Comments on: Desperately Seeking Hrabanus Maurus: WebCT and the Web http://www.xplanazine.com/2003/04/desperately-seeking-hrabanus-maurus-webct-and-the-web Thu, 04 Dec 2008 07:34:03 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.1 By: Laura Gibbs http://www.xplanazine.com/2003/04/desperately-seeking-hrabanus-maurus-webct-and-the-web#comment-362 Laura Gibbs Fri, 18 Apr 2003 02:40:00 +0000 http://www.xplanazine.com/2003/04/desperately-seeking-hrabanus-maurus-webct-and-the-web#comment-362 The number of now-defunct companies who have 1) underestimated the communal power of the Web and 2) underestimated the intelligence and real needs of the end-users is very very long. One major mistake of WebCT and other like companies is that they have been lulled by a temporary reality in which they sell a product to an intermediary instead of the the actual end user. Theachers don't buy their product and students don't even get any unput. But what the Web has shown, again and again, is that it is a truly disruptive force and will, eventually, effect change in such processes. Publishers are already scrambling to "up-sell" to students who, until now never really entered into the sales picture (i.e. they have no say in what books are actually used). The Web bypasses all centralized systems and their accompanying processes (like WebCT and BlackBoard). These products, regardless of how anchored they seem today, will fail precisely because they are "anti" Web. Their pricing, and what the represent for education, will make them extinct by the endof the decade. The number of now-defunct companies who have 1) underestimated the communal power of the Web and 2) underestimated the intelligence and real needs of the end-users is very very long.

One major mistake of WebCT and other like companies is that they have been lulled by a temporary reality in which they sell a product to an intermediary instead of the the actual end user. Theachers don’t buy their product and students don’t even get any unput.

But what the Web has shown, again and again, is that it is a truly disruptive force and will, eventually, effect change in such processes. Publishers are already scrambling to “up-sell” to students who, until now never really entered into the sales picture (i.e. they have no say in what books are actually used).

The Web bypasses all centralized systems and their accompanying processes (like WebCT and BlackBoard). These products, regardless of how anchored they seem today, will fail precisely because they are “anti” Web. Their pricing, and what the represent for education, will make them extinct by the endof the decade.

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