Welcome

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.

Everyone is talking about analytics applied to education and how “big data” can (will?) transform many aspects of our educational institutions. And for those of us passionate about improving opportunities for learning, the phrase “learning analytics” is particularly intriguing. So what do we mean by “learning analytics”? In short, it’s “the use of data and models to predict student progress and performance, and the ability to act on that information,” as defined in the Next Generation Learning Challenges (see the useful Educause Learning Initiative brief). Learning analytics overlaps with the somewhat broader phrase “academic analytics,” which encompasses other institutional bodies of data such as enrollments, graduation rates, and institutional outcomes tracking. A combination of learning analytics and academic analytics can provide an environment where administrators, advisors, faculty, and the students themselves have the data visualization tools they need for learner success. For example, what happens when students can see their own course participation & grade data and compare it to that of others (anonymously) in the same course, while the course is in progress, allowing them to change their behavior mid-course? This type of exposure to learning analytics can be a powerful motivator. Students become more aware of their activities and time on task in their courses. And while the technology is not comprehensive (some courses have more online activities than others), the balance between online and offline activities can be understood by the student despite the lack of data on the offline activities, once the student has crossed that important threshold of self-awareness.

As you may have heard already, BbWorld 2012 will have five key themes this year – each Feature Theme Session will be presented by thought leaders in Education. We rolled out the theme “Social Learning” last week and now we are proud to announce the Feature Theme Session Keynote Speaker for Digital Content – Tom Caswell! An Open Education Policy Associate at Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges, Tom handles special projects that directly impact the power of Digital Content such as running the Open Course Library, piloting a community college Open Learning Initiative (OLI) in Washington State, and supporting the OPEN initiative for Department of Labor C3T grantees. As a Policy Associate, Tom also raises awareness about the use of Digital Content and sets policies for sharing content.

I’m excited about this year’s DevCon, not just because I’m a foodie and I love the food in New Orleans. I mean, c’mon, no one can pass up a beignet from Café du Monde. Besides the enticing food, I’m excited for the great speakers and sessions. On July 9^th and 10^th DevCon 2012 will descend onto New Orleans and give its attendees over 30 sessions devoted to topics like system administration and integration, security and performance, Blackboard Building Blocks development, and openness. This year we will also have sessions devoted to Blackboard mobile development, so those of you that are curious about how to develop using Blackboard Mobile’s SDK (software development kit) can satisfy that curiosity.

In case you missed it, Jarl Jonas, Director of CourseSites, blogged earlier this week and shared two very exciting announcements for all users. Originally posted to the new CourseSites Blog on April 16, 2012: As a free resource for individual educators, CourseSites has removed a common barrier of access to teaching and learning technology. While a significant milestone in itself, we understand further barriers exist for many individuals, particularly impeding access to education and information. CourseSites seeks to eliminate these barriers, and we are very excited to announce two ways we are doing so. First, all CourseSites instructors can now choose to make courses available for open enrollment. We believe this will open up a new realm of Open Education possibilities and opportunities. Second, we are proud to launch our Open Course Series: Empowering Learning through Community with our first open course on “Instructional Ideas and Technology Tools for Online Success” led by Dr. Curtis Bonk and the CourseSites team. We invite you to try this new feature and join us for our first open course. About Dr. Curtis Bonk:
Curt Bonk is Professor of Instructional Systems Technology at Indiana University and President of CourseShare,LLC. Drawing on his background as a corporate controller, CPA, educational psychologist, and instructional technologist, Bonk offers unique insights into the intersection of business, education, psychology, and technology. A well-known authority on emerging technologies for learning, Bonk reflects on his speaking experiences around the world in his popular blog, TravelinEdMan. He has coauthored several widely used technology books, including The World is Open, Empowering Online Learning, The Handbook of Blended Learning, and Electronic Collaborators.