Blackboard

The following editorial appeared in the April 13 //Richmond Times-Dispatch//:

By Staff Reports Published: April 13, 2009 The news dismays but does not surprise. Budget stress is leading school districts in Central Virginia to curtail or eliminate programs in the arts. The local situation probably reflects national trends. Schools do not want to cut their core academic missions, and must not. The search for monetary savings leads to items considered extracurricular. Yet although the Three R's define the fundamentals, the arts remain essential to the education of the whole person. Schooling purged of the arts resembles training. Is training important? Of course it is. But education demands more. The arts enhance the human experience. Culture is debased in part because education in America never has given the arts their due. Indeed, while the creation of special schools for the arts is a very good thing, the schools imply that the arts exist outside the regular curriculum. The so-called arts community bears some of the blame. A tendency toward superciliousness undermines its cause. Transgressive is a silly attitude. In an ideal world, the arts not only would be taught as electives -- band, for instance, or dance -- but would be incorporated into academic standards generally. A course in World War II and its antecedents ought to include introductions to Picasso and Shostakovich. It is impossible to understand our world without having an acquaintance with classical sculpture and Renaissance painting. Study should not be limited to Western sources, either. Other civilizations have produced art of beauty and depth. Difficult times compel difficult choices. We understand. No school is going to fully fund violin lessons while pruning English and math. We also remain dubious of spending on bureaucracy and of costly technological adventures. When arts education takes a hit, the victims include not just students and teachers but society itself. The nation needs sweeter sights, sweeter sounds. This may be the most futile editorial every written.

The following story "Area arts programs at risk" appeared in the //Richmond Times-Dispatch// on April 9 and is part of a series By Holly Prestidge Published: April 9, 2009 PART 1: April 7, 2009: The 373 Hanover County students in this year's elementary strings program will be the last group of children to benefit from a music program that began more than 20 years ago. The program, which is for fifth-graders, was cut for the 2009-10 school year to save the school division more than $200,000. Parents, however, say musical instruction at a young age is priceless. "If you don't start them at a young age, to get them to start as they get older is very difficult," said Hanover resident Debbie Glover, whose two boys began playing with the strings program in fifth grade at Washington-Henry Elementary School. The boys, now at Atlee High and Chickahominy Middle schools, still play in their school strings groups. "They cultivated something," Glover said. "It's been a part of why they're successful in school." When times are tight, school divisions look to cut art and music programs to preserve jobs or fund core-subject areas that are tied to state tests. Hanover School Board Chairman Bob Hundley said the school division's budget advisory committee looked at all non-Standards of Quality programs in the months leading up to the budget adoption. The school division was facing a $15 million budget shortfall, and art and music classes were among those programs considered for cuts. He said the strings program also was identified because it used part-time teaching positions. The $200,000 savings included salaries for the equivalent of three full-time teaching positions. However, teachers rotate from school to school instead of each school having its own strings teacher. They also teach other classes besides the strings program. Under the budget committee's guidelines, part-time positions were considered for cuts before full-time positions. "The goal now is to try and create an after-school program or a summer school program to replace that class," Hundley said. That may require parents to pay for the music instruction, he said. "It's not an easy decision whenever you have to take classes off-line," Hundley added. Hanover isn't the only school district in central Virginia making cuts to music and arts programs. Chesterfield County school officials have cut $78,000 countywide from instrument repair and purchase. Shawn Smith, spokesman for Chesterfield schools, said individual schools are working out the details about how the cuts will affect them. School officials in other central Virginia districts, including Henrico County and the Tri-Cities, say they aren't making any cuts to arts programs. Richmond officials say they don't anticipate cutting any arts programs.

//Contact Holly Prestidge at (804) 649-6945 or hprestidge@timesdispatch.com .//

Hello Everyone,

Steve Rogers and I wanted to see if any of you were familiar with the collaborative content management system called **Blackboard**. The link above should take you to their brochure which seems to touch on many of the points of need we discussed on Thursday afternoon. Here are a few highlights of this product, quoted from their brochure:

I am familiar with Blackboard but I think launching a Content/Course Management System may be premature. Blackboard is also quite pricey. If the tech director is savvy in open source, Moodle is an alternative and the price is right. Also, I'm curious about the specific aspects of Blackboard that could be utilized in this endeavor. Don't get me wrong, I like what Blackboard offers, I'm just not making the connection -Hiram
 * The Blackboard Content System was developed with input from partner institutions to meet the demands particular to academic organizations and to support some of the most innovative uses of technology on today’s campuses. The Blackboard Content System stores and controls access to reusable content objects created by users across an institution.
 * With an intuitive, browser–based interface, and robust security and system administration features, the Blackboard Content System offers capabilities in three important areas: ** collection **, **sharing** and ** discovery **  of learning content.
 * Content and File Management allows content and files to be managed and shared without the need for duplication. Collaboration is enabled across educational institutions.
 * Versioning allows users to automatically archive and track previous versions of their files.
 * Disk Space and Bandwidth Management tools enable System Administrators to control the amount of disk space and establish bandwidth limits for individuals, courses and organizations.
 * Discovery capabilities give institutions the ability to easily categorize and share their highest quality learning objects. Library content can be integrated into online courses while effectively managing digital copyright requirements.
 * Administration - The Blackboard Content System includes core capabilities that encompass enterprise scalability, multi-language support, and an open architecture that facilitates extending the system and integrating it with other applications.

Could we hear more about why these systems are used in school teaching or other settings and then what this Moodle alternative does; also what is the cost? Chuck Chuck, as mentioned above, Blackboard and Moodle are course management systems(CMS). They enable a teacher/school to post assignments, tests, discussions, post notes, and a whole host of other items. In my opinion, I don't think this is the direction Richmond Center Stage should go. CMS's are powerful tools but I don't think this technology would benefit the scope of the project. Perhaps as the project matures and the amount of material increases to the point where a CMS would be beneficial but I believe it is the school's responsiblity for deploying this type of tech and linking to Richmond Center Stage for the information they need. That said, it will be sometime before all of the surrounding counties and the City of Richmond agree on a CMS.

Hiram