CNYRIC Open House Big Success

The annual CNYRIC Open House held on 9/23/09 was a big success. Titled, "Creating the 21st Century School District," the event featured over 40 vendors, 20+ one-hour workshops, and keynote speaker Steve Dembo, from Discovery Education. Steve's keynote address, "The Power of Glass Schools," focused on the limitless learning opportunities now at our fingertips with Web 2.0, and the benefits of transparent learning environments. An estimated 175-200 attendees showed up to the event...and feedback so far has been very positive. Thanks to everyone who participated...we look forward to another great event next year!

K-12 Blackboard features CNY teachers' screencasts!

Dan Lake, a long-time member of the ITD team has worked with area teachers to develop narrated screencasts in which area teachers show how they support learners in their online learning environments. They demonstrate how they change certain teaching practices using online tools provided through the CNYRIC’s Blackboard service.

The President of Blackboard.com’s K-12 unit liked what our teachers had to say, and she included mention of their testimonials and a link to them in her September newsletter, which is distributed worldwide to K-12 users of Blackboard.

Newsletter Link: http://www.blackboard.com/Solutions-by-Market/K-12/Learn-for-K12/Newsletters/September-2009.aspx?contactID=121080041

These screencasts have been posted by Dan at an emerging “Best Practices” user group site.

Screencasts Link: http://connections.blackboard.com/posts?postTypeName=Effective+Practice

It is with no surprise that we find comments there, such as this in response to work done by Charles Clinton at J-D High School:

“Thanks a lot. That's a very good idea. In fact I was searching how to mix the use of Smartboard with Blackboard.” -Yasser Massoud from Saudi Arabia.