BBC: New social network aimed at improving education (IBM Connections)

by with One Comment IBM Connections

This is terrific – a BBC Click article discussing how IBM is help local education institutions to evaluate the use of social platforms and analytics to assist students to learn:

IT company IBM and Brockenhurst College in the UK have created a private social network to help give staff a better understanding of their students and tailor lessons to them.

Students can use the system to find out more information about their course, watch videos and chat with others at a sister college in China.

The network can also monitor social media – with consent – to see if students might be underperforming or struggling.

The solution features IBM Connections.

Check the BBC article to view a short overview video (hopefully available worldwide), those in the UK can watch the full programme.

Social Business App Dev Workshop: access IBM Connections development course materials at no cost

by with One Comment IBM ConnectionsTraining & Education

On occasion, IBM runs an excellent two day Social Business Application Development workshop, which takes users through the Social Business Toolkit SDK, and how it can be used to create applications that leverage IBM Connections content.

Sadly these workshops have not been scheduled yet in 2014. However, the course materials are available for free download from the IBM Greenhouse to be used on a self-paced basis:

SBT WorkshopThe Social Business Toolkit (SBT) SDK is a set of extensible tools and resources for developers who want to incorporate social capabilities into their applications and business processes. Social capabilities include features and functionality that tap into the power of social interactions, business networks, community-based problem solving, and more.

This two day workshop will demonstrate how to use the capabilities of the SBT SDK to integrate social data (from IBM Connections) into existing applications. In this workshop, you will learn how to install, configure, and begin using the SBT SDK. The development exercises in this workshop will cover topics such as the SBT SDK JavaScript and Java APIs, and how to build and deploy a SBT SDK J2EE application on WebSphere Application Server. You will also learn how to integrate into the IBM Connections Activity Stream and develop iWidgets.

Event highlights

  • Learn how to create your own social application development sandbox
  • Learn how to build socially enabled applications using the SBT SDK JavaScript and Java APIs
  • Learn how to build and deploy iWidgets
  • Learn how to integrate into the IBM Connections Activity Stream using OpenSocial and Embedded Experiences
  • Learn how to leverage existing IBM resources to build and promote your applications to clients

Materials: Social Business Application Development

This course is recommended for any developers that wish to utilise the SBT or bring social content into their own applications. Kudos to IBM for making this available to all…