Company

This week Blackboard interviewed Melissa Stange, a BbWorld 2012 VIP blogger. To say that Melissa wears a few hats would be an understatement. In her day job, Melissa is the Title System Administrator at Shenandoah University where she runs all Blackboard products. In addition, she is working on her PhD in Information Systems Management from Walden University and teaches at Lord Fairfax Community College in the evenings. Melissa told us she saw the blog contest as an opportunity to challenge herself and take on blogging. She tells her students to blog, and now she knows more about the process. Her blog covers information on BbWorld in addition to must-know cultural knowledge about NOLA. You wouldn’t want to travel down south and forget to eat the official doughnut of Louisiana, would you? Or not know how to pronounce it for that matter (Beignet= Ben YAY). Check out the specifics from the interview below: Bb: How long have you worked at Shenandoah University? MS: I have been at SU since May 2009, but I have been teaching on Blackboard since 2004. Bb: Have you been to BbWorld before? How would you describe your experience?

Guest Blog Post by Shelley Kinash, Associate Professor of Higher Education and Director of Quality, Teaching, and Learning at Bond University

G’Day Eh! That’s my mash-up greeting from a dual Australian/Canadian Citizen. I am an Associate Professor of Higher Education and Director of Quality, Teaching, and Learning at Bond University on the beautiful Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. I have been an academic for eighteen years and did my PhD in Education Technology at University of Calgary, Canada. Bond University is very proud and honoured to have been selected to receive the 2012 Mobile Catalyst Award. Another claim to fame is that Bond University was the first Australian university to go live with Blackboard Mobile Learn. Bond is hosting the Blackboard 2012 Australasia Teaching and Learning Conference in August.

BbWorld 2012, Blackboard’s education technology conference, is happening this summer in New Orleans! And we called upon you to be our VIP bloggers from the event! We received over 30 blog entries as part of this contest so, before I announce the winners, I would like to call attention to some of the incredible posts we received. Every single entry was creative in its own way. Aside from blogging four separate times, Laura Orsetti from Frontier Nursing University, blogged while holding her 23-month old on her lap! JD Ferries-Rowe from Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School, an Edline user, not only has a lot to say about BYOT (bring your own technology) but he’s excited for some olive sauce on his muffaletta (must be a NOLA thing). And, Kelt Dockins from University of Arkansas at Little Rock and a 2012 Golden Catalyst Award winner for Innovative Development definitely had the coolest blog layout that I’ve seen Well enough stalling… It is my great pleasure to announce the following individuals as the BbWorld 2012 VIP Bloggers!

The following post is written by guest blogger Kenneth Rogers. Kenneth has served as the Blackboard Administrator at University of the Incarnate Word (UIW) for the past three years.  With over 7 years in the E-Learning Industry, Kenneth has a passion for emerging technologies and seeing how technology can enhance education.

Almost three years ago, I was at Blackboard World in DC with a co-worker when Blackboard Mobile was first unveiled.  As soon as we returned to San Antonio, we continued the dialogue with the Mobile team and proceeded with the first phase of UIW Mobile.

A short three months after we signed our agreement, UIW v.1.0 was live in the Apple App Store. Download our app to check it out here: Android: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.blackboard.android.central.incarnate&hl=en Blackberry: http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/6768 iOS: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/uiw/id347428414?mt=8# Others: http://m.uiwtx.edu/

The following post is written by guest blogger Leslie Fetzer,  Occupational Course of Study Biology Teacher at North Carolina Virtual Public Schools and the 2012 iNACOL/SREB National Online Teacher of the Year. I have always been of the mind that giving a textbook to students with the instruction to read is not teaching. This is even truer online. Ebooks have their place, but not as the foundation of a good online course. Online courses should allow students to see, hear, read, and experience content in multiple ways. New Web 2.0 tools are popping up at an exciting pace giving teachers an array of options for presenting content through different media. With so much available, it can sometimes be tempting to search for or buy in to what is already out there, but the truth of the matter is that sometimes what is out there may not be exactly right for the content or for the student. In fact, it can often take longer to search for and preview pre-existing content versus creating your own content personalized for individual students. Here are just a few tips for developing a good online course: