Click here to receive your FREE subscription to Campus Technology
News
New Mexico Launches Statewide eLearning Initiative
7/16/2008
|
|
As part of its Innovative Digital Education and Learning (IDEAL-NM) initiative, New Mexico is launching a statewide program to standardize on a single electronic learning platform--Blackboard--spanning K-12, higher education, adult education, and government. The initiative will also support a new statewide virtual high school.
The initiative will see new Mexico consolidate 22 existing systems into a single Blackboard system through Blackboard's Managed Hosting service. The initiative spans the state's 89 public school districts and 25 public colleges and universities, adult education, and workforce development programs, as well as state agencies, which will use the platform for training purposes.
"We envision IDEAL-NM expanding educational opportunities and access, improving graduation rates, and involving students more in their own educational planning," said New Mexico Secretary of Public Education Veronica C. García. "This partnership will help give our young people--and our state--the tools they will need to thrive in the 21st century."
The initiative will also be used to power expanded professional development opportunities in the state. And, as part of the implementation, it will be used to support distance learning at the high school and college level in an attempt to "increase the percentage of students that graduate from high school and attend college," according to information released by Blackboard.
"We in New Mexico are building an innovative system of delivering education across the barriers of distance as well as the barriers of different pre-K-12 and higher education communities and educational cultures," said New Mexico Cabinet Secretary of Higher Education Reed Dasenbrock, in a statement released Wednesday. "IDEAL-NM is central to our vision of a 21st century educational system in which all can participate and all can benefit from this exciting endeavor."
About the author: Dave Nagel is the executive editor for 1105 Media's educational technology online publications and electronic newsletters. He can be reached at dnagel@1105media.com.
Have any additional questions? Want to share your story? Want to pass along a news tip? Contact Dave Nagel, executive editor, at dnagel@1105media.com.
Cite this Site
copy text (above) for proper citation
Recommended Reading
- Digital Arts Alliance Adds Fordham U
The Digital Arts Alliance, a consortium led by the Pearson Foundation that promotes digital arts in K-12 education, is expanding its membership with the addition of Fordham University. This follows on the heels of three other organizations joining the group back in July--the National Education Association (NEA) Foundation, the Foundation for Investor Education, and Employers For Education Excellence (E3).
- Payment Card Security Toughens with DSS 1.2 Release
Opinions are mixed on what the new Payment Card Industry (PCI) DSS 1.2 standard will mean for security pros going forward. However, the mandate is clear: protect data.
- 6 Universities Join NASA Astrobiology Institute
Research teams from six universities have been selected by NASA to become members of its Astrobiology Institute with the aim of exploring the "origins, evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe." Teams were each awarded five-year grants, averaging $7 million each, according to NASA.
- Amazon To Host Microsoft Solutions in the Cloud
Amazon announced Wednesday that it is conducting a private beta test of Microsoft's server products running on Amazon's hosted computing platform, which is called Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). Amazon expects to offer companies the ability to run their applications on EC2 using Microsoft Windows Server or Microsoft SQL Server sometime in the fall, according to an announcement issued by the company.
- CRM Pushing into New Areas of Higher Ed
Implementing a customer relationship management (CRM) solution can require "difficult or even painful behavioral challenges" for administrators in higher education, according to Nicole Engelbert, a lead analyst with research and analysis firm Datamonitor. "It means re-orienting yourself to your students. That can be tough, so you need to be ready for that."
- Integrated Collaborative Environment Leverages Web 2.0
Here's a bit of trivia for your next high-tech happy hour: A "nog" (in addition to being a Christmas favorite) is a wooden block built into a masonry wall so that joinery structure can be nailed to it. For the founders of Piscataway, N.J.-based startup Bluenog this obscure bit of carpentry nomenclature was the perfect metaphor for an integrated software suite that includes a content management system (CMS), rich portal features and business intelligence (BI) capabilities.
