Teach! But not my way!
Who invented e-learning computing?
(AP) — Every day, millions of students taking online college courses act in much the same way as their bricks-and-mortar counterparts. After logging on, they move from course to course and do things like submit work in virtual drop boxes and view posted grades — all from a program running on a PC.
It may seem self-evident that virtual classrooms should closely resemble real ones. But a major education software company contends it wasn’t always so obvious. And now, in a move that has shaken up the e-learning community, Blackboard Inc. has been awarded a patent establishing its claims to some of the basic features of the software that powers online education.
The patent, awarded to the Washington, D.C.-based company in January but announced last month, has prompted an angry backlash from the academic computing community, which is fighting back in techie fashion — through online petitions and in a sprawling Wikipedia entry that helps make its case.
Critics say the patent claims nothing less than Blackboard’s ownership of the very idea of e-learning. If allowed to stand, they say, it could quash the cooperation between academia and the private sector that has characterized e-learning for years and explains why virtual classrooms are so much better than they used to be.
The patent is “is antithetical to the way that academia makes progress,” said Michael Feldstein, assistant director of the State University of New York’s online learning network and one of the bloggers who has criticized the company.
Blackboard, which recently became the dominant company in the field by acquiring rival WebCT, says the critics misunderstand what the patent claims. But the company does say it must protect its $100 million investment in the technology. The day the patent was announced, Blackboard sued rival Desire2Learn for infringement and is seeking royalties.
“It just wouldn’t be a level playing field if someone could come onto the scene tomorrow, copy everything that Blackboard and WebCT have done and call it their own,” said Blackboard general counsel Matthew Small.
Waterloo, Ontario-based Desire2Learn said it was surprised by the lawsuit but will defend itself vigorously. No court date has been set.
The dispute is part of a contentious area of the law concerning patents awarded not just on invented objects, but on ideas and processes. In theory, patents can be awarded on a whole range of ideas as long as they are “non-obvious” and the Patent Office sees no evidence they have been described before. Patents have been awarded for everything from types of credit card offers to methods of teaching a golf swing…
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Isn’t the world just going nuts! Of course it is not correct to copy software or already established work, for example if there is a company using a CD which does certain things like vocabulary checking, grammatical stuff, etc… it would be illegal to copy exactly the same software and publish it under another name.
But would it be illegal to create a own software? Maybe even better and similar? Obviously a teaching technique is a way of doing something and even if it’s possible to patent a way of teaching I think that it’s unfair to other teaching company’s to deny them a sort and way of teaching! I think it’s ridiculous! What matters is that people and teachers evolve and find new and better ways of sharing information! As long as you don’t steal the work of somebody, I think it IS OK if you spend your time and money in finding better ways of teaching!
Education is very important and especially here in Mexico. What would happen if there are new and better ways of teaching BUT the only company who has the “patent” of using it is way to expensive for many people! This is called a MONOPOLY Isn’t THAT illegal and supposed to belong to the “past”?
Anyways… I have already started developing a sort of learning program for the Mexican population and I will hope to work another year on it so soon everybody who has 5 pesos can go to a cyber cafe and log into the website and start learning FOR FREE! Yes for free! WHY? Well… because I have always believed that information should be free. It will cost me a lot of work to create and develop especially the video teachings, but… it’s the last thing I can give back to this world. And maybe I will encourage more people to see that many schools are more “busyness” than for “educational” purposes… and ESPECIALLY here in MEXICO! Teachers are paid bad and don’t even know their material or how to teach. I know this is not only in Mexico, and that by giving free online classes I wont change the world… but Mexico is being invaded from Americans and Europeans, and sad thing is that all these strangers WONT learn SPANISH. Well not ALL of them but the majority. WHY?
Because they expect the Mexicans to learn English… but you know what? The majority of Mexicans don’t earn more than 50-100 pesos a day (5-10 usd) and are not able to afford the money and time to go to English classes which makes this a devils circle since without English they wont be able to get a good job, etc… Think about this before screaming and shouting INJUSTICE! They are COPYING MY METHODS of teachings!
Comments are very welcome!
This is a OVI publication