Blackboard Does It Again.

So have you heard the big news? No, not that LeBron is going to Miami. Blackboard buying Elluminate and Wimba to integrate into the new Blackboard Communicate. Now the cynical will say that Blackboard will take the best pieces and make them into the worst functions of the new system… you might be right. What’s really interesting is the gluttony of Blackboard. Not only is it not enough to lessen the landscape with LMS’s, buying up major players, but also the tools that integrate into the system itself. Sure, people want one-stop shopping, but instead of locking them into tools that they may never use, why not use the building block approach that you already cultivate? Allow these other companies to grow and develop, to work with you and others? Oh yeah, the others bit. If Blackboard got a report card, “Works well with others” would definitely need improvement (“works well with clients” would also probably rank pretty low). Blackboard is acting like Google/Apple/Microsoft and any other large software company, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Yet I am.