CT at the Show

BbWorld ’06, San Diego

eLearning Moves Ahead

CEO Michael Chasen and Chairman Matthew Pittinsky
A Done Deal

At a joint keynote at Blackboard’s annual user conference, CEO Michael Chasen (left) and Chairman Matthew Pittinsky (far left) announced the completion of the merger of Blackboard and WebCT into one company, and the two unveiled the company’s “Blackboard Beyond” initiative. During an exclusive briefing after the Feb. 28 session, Pittinsky told CT, “The Blackboard Beyond initiative is really about focusing on the next generation of eLearning [eLearning 2.0], which we think won’t just be about institutions and their own courses; it will be about how institutions cooperate and collaborate with each other and how students and faculty across institutions work with each other… It really is an effort to network our client base… The greatest value we can offer today is not just the products; it’s the community of practice. It’s the fact that no matter what kind of institution you are or where you are in your development, odds are, across our global community, someone or several institutions have done it before. Collaboration is the nature of academe… Any institution can tap the expertise of any other institution through that community of practice. So it’s powerful.” Read CT’s full interviews with Pittinsky on page 14 of this month's issue and online.

Buzzing on the Floor
Buzzing on the Floor.

Besides a giant Blackboard presence, more than 50 companies added to the excitement of the exhibit hall (photo at left).

Malcolm Gladwell
It’s the Relationships that Count.

Malcolm Gladwell (photo at left), author of The Tipping Point and Blink, delivered the opening keynote. While Gladwell’s wide-ranging talk drew from his research in psychology, sociology, and neurology, he concluded with the down-to-earth observation that it’s often personal relationships that foster change.

Frances H. Cornelius and Mary Gallagher Gordon
PDA Panelists.

An Academic Suite track with more than 200 speakers gave higher education attendees a multitude of choices. Frances H. Cornelius (far left) and Mary Gallagher Gordon (left), both from Drexel University (PA), participated in a panel session offering “Case Studies in Student Mobility: PDAs in Action.”

Featured

  • two large brackets facing each other with various arrows, circles, and rectangles flowing between them

    1EdTech Partners with DXtera to Support Ed Tech Interoperability

    1EdTech Consortium and DXtera Institute have announced a partnership aimed at improving access to learning data in postsecondary and higher education.

  • Abstract geometric shapes including hexagons, circles, and triangles in blue, silver, and white

    Google Launches Its Most Advanced AI Model Yet

    Google has introduced Gemini 2.5 Pro Experimental, a new artificial intelligence model designed to reason through problems before delivering answers, a shift that marks a major leap in AI capability, according to the company.

  •  laptop on a clean desk with digital padlock icon on the screen

    Study: Data Privacy a Top Concern as Orgs Scale Up AI Agents

    As organizations race to integrate AI agents into their cloud operations and business workflows, they face a crucial reality: while enthusiasm is high, major adoption barriers remain, according to a new Cloudera report. Chief among them is the challenge of safeguarding sensitive data.

  • stylized AI code and a neural network symbol, paired with glitching code and a red warning triangle

    New Anthropic AI Models Demonstrate Coding Prowess, Behavior Risks

    Anthropic has released Claude Opus 4 and Claude Sonnet 4, its most advanced artificial intelligence models to date, boasting a significant leap in autonomous coding capabilities while simultaneously revealing troubling tendencies toward self-preservation that include attempted blackmail.