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Howard Rheingold 03 Feb 12 10:09:30 Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck conducted the groundbreaking research showing that praise intended to raise young people's self-esteem can seriously backfire. When we tell children, "You're so smart," we communicate the message that they'd better not take risks or make mistakes, lest they reveal that they're not so smart after all. Dweck calls this cautious attitude the "fixed mindset," and she's found that it's associated with greater anxiety and reduced achievement. Students with a "growth mindset," on the other hand, believe that intelligence can be expanded with hard work and persistence, and they view challenges as invigorating and even fun. They're more resilient in the face of setbacks, and they do better academically. Now Dweck has designed a program, called Brainology, which aims to help students develop a growth mindset. Its website explains: "Brainology makes this happen by teaching students how the brain functions, learns, and remembers, and how it changes in a physical way when we exercise it. Brainology shows students that they are in control of their brain and its development." That's a crucial message to pass on to children, and it's not just empty words of encouragement-it's supported by cutting-edge research on neuroplasticity, which shows that the brain changes and grows when we learn new things. You, and your child, can learn to be smarter.

Martin Burrett 11 Sep 11 04:15:52A YouTube Page guaranteed to make all but the youngest of us feel old, by showing technology that is obsolete. Great for showing the iPod generation the wonders of cassette tapes and vinyl records. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+%26+Web+Tools

Yet another study shows that "digital natives" suck at searching

"What Publish or Perish is for Publish or Perish is designed to empower individual academics to present their case for research impact to its best advantage. We would be concerned if it would be used for academic staff evaluation purposes in a mechanistic way. When using Publish or Perish for citation analyses, we would like to suggest the following general rule of thumb: If an academic shows good citation metrics, it is very likely that he or she has made a significant impact on the field. However, the reverse is not necessarily true. If an academic shows weak citation metrics, this may be caused by a lack of impact on the field, but also by one or more of the following: Working in a small field (therefore generating fewer citations in total); Publishing in a language other than English (LOTE - effectively also restricting the citation field); Publishing mainly (in) books. Although Google Scholar performs better than the Web of Science in this respect, it is still not very good in capturing LOTE articles and citations, or citations in books or book chapters. As a result, citation metrics in the Social Sciences and even more so in the Humanities will always be underestimated as in these disciplines publications in LOTE and books/book chapters are more likely than in the Sciences. "

"Anonymous' devious and speedy campaign to undermine the defenders of copyright yesterday served both as revenge for the loss of Megaupload and a demonstration of the futility of trying to police the Wild West of the Internet. Within minutes of the Justice Department's triumphant announcement about the seizing of the massive file-sharing site, their own website was taken offline by a massive denial of service attack. The Web presences of the FBI, the MPAA, the RIAA, and several entertainment corporations involved in the case soon followed, as those tasked with protecting the Web from piracy were once again unable to protect themselves. "

We think JavaScript is awesome. We also think browsers are awesome. Together, they can do some beautiful, magical, crazy things. And that's why we created this website. Chrome Experiments is a showcase for creative web experiments, the vast majority of which are built with the latest open technologies, including HTML5, Canvas, SVG, and WebGL. All of them were made and submitted by talented artists and programmers from around the world. We hope the projects on this site provide inspiration for anyone interested in experimenting creatively with the web. And we hope they show how the web has become faster, more fun, and more open - the same spirit in which we built Google Chrome. All of the work here is user-submitted, so naturally we're looking for more. If you've made something fun and fast in JavaScript, please send it in. We can't post everything, but we'd love to see it. Thanks for visiting, and happy experimenting.

virtual worlds:reactiongrid show cases

Sesame Street began in 1969 as a simple yet revolutionary idea to use television to help kids learn. More than four decades later, Sesame Street is the longest street in the world, stretching across 150+ countries and all kinds of media, from books to radio to mobile devices. Led by its famously furry cast, the show addresses a wide spectrum of children's learning - ABCs and 123s, health, mutual understanding, and more - with an approach that's brilliantly adaptable to local cultures and educational needs. Sesame Street is a production of Sesame Workshop, a nonprofit educational organization making a meaningful difference in the lives of children worldwide by developing innovative and engaging educational content delivered in a variety of ways -- including television, radio, books, magazines, interactive media, and community outreach. http://www.sesamestreet.org

"While completing this project, many unique and creative copyright resources were discovered that go beyond the traditional, dry text of the law. The resources presented in this article show that copyright education can be engaging and enjoyable. They include videos, interactive tools, comics, podcasts, tutorials, online courses, Twitter feeds, and blogs about copyright. "

"Can playing video games make you more productive? Gabe Zichermann shows how games are making kids better problem-solvers, and will make us better at everything from driving to multi-tasking. "

When I'm doing math homework, I just really go fast and crazy, and in the end I still don't understand it, really. It's just a lot of pressure. And it shows: I'm always tired in class, because I spent all my night doing my homework! Teachers don't see "Vivian totally understands that." They see "Vivian did her homework." - vivian (Fires in the Mind)

"A text smiley face -- often called a smiley or emoticon -- is used in text message and online chat communications to convey an emotion. Learn how to make text smiley faces in this Webopedia.com text message and online chat guide."

Broadcast live to a virtual audience and embed your own talk show on your blog or website for free. Video chat and take questions from viewers. Share a dialogue. Live unmuted.

Gunn Map 2 is an online application which allows you to create customizable maps with any compatible set of data you have available. GunnMap is free. Images generated with it are under the Creative Commons BY-SA license, making them suitable for use most anywhere including on Wikipedia. Watch Demonstration:  

Real time search

This is a great real time search engine. Google also alows you to search in real time.