Comments on: Life among the clueless: the Blackboard patent

By: BreezemanBangkok

BreezemanBangkok — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 01:26:14 +0000

Why aren’t I astounded?
Sorry, got to go. I have to patent a “learner learnt recovery tool” so all that money, earned as a result of knowledge ,can be redistributed to the rightful owners of that knowledge.
Maybe we’ll be able to sue our parents if we don’t have enough coded knowledge to begin with.
The mind boggles?

By: peter

peter — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 20:42:35 +0000

hi jay,

two things: first, i’d love to talk to you about e-learning usability (unrelated to this post, but i couldn’t get your contact form to work).

second, we’ve actually been approached by a company that has an equally ridiculious patent (i read the blackboard post) on delivering multimedia content to learners and reporting on progress to educators.

i’d love to see what you think about it.

peter

By: Chris Lavergne

Chris Lavergne — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 13:05:16 +0000

Haha. I wanted to get a patent on learning!

By: David Walls

David Walls — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 23:10:31 +0000

In my opinion, allegedly, in case they sue me.
DW.

By: David Walls

David Walls — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 23:09:05 +0000

Afterthought:

And by the way…. It’s not that good a product anyway.
DW.

By: David Walls

David Walls — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 23:06:46 +0000

Actually, I thought I would patent breathing, swallowing, farting and excreting. That way I would make a fortune on the crap, hot air, gulping and sharp intakes of breath caused by the reaction of total stunned incredulity to the Blackboard scenario, quite apart from the fortune I would make on just everyone living a normal life before Blackboard was ever thought of…. or was it? Surely it was copied from its many precursors????? I was doing all of what it says in the patent application in the ’70s. Wasn’t everyone????
DW.

By: ADEDGE : A Sense of Ownership...

ADEDGE : A Sense of Ownership... — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 22:00:56 +0000

[...] A Sense of Ownership… 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… [...]

By: Helge Staedtler

Helge Staedtler — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 21:49:38 +0000

You guys all can do what you like around this patenting question (patenting learning, thinking or even patenting the patenting-process).

It’s not worth anything in the end, because all your earned money from silly licenses (and this is what patenting is all about) is nothing of any long lasting worth after the next hyperinflation rolled across the globalized planet, but my individuality, ideas and creativity are. Isn’t it interesting, that by patenting thinking you could virtually stop all thinking which is not licensed (aka paid with money)? This must have been the ultimate idea behind “1984″. Why try to change language or try to patent language if you can patent thinking? Why not just exchange the abstract word of “patenting” by the word “controlling” or “allowing”? This would reveal its true meaning!

regards,
helge

By: iThinkMedia Blog: Living, Learning, and Working in the Information Age » Finally Some Outrage on The BlackBoard Patent

Thu, 03 Aug 2006 19:30:15 +0000

[...] http://internettime.com/wordpress/?p=667 [...]

By: Vanessa Haakenson

Vanessa Haakenson — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 19:11:29 +0000

Well said Jay — as I said in my blog post, this is one of those “give me a break” moments and I love the way you put it.

Hope to see you in Denver at the Training Solutions Conference in October.