Welcome

Amid the discussion of open technology and open education that pervades the dialogue in education today, I’ve found it curious that one simple concept receives relatively little attention: to create something open, someone must first be willing to share their creation.  And once that generous decision to share has been made, by an individual or an organization, others must be able to find and use that work in order to make it truly shared.

This simple concept, when considered in the context of digital content, highlights several challenges that have served as barriers to progress toward more open sharing of digital content within our communities.  First, most of us are not really wired as individuals, or organizations, to be good at sharing.  This means that to promote sharing, we need tools that make sharing feel easy, familiar, and safe.  These tools should also make it easy for us to discover content shared by others, and just as importantly, easy to use that content once discovered.

Educators today have access to many sources of shared and open content, and the LMS, in its many varieties, is now ubiquitous as a platform for delivery of digital content.  But the process for contributing or adopting shared or open resources and actually making them available for use within the LMS has remained disjointed, difficult, and often frustrating.

It is my great pleasure to announce that today we release Blackboard xpLor, a new platform that is neither an LMS nor a traditional digital content repository. Blackboard xpLor is something new and unique, designed to simply yet powerfully support the creation, discovery, management, and delivery of shared content, all within the familiar context of the LMS you are already using.

They say everything is bigger in Texas, so Blackboard will be sharing even more goodness than expected at the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Conference next week.

Assuming you’re going, you don’t need us to tell you that ISTE is one of the world’s largest conferences for K-12. As usual, Blackboard K-12 is going—but what we are bringing is not business as usual. But it is big.

Here’s a sneak peek at what we will share at booth #11058 and beyond:

• Eric Silva, a recent graduate from South Texas ISD, will share his Blackboard experience (Monday morning)
• Conversations over sodas about what is top of mind for your district, school, or classroom (Monday and Tuesday afternoons)
• Dessert & Drinks Party at the San Antonio Children’s Museum, where you can be young (at heart) by participating in a scavenger hunt through the interactive children’s exhibits (Monday evening)
• Project Tomorrow Breakfast, where Julie Evans, CEO of Project Tomorrow, will share results from her annual Speak Up survey on online learning trends in K-12 schools

2013 has been a busy year for the Blackboard User Experience and Accessibility teams and we are only half way through the year. This year kicked off with the release of Blackboard Learn, Release 9.1 Service Pack 11, which was audited and verified by a third-party for conformance with the internationally recognized W3C WCAG 2.0 Guidelines at the AA level. This release resolved several outstanding issues with both accessibility and usability found in older releases of Blackboard Learn. Including those mentioned in a recent report comparing the accessibility of Learning Management Systems.

Shortly following the release of Service Pack 11 an updated version of the Blackboard Learn Discussion Board was released as a building block that could be installed on Service Pack 11 and higher. The new Discussion Board includes significant usability and accessibility improvements in a tool that was previously considered very challenging for users with disabilities.

You already know that video is revolutionizing education.

But does your institution?

Most likely, your institution is already taking advantage of (or looking to expand into) some form of online education: blended learning, remote learning, on-demand personalized learning, MOOCs, flipped classrooms, social learning. Despite their differences, all of these forms are enhanced by video.

The Kaltura Video Building Block for Blackboard Learn opens up a new set of engaging teaching possibilities. Features include integration of lecture capture and video materials, the ability to give video assignments, and easy sharing of video content contributed by both student and faculty .

This rich media functionality works across the Blackboard Learn platform.

Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana is preparing students for the next phase of video communication using the Kaltura Video Building Block.

Known for its innovative research and forward-thinking faculty, Purdue stays on the leading edge of education by leveraging technology in new and thought-provoking ways for both distance learning and traditional classroom environments.

I am proud to announce the 2013 Catalyst Award Winners. The Blackboard Catalyst Awards honors those who push the boundaries of their educational programs and technology in order to deliver innovative and effective learning experiences in 11 categories.  This year we had over 262 submissions and selected 69 of those to receive a prestigious Catalyst Award. We will honor the winners and their achievements at the Catalyst Awards Luncheon at BbWorld in July 2013.

See the full list of Catalyst Award winners!