Ed Tech Talk #58 - Community Forum on DOPA and the Blackboard Patent

Community Forum on DOPA and the Blackboard Patent
Part 1
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Part#1 of our Community forum includes an overview of these two critical issues, presentation of a message sent by BlackBoard CEO, Michael Chasen, reaction from Desire2Learn Director of Marketing, John McLeod, and commentary from Michael Feldstein and Stephen Downes. More audio, including our break out discussions and a chat with Moodle founder, Martin Dougiamas, will be uploading soon.

Quicklinks

 BlackBoard

Commentary

 

DOPA

Commentary

Comments from  BlackBoard CEO, Michael Chasen

Dear Mr. Cormier:

Thank you for extending an invite to Blackboard to participate in this evening's EdTech program. While we appreciate your effort to include Blackboard, at this time we are unable to participate. Please find a few comments we hope you will provide for your audience during the program from Blackboard's president and CEO Michael Chasen:
 
"I believe there has been a great deal of confusion about the scope of the patent and our intentions behind the legal action.

Following is a brief history around our patent.  After the release of our first products - back in 1998, a core group of people at Blackboard looked at the CMS technology available at the time and identified improvements that would enable the CMS to function as a true enterprise application for educational institutions.  We focused our resources on developing solutions with the student-centric functionality to allow the Blackboard CMS to serve the increasingly complex needs of the industry. Though we were still in our early stages as a small player in the software industry, we recognized the importance of protecting our innovations in our products.  As a result, seven years ago, we filed for patent protection on these developments in various countries around the world.

Please know that the patent covers only specific features and functionality contained in the Blackboard system that were developed by the Blackboard team.  We certainly did not invent e-learning or course management systems, and I am personally embarrassed that this is what some people have stated that Blackboard is claiming. 

Over the last decade and longer, fantastic advancements have been made throughout the e-learning industry by a diverse and passionate community of individuals and institutions and Blackboard is privileged to have been a contributor.  We hope that such innovations will continue.  

We are asking Desire2Learn for a reasonable royalty for their use of our intellectual property, which is in line and consistent with industry practices -- similar to the way in which Blackboard pays royalties to numerous companies for use of ideas they have developed and patented."

EdTechTalk: 21st Century Learning #5 from June 2, 2006

EdTechTalk: 21st Century Learning #5 - Rerun of our WebcastAcademy Show from June 2, 2006:

Alex and arvind are on vacation, so we're going to re-broadcast some of our WebcastAcademy shows to fill in until September.

Show #5 concentrated on accountability and expectations for administrators, faculty, and students. The show was motivated by Arvind's reading of this Edutopia Editor's Note

Also see our show notes and the chat transcript.


Download mp3 (16.58MB 36:13)


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EdTechTalk#57- An Interview with Elana Langer

EdTechTalk#57 - An Interview with Elana Langer
July 30th, 2006
Download mp3 (20.2MB, 44:08)

I ran into a very interesting person on Friday. She started talking about micro-education projects in Brazil, cutting edge education at MIT and how the television was the key technology in breaking down accessibility barriers. I said... "wow, you've gotta come on the show and tell us about it." she said yes. 

Chat Transcript Below

Shows:

EdTechTalk: 21st Century Learning #12 for July 28, 2006

EdTechTalk: 21st Century Learning #12 for July 28, 2006:

Alex and arvind discussing what they are up to and how they are relaxing this summer. We also discussed the EducationBridges.net Elgg that has 102 users as of Monday, July 31, 2006.

Also, what are our plans after our summer vacation? Listen along to find out!

See the show notes.


Download mp3 (28.6MB 1:01:01)


Comments? Questions? Leave a text comment below or an audio comment to the left.

For show archives, check out our wiki.

EdTechTalk#56 - Worldbridges Education Division Meeting

EdTechTalk#56
July 23, 2006
Download mp3 (30.5MB, 1:06:30 )

A day of governance. We sat down with some people from the community and discussed where we are going on many issues. If you want to be involved in edtechtalk/educationbridges this'll be a great show. If you just like to listen and skip to the next track, this might be one to pass on by.

Shows:

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