As you may have heard already, BbWorld 2012 will have five key themes this year – each Feature Theme Session will be presented by thought leaders in Education. We rolled out the theme “Social Learning” last week and now we are proud to announce the Feature Theme Session Keynote Speaker for Digital Content – Tom Caswell! An Open Education Policy Associate at Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges, Tom handles special projects that directly impact the power of Digital Content such as running the Open Course Library, piloting a community college Open Learning Initiative (OLI) in Washington State, and supporting the OPEN initiative for Department of Labor C3T grantees. As a Policy Associate, Tom also raises awareness about the use of Digital Content and sets policies for sharing content.

For many regions across the country, April signals the start of the traditional tornado season. Just this past weekend, a tornado swept through Wichita, Kan., causing significant damage but luckily little injury. Because tornado systems often form quickly and without warning, they can serve as a powerful reminder of the importance of emergency preparedness and having a solid communications plan in place for your community. Preparation and response plans are vital during urgent situations. But as more people have access to mobile devices, a communication plan for sharing updates and information has become increasingly complex. Many communities rely on Blackboard Connect to help get the word out during severe weather events, we have compiled a quick list of 5 helpful tips for communicating successfully before, during and after the storm.

I’m excited about this year’s DevCon, not just because I’m a foodie and I love the food in New Orleans. I mean, c’mon, no one can pass up a beignet from Café du Monde. Besides the enticing food, I’m excited for the great speakers and sessions. On July 9^th and 10^th DevCon 2012 will descend onto New Orleans and give its attendees over 30 sessions devoted to topics like system administration and integration, security and performance, Blackboard Building Blocks development, and openness. This year we will also have sessions devoted to Blackboard mobile development, so those of you that are curious about how to develop using Blackboard Mobile’s SDK (software development kit) can satisfy that curiosity.

In case you missed it, Jarl Jonas, Director of CourseSites, blogged earlier this week and shared two very exciting announcements for all users. Originally posted to the new CourseSites Blog on April 16, 2012: As a free resource for individual educators, CourseSites has removed a common barrier of access to teaching and learning technology. While a significant milestone in itself, we understand further barriers exist for many individuals, particularly impeding access to education and information. CourseSites seeks to eliminate these barriers, and we are very excited to announce two ways we are doing so. First, all CourseSites instructors can now choose to make courses available for open enrollment. We believe this will open up a new realm of Open Education possibilities and opportunities. Second, we are proud to launch our Open Course Series: Empowering Learning through Community with our first open course on “Instructional Ideas and Technology Tools for Online Success” led by Dr. Curtis Bonk and the CourseSites team. We invite you to try this new feature and join us for our first open course. About Dr. Curtis Bonk:
Curt Bonk is Professor of Instructional Systems Technology at Indiana University and President of CourseShare,LLC. Drawing on his background as a corporate controller, CPA, educational psychologist, and instructional technologist, Bonk offers unique insights into the intersection of business, education, psychology, and technology. A well-known authority on emerging technologies for learning, Bonk reflects on his speaking experiences around the world in his popular blog, TravelinEdMan. He has coauthored several widely used technology books, including The World is Open, Empowering Online Learning, The Handbook of Blended Learning, and Electronic Collaborators.

The 2010 Blackboard Developer's Conference started early this morning at 8am. We have over 275 attendees, which is the largest DevCon attendance ever! To kick this year's conference off, we invited Anya Kamenetz, a passionate writer from NYC to discuss her thoughts on transforming higher education from her latest book DIY U. Normally, the DevCon keynote is much more technical in nature, but Anya quickly explained that system administrators, developers, and other IT staff have important roles in shaping the minds of faculty and students to understand what is possible from a technology standpoint. These roles are not only important but are growing in influence as technologies are rapidly becoming available and many faculty may not be aware of these new tools to develop more effective learning practices.     

Anya's presentation was close to 45 slides and grabbed immediate attention with large images to make her point. She started off by explaining that today's graduation rates at typical 4-year institutions are decreasing and the availability of learning content on the web and tools to socialize on the web are dramatically increasing. This led her into a conversation that universities need to adopt new models of openness to give students more choices to develop their own learning paths and outcomes. The old model of come to a university, get a diploma, and get a job is not working as well as it once did. Today, students go to a university to gain academic information and skills, but they also supplement that learning with internships, mentors, free online learning centers, and help from peers to develop a portfolio of skills that will enable the desired job. Anya then showed off many examples of free online learning opportunities and rich communities of like minded individuals collaborating about their portfolios of work. In closing, Anya urged the audience to all think about how we can increase our graduation rates by adopting and encouraging a more open, flexible learning environment.

It was a pleasure getting to know Anya and learning from her inspiration presentation. Blackboard will continue to develop innovative enhancements for all Blackboard solutions and we will always keep in mind the importance of not only open systems but also of open learning paths.