Developers+

We all see how technology is now an inseparable part of education. What we don’t always see are effective ways to implement it.

Blackboard partner SlideShark does.

Thanks to SlideShark 3.0, a new, free iOS app, faculty can deliver PowerPoint presentations via iPads and other iOS devices.

 

The usual suspects are included: slide previews, timer controls, a notes display section. So are new features: broadcasting, real-time annotation. Like Blackboard, SlideShark is harnessing technology to build a better education experience.

This means that when you’re presenting to both an in-person and online class, you can invite attendees via email to view the presentation from within the app and with a simple click. You can even invite people once the presentation is in progress.

Additionally, presenters can highlight, draw, and erase on the presentation throughout the session—and save this work for future use.

A York College instructor reports, “SlideShark enables our faculty to become comfortable using iPads in the classroom as instructional tools. With SlideShark, they aren’t afraid of this new technology. They can…use [an] iPad for presenting to the students.”

Think back to the familiar refrain from the classic picture book The Little Engine That Could: “I think I can, I think I can…” The tech has changed but the advice is timeless: if you put your mind to something (in this case, using the SlideShark 3.0 app to jazz up classroom presentations), you’ll like the results.

To learn more, tune in on Tuesday, May 7th at 2pm (ET). We think you can.

 

“Golf is the closest game to the game we call life. You get bad breaks from good shots; you get good breaks from bad shots – but you have to play the ball where it lies,” said the American amateur golfer, Bobby Jones. The game is catching on with more and more young athletes, playing for fun, on school teams, and in youth golf tournaments. Aside from the life-lessons golf teaches — among them problem-solving, honor and honesty, and patience — golf is also a great illustration of STEM concepts, from friction and spin on tee-off, to the math of calculating a handicap.

NBC Learn’s newest Special Collection is “Science of Golf,” a new video series produced in partnership with the United States Golf Association (USGA) and Chevron. Among the video titles:

“Volume, Displacement & Buoyancy”
“Evolution of the Golf Ball”
“Calculating a Golf Handicap Index”
“Evolution of the Golf Club”

View these videos at nbclearn.com/golf

See how to win a free trip to BbWorld 2013!

Building—and launching—a career is a team effort.

Students, of course, are responsible for finding their own internships and jobs.

Career services offices, of course, provide resources to do this.

But a third ally in this quest may be less obvious: Blackboard System Administrators. In fact, you Sys Admins wield more power than you may realize.

Simply by downloading and installing the Internships.com building block during the busiest time for applying to summer internships and jobs, you are opening up countless opportunities for your students. One small click for you, one giant leap for student-kind.

It’s all about access. You and only you can unlock this veritable treasure trove of Internship listings within the Blackboard Learn environment for students.

 

 

As if that is not incentive enough, doing so can win you a paid trip to BbWorld 2013 in Las Vegas, where you will learn more ways to help the student body—and yourself.

Enter in two easy steps:

1. Download and install the Internships.com building block by March 22, 2013.

2. Let us know you installed it.

We are here if you have questions. Either way, let’s help get these kids some respectable work.

One of the highest levels of education achievement is receiving your doctorate. As we are all aware, Doctors are experts in their field of study. They are often called on for expert reviews and feedback on questions related to their field. Believe it or not, even Blackboard has “Doctors” available to provide you with their expertise on one subject: Blackboard.

Ask The Doctors (formerly Ask Dr. C for the fans out there) is a discussion forum for any and all technical and pedagogical questions relating to Blackboard Learn and now Blackboard Collaborate. Your questions are reviewed and carefully answered by a team of “Doctors” with over 115 years of combined hands-on experience working with these Blackboard products. This hand selected group of seven experts is chock-full of knowledge from their professional experiences as Instructional Technologists, System Administrators, and Directors of Instructional Design.

Next time you have a question about Blackboard Learn or Blackboard Collaborate, search the wealth of knowledge on Ask The Doctors or just post your question on to the forum. The “Doctors” are listening.

Visit our website to meet the Doctors for Blackboard Learn and our two new Doctors for Blackboard Collaborate. Or head straight to the forum at discussions.blackboard.com

To make it easier for institutions to manage classroom information from their administrative and academic systems, Blackboard Learn is partnering with another of the industry’s leading educational products, Colleague by Ellucian.

Introducing Ellucian Colleague Intelligent Learning Platform for Blackboard Learn.

“We are always trying to create improvements in the overall learning experience,” said Jessica Finnefrock, Senior Vice President of Product Strategy and Development at Blackboard. “This partnership is part of our commitment to help our clients get the most out of their technology investments and our mission to create more open and interoperable frameworks for education technology.”