Blackboard Blogs

Listening to Secretary Duncan

On Wednesday March 3 I had the opportunity to attend the Software and Information Industry Association's, Ed Tech Government Forum.  The keynote speaker was current US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.  Joining our gathering was the annual meeting of the Association of American Publishers.  The Secretary laid out an impressive vision for using technology in education based on three attributes mobile accessibility, digital content and social networks.  The technology plan was published and made available for public comment at The Department of Education's website.  The Secretary talked about the importance of creating new open educational repositories that would allow instructors and learners to personalize and remix learning.   At the same time he called for research and experimentation that would use evidence based methods to weight the improvements in productivity and outcomes against the costs.  Secretary Duncan articulated a vision that demonstrated a good understanding of the ongoing transformation of education happening in the context of web 2.0.

I'm happy that Blackboard and its customers are demonstrating leadership in the areas that the Secretary mentions.  When I think of mobile accessibility, I consider the power of the Blackboard Mobile Central solution. This product easily allows institutions to make information like podcasts, campus directories and maps available to students through their mobile devices.  As we combine our growing expertise in mobile application development with our deep experience with teaching and learning I think we will be well positioned to support the Secretary's technology vision.

"Lifewide Learning": Supporting Today's Students through National Broadband

Posted by Michael J. Stanton, Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs

At Blackboard, a student is anyone who wants to learn. A student learning the fundamentals of algebra. A college student grappling with Plato’s Republic. A professional who needs to keep up with state-of-the-art equipment and operating systems. And e-learning supports each of those constituencies with anytime-anywhere instruction built around individual learning needs and pace.

At Alexandria City Public Schools, online learning enabled new voices to be heard, as students who previously would not speak in class become vocal online. Through venues such as class discussion boards, students felt more comfortable to participate. Students tend to interact with technology on a regular basis, and are sometimes more comfortable in an online situation than they are in a physical classroom. Using Blackboard technology brings added familiarity and reassurance to student learning, and engaged more students in the classroom.

What’s Next for Higher Ed: The Lion at the Gate

Posted by Gordon Freedman, Blackboard's Vice President Education Strategy

Although they may not mean to, universities orient societies in certain directions, just as much as schools prepare young citizens. Our education systems, in the words of the late New York University thinker, Neil Postman, don’t prepare students for life per se. They actually create “new publics.” They are the holders of the society in waiting, helping to create the young adults who will take over in time.

This view raises some interesting and disturbing questions. If I were among that public-to-be, as are my children, I would have some hard questions for my elders and their great institutions. Everywhere you look there are messes: finance, manufacturing, the world economy, the environment, addiction to fossil fuel, violence and bloodshed. And the list goes on. Where, I might ask, does the university play in this world?

Unlocking the Global Education Imperative: Why Education Matters More Than Ever

(Gordon Freedman, Blackboard’s Vice President Education Strategy, spent a year working with a team from inside and outside Blackboard to examine broad trends in higher education globally.  Earlier this summer, that report, titled “Unlocking the Global Education Imperative: Core Challenges, Critical Responses,” was released.  Freedman has spoken about these trends at a variety of global forums.  Below is one in a series of periodic, reflective posts by Freedman on the changing global education landscape.)

It is not particularly easy to write a report about what is occurring with education globally.  Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

First of all, who has the authority to write such a report and command respect for the outcome?  If a government produces the document, an international organization, a think thank, a labor union, a publication, a corporation or a university, each has its own perspective and, arguably, its own interests. 

So, why would a technology company venture down this road?  Certainly, there is a sales and marketing angle.  Then there is “thought leadership,” the new form of technology evangelism.  Corporations have credibility in this area because they can sum up what they see in the field far beyond what an individual institution or government could, and from a much more practical level.  In the case of Blackboard, an academic technology provider, the motivation for the research and interviewing that led to the “Unlocking the Global Education Imperative: Core Challenges & Critical Responses” white paper was somewhat deeper.   

From Christopher Columbus to Globalized Higher Education

(This entry is part of a series by Gordon Freedman, Blackboard's VP of education strategy, in which he reflects on technology and education as he travels around the world to meet with innovative education leaders and researchers, government leaders, and members of the Blackboard community who are experimenting in e-Learning and changing the education landscape.)

When the Organization for Economic and Cooperative Development (www.OECD.org) chose Santo Domingo for its site for the 2nd Global Education Forum, it struck me as unusual.

But when I recalled it was from these waters that Christopher Columbus searched in vain for a passage to India, it began to make sense.  The city’s safe harbor, first entered by the great European explorer in 1492, has been the site of centuries of global intrigue and then national independence in the mid 1800’s.  The Dominican Republic, all these years later, became the gracious host to this international gathering that looked for the new gold standard in today’s global village – education.   

It is hard to argue with an island nation that was the initial point of discovery for Europeans coming to the Americas as a venue for a global education conference in the 21st century.  In our fully globalized society today, education has clearly become the one similar resource by which all nations will measure themselves going forward.  And the OECD, a champion of economic development based on investments in the human potential of nations, is one of the very strongest organizational voices in the international arena.  It is dedicated to large-scale education improvement in both developed nation members and in its developing nation partners.