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At Blackboard, we believe that System Administrators are the key to implementing new technologies at their institutions.  They are always on the forefront of adopting tools to extend the Blackboard Learn platform to make the lives of instructors easier. But did you know? System Administrators can impact students learning beyond the classroom by giving them easier access to internships?

Give your students access to more internship opportunities this year

It’s no secret that students are concerned now more than ever to find a job after graduation. In a 2010 survey report by the Association of American Colleges and Universities, 73 percent of employers stated the desire for higher education to put more emphasis on “the ability to apply knowledge and skills to real-world settings through intern­ships and other hands-on experiences.” [The Chronicle, April 24, 2011] But, finding an internship that is the right fit for a student can be a struggle in itself. Blackboard System Administrators can help connect students to internships within their Blackboard Learn environment.

We all make decisions based on factual information.  We get factual information from research and data.  And when it comes to data on education technology, the numbers say a lot about the growing demand for technology in the classroom.

Recently, Blackboard partnered with Project Tomorrow to delve deeper into demands for online education.  The findings? More than two thirds of administrators and almost half of students in grades 6-12 (45 percent) and their parents (46 percent) voiced support for requiring high school students to take an online class in order to graduate.  And there’s more:

• 84 percent of principals who endorse devices in the classroom believe they increase student engagement in learning
• 87 percent of parents say that the effective implementation of technology within instruction is important to their child’s success (50 percent label it as “extremely important”).

 

 

This past month as millions of young people traded in their baseball bats for backpacks, teachers, parents, students – and Blackboard staff – experienced the familiar rituals of Back to School.  That got me thinking: technology changes a lot – how we create content, collaborate with our peers and find information.  Do today’s tech-savvy students experience a different Back to School transition than past generations?

Young people who grew up with smartphones and laptops—what we at Blackboard call active learners—didn’t store away their gadgets for the summer. They’re continuing to use the Internet and the fun, educational apps on the market to explore the world and exercise their minds, regardless of whether school is in or out of session.

Traditionally, one of the most exciting parts of going back to school has been the social aspect—meeting new classmates, reconnecting with old friends and sharing summer adventures. But technology is changing this part of Back to School too. With social media, students are keeping friends updated on their activities instantly, even during the summer months. Students are also using social media and learning management systems (LMSs) like Blackboard Learn to connect with new classmates before they ever meet them in person, lessening the anxiety of starting fall classes in a new school or district.

Apprehension about academics is another part of the Back to School ritual. Starting new classes—and meeting new teachers—can be simultaneously exciting and nerve-racking. Now, LMSs are easing the transition by making it possible to interact with teachers and classmates, and browse syllabi and course reading materials, long before the first bell rings.

As Hurricane Sandy continues to threaten communities along the East Coast with an expected landfall tonight near southern New Jersey, public sector institutions are rushing to prepare their communities. Sandy is a dangerous storm of potentially-historic proportions with expected storm surges, river flooding, and high winds impacting the most densely-populated coastal region in the country.

A key component of a crisis response strategy is communication – and that’s why it’s no surprise that, yesterday alone, Blackboard Connect clients sent over 6 million Sandy-related messages.

Here are some examples of institutions that have sent timely alerts:

• K-12 school districts from North Carolina to Massachusetts have used Blackboard Connect to cancel school today and tomorrow. Trick-or-treat or other Halloween activities are also being cancelled or postponed.
• Monmouth University in New Jersey cancelled classes today and tomorrow, and promised students that updates would be provided via Blackboard Connect.
• North Shore Alerts, a regional consortium serving multiple municipalities on Long Island, have issued a number of alerts over the weekend to prepare residents for Sandy, and urged residents to register their contact information with Blackboard Connect.
• Queen Anne’s County, Md., also recommended that residents register for Connect messages, and reminded them of the system’s utility in a recent closure of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.

For K-12 school districts, colleges and universities, local municipalities and counties, and private companies, Blackboard Connect helps organizations prepare for nature’s worst.  With a decade of experience delivering critical messages, including during Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Ike, we’ve developed a strong set of best practices for communicating in hurricanes.

Last week as the storm menaced, we shared those best practices with clients in the impacted area. But you don’t have to be a Connect customer to benefit from this knowledge.  In fact, you can download the Blackboard Connect Hurricane Playbook today and put its advice into practice with in advance of Sandy’s landfall.

Another pro tip for Blackboard Connect users: if you’ve evacuated to a safe location, and need to send messages fast, our smartphone apps for message senders make it easy to get an alert out fast. Download the Android app or the iOS app today.

 

Update: Bb Connect sent another 6 million messages on Monday, Oct 29 – bringing the Sandy-related total to 12 million so far.

 

Education Services – at Blackboard?  You must mean product training, right?  Up until a few years ago, you wouldn’t be far off.  You would be right to know us as Blackboard Consulting and Managed Hosting – providing product training and services to integrate and extend your Blackboard learning management system (LMS) and providing 24x7x365 hosting services for the same.

Today, I am here to tell you that we continue to do all that but we have evolved into so much more…