It’s conference season, folks! And a lot of you are tasked by your colleagues to make the most of your time spent on the Exhibit Hall floor by engaging in conversations that can impact your jobs, learn what other educators are doing, and create relationships with vendors. If you want to up the ante this year and connect with even more people at conferences like BbWorld, we have some tips for you!

1.)   Download the BbWorld mobile app to stay up-to-date on breaking news, must see sessions, conference photos, and more. This year’s app connects you to your favorite social media channels and even has a scavenger hunt!

Download Android App

Download iPhone App

How did you imagine the future of online learning in K-12 five years ago? Did you think entire school districts would adopt digital textbooks? Or that 52% of school administrators would endorse online learning?

Welcome to 2012. Where the typical student interested in online courses is a middle school girl and where “Bring Your Own Device” is a controversial phenomenon. Also, “what’s your flavor”/personalized learning is the norm. Students no longer need to tie themselves down to technology that is only available to them in the classroom. Students wish to learn anywhere, anytime. In fact, nearly 50% of students from grades 9-12 reported interest in taking an online class.

Guest Blog Post by Dan Lim, Ph.D., Vice President for Educational Technology and Distance Learning, Florida Hospital College of Health Sciences (linkedin.com/in/danlim01). Dan will be presenting “De-angelizing Synchronous Distance Teaching: Collaborate To Enhance Online Education Quality” at Blackboard Collaborate Connections Summit 2012 on Thursday, July 12, 2012 from 2:50-3:45PM.

Once upon a time, it was popular to angelize.  Now it’s time to de-angelize.  At Florida Hospital College of Health Sciences (FHCHS), our plan to de-angelize is still on track though the ANGEL learning system has recently been put on indefinite life support.  Although ANGEL has served us well, its unscalable chat tool has been the Achilles’ heel since the beginning when we used it in the synchronous distance delivery of our three distance degree programs.

The transition to Blackboard Collaborate this year is a timely and critical change.  If your institution is experiencing various challenges in the quality of distance delivery, there are ten reasons why you need to attend our session, seven of which are on how Collaborate is a great solution to distance education challenges and three reasons why the transition has been smooth and quite painless.

 

Guest Blog Post by Shelley Kinash, Associate Professor of Higher Education and Director of Quality, Teaching, and Learning at Bond University

G’Day Eh! That’s my mash-up greeting from a dual Australian/Canadian Citizen. I am an Associate Professor of Higher Education and Director of Quality, Teaching, and Learning at Bond University on the beautiful Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. I have been an academic for eighteen years and did my PhD in Education Technology at University of Calgary, Canada. Bond University is very proud and honoured to have been selected to receive the 2012 Mobile Catalyst Award. Another claim to fame is that Bond University was the first Australian university to go live with Blackboard Mobile Learn. Bond is hosting the Blackboard 2012 Australasia Teaching and Learning Conference in August.

Guest Blog Post by Kari Rasmussen, Coordinator, Online Learning and Resource Development, Grant MacEwan University

Have you been examining your approaches to online course design and development? Are you looking to engage in discussion with others who are looking at ever increasing demands with a small department and budget? Our department has faced these questions, challenges, and opportunities and over the last four years we have evolved a process that has moved us from missing deadlines and not meeting expectations to meeting deadlines and creating products that are gaining recognition beyond our university. Our aim, within this BbWorld session, is to share our experiences and discuss our current processes.