You suggested.

And we did it again.

We listened.

So we (and you) are happy to introduce our latest join venture, Blackboard Collaborate 12.5. Your product suggestions help make this the most effective version yet.

You recently heard from my counterpart Trent about Blackboard Collaborate Mobile on Android, including Kindle Fire HD, and easy conversion of session recordings to MP3/MP4 formats.  But that’s not all that is new. All that is new

1) Seamless phone integration—no third-party conference call number needed. This is an essential feature for those customers transitioning from Wimba Classroom. In fact, many Wimba customers have told me that now they’ll be able to fully transition all their end users to Blackboard Collaborate. Not only that, but as Collaborate’s Accessibility Product Manager, I was glad to hear our Accessibility Taskforce members share that the improved phone integration provides an important accessibility option as well.

2) Classroom management capabilities for instructors, including the ability to manage individual student permissions with a single click and to turn off emoticons in the chat. As a former virtual teacher, I can attest that classroom management is key to being successful whether the classroom is physical or virtual! Many instructors have told us that these controls will allow them to effectively engage students while simultaneously reducing or eliminating distractions.

Finally, since many of our end users access web conferencing from within their learning management system, we’ve added the following:

3) Enhancements to Blackboard Learn and Moodle integrations, including mobile access to live and recorded sessions

4) New LTI (Learning Tools Interoperability) integration for any LTI-compliant LMS

Take a look at all that’s new in our What’s New demo.

Continuing the conversation…and collaboration

Visit our testimonials page to see all the great things customers are saying about this release.

Connect with us on Twitter or Facebook to give us YOUR feedback.

And keep sending your product suggestions to bbcollaboratefeedback@blackboard.com.

Thank YOU

We’re grateful to the many schools and organizations who worked with us to make Blackboard Collaborate 12.5 a reality. You rock, so it does, too.

“I feel more comfortable in my online class because no one can hear my voice and make fun of my accent.”

Renee Citlau, the 2013 Online Teacher of the Year, tells that story not to pull at heartstrings, but to demonstrate the potential of online classes to encourage student engagement and foster a sense of community.

“In the online classroom, it’s so important that community is developed, and we know that because we really have to work at making that online course engaging, or our students aren’t going to come back,” she said.

Renee, an online business teacher at Cypress High School, spearheaded the Anaheim Union High School District’s online program in 2007, and now helps her fellow teachers incorporate online tools into their classrooms. She uses Blackboard Collaborate to meet with students in her online classes through weekly virtual sessions.

We had the honor of sitting down with Renee in our Washington, D.C., offices and hearing from the best in the business what classroom teachers can learn from online teachers. Watch Renee explain the importance of developing community in online classes:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=CI6az8mHNl8

To learn more, check out EdTech: Focus on K-12’s interview with Renee on 5 Must-Have Elements for Every Online Class.

This is a representative reaction to the inaugural events of K-12 Lunch ‘n Learn, a Blackboard initiative designed to bring experts—and a good meal—to K-12 technology directors, superintendents, and communications directors nationwide.

These are not training sessions but rather thought leadership gatherings. You can expect focus groups, panels, and other discussions. Topics will vary but all will relate to 21^st-century educational technology. Examples include the following:

• mobile devices in the classroom
• measuring active-passive learning
• professional development

Blackboard staff on hand will be able to suggest customized solutions in real time to issues you may be having.

After our first Lunch ‘n Learn sessions, 93% of attendees surveyed said they would attend another in the future. And 100% found the opportunity to network with other districts valuable.

One attendee reported, “It was very interesting to hear from a teacher and student. These are the stakeholders and their opinions matter the most.”

We look forward to meeting you, learning from you, and sharing best practices with you at an upcoming Lunch ‘n Learn near you.

For more info: sarah.tomczyk@blackboard.com.

Whether you will be attending the conference in-person or will be following along online, there are plenty of ways you can engage with Blackboard during ASTD 2013. Here are a few of our favorites:

1. Attend informative sessions on “On-Boarding Best Practices: Ramp Up, Report Out” on Monday, May 20^th and “Your Missing Link: Measuring Sales Training ROI Through CRM” on Tuesday, May 21^st to learn key strategies and technologies that can help your company align business goals with training.

2. Learn from training technology experts at the Blackboard booth 227, who will be on-hand to discuss your professional learning needs and to demonstrate some of our latest training solutions.

3. Put your social media skills into practice by following @BlackboardProEd and #ASTD2013 throughout the conference, including updates from our sessions and the keynote presentations.

See you in Dallas!

While a student of Purdue computer science professor and prominent Internet thought leader Dr. Gene Spafford, Gene Kim co-authored the open source tool Tripwire (talk about a project with good Genes). Five years later, Kim founded the information security software company of the same name and served as CTO for 13 years. This accomplishment contributed to Kim being named to the ComputerWorld list of “40 Innovative IT People Under the Age of 40.”

A popular speaker and author, Kim is something of a folk hero among the IT community. He recognizes that IT Operations is a critical but often overlooked asset in almost every organization. IT is not only responsible for running the infrastructure that vital business operations rely upon but also enables Development to release features into production quickly and without disrupting the customer. At Blackboard we rely heavily on IT Operations for both functions, especially with our model of small releases on a regular basis to be responsive to our users; IT Ops, along with Development, is key to that strategy.

Author of The Visible Ops Handbook, Kim’s latest title is the groundbreaking The Phoenix Project: A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win. Mike Orzen, co-author of the Shingo Prize-winning book Lean IT: Enabling and Sustaining Your Lean Transformation, called The Phoenix Project “A must-read for anyone wanting to transform their IT to enable the business to win. Told through an absorbing story that is impossible to put down, the authors teach the essential lessons in an accessible way. Every business leader and IT professional should read this book!”

“When you’re doing things the right way,” Kim said, “there’s no wasted motion, you get hurt less, you’re healthier, and more efficient.” This was a reference to not one but two of his passions—IT operations…and yoga.

Register for DevCon by 5/31 for a reduced rate.

Blackboard Collaborate is itself a collaboration. By working closely with our Product Advisory Council, I was able to gather feedback to help guide the future of our mobile initiatives. You asked for Android support and now you have it! We are pleased to announce Blackboard Collaborate web conferencing for Android, which includes the Kindle Fire HD.

What You Get
While the Android app offers all the functionality our iOS users enjoy, we also took the time to redesign the interface specifically for our Android users.

With the new Android app, users can easily view shared content, including whiteboards and applications straight from the instructor’s desktop, as well as interact via text or two-way audio, respond to yes/no or multiple-choice questions, raise their virtual hand, and indicate emotion.

Beta Users Weigh In
Even a quick glance at any college campus emphasizes how many students prefer working on their phones rather than their computers. Jessica Anderson, Executive Director of California Pacific Charter Schools and a member of the Blackboard Product Advisory Council (PAC), said, “The Blackboard Collaborate mobile app provides students with more options to attend the live sessions and gives them no excuse to not attend.”

Matias Marabotto, LMS and Help Desk Manager at the University of West Georgia, echoes Anderson’s endorsement: “The Android app enables a previously under-served audience to…watch session recordings from their mobile devices, which will increase their engagement and success.”

I am personally excited for the launch of Blackboard Collaborate on the Android platform because I know we will see even more impact on student learning and satisfaction by providing even more access to live sessions.

As always, we want to know your opinion. What do you think about the new app? Tweet with hashtag #BbCollab

Blackboard partner SlideShark does.

Thanks to SlideShark 3.0, a new, free iOS app, faculty can deliver PowerPoint presentations via iPads and other iOS devices.

The usual suspects are included: slide previews, timer controls, a notes display section. So are new features: broadcasting, real-time annotation. Like Blackboard, SlideShark is harnessing technology to build a better education experience.

This means that when you’re presenting to both an in-person and online class, you can invite attendees via email to view the presentation from within the app and with a simple click. You can even invite people once the presentation is in progress.

Additionally, presenters can highlight, draw, and erase on the presentation throughout the session—and save this work for future use.

A York College instructor reports, “SlideShark enables our faculty to become comfortable using iPads in the classroom as instructional tools. With SlideShark, they aren’t afraid of this new technology. They can…use [an] iPad for presenting to the students.”

Think back to the familiar refrain from the classic picture book The Little Engine That Could: “I think I can, I think I can…” The tech has changed but the advice is timeless: if you put your mind to something (in this case, using the SlideShark 3.0 app to jazz up classroom presentations), you’ll like the results.

To learn more, tune in on Tuesday, May 7th at 2pm (ET). We think you can.

This practice of knowledge transfer, where a group’s knowledge is captured and shared with future users, sounds easy enough to do. But with the increasing use of technology by younger employees and other divides in today’s multi-generational workforce, agencies have a unique opportunity to find creative ways to foster a culture of knowledge sharing.

Here are three strategies that government agencies of all sizes can use to help facilitate knowledge transfer:

1.)  Provide opportunities for observation: Many of today’s new government employees are used to an interactive, hand-on learning experience. By providing opportunities for intra-agency internships and shadowing, they can learn by observing and working with more experienced employees. These opportunities can also show new employees the larger mission of their agency, which is a proven method to retain future leaders.

2.)  Participate in social mentorship: Social mentorship is the practice of leveraging social networks and social media to forge connections among individuals, and according to GovLoop, it is already resulting in professional growth within government agencies.   From a knowledge transfer perspective, there is huge potential for substantive conversations including those between new employees and senior officials, or between individuals who are separated geographically.

3.)  Integrate narrative transfers with training: Many of us learn best when we know that what is being taught can have a direct impact on our actual experiences. One strategy to show the real-life importance of institutional knowledge at your agency is to record short videos of tenured employees as they discuss their workplace experiences and advice. Then, these recordings can easily be shared on your e-Learning system, via email, or even online in a format similar to the FedScoop FedMentors series.

Has your agency taken steps to facilitate knowledge transfer between generations of employees? If so, what best practices would you add to this list?

After being named Best Consumer Value during the Paybefore Awards at the Prepaid Expo in Orlando, Florida, an independent panel of industry experts and visitors to Paybefore.com designated BlackboardPay^™ Best-in-Category, edging out offerings from American Express, Walmart and Blackhawk Networks for this honor. BlackboardPay is the only program designed specifically for higher education recognized with a Best-in-Category distinction.

BlackboardPay is an FDIC-insured prepaid card program that gives students immediate access to their financial aid and student payroll funds without having to wait for a paper check or an ACH disbursement, providing the institution with a phenomenal opportunity to provide their students with a program that’s practically unheard of in the student market.

With the cost of education becoming a progressively hotter topic and the long-term impact of debt becoming clearer to students, we know how important it is that students have free and clear access to their financial aid funds. Not just for the sake of compliance with federal regulations, but because every penny of these disbursements possible should go towards tuition, room, board (and pizza!), not to a bank. That’s why we designed BlackboardPay to protect students from things like overdraft charges and PIN debit fees, and made it simple to withdraw funds, surcharge-free, at 50,000 Allpoint® ATMs around the world, more than 3,600 Walmarts and thousands of in-lobby banking partners in the U.S.

In addition to this Best Consumer Value award, we previously won a best-in-category award for the Best Government Funded Prepaid offering.  More than symbolic victories, these awards provide an objective acknowledgement that we are on the right track, delivering solutions to help our client institutions and their students strip away the unnecessary costs in credit balance delivery and access.

After all, it’s not sufficient to simply acknowledge the challenge; in partnership with our clients we can do better, together.

“Golf is the closest game to the game we call life. You get bad breaks from good shots; you get good breaks from bad shots – but you have to play the ball where it lies,” said the American amateur golfer, Bobby Jones. The game is catching on with more and more young athletes, playing for fun, on school teams, and in youth golf tournaments. Aside from the life-lessons golf teaches — among them problem-solving, honor and honesty, and patience — golf is also a great illustration of STEM concepts, from friction and spin on tee-off, to the math of calculating a handicap.

NBC Learn’s newest Special Collection is “Science of Golf,” a new video series produced in partnership with the United States Golf Association (USGA) and Chevron. Among the video titles:

“Volume, Displacement & Buoyancy”
“Evolution of the Golf Ball”
“Calculating a Golf Handicap Index”
“Evolution of the Golf Club”

View these videos at nbclearn.com/golf

This spring NBC Learn is launching the first installment of twenty video titles including “Evolution of the Golf Ball,” “Volume, Displacement & Buoyancy,” “Calculating a Golf Handicap Index,” and
“Evolution of the Golf Club.” These and other stories feature PGA pro and amateur golfers Drew Weaver, Mike Miller and Patrick Rodgers, and LPGA players Suzann Petterson, Paula Creamer, and Belén Mozo.  NBC Sports anchor Dan Hicks will narrate the series.

To learn more about NBC Learn visit http://www.nbclearn.com/portal/site/learn

To download the NBC Learn Building Block visit http://www.nbclearn.com/bbmoreinfo