Blackboard on students' phones

Cell phones that only send and receive calls are fossils to many college students. These days, many services including e-mail, music and Internet are accessed by cell phone.For UNO students, mobile cell phone classrooms might not be far behind.

Blackboard Inc., a leading provider of educational software and services to campuses across the nation, including UNO, announced in January the acquisition of the NTI Group Inc.

NTI is a major mobile messaging provider for both educational and government organizations. Messages sent within the NTI system can be sent by landline, cell phone, personal organizer, e-mail as well as other methods.

According to a press release, Blackboard purchased NTI for $182 million, which was paid in both cash and stock options.

Linking up with NTI allows Blackboard to move into the alert and notification market and raises the possibility of higher education learning working with different mobile options such as text messaging.

This merger could someday give professors the ability to send text messages to their students reminding them of upcoming assignments or other time-sensitive news.

"It's not really clear at this point what the long-term implications of Blackboard acquiring NTI are," said Michael Zimmerman, UNO Information Technology Services' system administrator. "It doesn't necessarily mean a major shift in either Blackboard's or NTI's direction or capabilities, merely that Blackboard would like to get a slice of the pie in the business of wireless alerting and notification."

Lanyce Keel, UNO's director of academic partnership for instruction, said the university is interested in allowing students more mobile access to academic materials.

"I think if we heard from faculty and staff that a Blackboard mobile option was something that was needed and it was presented at a reasonable cost, we'd absolutely want to move in that direction," she said.

Zimmerman said the merger between Blackboard and NTI will not have any immediate implications for UNO, but it could in the future.

"UNO has already invested in e2Campus, one of NTI's competitors, for SMS emergency notifications," Zimmerman said. "There is so much going on with Blackboard that we in ITS really only investigate those new capabilities that faculty and students have let us know there's a need for or an interest in. So, if there's something more that you'd like to be able to do with Blackboard, let us know."

Nicole Wiemer, a junior art education major, said she liked the idea of having Blackboard go mobile and would not mind paying for the service.

"I never really go on Blackboard and check my announcements, so having it mobile would probably keep me more up-to-date," Wiemer said. "I don't think I would even notice if there was a student fee increase, so I would probably not mind paying."

Tracy Hamann, a sophomore communications major, said though she liked the idea of Blackboard going mobile, she didn't feel it was necessary enough to pay for the service.

"I don't really want to see student fees go up anymore. We have that emergency alert system and that was free to sign up for. It didn't cost anything and that's for emergency alerts of any kind. So, I don't see why fees would have to increase to just to make Blackboard mobile," Hamann said.

Blackboard is also undergoing some updates this spring including a restructured grade book for professors.

"It will give faculty a few more options where they can actually drop the lowest grade and so just a little bit more flexibility in how they use the grade book," Keel said.