Why, Blackboard, why?

Our institution (as I suspect do many others) has a love/hate relationship with Blackboard. Two years ago we had almost no engagement, now we have over 75% of courses using it to some degree to support student learning. Tutors have begun to love it a bit more, students have begun hating it a bit less. And just when it's starting to get better the management announce a review of the university's online learning provision which could well end in a move to Moodle.

Life, as they say, is never easy.

But the looming review of Blackboard has obliged me to consider the available technologies for supporting student learning, and I found myself asking the question 'why hasn't Blackboard embraced social learning'? Having participated in the recent change11 MOOC, and as a regular participant in Jane Hart's excellent Social Learning community it is clearly evident that undergraduate students are researching, obtaining and sharing information in a way that has changed significantly in even the last 2 - 3 years. To me, incorporating a social element into any online learning experience appears to be a no-brainer, so why isn't Blackboard evolving to incorporate such features as activity streams to facilitate communication and information-sharing on a university course?

To add insult to injury I recently discovered that their Facebook Sync application is no longer supported. Why? I can only assume one of the following is true:

1. They are so removed from their user base that they genuinely have no idea of the importance of social learning
2. They genuinely believe that social learning is a fad that will pass and the one-way transmission of information between student and tutor will soon make a comeback
3. They are so enormously wealthy that they genuinely don't care about the changing nature of online learning 

So in addition to managing a Blackboard upgrade I'm now faced with the prospect of investigating the potential for a Wordpress/Buddypress VLE to enable tutors and students to explore more collaborative ways of learning.

It's not as if I had any plans for the summer anyway...

From 'Command and Control' to 'Encourage and Engage'

This presentation by Jane Hart explores the tension between institutional learning/IT systems and an increasing need for employees to seek their own solutions from personal knowledge networks. It is interesting as it highlights the growing trend towards learner autonomy and lifelong learning.

From "Command & Control" to "Encourage & Engage"

View more presentations from Jane Hart

And so it begins... #change11

Having already been a naughty student and missed the orientation week, I've been doing my best to catch up this weekend and prepare myself for the #change11 MOOC. The resources provided by the facilitators have been very helpful in presenting a concept of what we're dealing with but I get a sense that this is only the beginning!

Following Stephen's advice on defining expectations I'm going to begin by aiming to have meaningful discussions with peers around the topic of what it means to learn online in 2011. I'm going to aim to commit to 30 mins a day, and I'm doing my best to add three comments per day to the discussions - so far so good. Daily tweets are a long way off at the moment but we'll see how we go...

Really excited to be learning with you all!

Tony