The New York City Department of Education (NYC DOE) has chosen Blackboard Collaborate™, in an effort to personalize instruction through the iLearnNYC program, Blackboard Inc. announced today.
The selection followed an evaluation of technology solutions to support online and blended learning, and will help NYC DOE support three key initiatives: getting students college and career ready; meeting Common Core standards and curriculum adaption; and providing more personalized instruction.
With the platform, NYC schools will be able to offer more courses - including Advanced Placement, foreign language and credit recovery - and reach students in disparate locations. In their virtual classrooms, teachers can create workflows that are specific for help and tutoring environments, allow learners to get immediate feedback through ad-hoc video chats and create break out rooms encouraging interaction based on skill sets, segmented outcomes or other criteria.
NYC schools may also use the Blackboard Collaborate platform to conduct parent-teacher conferences online, meet with instructors and administrators across the city virtually as well as offer teachers more professional development opportunities online.
"The iLearnNYC program is focused on expanding digital learning experiences by broadening the use of online content and resources and removing the barriers to using them," said Sandeep Chellani, executive director of product development for the New York City Department of Education. "By partnering with Blackboard, our students are not only able to take a wider array of courses, but also work with teachers to customize a unique learning experience."
Currently offered in approximately 100 schools in the iLearnNYC program, the NYC DOE will supply its comprehensive set of online teaching and learning tools to 100 more schools in the 2012-2013 school year. Blackboard Collaborate is seamlessly integrated with NYC DOE's Desire2Learn learning management system and provides users with a single point of access to the interactive learning platform.
Blackboard Collaborate's Web conferencing, instant messaging, and voice authoring technologies are used by thousands of higher education, K-12, professional, corporate and government organizations worldwide.
To learn more about Blackboard Collaborate integrations, please visit http://www.blackboard.com/Platforms/Collaborate/Products/Integrations.aspx .
