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A response to Kohn's attack on Growth Mindset and it's proponents.

"Metacognition or 'thinking about thinking', as I like to call it, forms the basis of the Growth Mindset theory. As a society we seem to have moved away from the truth that no matter what your starting point you can always make a huge amount of progress if you apply the right kind of effort over time. Struggle is a natural part of learning, take a shortcut and you don't learn as much; why then do we equate struggle with failure?"

A new study shows most professors are afraid of elearning and the growth of online courses. I predict that in 4-5 years the same will be true of traditional classroom teachers. The fact is that we all must be innovative and learn to teach in blended and online environments. Change creates victims and victors - with great change comes great opportunity. The one thing I can promise is if you do nothing and ignore it, you'll not be on the winning side. Learn. Connect. The Flat Classroom is a fact and it is here -- we're doing it in k12 and it is about to grow exponentially. After schools flip they're going to flatten. One leads to the other.

Many are getting growth mindset wrong.

"A new study co-authored by researchers at Michigan State University and Case Western Reserve University found that "growth mindset interventions," or programmes that teach students they can improve their intelligence with effort - and therefore improve grades and test scores - don't work for students in most circumstances."

"What Makes a Great Teacher? Image credit: Veronika Lukasova Also in our Special Report: National: "How America Can Rise Again" Is the nation in terminal decline? Not necessarily. But securing the future will require fixing a system that has become a joke. Video: "One Nation, On Edge" James Fallows talks to Atlantic editor James Bennet about a uniquely American tradition-cycles of despair followed by triumphant rebirths. Interactive Graphic: "The State of the Union Is ..." ... thrifty, overextended, admired, twitchy, filthy, and clean: the nation in numbers. By Rachael Brown Chart: "The Happiness Index" Times were tough in 2009. But according to a cool Facebook app, people were happier. By Justin Miller On August 25, 2008, two little boys walked into public elementary schools in Southeast Washington, D.C. Both boys were African American fifth-graders. The previous spring, both had tested below grade level in math. One walked into Kimball Elementary School and climbed the stairs to Mr. William Taylor's math classroom, a tidy, powder-blue space in which neither the clocks nor most of the electrical outlets worked. The other walked into a very similar classroom a mile away at Plummer Elementary School. In both schools, more than 80 percent of the children received free or reduced-price lunches. At night, all the children went home to the same urban ecosystem, a zip code in which almost a quarter of the families lived below the poverty line and a police district in which somebody was murdered every week or so. Video: Four teachers in Four different classrooms demonstrate methods that work (Courtesy of Teach for America's video archive, available in February at teachingasleadership.org) At the end of the school year, both little boys took the same standardized test given at all D.C. public schools-not a perfect test of their learning, to be sure, but a relatively objective one (and, it's worth noting, not a very hard one). After a year in Mr. Taylo

Growth of the Internet from 1998 to 2008 interactive map.

10min illustrates the growth of the US from 1789

"A major research publication recently released in the journal "Psychological Science" has called into question the notion of mindsets in academic achievement outcomes. The theory holds that individuals with growth mindsets (beliefs that attributes are malleable with effort) enjoy many positive outcomes-including higher academic achievement-while their peers who have fixed mindsets experience negative outcomes."

A video discussing the semantic web (as some call Web 3.0) - this is still being discussed, however, with personal assistants (Siri) and the ability to communicate to increasingly intelligent devices that access the web, it is likely that some of the technologies we have today are transitional technologies that are transporting us from Web 2 to Web 3 as we speak. Remember, however, that although we are moving ahead, that the characteristics of previous "webs" are still there. We can still search like we did in Web 1 and we are certainly seeing explosive growth in social media (Web 2) but Web 3 is here. I think this video is a nice explanation.

The internet is not a larger version of a library where you can examine the pieces of content that you need one by one and approve them. The internet is fundamentally something different simply by it's size, scope, growth and ability to change. Filters do not solve problems.

When ninth-graders at St. Andrew's School, a private boarding school in Middletown, Delaware, sat down last year to take the school's College Work and Readiness Assessment (CWRA), they faced the sort of problems that often stump city officials and administrators, but rarely show up on standardized tests, such as how to manage traffic congestion caused by population growth. "I proposed a new transportation system for the city," said one student describing his answer. "It's expensive, but it will cut pollution."

Excellent article! 21st Century skillset for sure!

Great Quote: We have learned that Critical Friendship, an essential ingredient for learning communities, is best achieved through providing deliberate time and structures to promote adult growth that is directly linked to student learning.

they evaluated 390 Teach for America instructors before and after a year of teaching. Those who initially scored high for "grit"-defined as perseverance and a passion for long-term goals, and measured using a short multiple-choice test-were 31 percent more likely than their less gritty peers to spur academic growth in their students.

Nice post from my computer science go-to guy in education- Alfred Thompson. He contemplates why a college like Stanford is seeing a growth in Computer Science while high schools aren't. Interesting conversation and one we need to be having -- computer science jobs are some of the few that they just can't seem to staff fast enough.

I know I'm much more intentional of my professional development choices as a result of online discussion and anytime learning.

"Teens who choose to spend time alone may know what's best for them, according to new research that suggests solitude isn't a red flag for isolation or depression. The key factor is choice, say researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and Wilmington College: When solitude is imposed on adolescents and young adults, whether as punishment or as a result of social anxiety, it can be problematic. But chosen solitude contributes to personal growth and self-acceptance, they found."

Edthena allows any type of camera to be used. It offers a good repository that allows teachers to look for growth within their own videos by comparison.

Too often, our students don't get the chance to think beyond the narrow constraints of a curriculum. The focus can be purely on developing the pupils to pass their exams, and not to creatively think how they can overcome challenges that they may soon be faced with. Teaching creative thinking is now, more than ever, crucial to prepare young people for future jobs, societal changes, and life situations which we cannot predict accurately. One thing is for sure, being able to creatively think is a life skill that will support them through the uncertain future ahead, and allowing space and time to develop this capability is essential, with schools well-placed to encourage growth.