Blackboard Blogs is the site of several Blackboard community blogs (listed below) about education, technology and campus commerce.
Members of the global Blackboard community (users, partners, employees) are invited to contribute to these blogs. If you'd like to participate, please email us.
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Newbie. Freshman. First-timer. Whatever the name for it, there is always a first time for everyone and everything. Are you a first-time BbWorld attendee? Are you wondering how best to take advantage of all the resources and opportunitites at BbWorld? How can you make the most of it?
Here are some tips for first-time BbWorld attendees:
Even though it’s been awhile since I was a college student, I can’t help but feel like these are the last weeks before the end of the semester and final exams.
You remember the all-nighters, and the study groups and term papers that seemed to never make it to “perfect,” but eventually reached the point where you just couldn’t do any more with them. Was it just me or did you somehow vacillate between feeling nervous, confident, worried and excited all within a very short time span?
Over time I learned to accept those feelings as a good thing, since it generally meant I was taking things seriously and trying my hardest to put my best foot forward, so that I could look back after all was said and done knowing that I would have no regrets.
At the end of this “semester,” my “final exams” will come in the form of two Blackboard Managed Hosting presentations taking place at BbWorld ’08 in Las Vegas:
Over the past several months, there have been many articles highlighting the growth in popularity of open source software solutions in education.
Here at Blackboard, we also feel that open source plays an important role in education. The recent incorporation of a non-profit organization called OSCELOT (the Open Source Community for Educational Learning Objects and Tools) by a group of passionate members of Blackboard’s developer community reflects this trend.
OSCELOT’s mission is to promote the development and sharing of open-source plugins and extensions for learning environments, including Blackboard Building Blocks and Blackboard PowerLinks, that allow Blackboard users and our partners to customize, enhance, integrate and extend our core LMS products using our open API architecture.
By pairing open source plugins with Blackboard’s commercially supported teaching and learning platform, we’ve seen rapid uptake of educational tools and platform enhancements that everyone can benefit from.
To date, there are over 70 projects hosted on OSCELOT’s site and over 150 known free or open-source plugins contributed by the community, which can be used today with Blackboard solutions to address a wide variety of teaching, learning and institutional priorities.
Continue reading "The Important Role of Open Source Software in Education" »
Whew. I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted, but this BbWorld conference coming up is a whopper! So, in between sending emails to speakers and working with my colleagues on mundane things like the signs that are setup outside the session rooms, I thought I’d write something quick for you folks reading the blog today.
What fun things can I tell you about BbWorld and the 2008 Blackboard Developers Conference? How about:
KJ’s Top Ten Reasons to Come to Vegas in July!
10) OSCELOT’s Open Source Day III (Saturday, July 12, and Sunday, July 13). What, you didn’t know? Now you do!
9) It’s the Final Frontier . . .
8) You can build your own program at BbWorld and DevCon!
7) You can search for sessions that meet your specific needs.
6) Fabulous keynote speakers at both DevCon and BbWorld.
5) It’s not THAT hot (inside anyway).
4) Peer networking. Not that kind! This kind! And like this!
3) Best practices in your interest areas: Assess, Engage, Manage and K-12.
2) Exciting Pre-Conference Workshops!
And the #1 reason to come to Vegas in July . . .
1) The Client Appreciation Party!
OK, maybe the networking is more important than the party. But, still, you should register now! There’s no better place for talking about your success than BbWorld ’08.
Hope to see you there!
This year BbSummit Asia was merged with the eLearning Forum Asia ("eLF2008") and held on 29–30 May in Singapore. Over 140 delegates attended the forum, from mainland China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand and Taiwan.
The eLearning Forum Asia was created two years ago by three Blackboard clients: City University of Hong Kong, Taiwan's Feng Chia University and Singapore's Nanyang Technological University (NTU).
Following the success of BbSummit Asia last year, Blackboard was fortunate to be approached by the executives of these universities and invited to work with them to create a single event with a program that would be deeper in subject matter and broader in coverage than either event could have individually.
The theme for the forum this year was "It's a Small World After All." For details about the program, which focused on online pedagogy and the role of leadership, see the NTU website.
The opening keynote address was delivered by Dr. Xu Erming, a professor of management and the deputy dean for the School of Graduate Studies of Renmin University of China. His presentation was titled "Online Learning Pedagogy: Strategies and Approaches for Effectively Applying ICT to Support Learning."
By Anthony Doyle, Senior Client Manager, Blackboard
I work with Blackboard’s International Client Management Team in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and joined Blackboard back in November 2005, direct from an institution where I was responsible for the implementation of an institution-wide rollout of Blackboard software.
With those years of experience working on the user side of the Blackboard fence, I’m always excited to meet with members of the global community of Blackboard users and hear first-hand how they are using the software to educate and implementing innovative uses for their implementations. From my time as a technologist and VLE systems manager, I can vouch for the power of community.
So, in May, I undertook an exciting drive across country, from Middlesbrough in North East England to Sunny Manchester, to join over 300 peers, colleagues and friends (and not to forget the Glasgow Rangers fans) to participate in BbWorld Europe 2008. I have many connections still from my days as a Blackboard client, and I’m always excited to learn what the latest success stories from day-today users of the system.
My first experience of Blackboard was as a student at university. From that experience I moved directly from using Blackboard software as a student into working with it as a technologist at a further education college, who actually implemented Blackboard software. That student perspective stayed with me when I worked as a technologist and much of my work was based around learner-centric methodology.
After one particular session at BbWorld Europe ’08, I left the room with excitement, really thinking, “This is what it’s all about!”
By Borja Uslé, Client Manager, Blackboard
Last month I attended BbWorld Europe ’08 in Manchester. The users conference was the first BbWorld event that I’ve been able to attend since joining Blackboard in November 2007. And I was delighted to be a part of it.
I work as a client manager for Blackboard users located in Southern Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Many clients in these regions traveled long distances to join BbWorld Europe; representatives from the University of Botswana came, and there were three different institutions from Turkey. Our resellers also came from places like Turkey and Saudi Arabia.
The venue for the conference, The Palace Hotel, worked very well. Large Blackboard banners hung in the reception area greeted everyone and made one feel welcomed. And, despite the reputation of British weather, the weather during the conference was fantastic.
Conference participants were really excited to attend and connect with peers, and speak face-to-face with us Blackboard team members. That was really very nice. I had several conversations with users in and around the exhibit hall booths.
Here are three presentations given by attendees that I felt were particularly successful:
Continue reading "Excitement in Manchester: My First BbWorld Event" »
Kansas State University Professor Michael Wesch, well-known within the YouTube community for the series of innovative videos he created in collaboration with his media and anthropology students, as part of their digital enthography of YouTube project (read their blog), posted an intriguing new video last month titled "Twitter and World Simulation":
I really look forward to Prof. Wesch's upcoming DevCon 2008 keynote address -- next month in Las Vegas. I know that reads like a plug for the conference. And, well, yeah, it is, sure. But I really am excited to hear Prof. Wesch speak in person -- I'm traveling to the conference a day early, to ensure I won't be trapped in an airport three states away while waiting for a connecting flight that for some reason never arrives.
Until DevCon, over on the BlackboardTV Channel on YouTube, there’s a playlist that may interest you, The Future Is Now. We’ve collected a series of interesting videos -- recommended by Blackboard users and found by BlackboardTV crew members -- that visualize the use of technology in teaching and learning, including more videos by Prof. Wesch and his students.
Watch this YouTube video clip of an e-Learning conference held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (and recorded two years ago, almost to this day), and compare how similar it is to the footage captured by a BbWorld conference attendee last year during BbWorld '07 in Boston, USA, which I discussed in a post yesterday:
If you'll be attending BbWorld '08 in Las Vegas, July 15-17, and plan to bring your video camera, please let me know at BlackboardTV@blackboard.com. And watch for BlackboardTV crew members filming there. During a session break we can discuss how wonderfully small, close and more connected the world is becoming because of technology -- both e-Learning and video.
During BbWorld '07 in Boston, a conference attendee from the Netherlands captured this footage of action across the exhibit hall floor -- from the "Ask Dr. C" kiosk to partner booths to the opening reception:
The image is blurry. The camera movement is dizzying at times. And the sound nearly inaudible. But I love this footage!
To be able to capture a few minutes of an experience like this, spontaneously on a mobile phone or a tiny camera, is exactly why I love technology. And I was in the exhibit hall when this footage was shot, probably also walking around, but I saw a completely different set of events and conversations. To be able to see this experience so easily from someone else's perspective? Fascinating.
If you recorded video footage or took photographs during BbWorld Europe '08 in Manchester, please let me know at BlackboardTV@blackboard.com. I'd like very much to see the spontaneous and serendipitous moments you captured, and share them with the Blackboard community via the BlackboardTV Channel on YouTube, so your peers can view them. And maybe themselves.
Viva the camera phone!
BbWorld Europe '08 occurred recently in Manchester, England. Alas, I wasn't able to attend the conference, co-hosted by the University of Manchester, but learned registration was filled, 30 clients presented during the break-out sessions, and over 350 users attended, traveling from more than 26 countries, including Italy, Turkey, Botswana and South Africa. Cool.
Our next users conference, BbWorld '08, will occur in Las Vegas, July 15-17. Attendees are expected to travel from not just North America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, but also Central America, the Caribbean, South America, Australia, New Zealand and Asia. Very cool.
Blackboard International President Juan Lucca extends his invitation to attend:
Also, there'll be a keynote speaker in Las Vegas whom I'm very keen to hear: Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Computer. Geek cool.
Blackboard Professional Education President Tim Hill invites you to attend our annual users conference, BbWorld '08, in Las Vegas, July 15-17:
Tim and the ProEd team also invite you to join them for a Customer Appreciation Dinner during the event:
For more specific information about the conference, I recommend viewing the list of very useful client-led sessions reviewed and chosen by the BbWorld Program Committee, comprised of 325 Blackboard clients.
