Friday, December 10, 2010

Google vs. Blackboard - Is It a Reality?

Readers,

My husband and I are huge Google fans. In fact, I integrate Google into my blackboard course ANY POSSIBLE way that I can! Through my non-existent "power point slides"... they are all Google Presentations now... to my online assignments through Google Forms, I do not even have to log on to Blackboard (which can sometimes be a cumbersome process) to check students' progress on an assignment.

Lately, my husband has been asking... "So, why doesn't Google complete with Blackboard"? Apparently, a lot of people have been pondering the same question. Here's an article that I discovered today, "Google: Groupon? Not Blackboard?"

In the article, the author states, "Google should buy Blackboard and take the following actions:


  • Move gBlackboard as quickly as the market will bear to an all cloud-based, multi-tenancy delivery system. This will drastically reduce implementation costs, allowing the price of the software to drop quickly.
  • Deeply integrate gBlackboard with Google Apps for Education, gDrive (Google Storage), and the content available on YouTube/EDU.
  • Follow a plan to bring the licensing fee for public institutions to gBlackboard down to zero.

These actions may prove to be great moves for the increasing amount of cash-strapped higher education institutions who are actively seeking cost-cutting measures to help them stay afloat.

Google - If you hear us, we need an intervention!

Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

1 comment:

  1. I hadn't ever considered using Google for so many of my class needs. I love the idea of making everything a Google Presentation rather than worrying about cumbersome powerpoint. You are absolutely right that blackboard is in need of a refresh and an update of technology. Google would be the perfect provider.

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