Blackboard

The Blackboard model for course management systems in higher ed needs to change.

• Blackboard closes and hides the educational content and exchange. The future is an open and transparent (linkable) exchange http://www.okiproject.org/
  

• Blackboard is fundamentally built on the model of a professor centric delivery. Learning is about knowledge construction, and the technology most support student authoring and exchange.

• Free will dominate the new economy. Blackboard is expensive. Google should purchase Blackboard, make it free (what a cheap and perfect way to get users into the Google ecosystem), and do all the hosting on the Google OS (getting colleges out of the business of being server shops and back into what we know - doing education).

• Web 2.0 tools are already supplanting the internal, tightly controlled model that Blackboard represents. Can I use Google Aps - or publish to YouTube with Keynote?