Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google


Blackboard Adds BlackBerry App for Mobile Web Platform

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 11/09/09

Blackboard has added the Research in Motion BlackBerry to its list of supported devices for the new Blackboard Mobile platform. Its first public customer: the University of Washington. Mobile Central (formerly named MobilEdu) was initially optimized only for users of Apple iPhone and iPod Touch devices.

Originally developed by San Francisco-based Terriblyclever Design, a company acquired by Blackboard in July 2009, Mobile Central is branded for each institution and accessed by users who download their institution's application. The application gives users the ability to search course catalogs and view campus maps, e-mail professors and classmates, and receive real-time updates on course schedules, campus events, news, and sports. In addition, institutions can use Blackboard application programming interfaces to customize and personalize the interface and functionality of the program.

On the mobile front, Blackboard also offers a free application called Learn for iPhone, which specifically provides updates from a Blackboard course. The company said in an FAQ on its Web site that it will continue making that program available.

"This new platform allows us to easily reach our students, faculty and staff around the clock and deliver information whenever and wherever they want it, which increasingly is on mobile devices like the BlackBerry and iPhone," said David Morton, director of mobile communication strategies at UW. "As a modern, global university, UW [is] committed to embracing mobile communications and is pleased to be the launch institution for the BlackBerry initiative."

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • closeup of hands using smart phone

    Learning Continuity Built into the LMS Withstands Cloud or Cybersecurity Interruptions

    When your institution's administrative or instructional capabilities face disruption from natural, technical, or malicious events, what measures does your LMS offer to provide a "business as usual" operating and learning environment? Instructure's Ryan Lufkin comments on the LMS and learning continuity.

  • digital brain with network connections

    Microsoft Moving to Internally Developed AI Models in Office Apps

    Microsoft is reportedly using its own in-house artificial intelligence models to handle some workloads in Excel and Outlook, offering new evidence that the company is moving its AI strategy beyond model development and into large-scale cost reduction.

  • businessman holding tablet with holographic AI icons

    Google Moves AI Agents into the Mainstream

    At its recent I/O developer conference, Google presented artificial intelligence agents not as a distant research project, but as a product strategy spanning Search, personal assistants, productivity software, developer tools, and smart glasses.

  • artificial intelligence on laptop

    OpenAI to Combine AI Products into Desktop 'Superapp'

    OpenAI is reportedly developing a desktop application that would combine several of its emerging AI products into a single platform, according to reports, marking the latest step in the company's effort to transform ChatGPT from a standalone chatbot into a broader productivity and automation environment.