EduGeek Journal

Last year it seemed like every new LMS company was trying to position itself as the “Facebook” of online learning. Then Facebook started to make everyone angry (or bored, or both), and we saw that idea dry up pretty quick (well, for the most part). The new catch phrase battle seems to be heating up [...]

Blackboard recently announced that they have melded the two video conferencing services they bought (Wimba and Elluminate) into one service. The new service is being called a new version of Blackboard Collaborate. The usual language accompanied this news – they took the best of both worlds, tested it with universities, got feedback, etc. Blackboard always promises [...]

Katrina turned me on to a new Course Management System called CourseKit.  The kicker about this one is that it was conceived and designed by three students with full time course loads because they weren’t happy with Blackboard. First of all, I have to say that if students are having problems with Blackboard, to the [...]

Seems like Blackboard’s legal battle to enforce one of its patents is finally over.  Patent No. 6,988,138 basically made the claim that Blackboard invented the idea that a single course-management software user could have multiple roles in multiple classes. The patent was initially granted but soon overturned.  Blackboard vowed to fight. But so did the [...]

The Borg has struck again: this time Elluminate and Wimba are being assimilated. I can’t say that this makes me sad for either of those two companies. I have long held the position that synchronous tools destroys the killer aspect of online learning – it removes the ANY from “any time, any where learning.”  But [...]

For the few that haven’t heard yet – Blackboard and Desire2Learn have both reached an agreement to stop all legal activities against each other. And that is about all we know about it, because both sides are not revealing any reason or motive for this move. Many are happy to hear this and are proclaiming [...]

I read an article about some new lawsuit Blackboard is filing against someone that they really shouldn’t because… well, the Borg has so many lawsuits out there now that I just can’t keep the details straight.  But the deal is… it’s another lawsuit.  That million dollars your institution is spending to use with Bb over [...]

The nets are ringing today with the shot heard ’round the LMS: a federal appeals court finally invalidated Blackboard’s silly 1999 patent.  I  have to admit, at one point I had lost hope that sanity would ever prevail in this case.  This is far from over, but at least someone out there in our court [...]

Katrina and Shaun have made the trek to dangerous country this week: BbWorld 2009! They have sent back the following video report of the event: Shocking and entertaining all at the same time! Remember you two – don’t drink the Kool-Aid! Tweet This Post

If you haven’t already read the interesting article on how some colleges are weighing using blogs instead of Blackboard at The Chronicle, check it out here: Colleges Consider Using Blogs Instead of Blackboard It has a fairly balanced look at both sides of the issue. The last paragraph proves my point that I have made [...]