Proof Blackboard Hates You
So Blackboard’s big time now (80% of the LMS market) and has bought out its rivals or sued them. Let’s ignore the fact that their product really is focused on administration rather than learning.
They made $4.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2007. So they’re not a one man shop barely getting by.
This is their idea of a search page for online documentation. Really. You’re not confused. Their search function is a really, really, really bad index. Really.
This was the final straw for me. I have declared a blood feud with Blackboard. One of us is going down.
Related posts
15 Years
Q Fifteen years. THE PRESIDENT: Fifteen years. Okay, so you've been teaching for 15 years. I'll bet you'll admit that during those 15 years there have been a couple of teachers that you've met — you don't have to say their names — (laughter) — who you would not put your child in their classroom. (Laughter.) See? Right? You're not saying anything. (Laughter.) You're taking the Fifth. (Laughter.) My point is that if we've done everything we can to improve teacher pay and teacher performance and training and development, some people just aren't meant to be teachers, just like some people aren't meant to be carpenters, some people aren't meant to be nurses. At some point they've got to find a new career. And it can't be impossible to move out bad teachers, because that brings — that makes everybody depressed in a school, if there are some folks — and it makes it harder for the teachers who are inheriting these kids the next year for doing their job. So there's got to be some accountability measures built in to this process. But I'm optimistic that we can make real progress on this front. But it's going to take some time. All right? via The White House – Press Office – Remarks by the President at “Open for Questions” […]
I Doubt I’m a Doubter . . .
Mike got all up in my grill for criticizing the CMS in education. I am apparently both a dreamer (but I’m not the only one) and a “doubter.” He even accused me of listening to Beach Boys music (I do have a theme song in mind for CMS’s – unless some knows a song dedicated to mediocrity?). I will ignore the fact that I was mainly talking about Blackboard and never mentioned HCPS’s Schoolspace. Although that military mindset is very much like some aspects of HCPS. Mike, be careful with that kind of talk you’re headed toward a job in the nugget factory and I don’t think that’s what you want. To put it simply, the use of the CMS in education is very often an admission of defeat. It is replacing agile and targeted with clumsy (often forced or coerced) mass adoption. It’s a cookie cutter response to what are very individual needs. You want a blog, she wants a discussion board. I (the lord of technology) will give you something that does that (sort of, in the next version- I swear!) and 43 other things you don’t want– only it does none of them very well. Now you should be happy. Right? I’d much rather work with individuals on tools they can control and tweak to really do […]
When Librarians Go Bad . . .
I saw this poster in a library the other day and it made me queasy. I like books. I like libraries. I dislike zealots and this kind of garbage. This poster is the kind of reactionary propaganda that does no one any good. The opening quote is below. Libraries are icons of our cultural intellect, totems to the totality of knowledge. To claim, as some now do, that the Internet is making libraries obsolete is as silly as saying shoes have made feet unnecessary. Wow. Icons and totality. He almost makes Internet zealots seem reasonable. To claim that there can ever be a “totality of knowledge” is egotistical and to claim the library somehow embodies “totality” is absurd. Libraries, by their very nature, have to exclude huge amounts of information and make editorial decisions regarding content inclusion. There’s plenty of good and plenty of bad in that. To use the feet/shoes metaphor is equally misguided. Libraries and the internet aren’t comparable to feet and shoes. That would seem to indicate that a library is an organic component of a society, like feet are a part of the body and the Internet is an add-on whose main purpose is to protect, or possibly enhance, the library. Neither is the case. Libraries are places we’ve put information. The Internet is a place […]
Trackbacks and Pingbacks on this post
No trackbacks.
- TrackBack URL
Comments on this post
I join you in this blood feud, and let me tell you how glad I am to be fighting along side you, as opposed to the other way round 🙂
You don’t stand alone, brother.
Is there a rogue install of Moodle on the university servers lurking in the future for you, Tom?
Why ya’ll frontin’ yo! Its cause of Blackboard that I’ms able to pay my billz! Go head on with that Moodle communist bullschnap – I’m tryna get paid! [/sarcasm]