On the one hand, Thomson Reuters’ lawsuit against Zotero has been dismissed. Details are scant at this point. We don’t yet know the grounds for dismissal or whether Thomson Reuters will pursue other legal action. On the other hand, the U.S. International Trade Commission has agreed to investigate whether Desire2Learn is violating trade laws with patent infringement on some of the claims in Blackboard’s original ‘138 patent.
Category: Ed Tech
The “Ed Tech” category includes posts about educational technology products themselves, including LMSs and other learning platforms, adaptive learning and other digital curricular materials products, learning analytics, and educational apps of all types. It also includes technical aspects of ed tech products, especially interoperability.
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Does Google Wave Mean the End of the LMS?
I suppose it was inevitable. At a time when even The Chronicle is asking whether Blackboard can be replaced by WordPress, a slick demo of a super-cool product like Wave was bound to trigger breathless speculation about the demise of the LMS. Equally predictably, the most enthusiastic predictions that the LMS will be replaced are being made by people who have already replaced their LMS. It is not terribly shocking to read Jim Groom predicting that this time the LMS is REALLY doomed!!!! (I mean that to be taken affectionately.) If you are comfortable teaching a class using WordPress or PBWiki or [insert hip and free Web 2.0 technology du jour], then there is a good chance that you will be comfortable teaching a class with Wave.
Me, I’m a live-and-let-live kind of guy. I think people who are comfortable using these flexible tools and who don’t want the traditional trappings of an LMS (e.g., grade book, assignments tool, test engine, etc.) should be able to have what they want, while the people who want the full LMS toolset should also have what they want. That’s one reason why I think we need a Learning Management Operating System (LMOS) upon which flexible and individualized virtual learning environments can be instantiated. If you want a grade book and a test engine, great. We got those. If you don’t want ’em, that’s fine too. Let pedagogical needs and university policies drive these decisions rather than the technology.
So the question I’m interested in is more nuanced than the one of whether the LMS is “dead.” What I want to know is where Wave could fit with the range of capabilities that somebody might want in a virtual learning environment. What is it not good for? What else does it need?
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The Sakai Product Council
I am delighted to announce that I have been selected to be a part of Sakai’s new Product Council. As Michael Korcuska explains,
The Product Council has two important roles: determining which components will be included as part of each product release, and informally advising projects as they progress from R&D to production-ready maturity. As a community-developed open source project, components of each product release are contributed from many different institutions, companies and individuals. The Product Council is the coordinating body for each release, and will work to assure the product’s evolution continues to meet the needs of the educational community in terms of functionality, production worthiness, and usability.
The group sports an all-star cast. I am honored to be in their company.
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What Intrigues Me About Google Wave
Now that I’ve had a little while to think about it, I’m ready to distill my initial enthusiastic reaction to Google Wave down to a manageably short (and hopefully non-fanboi) post. Let me say at the outset that I have no idea whether Wave will succeed. I am convinced, however, that something like Wave will succeed, in part because much about it is not new. My initial thought was was, “Hey, somebody finally got Apple’s OpenDoc to work.” Scott Wilson twittered that Google had reinvented ActiveX. In some ways, Wave is, like many great inventions, an old idea with some new twists. This is not to minimize the value of those twists. To the contrary, they are astonishing. My point is simply that the essence of Wave will survive whether ore not Wave itself is a success because many of the core ideas have been proven to be compelling in the past.At any rate, there are a number of elements to Wave that are particularly attractive and likely to change practice in the field of e-learning:
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Uh…Wow
I want to write about what the implications of Google Wave are for educational technology, but I’m afraid that I’ll end up writing a book. And I’m still digesting. I usually try very hard to avoid hyperbole when talking about new technology (or any technology) but, really and truly, this could change everything.
You must watch this video. It’s an hour and twenty minutes. Be prepared to be mesmerized for every minute of it.
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Anti-trust: Curiouser and Curiouser
Here’s the chronology for the Blackboard anti-trust investigation as far as we know so far:
- May 14th: The U.S. Department of Justice contacts Desire2Learn and informs them that they are investigating the merger.
- May 22nd: According to their subsequent legal filing, Blackboard “received a voluntary request for information” from DoJ.
- May 26th: Desire2Learn goes public with what they know about the investigation.
- May 27th: Blackboard files an 8-K statement informing investors that they have received the request from the DoJ.
A couple of things are odd about this chronology. First, is it really plausible that DoJ didn’t contact Blackboard until eight days after they contacted D2L? Blackboard is careful in the language of their filing; they don’t indicate that the request for information on the 22nd was their first contact from the Department of Justice. Second, is it normal for Blackboard to wait until 5 days after the contact (granting that three of those days were a holiday weekend) to file the 8-K?
I’m certainly not an expert in this area of the law, so if any readers out there can provide insight into what could be going on here and to what degree it matters, please do share. For that matter, if anyone out there has anti-trust experience and can explain what DoJ’s options are going forward, that would be very helpful.
Meanwhile I have heard from a surprising number of LMS vendors that they have been contacted by DoJ. Clearly, the government is taking this seriously. In most cases, these appear to be just initial contacts. I haven’t heard yet from any schools, although Jeff Young’s reporting at The Chronicle indicates that schools are being contacted. Again, if you are at a school and have had some contact with the DoJ over this issue, please let me know.
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Has the Department of Justice Called You?
Jeff Young from The Chronicle of Higher Education has a well-researched piece up on the Department of Justice’s early steps toward investigating ANGEL’s acquisition by Blackboard. If anybody out there has talked to the DoJ and would like to share some details, please let me know. You can contact me privately at michael [at] mfeldstein [dot] com.