Since that announcement, a number of eLearning observers have questioned whether this indicates that executives at Blackboard believe their company is in serious trouble. One noted that in the last few years Blackboard's share of the LMS market has dropped from 71 percent to 50.6 percent, a statistic any CEO would likely find alarming. In addition:

Blackboard's decision to change its focus away from its own product to support everyone's prompted George Siemens to wonder if this doesn't represent a failure in confidence — and marketing messaging — on the company's part: "Why, if you’ve spent years promoting your platform as the best one for complex implementations, do you suddenly start hosting an open source alternative? It seems that they’ve acquiesced significant ground to Desire2Learn with this move. Bb looks scattered and unfocused by moving outside of their core (or even integrated) revenue model. Are they losing that many clients in their main LMS?"

But the author of the article, Audrey Watters, suggests that this isn't a panicked move by a corporate leadership that's desperate to find an alternative strategy in the wake of hemorrhaging market share. Instead, she suggests that it's a longterm response to the maturing of the LMS market, and that Blackboard has realized that in the best possible strategy, the most lucrative product may not their own learning management system, but instead may be the data about students that can be gleaned from hosting all sorts of different systems:

What are students reading? What are they buying at the bookstore? What are they checking out of the library? How much time are they spending on course materials? How often do they interact with other students? What does that interaction entail? How often do they interact with faculty? What does that interaction entail? How do students respond to feedback? How's attendance? How are grades — not just at the end of the term, but in an ongoing and real-time basis? What classes do students want to take? What classes should they take? What classes should the university offer? Can it build a recommendation engine to help make suggestions to students? What faculty should it hire? And what are those faculty doing? These are the sorts of questions that big data promises to answer for universities, as well as (I'd hope) for learners.

I can personally attest that the answers to these sorts of questions are of keen interest to decision makers at colleges and universities. In part that's to help them make better decisions, and the more data that is easily obtained on these sorts of things, the more efficient other areas of the institution can be. But much of this is also painstakingly collated by institutions as they prepare reports for accreditors. This is one of the biggest headaches for institutions, and if Blackboard can make it more easy to put that sort of reporting together, they may indeed find themselves once again becoming popular with administrators — no matter what learning management system is on the table.

The system, created by the San Francisco-based youth media watchdog group through a partnership with the Chicago-based Susan Crown Foundation, piggybacks on Common Sense Media's system of reviewing media in popular culture to determine age appropriateness and quality.

Just as current reviews of movies and video games, for example, assess levels of violence, sexual content, and language, the new reviews will also determine products' levels of math, science, and language arts content, as well as their potential for building skills like critical thinking, creativity, and collaboration. The endeavor comes partly in response to research by Common Sense Media that found parents were skeptical of digital products' educational claims, according to the release.

The ratings are created through a combination of input from academic experts, teachers, parents, and literature on contemporary learning skills, according to the release. They will be applied both to digital media created for general consumption and to media created specifically for an educational audience.

The 28 case studies fall into five categories: project-based learning; open or digital content; technology coaches and mentors; scaling up; and high access, technology-rich environments. Each case study includes a description of the state or district's demographics, the project itself, its implementation, classroom examples, data on its effectiveness, a look toward its future, and links to resources for more information.

Each case study also lists the number of administrators, teachers, and students affected by each grant, as well as the amount of the grant and any supplemental local funds. You can read them individually, or collectively as one document.

It appears many of the outlined initiatives have continued—either by finding another source of funding or through the teachers and students passing down their experiences to others. For example, as part of the iLearn project in Pulaski County Schools in Virginia, teachers received professional development throughout the school year on how to integrate iPod touches and laptops into curricula. A social-networking website provided a forum for those teachers to share their experiences with other teachers and receive feedback on their progress. Although the grant is now over, the teachers who went through this program have taken on leadership roles in their respective schools and hold informal peer-to-peer meetings to share their knowledge.

We know that many of you have booked your flights and are already thinking about how you’ll capture the sights and sounds of this year’s BbWorld. So this year, if you’re planning to blog, we want to make it a little bit more enticing: register here to be an official BbWorld Blogger and let us reward all your hard work!

As an official BbWorld Blogger, your peers will recognize you as a thought-leader, sharing a personal perspective and reflecting on all aspects of the event. You’ll get reserved seating in all keynote presentations, a blogger badge that you can add to your personal blog TODAY, and a BbWorld Blogger t-shirt (rock your t-shirt at the Client Appreciation Party). We’ll also feature some of the posts on Blackboard Blogs during the week of the show, July 9-13. More details will be shared in June; keep an eye on your email.

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE…

For three exceptional bloggers, we’re giving away three FREE passes to BbWorld. Starting today through Friday, May 4, you can enter to be a BbWorld VIP Blogger. Here’s what you need to do:

1. Write and post to your personal blog an entry titled, “Why I want to be a VIP BbWorld blogger.” Tell us who you are and why you want to go to BbWorld – we’ll be judging on originality of submission and enthusiasm.
2. Tweet your post to @Blackboard using the #BbW12 hashtag. And email andrea.meier@blackboard.com to guarantee entry.
3. Complete the BbWorld Blog form and make sure you select ‘Yes’ to enter the contest.

What do the VIP Bloggers receive?

-        FREE registration to BbWorld 2012 (Does not include T&E)

-        Access to your peers from around the globe for unbelievable networking and collaboration opportunities.

-        Before BbWorld, we’ll profile you on the Blackboard Blog

-        Backstage access to keynote speakers and Bb leaders

-        Plus a few other surprise we’ve got in the works.

-        Click to download official contest rules.

Did we mention it’s in New Orleans?

Not only are social media users increasing daily, but more and more citizens are turning to their social networks to obtain and share information about their surrounding community, as recent reports have published some interesting statistics:

• 82 percent of Internet users (representing 61 percent of all American adults) looked for information or com­pleted a transaction on a government website in the twelve months preceding a Pew Internet survey.
• Followed by television and local radio, the Internet is the third most popular way for people to gather emergency information, with 18 percent of both the general and the online population specifically using Facebook for that purpose.
• Nearly a fourth (24 percent) of the general population and a third (31 percent) of the online population would use social media to let loved ones know they are safe.
• Compared to the average adult Internet user, active adult social networkers are 26 percent more likely to give their opinion on politics and current events.

To reach residents and the community more effectively, local governments should consider developingand maintaining a dynamic social media presence. Blackboard Connect, in collaboration with ICMA, has developed the Social Media and Local Government Playbook to help government leaders create and establish their social media communication plan. The Playbook provides tips, strategies, examples, and best practices to help you use social media to communicate successfully with constituents.

With the Social Media Playbook, government leaders and officials can learn:

• Social media dos and don’ts
• How local governments can benefit from using social media
• How to develop a successful social media strategy
• Best practices and innovative uses in government practice today

Visit the website to learn more about how Blackboard Connect can help you enhance your communication and outreach efforts.

Additional information: Delta Cyber School, located in Delta Junction, Alaska, is an online school open to students ages 5-19. It is free if you are not already attending a different public school. If you wish to use it for specific courses, it does have tuition-based courses as well. For elementary students, significant parental involvement is necessary.

He writes in his first blog entry that "the purpose of the blog is to address the wide gap that often exists between education technology researchers on the one hand and technology-using educators on the other." He'll be blogging about new research and reports that come out, answering questions he receives through email, writing about ed-tech news, and sharing his stories from the field.

I'm sure that many of you will find Reich's posts informative and relevant to your interests, so go ahead and check out his blog, add it to your RSS feed, and welcome him to the edweek.org community.

Recently the NRWC was invited to showcase its programs at the Commission on the Status of Women conference at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City. The primary themes of the 56th annual conference included:

• The empowerment of rural women through their roles in poverty, hunger eradication, development, and current challenges
• Elimination of discrimination against women and girls
• Engagement of young women and men, girls and boys, to advance gender equality

Women from all over the world participated in the NRWS’s presentation via the Collaborate webinar. Present in the room were women from continents including Africa, South America, Asia, and Australia. Speakers included Elisabeth Broderick, Australia’s Sex Discrimination Commissioner; Sandra Stoddart, NRWC Executive Officer; and Darriea Turley, NRWC President.

Blackboard supported NRWC by sending two experienced members of the Blackboard Collaborate team as technical support on site to ensure the webinar was executed seamlessly to participants worldwide. “This event has had positive outcomes for NRWC – national and internal acknowledgement of the important work we are doing, new partners for future programs for rural women in Canada and Zambia currently being discussed, and expressions of interest for new partners to work with NRWC into the future,” said Sandra Stoddart.

Blackboard is proud to partner with an organization that is empowering women around the world with life-changing education and training opportunities! We hope to support the NRWC and its mission far into the future and we thank them for helping to support our mission of improving education to those who have it and bringing it to those who don’t.

Blackboard Learn™ for Career Colleges is aimed at addressing these needs in a way that is engaging and at pace with the busy lifestyles of adult learners.  We recently developed four videos that highlight some of the key ways Blackboard Learn enables these adult learners to reach their highest potential:

• Engage students: By leveraging web 2.0 technologies, Blackboard Learn creates streamlined learning portals for easy and intuitive navigation to course information, while also providing the opportunity to connect with other students for social learning experiences.
• Provide openness and choice: Blackboard Learn allows for a tailored learning platform that easily integrates with your institution’s partners, including publishers and other content providers.  This allows course developers to create engaging educational content in an environment that is secure, flexible, and open.
• Demonstrate successful outcomes: It is more important than ever that professional colleges and universities provide robust and accurate measures of student success.  Blackboard Learn can aid in that effort, as it provides efficient and accurate tools for measuring student achievement, including detailed rubrics and other data-driven assessments.
• Drive student success: Blackboard Learn gives instructors the ability to drive student success through consistent and timely feedback.  Built-in tools help instructors identify at-risk students so they can receive individualized attention, helping students overcome challenges and stay motivated to succeed.

Watch all four videos in full by visiting this page, and learn more about the various ways your professional college or university can leverage Blackboard Learn to foster student success.