Congratulations to our K-12 Catalyst Award Winners!

community - parents, local citizens, business leaders, real estate agents and staff. This unique, sustainable program has created a ripple effect of positive communication and a stronger sense of community across the district. Blackboard Engage User Adoption Strategy Award School District of Palm Beach County, Educational Technology Team - Gary Weidenhamer The online professional development program at Palm Beach has trained 1,870 teachers on effective use of Edline in the 18 months it has been available. This is in addition to the thousands of hours of in-person training provided by the Educational Technology Team over the last seven years. Blackboard Engage Communication Strategy Award St. Philip the Apostle Parish, St. Philip Religious Education Department - Mrs. Nancy McKnight The St. Philip religious education department established itself as a leader in using and promoting electronic communications. By leveraging the Edline Learning Community Management System by Blackboard Engage, they were able to not only increase their communications levels, but make them more targeted and meaningful while saving time and money previously spent on nearly 10,000 paper communications delivered each year. Blackboard Engage Comprehensive Technology Strategy Award Cupertino Union School District, CUSD Intranet Team - Mr. Jeremy Nishihara The use of Edline LCMS permissions architecture allowed CUSD to implement a no-cost employee intranet that is accessible from any location. To date, there are 1,500 employees activated in Edline, which is over 95% of all district employees. Blackboard Learn & Blackboard Collaborate Staff Development Award Hawaii Department of Education, Joanna Dunn The Office of Fiscal Services, part of the Hawaii Department of Education, committed to leverage online learning to increase training regardless of budget and geographic constraints. In partnership with the Hawaii Virtual Learning Network, a statewide training program for SASAs (School Administrative Services Assistants) was born. The SASA Academy was designed to serve two purposes: 1) to provide current SASAs with correct technical information, and 2) to assist potential new SASAs in meeting their career goals. Blackboard Learn & Blackboard Collaborate Staff Development Award Florida Virtual School, Iris Santiago FLVS developed a comprehensive Professional Learning Program utilizing the Blackboard Collaborate software to deliver Beneficial Instructional Training to Engage the Staff (BITES). The purpose of the BITES program is to provide all employees at FLVS the opportunity to engage in both synchronous and on-demand training which is specific to their roles and responsibilities within the organization. Blackboard Learn Beyond the Course Award Medina City Schools, Stacy Hawthorne Medina City Schools used the Community Engagement and Content Management modules to create a fully customized and engaging portal for corporate training and organizational development that has facilitated job readiness and professional development for over 5,000 staff and faculty members.

The Blackboard Catalyst Awards honor those who push the boundaries of their educational programs and technology in order to deliver innovative and effective learning experiences in a variety of categories. Congratulations to our K-12 winners!

Each of our winners will be honored at BbWorld this summer! Help us celebrate your colleagues - register now!

Blackboard Collaborate Hall of Fame Award Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School, Nicole Gianvito & Andy Petro The Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School has grown to be the largest and most successful cyber charter school in the state of Pennsylvania, specifically because of its use of Blackboard Collaborate. It has been able to demonstrate that students enrolled in its synchronous courses make more academic gains than students taking asynchronous courses, so the cyber school therefore requires that students who have scored basic or below basic on their state assessments participate in synchronous classes so they can benefit from online direct instruction. Blackboard Mobile Innovation Award Carey Baptist Grammar School, Kylie Taig Carey Baptist Grammar School transformed an annual field trip experience that was previously done using pen and paper to be done all on mobile devices using Blackboard Mobile Learn. They measured student attitudes and elements of performance (# of items completed, etc.) and found that engagement was much higher with mobile devices than it had been in previous years. Blackboard Connect Communications Strategy Award Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District, Matt Warnock Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD created an ambassador training program to foster well-informed and highly engaged public school "champions" from various segments of the