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      前不久（去年年底，今年年初吧）美国教育界收到了一个惊人的消息：Blackborad 和 WebCT 合并了。我不知道这条消息对于国内教育界有啥影响。反正，美国许多高校都讨论了这件事。虽然还没有确切消息说那套产品会被淘汰，但使用这两套产品的高校都开始做准备了。切不说更换系统的花费，对学校来讲，到底哪套产品能更有效的服务于教学确是值得考虑的事。
      Blackborad 和 WebCT 是两套在美国十分流行的课堂管理系统( Course Management System), 每套系统都有庞大的用户。我呢，有幸两套都使用过。Blackboard使用了大概半年左右，WebCT使用了快一年，现在仍然在用。感觉上Blackborad和电子科技大学的“互动教学空间”差不多。发挥了一个电子黑板的作用。WebCT除了让老师发布课堂内容，还允许学生上传作业。但很不爽的是，这套系统每学期都更新。更新后以前的资料都没有了。我这学期要查上学期某一门课的资料就不行不通了。

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下面是阿克拉荷马大学一位老师2003年对两套系统的评价，先是Blackboard,然后是WebCT：

Blackboard lets faculty members share documents with students, but it does nothing to promote web publishing by students.
An instructor using Blackboard is able to create a number of document folders, labeled with some pre-assigned names: Course Documents, Assignments, Lectures, Labs, and so on. These folders are linked to a set of navigation buttons that always appear on the left-hand side of the screen. Inside those folders can be other folders, which can contain documents of various sorts - HTML documents, but also Word, Powerpoint, Excel and so on. This is the equivalent of the teacher giving handouts during class, or displaying some kind of presentation in the classroom. It's tedious, but it works. Instead of a classroom presentation or a handout, the instructor can now share that information with the students over the web.
But what are the students able to do? Does the student have a document folder where they can upload their course project? No, they do not.

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The nice folks from WebCT came to our campus today (University of Oklahoma) to make a presentation on WebCT 4.0. WebCT has always had the reputation of being the "smarter" course management system, and after a year spent in the persistent vegetative state that is Blackboard, I was curious what WebCT would offer. The major change from the version of WebCT that I have worked with is the introduction of a WebDAV utility. This means that I can drag-and-drop materials from my desktop into my folder on the WebCT server. So there is a seamless connection between my computer desktop and the WebCT server on our campus.
But what does that have to do with the web? Is it with the web... or against it?
In other words: how is WebCT using this technology to contribute to the ongoing growth and vitality of the web as a resource for teachers and students?
It seems to me that WebCT is not building the web, but preying upon it. It feeds on the web, but gives nothing back. WebCT makes it possible for instructors to link and link and link to other people's websites, while contributing nothing back to the web for others to link to, for others to use.
In fact, one of the major themes of the WebCT presentation was that "you don't need a website anymore - not like you used to!". Hmmmmm..... since when is it a good thing to give up your website? I understand wanting better tools to manage your website, tools to make it less time-consuming, tools to make your website more useful, tools to integrate your website with other kinds of technologies beyond the desktop monitor. That would be great!

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两套系统的教学内容都不对外开放。学生和老师有自己的用户名和密码登录。从Open Source的观点看两套系统都不理想。但就对教学本身的辅助来讲，或许有不足的地方，但是都挺不错的。

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Read the Story: Blackboard cleared for merger with rival

IDTyao




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