There is a complete Blackboard help section on Finding Your Way Around as well as Core Resources and of course, Files and Folders.

Your new website has regions lettered from A to J and each area is special. Areas F through J can adjust their position and width based on what is stored there (it's called a Flex Column).

Where you'll be focused on the homepage:

Overview

Region D sits below region B (because region C overlays region B). Region E has a background color (tied to your school colors) with white text. If the spotlight is disabled, Region D sits directly on top of region E. If the spotlight is enabled, it sandwiches between regions D and E.

Note that the image from B can be shown in the spotlight, but if you have text on a picture it will make viewing that region hard. The transparency may be disabled to improve readability.

The spotlight looks great.A district admin can edit the content. If a spotlight is enabled, don’t put time-sensitive data there, such as teacher of the week.

Content is controlled by apps. Apps are Blackboard's term for what Intrado (Presence, our current webhost) calls Portlets.

If at anytime the descriptions in this text fail to explain an app, Blackboard has made a site to show off what the apps can do that you can access by clicking here.

Note that in the following section, I link out to Blackboard's instructions for various apps. Many of the apps tell you the first step is to download the app and install it. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO DOWNLOAD OR INSTALL ANYTHING; IT'S ALREADY IN PLACE.

There is more app information here on BlackBoard's help pages.

Since region A is for Alert texts, a content app (which is virtually the same as Intrado's Content Space Applet) can be placed here, so that you can type in text. If you want a tour of the content app, click here. Most image apps (a multimedia gallery, or a photo app) simply won't show. I put a map app up in region A, and it did not show.

Region B can only handle the multimedia gallery, which is abbreviated MMG. A map doesn't show here nor does a content app. Only the MMG.

Region C. This can handle all sorts of apps; content apps, maps, even content accordions! C can't do photo galleries, though. The trick to region C is that you have to go into the app's options and check the box next to "Show the app name on my page." If you don't, you'll get a white box without link text.

The rest of the regions are pretty universal, except for region H, which is hidden. Region H is good for putting an Embed Code app (for example, embedding the Let's Talk! app) but not something that needs to be visible, such as a web counter.

The Embed Code app can also let you embed social media, be it from YouTube, TeacherTube, Facebook, or Twitter as examples. Drag an embed code app into a space (probably in regions F-J) and copy that app's embed code. Note that I turned on the app names (for example, "Embed Code example using a tweet") to show off what I was doing in each section.