Blackboard Supports Piracy ... Not That Kind

Blackboard has launched a new language pack for its course management systems in support of International Talk Like a Pirate Day (Sept. 19), the day on which people across the globe can use expressions like "ahoy" and "yar matey" without fear of retribution.

Talk Like a Pirate Day is celebrated by dozens around the world. In honor of this, Blackboard's Application Pack 3 now includes support for Pirate, not to be confused with Piratic or Piroglyphic. The company has also added Pig Latin to the language pack but has not announced plans for the Dog Latin support, popular amongst freshman Classics and Comparative Lit majors ("Dona mihi plus beerus").

The language pack supports the Blackboard Learning System Enterprise edition, Blackboard Community System, Blackboard Content System, and Blackboard Outcomes System.

In an actual quote, Jessica Finnefrock, vice president of Blackboard product development, had this to say: "Our product supports languages across the seven seas. With the Blackboard Pirate Language Pack, our clients will be able to provide learning on the go for pirates, privateers, and freebooters. Blackboard software has been internationalized for years, with the Blackboard Language Pack Editor available directly in the core platform. This makes it easy for our clients to swap the default language of the user interface for a new language."

In addition to Pirate and Pig Latin, the Blackboard Academic Suite supports Arabic, Chinese (Traditional), Chinese (Simplified), Dutch, English (US), English (US K12), French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish. Blackboard Community also supports Polish and Brazilian Portuguese.

The Application Pack 3 download, more information, and probably some pirate jokes are available at the links below ... yar.

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About the Author

David Nagel is the former editorial director of 1105 Media's Education Group and editor-in-chief of THE Journal, STEAM Universe, and Spaces4Learning. A 30-year publishing veteran, Nagel has led or contributed to dozens of technology, art, marketing, media, and business publications.

He can be reached at [email protected]. You can also connect with him on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidrnagel/ .


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