Blackboard Newbie

This is my first Blackboard World conference and I must say I haven't had a moment to pause yet and reflect on my experience here so far until now.  I am also less than a year into my first job as an instructional designer so the amount I wish to accomplish in my position and this conference is vast.  Everything is so new!  I have found myself to be a much more successful micro blogger on Twitter then I am as a full fledged blogger.  Follow me @kellymedu

The highlight of the conference for me, so far, has been the session on integrating library resources in Blackboard with Joe Russo.  This has been a resent discussion with our team and the librarians.  We (and they) feel they are being underutilized but could potentially be a huge help in Bb courses if instructors would let them in PROPERLY to help guide research and citation and take that off the plate of the instructors.

Mr. Russo had a great open discussion with us about how his institution used template variables to seamlessly integrate LibGuides into courses.  What a great team effort they have there.

"For every course specific LibGuide in a Bb course saves an instructor at least 25 hours of training time per semester." - Joe Russo

After the keynote we met with our Blackboard Representative to talk about all the exciting new ideas and product potential for Stevenson.  This was followed by a vendor reception and a trip down to Fremont Street with the crew.