To recap what’s happened so far: Audrey Watters called our attention to a patent filing by Khan Academy. I expressed my concerns about the continuing patent problem that we have in educational technology. Carl Straumsheim explained the defensive use of patents in more detail and in the process motivated me to take a look at […]
Ed Tech Patent Update: The Innovator’s Agreement
Carl Straumsheim has a good piece out on the Khan Academy patent Inside Higher Ed today. Much of it is a primer on the uses and limitations of defensive patents, but there is a piece on the specific nature of the patent pledge that Khan Academy has signed that I missed. The pledge, originally created […]
The Massive Decline In Larger Education Company Market Caps
After our coverage of Blackboard’s CEO change last week, we were both interviewed by the Washington Business Journal, with the following lede: Analysts and sources I spoke with Monday, both on and off the record, said the decision to bring on Bill Ballhaus as CEO was a combination of Bhatt failing to make progress building […]
Solving the Ed Tech Patent Problem
You may have heard that Khan Academy has filed for several patents. Audrey Watters has written a really strong piece providing the details of the filings in the context of the history of ed tech patents and showing why some academics feel that the patent system clashes with the values upon which academia was built. In the process, she excavates some of my personal history in the Blackboard patent war.
Parent Company of University of Phoenix Could Be Sold to Owner of McGraw-Hill Education
Apollo Education Group, parent company of the University of Phoenix as well as Apollo Global, is in “advanced talks” to be purchased by Apollo Global Management, owner of McGraw-Hill Education and of Cengage debt. Got that? To clarify, the Apollo Education Group is the parent company of the University of Phoenix, and they have a […]
What Blackboard’s New CEO Needs to Do Now (and how you can tell if he’s doing it)
As Phil noted in his post, Blackboard has hired a new CEO, a guy by the name of Bill Ballhaus. We don’t know much about him yet, other than that he came from outside education. (That shouldn’t be considered a disqualifier, by the way. Instructure CEO Josh Coates also came from outside education, for example, […]
Blackboard Replaces CEO Jay Bhatt: What happened
Just over four years since Providence Equity Partners acquired Blackboard and three years after they brought in Jay Bhatt to replace co-founder Michael Chasen, the company announced another change in CEO. Blackboard has removed Jay Bhatt and replaced him with Bill Ballhaus. The official reason from the announcement: Today, we are fortunate to be joined […]