By: Deanna Mayers, Curriculum Coordinator for blendedschools.net

Have you ever heard others talk about online learning and refer to it as a self-paced, independent study?  While some online courses fit this description, others are beginning to use collaborative tools to engage learners.  But, how can we use research based strategies such as these from The Global Development Research Center in the online classroom?  During my session at BbWorld 2010, “Building Collaborative Learning Activities in your Online Course,” you will experience how research based collaborative strategies transfer to online learning.  We will work together to complete a “Read and Respond,” have some fun in a “Jigsaw” activity and experience a progressive writing activity among other activities.

By Dan Lake, OCM Board of Cooperative Education Services (OCM BOCES)

This will be my 8th BbWorld attendance, and I am more excited than ever. I have always attended and often presented my institution, OCM BOCES, knowing that my presence was a minority presence. After all, I represented a K-12 community, not previously seated at the front of the bus traveling the virtual learning highway!

But in May this year, with the release of 9.1, the Blackboard K-12 learning solutions team took a front seat, joining its college partners.  The K-12 learning community now has a presence that will be evident as school administrators and teachers across the world realize the immense potential offered by the added features of 9.1.  Finally our K-12 teachers can give our younger students that 24-7 assistance they have been demanding to support their emerging “personal learning networks” (Note the use of that ubiquitous phrase. Tagging anyone?)

By Paige Brooks-Jeffiers, Kentucky Community and Technical College System

Want interactive content? Want more than Word docs and PDFs in your online course? Want (need) to do it yourself? EASILY? If you answered “yes” to these questions, SoftChalk is a tool you’ve got to see!
 
At KCTCS (Kentucky Community and Technical College System), we have 3,000 faculty teaching over 12,000 courses (all with at least some online component) from 68 campuses within our 16 colleges. And the majority of campuses don’t have an instructional designer. This means faculty are generally responsible for creating their own content. 

By Kathy Saville, Marshall University

What's the Difference: Moving from Blackboard CE/Vista 8 to Blackboard Learn Release 9 and 9.1?

After doing extensive, exhaustive, exhilarating research on the differences between CE/Vista 8 and Learn 9, a website was born Vista 8 to Blackboard Learn 9 and 9.1 Comparison Chart.

Why the website? When Release 9 was launched in 2009, the CTO at our university, Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, asked me to prepare a report of the differences between Vista 8 to Release 9.  As I read the hundreds of pages from documents prepared by Blackboard about Release 9, I knew my report was going to be more than a one-pager. As I read the 400+ pages of the Instructor’s manual, I knew this document was not going to meet the needs of Marshall’s faculty. Today’s instructors want… Need…DEMAND “just in time” information. Asking anyone in today’s hectic academic environment to read such a manual is unrealistic. So, to meet the needs of the CTO and provide my faculty a resource that would more adequately meet their needs, the Comparison Chart was born. 

By Pam Willingham, Volusia County Schools

Excitement is growing here in Volusia County Schools' Propeller Studio as we get ready for our first BbWorld. You see, this year the conference is being held a short drive from our school district, so we couldn’t miss it. We’re looking forward to gathering great gobs of Blackboard know-how, to networking with peers, and to meeting new FLBbUG members. FLBbUG (pronounced” flu-bug”) is the Florida Blackboard user group which will meet July 15, 2010 from 11:00 to 11:45 in Emerald 8. Everyone is welcome to “go viral” with us.