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BlackboardTV (or "BbTV") is a new, multimedia initiative to help e-Learning innovators — designers, instructors, students — visualize online teaching and learning.

Look for BbTV crew members filming during BbWorld Commerce ’08 in Phoenix (March 9-12), and at DevCon ’08 and BbWorld ’08 in Las Vegas (July 14-15 and July 15-18, respectively).  We’ve archived a wealth of video resources at the BlackboardTV Channel on YouTube, and each Saturday we’ll post a video here on EducateInnovate, such as:

• Works about the global Blackboard community of users created by BbTV producers
• Instructional videos produced by Blackboard users, with tips for teaching and learning online
• Thought-provoking or witty clips about education and technology
• Cool videos we stumble across and just plain like

For our first recommendation, it seems appropriate to post a brief (1:35) informational video created by McDaniel College and posted originally to YouTube, demonstrating how to add a YouTube clip to your Blackboard environment:

McDaniel College, a private, four-year liberal arts college with 1,600 students, is located in Westminster, MD, about 30 miles northwest of Baltimore.  Thanks, McDaniel, for sharing your knowledge and helping us in the Blackboard community visualize e-Learning!

We invite you to share with BbTV suggestions for videos that should be featured here on EducateInnovate.  No clip is too short; no video, too funny!  Send your videos to us, or links to clips you like, at BbTV@blackboard.com.

Hello, it’s Kerry Jo again.  As you might guess, planning for BbWorld ’08 in Las Vegas is ramping up rapidly.  We’re all busy bees here at Blackboard – brainstorming, putting together project plans and forming committees.

But I like to remind myself that this is a user event. We need you to make it happen!

With that thought in mind, I’d like to invite you to participate in making BbWorld ’08 an event to remember.  We’re looking for a large and varied group of volunteers to help us with the following:

1. Help us develop themes and areas of focus for BbWorld ’08.

2. Actively recruit speakers for the Call for Proposals: Have you seen a great speaker at a regional user event?  Have you attended a session delivered by a Blackboard client at another education conference?  Do you feel that speaker could inform other Blackboard clients?  Ask them to submit a proposal!

3. Review and rate submitted proposals in your area of expertise to help decide what should be included in the program. Collaborate with others on the committee with similar expertise to help choose the best program content.

4. Be a sounding board and an active participant for ideas ranging from post-conference networking to live conference blogging.

While there has always been a client program committee, we’d like to get even more of you involved this year!  I hope to have at least 30 participants, and could see having up to 50 committee members in total!  Our goal is to bring new clients into the process and improve the program with more client input.

Additionally, I hope that by including more clients in the process there will be less strain on any particular program committee member’s time.  I don’t anticipate participation to take more than a few hours of your time over the next few months.  You and your program committee colleagues will be featured prominently in the program and at the event as leaders in the user community.  And I hope it will be an opportunity for you to meet your professional development goals by taking a leadership role in this event.

Does this sound interesting to you?  Feel like participating?  Please e-mail me at BbWorld@blackboard.com.

And don’t forget that the Call for Proposals is open now for both BbWorld and the Developers Conference!  I encourage everyone (regardless of your interest in the Program Committee) to submit a proposal for BbWorld!  Get your session in before March 7, 2008.

See you in Vegas!

Ok, how excited am I to post my first Blackboard blog entry?  SO excited!

My name is Kerry Jo Richards.  I’ve been at Blackboard for six years, so I’ve had the pleasure of meeting many of you in person at events over the years – you’ve probably met me if you’ve ever been on the dance floor at a BbWorld event!

As a member of our Global Events team, I manage all the content at BbWorld events.  And I’m excited to use this blog to update you about upcoming events and different ways that you can get involved!  After all, BbWorld is a user conference – YOUR user conference!  It’s a great way to connect with other users around the world and share your ideas.

So, what’s coming up?  Mark your calendars now for BbWorld ’08 being held in Las Vegas, Nevada, at the Venetian Resort Hotel from Tuesday evening, July 15, through Friday, July 18.

Yeah, we know.  It will be hot.  But don’t forget the old saying: "It’s always 72° and fluorescent in Vegas!" 

I’m also happy to report that the annual Blackboard Developers Conference will be held in conjunction with BbWorld again this year!  Join us on Monday, July 14, and Tuesday, July 15, for two days of in-depth technical sessions on all aspects of Blackboard PowerLinks and Blackboard Building Blocks technology.

These gatherings will provide a forum for us to get to know one another, learn about your experiences and challenges, and for you to get your voice heard.  But your participation is what really makes it happen!   

So call a colleague or two and put together a panel.  Start thinking about how you could incorporate the superhero lexicon into your session (oops . . . sorry, that was already done in a session at BbWorld ’07!  Thanks, Wayne T!). 

The online submission process is quick and efficient. Just click here to submit your proposed session abstract for either event.  Questions?  Feel free to give us a yell at BbWorld@blackboard.com.

This year we bloggers at EducateInnovate will be working hard to improve the amount and type of information shared here.

We’ll be increasing the frequency of our posts; bringing in new voices from across the company to post regularly; inviting industry leaders and members of the global Blackboard community of users to participate directly in our blog by posting and commenting on posted entries and ed. tech. industry events; and adding new features to the site, such as multi-media functionality and a blogroll of the folks we’re reading.

The first step we’re taking is to help you more easily find the posts of greatest interest to you.  To complement the categories listed in the right column of our site, which we’ve been using as tags, each week we’ll have teams of bloggers dedicated to posting—a different team for every day of the work week (Monday—Friday):

• Monday — Members of the International Blackboard community
• Tuesday — Campus card solutions professionals
• Wednesday — Our Client Success initiative leaders (including Craig Chanoff and Jan Day)
• Thursday — The Blackboard Beyond team
• Friday — The K-12 e-Learning community

Gordon Freedman will continue to post while traveling to meet with e-Learning leaders around the world; and Kerry Jo Richards—a familiar face to many people throughout the global Blackboard community of users—will be posting this year about, and answering your questions on, all things BbWorld (our annual series of users conferences held around the globe).

Please let me know which of the posts you read here are of greatest interest or use to you, and any suggestions you may have for us in 2008.  Tell me what worked for you in 2007, and we’ll do more of it in ’08.  Also, if you’d like to contribute to EducateInnovate, let me know.  I can be contacted at blogfeedback@blackboard.com.

The campus card community is like a family, and nothing could feel more like home than being amongst your peers at the upcoming BbWorld Commerce ’08 conference, March 9-12, in Phoenix, AZ.

Just like the theme song from the TV show “Cheers”: “You want to go where everybody knows your name.”  And in Phoenix, you’ll be seeing old friends and colleagues, as well as meeting new friends and other industry leaders.

We’re expecting approximately 300 participants this year, and the conference program is packed with both educational and social activities that are second to none.  Plus, all the meals are included in your stay.  I don’t think there’s a conference out there that can compete.

Additionally, while the conference is a business trip, I can guarantee you’ll have a blast – both at the conference and around the resort.  Have you been to the Pointe Hilton Tapatio Cliffs Resort?  It’s a pretty amazing place – check out pictures of the resort.

And if you want to save some money on the event, here’s a tip: Register before January 31, and you’ll receive a $100 discount on your registration.  So, sign up now.

You won’t want to miss this year’s conference in sunny Arizona.  It really is the best campus card event in the country.  Please come find me during the conference, so we can catch up.  See you there.