Yesterday Blackboard announced their acquision of Angel Learning, an event that is scheduled to finalize later this month. We’ve seen this before with WebCT and reaction is as one would expect. I thought I would note a few personal reactions to encourage dialogue.
1. As choices for learning management solutions wane, newcomers like HAIKU will fill the vaccuum. Bryan and I just returned from the Ed Tech Summit in San Francisco where Haiku LMS received unanimous praise by content and application providers eager to partner with us. The days of "closed" learning platforms are fast coming to an end and HAIKU is positioned perfectly to leverage this reality.
2. Teachers in K12 and even professors in higher ed are looking for ways to expedite processes that are marginal to teaching. There is a significant gap between the complexity of most learning management applications and and the reality of what is needed to help students learn. Haiku LMS fills this gap (a gap that could widen significantly by yesterday’s announcement) by removing the technological barrier for educators with a "fast and fun" user interface and content agnosticism.
3. At HAIKU, we saw learning management as a growing necessity for K12 several years ago. Angel Learning seemed to get that also, and has done pretty well responding. I wonder, though, what the effect will be on their continued ability to respond to the uniqueness of K12′s needs when the dust settles.
4. Even as teachers, professors, administrators and students wonder what to do now, HAIKU is growing and responding to your needs. We’ll be here to show you a great alternative. We even encourage those who haven’t done so to try Haiku LMS for free to evaluate our system and service. We have been surveying our customers recently to determine what we do and do not do well. Fortunately, the results are almost entirely positive; particularly in our fanatical efforts at providing great service. We are here for you.
I’m curious, what are your own reactions to yesterday’s announcement?
-Allen Angell
President, Haiku Learning Systems
