__/ [ Mark Kent ] on Tuesday 29 August 2006 21:35 \__
> begin oe_protect.scr
> Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
>> __/ [ nessuno@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ] on Tuesday 29 August 2006 11:36 \__
>>
>>> Quote:
>>> ------------
>>> Every day, millions of students taking online college courses act in
>>> much the same way as their bricks-and-mortar counterparts. After
>>> logging on, they move from course to course and do things like submit
>>> work in virtual drop boxes and view posted grades - all from a
>>> program running on a PC.
>>> Click to learn more...
>>>
>>> It may seem self-evident that virtual classrooms should closely
>>> resemble real ones. But a major education software company contends it
>>> wasn't always so obvious. And now, in a move that has shaken up the
>>> e-learning community, Blackboard Inc. has been awarded a patent
>>> establishing its claims to some of the basic features of the software
>>> that powers online education.
>>> -------------
>>> End quote
>>>
>>> http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060827/ap_on_hi_te/e_learning_dispute
>>>
>>> See also:
>>>
>>>
>>
http://money.netscape.cnn.com/story.jsp?floc=FF-APO-1333&idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20060827%2F1457575948.htm&sc=1333
>>> http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=2362437
>>> http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/02/1217219
>>>
>>> This may appear to be just a new, obnoxious example of patent trolling
>>> (in this case by Blackboard). However, there are connections between
>>> Blackboard and Microsoft:
>>>
>>> http://www.blackboard.com/company/press/release.aspx?id=510542
>>> http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/751121
>>> http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2001/04/23/daily13.html
>>> http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2001/12/04/news/4013.shtml
>>> http://chronicle.com/free/v48/i13/13a02701.htm
>>>
>>> Quote:
>>> ----------
>>> Charlene A. Douglas isn't surprised that Microsoft wants to get into
>>> the booming business
>>> of online-software systems for higher education, or that it has
>>> recently formed a close alliance with Blackboard, a company whose
>>> software helps colleges put their courses on the Internet....
>>>
>>> In what the two companies call a "preferred relationship," Microsoft
>>> will promote Blackboard to its education customers and Blackboard will
>>> suggest that its clients use the Microsoft Windows operating system to
>>> run Blackboard on their servers to take advantage of special features
>>> available only to Microsoft users.
>>> ----------
>>> End quote
>>>
>>> See also:
>>> http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release_html_b1?release_id=98283
>>
>> I have read somewhere else about Microsoft's attempts to sabotage the
>> adoption of projects such as Moodle. I think it was also mentioned in the
>> LUG when one of the members introduced Moodle to us, giving a thorough
>> walkthrough.
>>
>> It was a pretty impressive system. And it reuses a lot of GPL'd
>> components, like the majority of the well-tested stuff you find at the top
>> of SourceForge. No wonder Microsoft is scared. Student require nothing but
>> a Web browser to do their learning nowadays. From home, as well as from
>> the clusters at school. This obviates the need for Microsoft or
>> Windows-only software and when costs can be reduced at schools, license
>> fees will be abolished. Look at Kerala...
>>
>
> As you say, no wonder Microsoft are trying these very underhand tricks
> to deny people education at affordable prices. This is no different to
> the attempts to FUD the OLPC project. I wonder what MS have against
> people being educated - do you think that they'd be harder to con?
Kerala has made AFP.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060829/tc_afp/indiaeconomytechnologycompanymicrosoftlinux
Good photo
--
Roy S. Schestowitz | Useless fact: Every polar bear is left-handed
http://Schestowitz.com | GNU is Not UNIX | PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
roy pts/6 Tue Aug 29 05:12 - 05:15 (00:03)
http://iuron.com - proposing a non-profit search engine
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