Higher Ed

We know costs can add up when it comes to attending a conference out of town and you need to justify the expense to your boss. Since we want to make sure you don’t miss out, here are our tips for getting to YES on BbWorld!!

1.)    Plan Ahead – Select which keynotes, panels, and meet-ups speak most directly to your work and professional goals, and then show that specific agenda to your boss. This year BbWorld has five themes that hot topics in Education right now: Digital Content, Mobility, Analytics in Action, Technology Adoption and Social Learning. To go even further, identify some people you’d like to connect with and offer to set up meetings with them while you’re there.  Your boss will see you mean business, and you’ll be ready to go when you arrive.

2.)    Offer to Present What You Learn – Once you attend BbWorld, you will be well informed on the latest and greatest in education technology, but what about your colleagues?  Offer to present session recaps and key takeaways at a future staff meeting so everyone can benefit from your attendance. And of course, don’t forget to share a write up of what you learned at BbWorld for your school or organization’s blog or newsletter!

3.)    Social Media Visibility & Engagement – Not only will you and your boss know you’re getting the most out of BbWorld, but so will the rest of the world.  Tell your boss how you’ll embrace Twitter, Foursquare, YouTube, and other social networks to be a part of the conversation, grow your organization’s social media presence, and make new connections so you can continue the dialogue after the conference.

4.)    Build New Best Practices – Technology moves fast and what’s the latest fad in learning one year can be the must-avoid learning trend the next.  In order to be your best at your job, you need to be among the best.  We’ll make sure you have immediately applicable takeaways, make valuable connections, and make your trip to BbWorld an investment, not an expense! For example, this year BbWorld will have a Digital Content Upgrade Center so that you can talk to experts on the spot on how to incorporate our newest technologies at your institution.

5.)    Be enthusiastic! – Your energy and interest needs to come through in whatever form of communication you use to make the request.  Be yourself, but be the ‘yourself’ that conveys that doing your best at work means getting out of your usual environment sometimes and making that most of that time.

Over the past several weeks, we announced some very exciting themes for BbWorld 2012: Social Learning, Technology Adoption and Digital Content. We have two themes to announce yet – one of them I am happy to share with you today!

We are thrilled to announce Marco Torres, a Media Coach and Education Technology Director at San Fernando High School, as our Feature Session Presenter on “Mobility” at BbWorld. He will show us how being connected everywhere and anywhere impacts learning and increases student success. We all know that an on-the-go classroom is a national (and global) priority.

So Marco Torres will share examples of what basic learning looks like and how you can use it in a more media rich environment. Marco’s Feature Session on” Learning Vs. Schooling: The Epic Match” will get your wheels spinning on how to use all of the technology that is available to educators today.

Please join me in welcoming to the Blackboard Analytics solution set our latest innovative contribution to the use of data across educational institutions, Blackboard Analytics for Learn. This new solution provides rich, easily accessible data to measure and explore student LMS activity, course design and usage, and student educational outcomes, on demand and over-time, by integrating Blackboard Learn and student information system data. At the recent Southern California Technology in Education Conference, I was asked to respond to several questions concerning analytics and the LMS: What are the barriers to better analytics around the LMS? And, what can we do across the higher education community to encourage better progress in developing LMS analytics tools? One of the primary barriers I cited was the traditional difficulty with which institutions are able to gain user friendly, attributionally rich, longitudinal data from their mission critical systems such as the student information and learning management systems. Our efforts and solutions within Blackboard Analytics are targeted exclusively at overcoming this barrier. To contribute to the educational community of practice for how LMS analytics can develop, we are pleased to make today’s announcements regarding Blackboard Analytics for Learn. As my colleague Dr. Deb Everhart blogged earlier this week, analytics from the rich activity and performance data within the LMS highlights great formative promise toward improving student academic performance and the management of the LMS. Advised by our client development partners, we’ve made specific design choices to contribute to this promise. For example, we’ve pre-built integration with the leading student information systems to ensure dimensional analysis associated with student grades, demographic attributes, and institutional departments. As with other Blackboard Analytics solutions, Blackboard Analytics for Learn extends our core approaches to both pre-built and rich data analyses and dashboards, as well as highly extensible analytics data model customization. Finally, implementation and end-user access to the Blackboard Analytics for Learn data model remains rapid and easily achievable. Last year at BbWorld, Ray Henderson announced our goal of introducing Blackboard Analytics for Learn. In reaching this goal, we are fortunate to have been advised by a group of clients whose teaching and learning through Blackboard Learn contributes greatly to their institutional objectives. In mid-2011, we launched a Product Development Partnership, a critical component of Blackboard’s development and design methodology, to work with clients who advised us on the overall set of questions we sought to answer with our analytics solution. Then, in late 2011, we partnered with three institutions which deployed our software, live, on campus, in our pre-release field trial, to utilize our Analytics for Learn solution to examine real questions on their campuses regarding student performance, course design and Blackboard Learn usage. For these partnership efforts, we are considerably thankful to Montgomery County Community College, University of Maryland Baltimore County, and Grand Rapids Community College. In the coming weeks, we look forward to exploring further with our client community how Blackboard Analytics for Learn can improve student success, optimize online instruction, and contribute to the overall management of Blackboard Learn. We’ve begun actively implementing now with our next set of institutions. We look forward to exploring these initial successes and findings at the upcoming BbWorld in New Orleans in July. We’ll look forward to seeing you and continuing the conversation with you there.

The use of technology is being accelerated across nearly every industry -  healthcare, finance, automotive – and especially in education. But how can you be ahead of the curve? Join Dr. Curtis Bonk at BbWorld 2012 where he will speak on the topic “Technology Adoption”.

Dr. Curtis Bonk’s presentation “Stretching the Edges of Technology-Enhanced Teaching: From Tinkering to Tottering to Totally Extreme Learning” will take a deep dive into what is considered the new “norm” in the classroom: Mobile, virtual, and telepresence technologies and how you can expand into other technologies.

If you are thinking about how BbWorld will help you learn about the how to incorporate technology into your everyday life just wonder: have you ever wished that someone could read your mind? Well, Dr. Curtis Bonk probably can! A former Educational Psychologist, Dr. Bonk is a Professor of Instructional Systems Technology at Indiana University and President of CourseShare. He has coauthored several widely used books, including The World is Open: How Web Technology is Revolutionizing Education (2009).

Whether you are moving toward a blended learning strategy by embedding shared online videos, simulations, timelines, collaborative groups, and open access articles into your courses or building your course from the ground up around the limitless edTech options available, Dr. Curtis Bonk will touch on each part of the spectrum and provide examples on how to incorporate social and digital components into courses.

We are also thrilled to announce that Dr. Curtis Bonk will be co-lecturing an Online Open Course through CourseSites on “Instructional Ideas and Technology Tools for Online Success.” Learn more information and sign up here. Find out more about Dr. Bonk, check out his blog, TravelinEdMan which includes reflections on his speaking experiences around the world.

Earlier this month, Blackboard and U.S. Congressman John Carter (TX-31) brought together Texas Higher Education President & Provosts for a Texas Higher Education Summit focused on 1) student expectations for service, content and personalization and 2) strategic ways to address challenges posed by today’s active student. Held at Blackboard’s Student Services corporate office in Killen, Texas, the event began with an afternoon tour of Fort Hood, the United States Army’s largest installation. Participants met with military leadership and soldiers to discuss how Fort Hood educates and trains soldiers for the demanding and complex requirements of combat. Attendees participated in hands-on simulation training—and experienced the state of the art technology that enables best in class combat training.  Participants walked away with a new appreciation for the core competencies required of our troops as well as soldiers who continue their education during and post-duty. The second day focused on tackling the challenges Texas higher education institutions are facing today: limited budgets, expanded student choice, competitive pressure and rapidly changing student expectations. Presentations and discussions were led by institution leaders such as Dr. Ken Ray of Hillsborough Community College and Craig Maslowsky of Excelsior College, and showcased their innovative methods for making data-informed decisions to successfully tackle retention, progression and graduation challenges. The Summit aimed to help Texas educators improve educational outcomes, build a better education experience and ensure a prosperous future for Texas.