One of the side effects of my continuing recovery from the holiday cell phone culture shock is that I've had my ear a little closer to the bluetooth headset pulse of the street when it comes to the happenings in the mobile world. So imagine my excitement upon reading (care of Bryan Alexander) about the latest move by the big dawg on the CMS block.
Apparently our friends at Blackboard have recently dropped a few coins (ie nearly $200 million) to acquire the NTI group - a private company which specializes in distributing messages to a lot of people via multiple mediums, quickly. And you better believe that includes SMS/ Text messaging capabilities. If I hadnt just used the orly bird in my last post, you would be saying a life size one right about here. So you'll have to settle for the noise I made when I heard the news. That never gets old =)
Blackboard had my attention years ago, when my sister (a Florida State graduate and former Blackboard user) noticed me using Angel during a holiday break, and politely commented that it was the most awkward thing she'd ever seen. Their pursuit of a Facebook interface via the Coursefeed app raised my eyebrow higher than The Rock's when they proposed the idea for the Scorpion King 2 <shudder> But with this news... well...
Yikes! Well now you know why I type ;-)
All Angel bashing aside, I do give Penn State credit for the implementation of the PSUTXT service, which was created to provide text messaging in the event of an emergency or campus closing. I think its a great idea, and I applaud the administration for pushing for it, especially in the wake of the Virginia Tech tragedy last year.
But with the Blackboard press release, the bar has been set even higher. Why should a text messaging service stop with emergency communication? Why can't it be used for the full spectrum of educational communication? Why not offer up a mobile version of the discussion activity? Or create entirely new ways to think and write collaboratively like the twitter fictional writing that Brad had talked about? Or provide mobile device ready media? Or design learning experiences around a classroom without walls. Or a million other potential uses that could emerge with the help a text message supporting CMS.
I know there are at least a handful of people here at Penn State who are looking into ways to use mobile devices that would blow your mind (including my new office mate, Jason Wolfe). And like I said, I do commend the PSUTXT effort. But that doesnt keep me from tossing some serious love to the folks at Blackboard for their efforts to take advantage of everything they can to give education a little giddyup.
Images from movies.yahoo.com and flashtoybox.com
Apparently our friends at Blackboard have recently dropped a few coins (ie nearly $200 million) to acquire the NTI group - a private company which specializes in distributing messages to a lot of people via multiple mediums, quickly. And you better believe that includes SMS/ Text messaging capabilities. If I hadnt just used the orly bird in my last post, you would be saying a life size one right about here. So you'll have to settle for the noise I made when I heard the news. That never gets old =)
Blackboard had my attention years ago, when my sister (a Florida State graduate and former Blackboard user) noticed me using Angel during a holiday break, and politely commented that it was the most awkward thing she'd ever seen. Their pursuit of a Facebook interface via the Coursefeed app raised my eyebrow higher than The Rock's when they proposed the idea for the Scorpion King 2 <shudder> But with this news... well... Yikes! Well now you know why I type ;-)
All Angel bashing aside, I do give Penn State credit for the implementation of the PSUTXT service, which was created to provide text messaging in the event of an emergency or campus closing. I think its a great idea, and I applaud the administration for pushing for it, especially in the wake of the Virginia Tech tragedy last year.
But with the Blackboard press release, the bar has been set even higher. Why should a text messaging service stop with emergency communication? Why can't it be used for the full spectrum of educational communication? Why not offer up a mobile version of the discussion activity? Or create entirely new ways to think and write collaboratively like the twitter fictional writing that Brad had talked about? Or provide mobile device ready media? Or design learning experiences around a classroom without walls. Or a million other potential uses that could emerge with the help a text message supporting CMS.
I know there are at least a handful of people here at Penn State who are looking into ways to use mobile devices that would blow your mind (including my new office mate, Jason Wolfe). And like I said, I do commend the PSUTXT effort. But that doesnt keep me from tossing some serious love to the folks at Blackboard for their efforts to take advantage of everything they can to give education a little giddyup.
Images from movies.yahoo.com and flashtoybox.com
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