Archive for August, 2009

August 19th, 2009
A recent 93-page report on online education, conducted by SRI International for the Department of Education, has a starchy academic title, but a most intriguing conclusion: “On average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction.”

Blackboard Inc. was formed on the joining of two companies. CourseInfo LLC, founded by Daniel Cane and Stephen Gilfus, and Blackboard LLC, founded by Michael Chasen and Matthew Pittinsky.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. – Margaret Meade

August 14th, 2009
While on the exhibit floor at NECC 2009 (The National Education Computing Conference) in late June in Washington, DC, I overheard an intriguing conversation about “social learning.” A very distinguished looking university professor was talking with a small group of graduate students. The professor pointed out to her younger colleagues that scores of exhibitors were promoting solutions for “social learning,” but that the vendors were misappropriating a term that had been established in the education field for a very long time.

She complained that today’s technology companies were simply cobbling together social networking tools such as blogs, wikis and bookmarking tools, pawning them off as “social learning” innovation. As an
e-learning innovator with over a decade of experience in the education sector, this conversation reminded me that several core educational principles were not being thoughtfully considered.

Posted on August 21, 2009 by barrydahl During this academic year I will be working on a project called Action Analytics with the Office of the Chancellor at the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU). I will still retain my position at Lake Superior College, but part of my time will be devoted to this [...]

Every year the Gilfus Education Group assists dozens of academic institutions in evaluating their existing LMS. In addition, many academic institutions embark on their own projects to understand which LMS is the best for them. For various reasons each academic institution selects a specific application, be it open source or proprietary or because of ease of use, costs or, functional and pedagogical reasons. The following are a few examples of independent evaluations done by academic institutions and gathered from their appropriate sites in order to make it easier to compare and contrast each process and the identified results.

August 3rd, 2009
Stephen Gilfus, a former founder of Blackboard inc, and a well known figure in the eLearning industry, today, that the Gilfus Education Group is sponsoring the “Social Technology and Education Conference”,
August 14th @ Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

August 2nd, 2009
NACUBO and ACE are hosting a higher education policy webinar at 2 pm EDT on Friday, August 7, 2009. Featured guests include Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Under Secretary Martha Kanter, and Deputy Under Secretary Robert Shireman. The group plans to focus on the Obama Administration’s higher education agenda, and will allow for a Q&A session. If you are interested in participating in this special opportunity, you must register for the event beforehand.