Guest blog post from BbWorld 2012 Blogger, JD Ferries-Rowe. For additional content, click here.

Harnessing the Power of Social Media with @NMHS_Principal
Talk about a change…this session is what keynotes should be: focused on education, challenging and inspiring, with real-world examples and a smattering of sappy inspirational videos.
The lead in was a challenge: It is a problem that those who are tasked with leading our schools, with developing 21st century skills are sometimes the least knowledgeable. While a few schools are reinventing themselves for the digital age, most are not.

We want our teachers to be adapters, communicators, learners, visionaries, leaders, models, collaborators, and risk-takers. — whew. When you look at that list, it is overwhelming. But imagine if we created a system where the teachers who left the profession left because they did not fit that model, not because they were drained from 45 days of examinations per year or because their checklist evaluations combined with a metric of student-value-add indicated that they were only so-so. Its a stretch goal, but its achievable.

How do we start? We start by getting teachers to share their visions…by getting teachers to converse with others…by using social media.

Interesting point: Education is changing (collaborative, student centered), the landscape is changing (content overload, distributed learning opportunities, free sources), the learners are changing (connected, social learners, gamers, tech-as-default) — but education keeps looking the same.
He preached the #digcit mantra and talked about PLNs

He showed the social media revolution YouTube video

This post was written by guest writer and BbWorld 2012 VIP Blogger, Lacie Crone.

Remember the days when student orientation began with “look to the left, now look to the right, our goal is that all three of you graduate.” No? That wasn’t the speech you heard? Me neither, until today. Conference keynote speaker, Dr. Freeman Hrabowski took the stage with a dynamic and engaging message of responsibility, creativity, innovation, and student success.

Before the keynote address began, I had the opportunity to chat with Dr. Hrabowski in the green room. It was evident to me from the moment I shook his hand that we were in for a powerful afternoon. There are plenty people who can get on a stage with a well-written speech and with enough effort generate excitement. After all, we have how many products being sold on TV? This however, is not the case with Freeman Hrabowski; he is genuinely invested in his message and excited to share it with the everyone, particularly the next generation. While discussing student engagement and success, he shared a text message he had received the previous week from a former student. The message included words of thanks for previous encouragement she had received from him during her education. Included in the message was a picture of her employee ID…as a physician. As an undergraduate student she hadn’t believed that she had what it took to take on a medical career but credits her success in part to the consistently encouraging message she had received from him. How many university presidents do you think receive a text like that?

Once on stage, the magnitude of belief in his message was clear. After sharing some stories, and pointing out why he used stories instead of just concepts, he left us with the challenge to be the leaders who educate the campus leaders to elevate our student’s experience and success. We need to stop making decisions based on anecdotal information and mine Blackboard for the data: what works, what doesn’t, how does student engagement with the LMS relate to student success, and how do our students want to learn. We have been talking about access, but now it is time to be talking about success. Lastly, we must believe that the student to the left, the student to the right, and the student in the middle all have the power to succeed.

Don’t miss the opportunity to read about Dr. Hrabowski. You can also have the opportunity to become infected with his enthusiasm by watching this CNN interview.

Time and resources are growing scarce in K-12 education. Many successful programs are losing budget money and are not getting it back (see these stories about schools in Chicago, Fort Worth, and Las Vegas). These stories are disappointing for teachers, students and families; however, the commonality that unites each article is adaptability. Educators, students, and parents are adapting to their circumstances, no matter how abysmal. How do we keep teachers in their jobs, cut costs of individualized education, and promote student success? Blackboard has partnered with Learning.com in order to provide free (and fee-based) education resources to make students more successful without breaking the bank for school districts. A great lesson should be focused on the student. The teacher should have time to teach the class and help with individual students’ needs. We want to focus on student success rather than the amount it will cost. With the new Learning.com content portal building block in Blackboard, educators will be able to teach students by using quality lesson plans from premier providers (NASA, Smithsonian, USA Today…) as well as other educators. Learning.com is happy to share their vast catalog of quality resources in K-12 education with Blackboard Learn. These sources are accessible and easily implemented into Blackboard course plans. What is the point of reinventing the wheel if there are already great educational resources out there? But the 200,000+ resources aren’t even the best part of the Learning.com building block. The most helpful aspects of the partnership are easy organization, implementation of Learning.com content into course tools, and catered lesson plans for the active learner. Teachers will be able to easily organize numerous lesson plans and information while accommodating the technological needs of students born in the millennial generation. Some of the features that cater to the active learner include online quizzes, multimedia, and textbook content. Educators will also be able to effortlessly track student progress.  Find out more about how our partnership with Learning.com will help students engage in their coursework and give K-12 teachers quality resources for the classroom.

Are you dreaming about going to the EdTech event of the year? Well, with the help of your peers, you can bring back the BbWorld 2012 Early Bird Rate! If 100 people fill out the interest form by Thursday, June 21^st, participants will see BbWorld prices drop for the last time. Indicate your interest below and once we reach 100, you will receive a promo code via email. Rally up, make sure to send this to your colleagues, and go to BbWorld for 20% off the regular rate! Price is not eligible for current registrants. Participating does not require you to register for the event. http://events.blackboard.com/peprally

As you may have seen here and here, we’ve been teasing you about June 7, 2012 being your lucky day. If you’re following our social channels (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Slideshare, and Flickr) or reading this blog post you’re one click closer. Starting today – June 7 at 10am ET through June 8, 8:30pm ET – you get one more chance to register for BbWorld at a reduced rate. We’re calling it Lucky 7. We’ve lowered the registration rate to $777 (and $477 for K-12 folks) for 48 hours only. To get lucky with this rate, copy this promo code BW2012777 (or BW2012477) and click on over to the registration page to activate. You may be wondering why you should follow us on social media to get discount info. Well, social media and access to others through technology is growing. It is fast, convenient, and it allows for everyone to stay connected and become informed. Which brings me to my next point about social learning. The main idea of social learning is collaboration between parties. In order to learn more, you need to communicate more… and BbWorld is the best opportunity of the year to do that!