This is the final post of a 3-part series on Open Standards for Newbies. In the same vein as my previous post, from Betamax to Common Cartridge, reflecting on childhood memories helps me understand the importance of support for open standards.  I spent my formative years growing up in Germany, where I was introduced to the need for voltage converters.  My dad purchased the family Betamax during his one year stint in Newport, Rhode Island, before taking us back to Germany.  This was also the year I got my first boom box…the dual cassette deck kind so I could start making my own mixed tapes! In addition to that family Betamax, my brand new boom box needed a 110 to 220 voltage converter before I could listen to any of my new tapes and make new friends in our new neighborhood (clearly winning them over with my new Bruce Springsteen, Whitney Houston and Madonna tapes).  Without this standard converter, our investment in electronics would have been for naught. That 110 to 220 converter is how I think about Basic LTI.  Another standard developed by the IMS, Basic LTI provides a single framework or standard way of integrating learning applications with platforms like learning management systems. I like to think of Basic LTI as that converter for my preferred tools or content.  Similar to my Common Cartridge analogy in my previous post, the educational technology tools that I use in my online course are important to me.  And I want to be able to use those tools no matter what learning management system I am tied to.  If the tools are designed to work with learning management systems, I expect to be able to use them. I will caveat this and admit that I am oversimplifying things.  Basic LTI requires a commitment to the standard from both the learning management system and the tool provider.  However, as an end user, Basic LTI serves as that converter.  For example, if I taught a music course today and wanted my students to be able to annotate their own music using a tool like Noteflight, I would be able to provide seamless access for my students from my course in the Blackboard Learn™ platform to the online music writing application.  That’s because both Noteflight and Blackboard Learn support the Basic LTI standard.  If the tool provider supports the standard and my learning management system supports the standard, then we are in business. And for those of you who were worried that I wasn’t able to listen to Madonna, here’s how it applied with my voltage conversion scenario: Our house in Rhode Island was like a learning management system.  It came with all the tools and appliances we needed but we had a few add-ons that we wanted to plug in based on our individual preferences.  Of course, my dad had his Betamax and I had my boom box.  Then the time came for us to move from that house in Rhode Island to a different house in a different country, where things were configured differently.  That house came with a similar set of tools and appliances but we still had our add-ons that we wanted to plug in.  Thanks to the 110 to 220 converter, I was blaring Madonna while unpacking boxes in no time.

This is part 2 of a 3 part series on Open Standards for Newbies. Who’s old enough to remember the embarrassment of only having a handful of movies to show during a sleepover because you had a Beta?  When choosing between a VHS and a Betamax back in the eighties, my dad chose the Beta.  Sure, it was (arguably) superior technology, but this decision severely limited our family movie choices.  In addition to living on an army base in Germany at the time, where U.S. movie rentals already arrived a year late, the majority of the movies available would only play on a VHS.

There’s been a lot of talk recently about Open Standards; Blackboard announced support at the end of 2010.  Eight months ago this was a new and challenging topic for me and, admittedly, it took a while to fully understand the positive impact this will have on our clients and the industry. As a newbie in the open standards space, I started tapping into some local experts to try and wrap my head around all of this.  Fancy names aside, it’s important to know that Basic LTI and Common Cartridge are open education standards.  These standards support the interoperability of learning technologies and content, or the integration, reuse and sharing of educational content and tools.  In other words, by supporting these standards within Blackboard Learn, we are providing institutions and educators with more options when it comes to the technologies they use together.

“If you want to make a difference in the life of our nation; if you want to make a difference in the life of a child — become a teacher. Your country needs you.”

Earlier this week, during his state of the union address , Obama called for our nation’s commitment to do what’s necessary to give every child a chance to succeed.  He referenced that nearly 1 in 4 of our high school students don’t graduate.  So I decided to dig a little deeper into those numbers. What I found was staggering:

• 30% of high school students don’t graduate
• 30% of high school graduates don’t go to college
• 50% of those who go to college don’t graduate in six years

This means that only 25% of the high school class of 2011 will graduate from college within six years.

On Earth Day everyone who entered the lobby here at Blackboard’s DC office building was given a gift by the property’s management company: we could choose an apple, orange or banana.

This small gesture in recognition of the 38th Earth Day, coupled with an increase in recycling opportunities around our offices, actually seemed to lead to a raised sense of environmental consciousness.

Of course we could all spend a bit more time thinking about ways to be more strategic in the reduction of our global footprint.  For example, even though I commute to and from work by bicycle, and consider myself a decent recycler, this Personal Footprint Calculator from the Global Footprint Network is a sobering reminder of just how much more I could and should be doing.

On a positive note, I think the concept of “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” appears to come naturally to our contemporary generation of learners (like a new “Reading, ‘Riting & ‘Rithmetic”).  Perhaps this stems from a natural sense of environmental awareness or maybe it’s something else . . .

Anyone remember what the animated TV series "Schoolhouse Rock!" did for math, grammar and civics lessons?  Famous artists are now creating their own public service announcements about the environment spun to catchy, keyboard- and percussion-infused tunes, like this video for Jack Johnson’s song “The 3 R’s”:

I have a feeling if you teach in a classroom you may have integrated Earth Day ideas into your lesson plans this past week.  If so, did you use video?

At BlackboardTV we’re always looking to publicize and share great examples of how you’ve used video to complement important themes in your teaching, so please send them along to me at BbTV@blackboard.com.