ADEDGE

Blackboard Awarded Patent on e-Learning Technology

Hardly surpising that this one skipped under our radar given the content of news programmes these last few days.  Anyway, you could be forgiven  for checking the calendar when hearing this - but no - it is not April 1st., the US Patents Office have actually granted a 'Broad Patent'  to Blackboard Inc the supplierof the eponymous learning management sysytem.

Blackboard have applied and been granted a patent for:

"A system and methods for implementing education online by providing institutions with the means for allowing the creation of courses to be taken by students online, the courses including assignments, announcements, course materials, chat and whiteboard facilities, and the like, all of which are available to the students over a network such as the Internet."

As a slow fury erupts amongst educational bloggers - read Stephen Downes  for a comprehensive listing as of 3rd August - my favourite reaction so far is this post from Jay Cross which ends with:

"By the way, I'm filing a patent on learning. It's a process by which the brain of a human being connects neural pathways in response to outside stimuli. The patent includes, ipso facto, hearing, sight, smell, taste, talking and feeling. If you don't cease learning immediately, you will hear from my attorney, ab abusu ad usum non valet consequentia, ab irato, et audentes fortuna iuvat."

Could get interesting...