Why are you here?  How did you get here?  Since you work together, do you live together? It’s not every Friday that I have the chance to meet with an excited group of first graders with tons of questions about who I am, what I do, and why on earth I would give up my lunch to come and teach them.  Fortunately, for five Fridays in May and June, I had the opportunity to be a first  grade teacher and play a small role in the education experience of students in my neighborhood. As Blackboard employees, we are committed to getting involved with the education community and giving back, really helping to build a better education experience, around the world and around our neighborhoods. Earlier this year, a group of Blackboard’ers participated in the Greater DC Cares 2011 SERVATHON, the first ever event for the Blackboard Education Corps, a new program that enables every full-time employee to spend a full workday working to improve education in their communities. Check the blog post by Stephanie Weeks and learn about her experience. By stepping out into our local communities, we are broadening our reach and the impact we have in our community.

Ever find yourself wishing that you could spend less time grading student submissions in Blackboard Learn? If yes, then a quick review of the new Blackboard Learn 9.1, Service Pack 6 Features & Enhancements is in order. I decided to experiment with the program Jing Pro, which allows you to capture short, 5 minute videos, complete with audio. What a great way to showcase some of the new features and enhancements in the Blackboard Learn platform’s latest release, Service Pack 6…I’m hooked. Service Pack 6 introduces efficiencies across multiple levels of the education experience through enhancements and new features across the entire Blackboard Learn platform.  As the Product Marketing Manager for the Course Delivery module, I selected videos that highlight new features and enhancements across core Course Delivery workflows: grading and assessment.  These videos focus on how Blackboard Learn’s latest Service Pack will help educators spend less time on the tasks that they do most often.

“By 2020, the United States will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world.”

This is President Obama’s 2020 attainment goal that he committed to during his 2009 State of the Union address. As a college degree is becoming more and more essential in order to find a job and achieve financial success, it is interesting to look at how this standard has changed over the course of the last 65 years. This map from the Chronicle of Higher Education depicts the number of adults with college degrees in the United States, by county, since the 1940’s. It is fascinating to look at how much more prevalent a college education has become, even over the past 10 years. Some interesting stats from the graph are:

• In 1960 only 9.7% of men and 5.8% of women had a college education. This took a major jump over the course of the next 30 years and by 1990, 23.3% of men and 17.6% of women were college educated.
• By 2005-2009, women were within 2 percentage points of their male counterparts.
• The northeast appears to have the densest concentration of college graduates.

The concept of “doing more with less” continues to be more important today than in years past. So many schools and districts are struggling with budget cuts and looking for innovative ways to maximize their district funds. In light of this, I thought it was especially important to share all the resources I know of to help districts get the most for their money. 
 
Both the Blackboard Learn and Blackboard Connect solutions can help you do just that. Baltimore City Public Schools have saved over $1.5 million per year by creating digital curriculum guides for the district’s 7,500 teachers. To learn more about how school districts are reducing costs while keeping a high quality of education and direction for their instructional programs, check out this whitepaper: 5 Ways for School Districts to Do More with Less.

Hi, I’m Leslie — another member of the K12 team and a new blogger. I’m excited to be here and I look forward to creating a dialogue with you over the course of the year.  Recently I have been reflecting on 2009 and contemplating what is in store for education and technology in 2010 (not only because it is my job but because it is so important!)

 

I was just introduced to Chris Lehman’s blog. He is a principal at a Philadelphia high school and has some exciting ideas about the role technology plays in schools. In one of his articles he challenges school leaders to shift the way they think about technology; more than just engaging kids, schools should be empowering them and providing more access to the tools and Web sites that teenagers’ are frequenting with on a daily basis.  Striving for empowerment leads to a more student-centered classroom, which is a concept we strongly believe in at Blackboard (bringing the students to the center of the educational experience is something we work hard to do every day!)