K-12

In the past ten years, technology has changed so much in our everyday lives, and education is no exception. Yet for centuries, a core concept of education has remained the same: group learning stimulates greater learning.

In other words, we boost our knowledge by connecting with others.

Recently, four common myths associated with social learning were debunked. A fifth myth could be that social learning is just for students. Yes, social learning is revolutionizing the student experience, but it’s a powerful tool for educators as well.

A major question facing parents and schools in the rapidly evolving, technology-driven classroom is how we should educate students to become good digital citizens.

What constitutes good digital citizenship? As this Technapex article puts it:

“It’s a tricky time to be a student. The digital age has brought about amazing innovations in education, but there’s also a darker, less safe side of technology that can be difficult for students to navigate: cyber bullying, online safety, and plagiarism are among a few issues that have arisen in recent years as a result of the proliferation of social media and technology.”

The turkey is in the oven, the mashed potatoes are on the table and the cranberry dressing is flowing – it can only mean one thing: it’s time for Thanksgiving.

Whether you’re a parent of an active learner, an instructor or happen to be one yourself – it’s clear that this year we’ve got a lot to be thankful for in the education revolution. Need some reminding?

Administrators are Empowered to Innovate and Improve Schools.

In order to fulfill the educational needs of the active learner, schools must adapt. Luckily, this year we saw a lot of great data sets that clearly show the advantages of integrating technology and catering to the active learner.  And it’s this data that helps drive decisions with Administrators, Faculty, System Administrators, and others.  While adoption may be a slow process, we’re thankful that we’re heading in the right direction.

So as we prepare to settle down and reflect – let’s take some time to remember the important role that active learners play in education.  We hope you’ll use this holiday to mentally prepare to come back and continue efforts to innovate our education systems so that they can better accommodate the needs of our active learners.

Companies tend to say “new” a lot, even when there is not a lot new or different in their product. To me, it is a bit like the boy crying wolf. Blackboard’s new innovation plan is quite new, however. Instead of building new features that would help administrators, teachers, and students 2x/year, we are now doing it every month. That way we can get you what you need faster.

There are several new features in Learn SP10 that are particularly exciting for me as I think about how our K-12 clients are using Learn.

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”).