What impact can education have on a country, a city, a village, a family, a child?  And what impact can an educated child have on their family, their village, their city, their country, and the world? These are some of the questions Blackboard seeks to ask, understand, and answer through Project Activate.

Partnering with Seeds of Empowerment, a non-profit organization developed through Stanford University, Blackboard is spending 2 weeks in rural Tanzania to understand the educational imperatives in a region very different from that shaped our beginnings.  We will work with 140 students in grades 8-9 in Newala, a rural town in the Mtwara region of southern Tanzania, to introduce them to different mediums of learning technology.  Our goal is simple and may sound familiar:  To significantly improve students’ education experience through the use of easily accessible mobile devices and applications.

Students in Tanzania

Students Participating in Project Activate 2012

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I started at Blackboard one week prior to the launch of Blackboard Learn, 9.1.  My first week was filled with a buzz that I couldn’t quite understand.  All of my colleagues assured me that 9.1 contained some great new features, especially for K-12.  As I learned more about the lesson plans and standards alignment and interactive tools that were a part of 9.1, I realized that the product changes really could make a difference to teachers and students.

This week, as details emerged about Learn 9.1, SP8, it took me no time at all to realize how exciting this release is for K-12 educators.  From the moment you open a course, small but powerful differences catch your eye. (more…)

Super Bowl XLVI got me thinking about an important annual event covered by the NFL Network in recent years.  Since 2005, Rich Eisen (NFL Network Host) continues to try and set a personal record running the 40-yard dash.

Here’s my favorite coverage of his results from 2010:

I love how they start comparing Eisen’s speed to others by superimposing simultaneous 40-yard dash sprints of NFL favorites Tim Tebow, Terrence Cody and Jacoby Ford. Watching Jacoby Ford fly by Rich Eisen over and over again got me thinking about a metaphor associated with our latest release of Blackboard Learn.

If Rich Eisen represents the Blackboard Learn of yesterday (Release 9.0, circa 2009), then Jacoby Ford represents the Blackboard Learn of today (Release 9.1 SP8, circa 2012).

SP8 is all about Superior Performance

Hands down, everything educators rely on their learning management system for is just that much easier and faster on Blackboard Learn, Release 9.1 SP8.  And being able to do things faster and easier across core workflows is where it really counts.  That’s why the ongoing investments made in the design and functionality of Blackboard Learn focus on the tasks and activities that are used most frequently.  Here are four short videos that demonstrate time saving additions to SP8 that will make instructors feel like they’re flying through common tasks: (as fast as Ford flies by Eisen.)

Delight in a modern experience with the SP8 Theme

Get around faster with Task Based Navigation

Change it once and it updates everywhere with Automated Regrading

Edit files in one place with Easy Edit with Blackboard Drive

Now is your chance to start taking advantage of an improved experience with the same tools you love.  Start getting things done faster, way faster, in SP8.  So, what are you waiting for?

Learn more about Blackboard Learn’s latest release, SP8

I’ve been using course management software for a long time. As early as 1994, I was involved in a project called “The Virtual Classroom” at the University of Connecticut, trying to figure out how to supplement the course experience with online components. Our tools were Gopher, NCSA Mosaic, and a small web server. At the time, most students had to visit the library or a computer lab to even get online. I later started using WebCT at the University of Denver in 1997 and soon joined the company as an employee in 1999. I may have left teaching, but educational technology has been my profession and passion ever since.

My career has given me the opportunity to work with lots of educational software over the years, and in my role in Product Marketing here at Blackboard, I am closely involved with the evolution of the Blackboard Learn Platform. So it is with great anticipation that I look forward to my first peek at a working build of each new release. The excitement of seeing named features in working code for the first time remains a true joy of this job, but with Service Pack 8 I couldn’t believe my eyes. I knew we were updating the user interface and continuing to improve core workflows, but the actual working product was beyond my expectations. I knew then that this was more than your average service pack.

I enjoyed working in the new software so much that I decided to do a product launch video for it. This would be too much fun to outsource. I dove into our demo course and recorded my actions with screen capture software. It didn’t take me long to figure it all out. Everything is still just where you expect it to be, but the user interface is so much cleaner that it truly feels new. Edit controls just get out of your way when you don’t need them, workflow improvements make it easy to hop from one course to another, and it all just looks so good. Speaking of looking good, there are over fifty course themes that you can apply to personalize your course or make it match your subject.

The more I used it, the more I loved it, and I couldn’t wait for the day when we could release it to all of you. Well, that day is here and I hope you will take this opportunity to try SP8 for yourselves. You can see more in the video below and you can learn more about the release at http://blackboardlearn.com/new where you can also sign up for webinars and upgrade cohorts. I’m confident that SP8 will save you time, make you more efficient, and make your time spent in Blackboard Learn more enjoyable.

While you are at it, take a look at how you, our clients, influenced this release with the Client Impact Report.

I hope you enjoy working with Service Pack 8 for Blackboard Learn as much as I do.