Blackboard Partners With LiveSafe for Mobile Safety
Blackboard and LiveSafe are partnering to bring LiveSafe's mobile safety technology to more schools and students across the country.
"Safety is fundamental to ensuring a positive teaching and learning environment in order to achieve meaningful learning outcomes," said David Marr, senior vice president of Blackboard Transact, the company's campus commerce and security division, in a press release. "We are excited to partner with LiveSafe to empower students in becoming a 'force multiplier,' adding more eyes and ears to campus police departments in real time. By using a mobile technology that most students own and have with them at all times, schools can take a crowdsourced approach to safety and facilitate a more direct and meaningful relationship with their students."
The LiveSafe app enables direct, two-way communication between safety officials and students. Using a smartphone, students can report safety concerns, receive emergency notifications and engage with an interactive safety map. They can share GPS-tagged video, photos, audio and text to a secure Web-based dashboard monitored by campus safety teams. Schools can customize the app by layering branding elements and information such as the location of key buildings, resources for emergency management and shuttle bus routes.
Free for students, the LiveSafe app can be downloaded on both Apple iOS and Android smartphones and is available to campuses for an annual per-student fee.
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Rhea Kelly is editor in chief for Campus Technology, THE Journal, and Spaces4Learning. She can be reached at [email protected].