Professional Education

Ok, how excited am I to post my first Blackboard blog entry?  SO excited!

My name is Kerry Jo Richards.  I’ve been at Blackboard for six years, so I’ve had the pleasure of meeting many of you in person at events over the years – you’ve probably met me if you’ve ever been on the dance floor at a BbWorld event!

As a member of our Global Events team, I manage all the content at BbWorld events.  And I’m excited to use this blog to update you about upcoming events and different ways that you can get involved!  After all, BbWorld is a user conference – YOUR user conference!  It’s a great way to connect with other users around the world and share your ideas.

So, what’s coming up?  Mark your calendars now for BbWorld ’08 being held in Las Vegas, Nevada, at the Venetian Resort Hotel from Tuesday evening, July 15, through Friday, July 18.

Yeah, we know.  It will be hot.  But don’t forget the old saying: "It’s always 72° and fluorescent in Vegas!" 

I’m also happy to report that the annual Blackboard Developers Conference will be held in conjunction with BbWorld again this year!  Join us on Monday, July 14, and Tuesday, July 15, for two days of in-depth technical sessions on all aspects of Blackboard PowerLinks and Blackboard Building Blocks technology.

These gatherings will provide a forum for us to get to know one another, learn about your experiences and challenges, and for you to get your voice heard.  But your participation is what really makes it happen!   

So call a colleague or two and put together a panel.  Start thinking about how you could incorporate the superhero lexicon into your session (oops . . . sorry, that was already done in a session at BbWorld ’07!  Thanks, Wayne T!). 

The online submission process is quick and efficient. Just click here to submit your proposed session abstract for either event.  Questions?  Feel free to give us a yell at BbWorld@blackboard.com.

Have you ever written a letter to a company to compliment them or complain?  Over the years I’ve written to many companies including Hershey Foods, the Washington Post, local restaurants, and most recently Shutterfly.com.  I’ve told them what I’ve liked and would like them to improve and in each case I’ve gotten a response back. 

A few years ago I wrote to ask Hershey if they would make more dark chocolate candy.  In response they sent me some dark chocolate bars they were testing and asked me for my feedback.  Last year when I emailed my unsolicited advice to The Washington Post.com editor he invited me to be on their design committee to evaluate new designs for their website.  Two weeks ago when I emailed Shutterfly.com tech support some feedback on new product ideas I soon found myself participating in their new photo gallery social network now in beta. 

Why do I do this? 

As we begin the New Year, I’m pleased to announce we already have great news for Blackboard users: Last Friday afternoon, we signed a formal agreement to acquire The NTI Group, Inc., a leader in the mass alert and notification service industry.

This acquisition will enable Blackboard to better help institutions address several key challenges and trends within the education community, which we outlined in a press release issued today:

1. As online learning continues to grow and more institutions utilize the Internet to connect with traditional and virtual students, it is becoming increasingly important to have the capability to deliver mass communications with large populations of users across an array of technical devices;

2. In addition, it has become imperative that academic institutions have the ability to quickly and effectively communicate with their entire campus constituency in the wake of a range of school and campus incidents, severe weather and other safety concerns; and

3. Institutions are focusing on mobile-centric strategies and looking to tightly integrate their learning environments with cell phones and PDAs.

In the coming weeks, we’ll announce further details regarding the integration of NTI’s products into Blackboard’s offerings.  Additional information about the acquisition is available now, however, at www.blackboard.com/connect.

News for all computer users . . . Yesterday the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded jointly to two researchers for their work in the field of nanotechnology: Albert Fert of France and Peter Gruenberg of Germany.

Fert and Gruenberg will share the award for their independent discoveries in 1988 of giant magnetoresistance.  In its press release, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences explains:

This year’s physics prize is awarded for the technology that is used to read data on hard disks. It is thanks to this technology that it has been possible to miniaturize hard disks so radically in recent years. Sensitive read-out heads are needed to be able to read data from the compact hard disks used in laptops and some music players, for instance.

Details of the work completed by Fert and Gruenberg are included in the Aademy’s Scientific Background report titled “The Discovery of Giant Magnetoresistance.”

A note for K-12 educators: The official Web site of the Academy contains several online games and simulations to help students understand the work of Nobel Laureates in, and build their knowledge of, all the Nobel categories: physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, peace and economics.

Calling all grammarians and anyone frustrated by the corporate double-speak in the e-mails that fill your inbox and letters clogging your mailbox!  A book recommendation:

Death Sentences: How Clichés, Weasel Words, and Management-Speak Are Strangling Public Language by Don Watson (Australia: Knopf, 2003; USA: Penguin, 2005)

The back flap of Watson’s book describes the author as “one of Australia’s best-known writers and public intellectuals.”  Specifically, Watson is a prolific writer of books, essays and entertainment reviews, and has worked as a political satirist and speechwriter, most notably for Paul Keating, the former Labor prime minister of Australia.

In Death Sentences, Watson criticizes with skill and wit (and an insider’s knowledge) the hollow, evacuated, “dead” language we encounter in the “value-added” corporate mission statements we read in letters received from banks and utility companies, that is propagated by the “dynamic change-driven organizations” in mass media and has begun to infiltrate the “horizontal flows” of our daily conversations.

One pearl of wisdom from Watson, applicable to the IT center, corporate office and classroom:

It is said that a happy worker is a good worker, and what workers would not be happier if the sentences they wrote and read were less like clogged drains?  What if they were more like babbling brooks?  If they were clear and yet contained an image or two and a bit of fun or verve or had a sinew of imagination…. (p. 80)

I recommend adding Watson’s book to your reading list; Death Sentences is a corollary of George Orwell’s 1946 essay “Politics and the English Language.”