Found an interesting tidbit of info in the Campus Technology magazine that came today in the mail — “Blackboard to Give Away $25,000 Greenhouse Grant for Virtual Worlds”. This program will award the prize for successful integration of online virtual communities (i.e. There.com or Second Life) into the teaching and learning experience. Guidelines have been provided:
- The integration of virtual worlds must enhance the student’s learning experience.
- It must “leverage existing teaching and learning strategies and best practices”.
- It must “integrate virtual worlds and Blackboard Enterprise Software through Blackboard Building Blocks and Blackboard PowerLinks”.
- The Blackboard community must be able to access the results.
- Deadline: Sept.24, 2007
Read Campus Technology article here.
Visit Blackboard’s Greenhouse Program site here.
Howdy folks! I’m an Instructional Designer at UT Dallas. I have a Bachelor’s in Elementary Education from Angelo State University and a Master’s in Computer Education and Cognitive Systems from the University of North Texas. I’ve been working in edtech for 11 years. Hmm… what else? I’m a *huge* fan of that little Irish band called U2, and I’m a bigtime Firefly/Serenity advocate.
Hmmm…. interesting idea. Of course, this is another example of how BlackBoard is not as innovative as they think they are. I read the official call, and had a good laugh at the ‘Sample Initiatives’ section, because it was all stuff that the Sloodle project has already created for Moodle.
I’m afraid that the Sloodle people have found that the stuff BB wants to do is no easy walk in the park. Sloodle can only make it happen due to the open-source nature of Moodle and somewhat open-source-likeness of Second Life. I’m just not convinced that BB Building Blocks or Powerlinks is going to be up to the task. I hope they prove me wrong, because it would prove that Blackboard does have some future potential, and would boost the perceived educational value of Second Life among non-believers greatly. Of course, if it fails, we’ll all hear an increase of the ‘I don’t see the educational value’ rhetoric…..