I can’t believe that educational institutions happily do business with companies like this! Black$Board is using school and higher ed $$$$$$$$$ to fund legal actions against smaller companies such as Desire2Learn (D2L).
Black$Board has managed to patent a system that allows individual users to log-in with a single procedure to access multiple courses. What a joke! I can’t believe they’ve managed to patent that! I can access my multiple blogs and wikis through single log-in procedures! WetPaint and WordPress watch out! Black$Board might be taking you to court soon because they’ve just succeeded in arguing that D2L has infringed Black$Board’s patent rights.
Our educational leadership signs contracts with mobs like Black$Board, and then spruiks how being involved with them is much, much better than using something free and more agile as an LMS (such as a wiki or blog). These LMS companies (including D$2L) are just rorting already-underfunded educational institutions out of money that could be going to professional development or improved infrastructure. Black$Board is just in it for the money, don’t kid yourself. In that sense, they are no different from any other internet company — except that their product is waaaaaaay poorer than most, they have hoodwinked educators into believing it’s all about the learnin’ (when it’s not — it’s all about the $$$$$$$$), and they have a monopoly over the market. It’s a disgrace.
Tags: BlackBoard, EduBusiness, Education politics, Educational leadership, LMSs, Opinion
