K-12

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.

With the end of the school year in sight, many educators are preparing for the upcoming prom and graduation season. These days, parents are often using text messages and mobile devices to keep in touch with their children throughout the day. Not surprisingly, district and schools leaders have taken to utilizing similar methods to reach out to parents and students during this exciting and busy time. Just as we demonstrated in our recent post on spring break messaging, Blackboard Connect is a useful tool in helping schools communicate with parents, sending targeted phone calls, emails and text messages. As schools prepare and organize end-of-the-year events, Blackboard Connect can be a valuable tool to keep parents and students aware and informed. 1. Coordination For large districts, graduation events require skillful coordination and organization due to large graduating classes. Schools sending emails with graduation event locations, times and other logistical information like available parking and pre-ceremony assemblies. In the Washoe County School District, leaders at the TMCC Magnet High school are using Connect to send messages to students asking for volunteers to speak or provide talent at this year’s graduation ceremony. During the event, schools can send text messages to designated, pre-determined groups to help ensure students arrive on time and at the proper location. 2. Fundraising and ticket sales At many schools, attending prom requires the purchase of tickets, as the proceeds help pay for the event. Depending on the size of the graduating class and the available seating at the ceremony, some senior graduation ceremonies also require guests to purchase or request tickets to accommodate attendees. To remind parents and students of deadlines to purchase tickets, many schools are using Connect to send messages with pricing information and availability. Sometimes ticket sales alone are not enough to cover the costs of end-of-the-year events, and other additional events or fundraisers are organized to help raise money to be contributed to prom and graduation events. For example, in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District, the booster club is hosting a raffle for junior and senior students to win a pre-prom dinner at a nearby French restaurant. Using Connect, administrators are sending emails to parents and student with contest information and raffle ticket prices. 3. Volunteers and participation To successfully host such events, schools often need willing and able bodies to help organize and execute activities. Recruiting volunteers is one thing, but keeping them informed and coordinated can be quite another. Some schools are using Connect to do both by sending messages calling for parent or faculty volunteers, and organizing group lists to distribute messages to specified individuals during the events. If volunteering time isn’t an option for some parents, some schools are asking for donations to help with the planning process. At Chardon High School, for example, the student-led prom committee is using Connect to email parents asking them to share pictures of their students for a slideshow to be displayed during the event. 4. Expectations Graduation and prom are both exciting, highly-anticipated events for high school students. With the excitement, though, many students may be tempted to abuse drugs or alcohol. In preparing for the events, it is worthwhile to remind students of the appropriate conduct and expectations when participating in school-sponsored activities. At St. Charles North High, school leaders are using Connect to call and remind students of the mandatory guidelines to follow for this year’s prom and asked students to sign and return a ‘letter of understanding’ acknowledging and agreeing to the terms. To learn more about how you can use Blackboard Connect to communicate in your school or district, visit the website.

Hello. My name is Traci House and I am the Director of Technology at Joplin Schools. Before my 18-year tenure with Joplin Schools, I served 10 years as an IBM K-12 Education Specialist. Recently I have had the privilege of contributing to the following articles: How A Tornado Inspired Innovation In Joplin, MO Schools Joplin Takes Digital Approach to Rebuilding Education Joplin, Missouri, One Year Later Emergency notification systems add features to better spread the message. How Laptops Helped Save Joplin High School Though I have shared our Joplin Schools story on numerous occasions about vast devastation and a remarkable rebuild effort, it is especially poignant to be giving this presentation in a city that was dealt a similar devastating blow in 2005. Comparisons between Hurricane Katrina and the EF5 tornado that ripped through Joplin, Missouri on May 22, 2011 are inevitable, as recovery efforts will continue in New Orleans and Joplin for years to come.

Last week, I had the pleasure to spend the morning with Leslie Fetzer, an Occupational Course of Study Biology teacher at North Carolina Virtual Public Schools (NCVPS), who was in DC visiting the Department of Education because she was recently named the iNACOL/SREB National Online Teacher of the Year. Leslie works in a blended model, partnering with a face-to-face teacher, to teach students with disabilities. She is also on the NCVPS team that builds all of the online courses from scratch and depends daily on Blackboard Learn and Blackboard Collaborate. As a former teacher who loved walking in the door each morning to greet my classroom full of energetic second graders and hear their stories from the evening before, I am always curious why teachers like Leslie made the decision to teach online. Leslie strongly believes in the connection between students and teachers as well. She thinks it is important to “watch what they watch, listen to what they listen to, and read what they read.” She also thinks it is important to engage them with the tools and topics that they respond to, which is what led her to using technology in her classroom. Through activities like collecting polling responses through cell phones and sharing content through prezi, she noticed an increased energy and enthusiasm in her class. Leslie remembers one student acting up in class and another coming to her defense saying, “Don’t mess with the Fetz!” This loyalty enabled her to get her students excited about science. As technology options in high schools progressed, she began teaching part-time in an online school. Leslie remembers clearly the moment when she decided to switch to teaching online full time. She was teaching a chem lab. Her class size had grown over the years, and in one moment, she looked across the room and noticed ~12 hands in the air. She knew each student had a different question, and she couldn’t get to each of them fast enough. She felt strongly that if she had been teaching online, she would have been able to give each of her students the personalized attention that they needed.

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.