the amazing images created with this software. In the right hands, photographs can be created that would leave you believing that a magical unicorn had walked through your back yard. But, with all its power comes a steep learning curve. And that's intimidating. Simply loading up the software and trying to figure things out on your own doesn't work as well when you want to learn Photoshop as it does for other pieces of software. And, while you could try and read the manuals (which may be more effective at putting you to sleep than anything else), a more visual and interactive learning approach is almost always the better option. Luckily, a high-quality learning experience may be just a few clicks away. Here are 14 places that will let you learn Photoshop for free, giving you all of the information you could want for the most reasonable price in the world."

"There is also a lot to like about iOS. It's a lean, mean operating system. It's use of sandboxing keeps it relatively clutter free. iOS doesn't do a lot, but it's pretty good at what it does do. That said, deploying iPads at any kind of scale is just short of maddening. While the process of tapping around to install one app on one iPad isn't too bad, installing a dozen apps on hundreds iPads isn't a particularly appealing way to spend a month. If you are going to deploy iPads at scale, you need a strategy. You need a battle plan. In addition, you will also need to stay hydrated. I don't think I've discovered the silver bullet, but I'll share some of my experiences with you in order to, hopefully, shorten the learning curve."

"Educators facilitate others' learning experiences, but their own learning experiences are far from over. Through podcasts, educators can learn even more about their field and the forces impacting it - especially education technology. Apple's iTunes store has an entire page devoted to edtech podcasts. Sorting out the best listens can be a daunting task, so to make things easier, we've compiled a list of our favorites you should check out today."

Through Blinkx, one can search and watch the latest news videos, podcasts and TV content from most media companies including Forbes, Reuters, BBC, ABC News, CBS, MSNBC, USA Today and so on. You can even search user-generated content available on video sharing sites like Blip.TV, Metacafe, etc.