Fighting Malaria is probably not the first use that comes to mind for Blackboard’s professional education platform, but it is being embraced by Malaria No More and The ONE Campaign as they educate and empower their activists to become powerful spokespeople in the fight against the disease. Blackboard donated their ProSites software to power the Griot Project, an educational program that teaches volunteers to be storytellers for cultural change.
Everyday people (yes, you!) are encouraged to apply now to become a Malaria Griot. Through Blackboard, you can learn about the issue and how to spread the word at your own pace through flexible courses. Registration is opening this month for next year’s class and the deadline is March 1st, 2011. Learn more and apply here.
Let’s say your company has a new product update and you need to get the information out fast to your team of sales and product managers. Or maybe your company is growing quickly and you need to train a brand new team in a matter of days. Did a new certification just get released and you need to get information out to your association members ASAP? No problem! This is where Blackboard and rapid e-learning tools like Brainshark and Captivate come in.
Brainshark is an online presentation tool for business communications and e-learning, where you can easily create voice-enhanced presentations with slides, images, video, the works! No need to gather everyone in a single room or even to schedule a webinar. This is truly on-demand creation, deployment, and learning. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hO0eJsJ6yhs
Captivate is a part of the Adobe suite and goes beyond normal teaching tools to create engaging, online teaching tools. Some of the benefits touted in the video below include the rapid development of simulations or scenario learning , the reduction of development and deployment costs, and of course, improvement in training effectiveness. Oh, and don’t forget the Adobe Learning Summit is coming up March 21st in Orlando, FL. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaBb8Wi25Pg
We are so excited to be here in San Jose, California, for the American Society of Training & Development’s TechKnowledge Conference and Expo. ASTD is the world’s largest association dedicated to workplace learning and performance professionals, and so it’s only fitting that they take a deep dive into the critical role that technology is playing in our field. The conference tracks include e-learning design, implementation strategies, and even a look ahead at next generation technologies to see what’s on the e-learning horizon.
Of course, we’re also looking forward to hearing from keynote speakers like Kara Swisher of All Things Digital, as well as Karen Wickre and Ann Farmer of Google. The Professional Education division of Blackboard is proud to be a Gold sponsor of the conference. And for folks who can’t attend the conference in person, don’t worry. ASTD is providing a virtual post-conference event starting on February 16th.
Move People Forward officially kicks off with its first live event on February 16, 2011. From February 16 through March 10, you will have the opportunity to view – at your leisure – any and all of the education sessions delivered at ASTD TechKnowledge® 2011. You will also have the opportunity to virtually network through commenting and chats with other learning professionals virtually participating from around the globe. And, your comments will be addressed by a moderator and, in some cases, the speakers themselves. You can plan to tune-in live to one or all four webcasts delivered as part of this experience.
If you followed the news out of the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, you probably noticed one consumer gadget in particular got a majority of the buzz – the TABLET. These lightweight, high-power computing devices are the ideal midpoint between a laptop and smartphone, and growing rapidly in popularity among on-the-go adults. Of course, Blackboard heeded this trend with our iPad application, Blackboard Mobile Learn, but there’s still more apps we love that can help you on your education journey:
