Welcome

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!

 

Last week, I had the opportunity to go to the University of Alabama for the Alabama Blackboard User Group —AKA  Bama BUG—annual eLearning Conference,  also a stop on the Blackboard Never Stop Learning Tour.

It was, to use a word you hear a lot on college campuses, awesome.

Over 200 educators, technologists, and administrators shared best practices and learned new ways to adopt technology. Talking to the educators there reminded me how demanding their jobs are.  When following up this week with some of the attendees, I heard this from Professor Andrew Goodlifee from the University of Alabama:

“The reality is that I never have time to sit down and work out how to use Blackboard [Learn] to its full extent.  Over the weekend I spent some time exploring more functionality and have already made some great strides forward. As a result of the workshop Blackboard will be a much better experience for both me and my students in the fall.”   

Here’s the good news: There’s more where that came from.