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Guest Blog Post from Kimberly Seeber. Kimberly lives in Bloomington, Indiana, US. She is a licensed elementary teacher and a graduate student in the Instructional Systems Technology residential master’s program at Indiana University. Her interests include technology integration in the K-12 environment and online learning.

In response to the video, The Voice of the Active Learner, instructors considered what it means to be an active student and an active instructor. The discussion focused the following themes: digital natives, digital divide, technology effectiveness, lack of technology support, challenges of learning new technology, novice and expert technology users, surface learning versus deep learning, and the transition from “sage on the stage” to “guide on the side.”

After reviewing and piloting several learning management systems (LMS), The Pennsylvania State University has decided that the University will continue to use Blackboard Learn ANGEL Edition, and will explore future options with Blackboard’s mobile learning capabilities.

With the announcement that Blackboard is extending its support for the ANGEL platform, Penn State’s e-Learning Strategic Committee determined that continuing the University’s use of ANGEL was the most cost-effective solution among the options evaluated.

University officials cited the desire to continue its positive relationship and collaboration with Blackboard’s product development team, as a reason for the decision to stay with ANGEL.

Blog Post co-authored by Jim Hermans, General Manager of Blackboard Analytics and Mark Max, VP of Product Development and Operations for Blackboard Analytics to formally invite you to this year’s Users Group Conference.

The must-attend event for Blackboard Analytics clients is only a few weeks away – and it’s not too late to register.  This year’s three-day user conference will be held October 10-12th at Gallaudet University in Washington, DC and will featuring multiple breakout sessions, keynotes and product roadmap discussions.

Top 5 Reasons To Attend:

1.  Learn how to better identify at risk students during the new, hands-on Learning Analytics Practitioner’s Forum.

2.  Get answers to your technical and operational questions – at either one of three ‘Ask the Experts’ sessions, or 1-on-1 at our Genius Bar.

3.  Discover methods for driving Analytics adoption on campus and getting staff up and running quickly.

4.  Hear ways to get more out of your Analytics investment from clients like UMBC, Drexel University and Stony Brook University.

5.  Find out about the latest upgrades, features and solutions on the horizon during our product roadmap session.

We welcome all Blackboard Analytics clients at the conference!  To join the 130+ who have already signed up, click here

Guest Blog Post from Kimberly Seeber. Kimberly lives in Bloomington, Indiana, US. She is a licensed elementary teacher and a graduate student in the Instructional Systems Technology residential master’s program at Indiana University. Her interests include technology integration in the K-12 environment and online learning.

With the introductory week zero of the Designing an Exemplary Course MOOC well under way, communities are forming, old and new friends are networking, and Exemplary Course Directors are preparing for this open online learning experience.  All 1,926 of you (and counting) are eager to find out how one identifies, defines, and applies best practices when developing online courses.  But this week was all about YOU.  Who are you?

Twitter, Facebook, and Google Hangout – all are new in the last few years. What’s not new, though? Social learning. For centuries, connections have been facilitated through a variety of means, and the aforementioned social tools are nothing more than another way for educators and students to make these connections happen.

Long before hashtags, likes, circles and all the other familiar trappings of social media, there was psychologist Albert Bandura. In the 1970s he established the most widely-recognized theory of social learning, observing three key variables in the social learning context – the learner, the behavior, and the environment – all influencing each other. There have been and continue to be many advantages to social learning. Given the connectedness of today’s learner in a 21st century learning environment, there’s a new direction for social learning. Does Bandura’s definition of social learning still cut it?

We’re myth-busting. Click here to read on.

John Dennett, Director, Product Management, Blackboard Mobile, has spent more than fifteen years as an educational technology professional. Prior to joining the Mobile team in 2011, John worked as a Blackboard Learn Solutions Engineer for more than five years and spent most of those years managing the North American Higher Ed team. Before joining Blackboard in 2005, he worked as a charter team member on MIT’s pivotal OpenCourseWare initiative and previously managed web services and courseware for the University of Colorado at Boulder. Tweet John @jgd3.