Blackboard 9: Teaching and Learning Online Advanced Certification Series

I just completed the three courses in this series. It was an interesting experience taking training from a provider like this. All three courses gave the tools needed to implement more advanced concepts in BB9. What was missing for me more than anything else were examples of implementation from schools using BB9. I guess that is to be expected though. The people enrolled with me were from a variety of backgrounds, everything from Community College to IT types. It would have been difficult to cater to the variety of potential applications.

If I were to give one piece of advice for someone thinking about taking this series, it would be to have a specific goal in mind for each of the courses. Again, hard to do since one does not know what specifically will be covered, but it doesn't hurt to know what you want to apply your new training to. I was fortunate in having been in the process of adapting courses from WebCT to BB9 alongside the training.

Another thing that stood out for me is that this is not to be confused with an online course. The training is not intended to build community in a constructivist sense as part of the curriculum. Almost all the objectives can be met without interaction with anyone else in the courses. This will work better for some than others.

All in all worth the $1200.

Transitioning to Blackboard 9 and training

Last Fall CSUB did a pilot of Moodlerooms as part of an investigation into alternative LMS systems once it was deemed that WebCT 4.1 (yes, 4.1) was no longer an option due to accessibilty issues. I was able to offer a course in Moodle for the first (and perhaps only) time. I have been familiar with Moodle for some time, since 2002 at least when I had it set up on a server at home and played with it extensively. The Fall semester was a great boon in that I was able to teach a course for K-12 teachers in using Moodle. I have been blessed in that a few have gone on to actually implement web enhanced and hybrid Moodle in their classrooms.

CSUB made the decision to go with Blackboard after the pilot. So now I must update my dated experiences with WebCT 4.1 to this new system. I am already familiar with the Blackboard from using it at different campuses, actually developing courses on it at one point, and last semester taking a real estate course in it.

I have decided it is time to take the Blackboard certification courses. Starting July 1st I'll be taking three courses in the Learning and Teaching certification track as well as in the advanced certification track. It will be the first professional development in this area I've done since 2007. I am very much looking forward to the opportunity. While I am not a Blackboard advocate particularly, in the same way I am not a Microsoft advocate though I hold four certificates there, it is the platform my university has standardized on and so is an area I must know as much as possible about. It will be an interesting experience. I will report back on anything remarkable as I go through.

OpenEducationDisc 8.05

I'm very much enjoying this summer. We came out of NCATE and CCTC accreditation the beginning of March, I was teaching a lot, and I my task in accreditation preparation was to participate in the planning, put up and populate the accreditation Web site, and also figure out how to get the reports we needed out of LiveText. All in all, I don't remember all that much from about last September through the middle of March. :-) Last quarter was OK, but there were a lot of odds and ends to deal with, and then we hit graduation. This summer I'm teaching just one course and finishing up on a grant. I can stay home with my boys, take the occasional trip out to the coast, and generally relax.

This also means I can catch up on the things that interest me professionally. I hope to do something in the way of collaborating on a conference paper or two on the accreditation experience and how certain technologies helped. That is if my writing partners have time. But once again I digress.

For several years I have been thinking about the idea of creating a universal CD for students that will give us all a common set of applications to use in online courses. Having this would cut down on the amount of support needed and also make certain I have the ability to read anything students send my way. It also helps with the sanity. I think I may do something rash if I am sent another MS Works or MS Publisher file the day before grades have to be posted. :-)

A while back, there used to be something called the OpenCD. I thought it was a great start toward creating just such a universal platform for student work. I hadn't checked in on it in the last year or so, so I dropped in this morning. opencd.com is now a discontinued project. Wow! I have to say this was a bit disappointing. On the page there were references to other projects that were continuing the work Most were Ubuntu related. I'm guessing the OpenCD contents are wrapped up in the Live, self running, Ubuntu distributions. These versions of Linux can run (and I should add, many others can too) directly from your CD drive without needing to be installed. This is a good way to check out Linux, but I can't see running an entire operating system in order to use a few applications.

There was a reference on the page to Opendisc. So I clicked the link.

Opendisc is a project that appears to be hosted at SourceForge, at least that is where the download comes from. It is a collection of the very best of freely available software. I scrolled down a bit and found an education specific version named the OpenEducationDisc. I downloaded the ISO file, which is an image file (like a picture of the data on the disc) of about 700 meg. Contained on this disc are the following taken directly from the page:

OpenOffice.org - Fully compatible office software for your school work
Dia - Make technical diagrams and flowcharts
Scribus - Create professional looking posters and magazines
GanttProject - Plan your school projects with this project management software
FreeMind - Collect your ideas with this mind mapping Software
PDF Creator - Make PDF documents from any program
Sumatra PDF - Read PDF files quickly and easily

Firefox - A safe, secure and fast web browser
Thunderbird - Manage your emails better than ever - Reclaim your inbox!
Pidgin - Talk to your friends whatever instant message client they use
Kompozer - Create web pages easily, without having to code
RSSOwl - Keep up with your favourite internet news feeds on your desktop

GIMP - Edit digital photos and create graphics
GIMP animation - Create animations
Inkscape - Make professional looking vector graphics
Blender - 3D graphic modeling, animation, rendering and playback
Tuxpaint - Drawing program for children ages 3 to 12

VLC - Play music, videos and DVDs
Avidemux - Edit movies and add special effects
Audacity - Record, edit and mix music
Infra Recorder - Burn your own CDs and DVDs
CamStudio - Record your actions on a computer
Really Slick Screensavers - Great looking screensavers

Nasa Worldwind - Discover the earth and other planets
GraphCalc - A graphical calculator
Guido Van Robot - Learn how computer programs work
CarMetal - Cool mathematical modelling tool
Celestia - Explore the universe in three dimensions
Stellarium - A planetarium on your PC

FreeCiv - Control the world through diplomacy and conquest
FreeCol - Discover the ‘New World’ and build an empire
TuxTyping 2 - Learn to type like a pro
The Battle for Wesnoth - Turn based fantasy strategy game
Winboard Chess - The classic game of chess
Qianhong - Challenge yourself at Chinese Chess

GTK+
7zip
Abakt
Clamwin
HealthMonitor
Workrave

Httrack
Tight VNC
Filezilla
Azureus
WinSCP

Most of these I am familiar with, but some I am not. I am in the process of burning the image now. I will report back on what I find. Regardless, it appears that this package contains most of what one could want to standardize applications across online courses.