The turkey is in the oven, the mashed potatoes are on the table and the cranberry dressing is flowing – it can only mean one thing: it’s time for Thanksgiving.

Whether you’re a parent of an active learner, an instructor or happen to be one yourself – it’s clear that this year we’ve got a lot to be thankful for in the education revolution. Need some reminding?

Administrators are Empowered to Innovate and Improve Schools.

In order to fulfill the educational needs of the active learner, schools must adapt. Luckily, this year we saw a lot of great data sets that clearly show the advantages of integrating technology and catering to the active learner.  And it’s this data that helps drive decisions with Administrators, Faculty, System Administrators, and others.  While adoption may be a slow process, we’re thankful that we’re heading in the right direction.

So as we prepare to settle down and reflect – let’s take some time to remember the important role that active learners play in education.  We hope you’ll use this holiday to mentally prepare to come back and continue efforts to innovate our education systems so that they can better accommodate the needs of our active learners.

Extra Credits asks bold questions to education leaders, one on one in two minutes or less.  Watch the video and join the discussion in the comments below!

What do Extra Credits mean in 2012? Well for today’s college student, they might mean going above and beyond an original assignment in order to get an added boost to a midterm or final grade. For elementary school students, it might mean a gold star at the top of a worksheet.

But for us at Blackboard, Extra Credits have another meaning…

WATCH:

We’ve asked some bold questions to some of the most interesting folks around the education community. They’ve been kind enough to share their insights in two minutes or less and starting tomorrow, we’ll share these insights, aka Extra Credits, with you.

Please share them with your peers. You never know when they or you may be our next Extra Credit. If you have a question of your own, send us an email: social@blackboard.com. You never know who may give you the answer.

Earlier this year, a handful of leader’s from higher ed institutions met at a symposium for a day-long session to chat about key topics and issues facing their institutions. One of the topics of the day was on Social Learning – what it is and what it isn’t, and no, it’s not new. What dawned on us after the conversations is that the term means a lot of different things to different people.

So, drawing upon the key takeaways, subsequent discussions and research of our own, we’ve compiled some myths (and truths) to help you better understand what is often misunderstood about social learning.

While the list could go on, we landed on four myths of social learning. First we are going to address them and then we’re going to debunk them.

Over the next few weeks we’ll present a breakdown of these myths and take a deeper dive into what they mean for active learners and instructors..

• Myth 1: Social Learning Is New
• Myth 2: Social Learning Is the Same as Social Media
• Myth 3: Social Learning Is Just for Fun
• Myth 4: Social Learning Is a Fad

Want to be the first to know when our paper is ready?  Tweet us @Blackboard with the hashtag #4myths and we’ll send you a copy before it’s available to others!

Summer is wrapping up. You’ve put away the inflatable pool, put the cover on the grill and you’re getting ready to retire your t-shirts and shorts: school is about to begin again.  Back-to-school season is the perfect time to prepare for new online students and take into consideration how to engage active learners.

We’ve put together our top three ways to prepare for online higher-education students, as they return to the digital classroom: