CALIOPOLIS

The Chronicle reports (subscription required) that Yale will be posting audio and video of select courses for free, for everyone on the Internet. From the Yale press release… "…The project will create multidimensional packages—including fulltranscripts in several languages, syllabi, and other coursematerials—for seven courses and design a web interface for thesematerials, to be launched in […]

Matthew Small, BlackBoard’s General Counsel is quoted today in aChronicle for Higher Education article (subscription required)… "…"We don’t claim to have invented the course management system," saidMatthew Small, senior vice president and general counsel forBlackboard. "This is about specific functionality."…" That’s correct, they don’t and some of the hyperbole about their lawsuit has been over […]

When the media is reporting on a new story that involves a courtcase or a legal issue, they naturally turn to legal experts to providecommentary. Many of those experts are law professors and I knowof many law schools that provide lists of law professors with expertisewho are willing to speak on to reporters. It’s a […]

Professor Mike Madison at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law has decided to podcast one of his courses – well, sort of. "…Classes began yesterday, and right off the bat, a first-year studentapproached me and asked me if I minded his recording the class…." He has allowed the student to do the podcasting for […]

Ever wondered what Deans do? Dean Frank H. Wu of Wayne State University Law School provides some insight. In what I believe to be the first ever law school Dean blog, he has been regularly posting articles here. When I first saw the blog created on Classcaster, I was afraid it would see very infrequent […]

An excellent article in the TimesOnline compares the podcasting ofuniversity lectures to time-shifting television shows like you can dowith Tivo or other digital recorders or like you can do when youdownload televisions shows from iTunes or watch videso on YouTube. Ithink this is an apt comparison. Podcasting gives students moreoptions to integrate their learning into […]

Inside HigherEd has recently posted an article about the BlackBoard patent issue and in it BlackBoard’s General Counsel Matthew Small opines… "…Blackboard has no plans tochallenge open source projects on patent issues, and he said that suchchallenges “wouldn’t make good business sense” for the company…" That’s great to hear, but it seems that BlackBoard is […]

I am delighted to post that CALI now has 201 US Law School Members. This past week, the University of Virginia School of Law joined CALI and the recently launched, Drexel University College of Law also joined. This brings the number of US Law School CALI Members to over 200 for the first time in […]

I went in search of information that would help me understand howthe BlackBoard v. Desire2Learn case might play out and want to sharethe results of my research with you. It is important to point out that I am not a lawyer and that none ofwhat I write or say should be interpreted as legal advice […]

I have been following the reaction to the BlackBoard patent closely and I am struck by the fact that I can’t find anyone defending BlackBoard’s actions. I have seen some people explain why they understand that patents are important and why they think BlackBoard feels compelled to patent their work, but I haven’t seen a […]