__/ [ 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...
Best wishes,
Roy
PS - You included some good citations that will sure serve someone in the
future. The first among them is the one I posted to PJ last night.
--
Roy S. Schestowitz | Never awaking askew, no matter what they ask you
http://Schestowitz.com | SuSE GNU/Linux ¦ PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
run-level 5 Jul 20 12:15 last=S
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