Click. Tap, tap, tap. Tap, tap. Backspace, backspace. “Argh!” Tap, tap, tap, tap.
Repeat.
It’s a familiar sound to all of the Web-savvy — the tedious daily, maybe hourly, ritual of logging on and checking every single Web site and Internet application used– Webmail, Facebook, AIM, Vista, MySpace, Photobucket. The list seems endless when you’re typing, mistyping and retyping various usernames and passwords over and over.
Blackboard Inc., which owns and operates the education Web site Vista among others, has just made that frustrating process a bit easier for some students.
Blackboard released Blackboard Sync on May 12, a Facebook application which allows users to view grades and updates through their Facebook profiles. That’s one less username and password to type.
The program is available to any Facebook user whose college or university employs Blackboard version 7.1 or higher–without any authorization from the institution. However, information technology departments do have the ability to block the application at any time.
But for N.C. State students, it isn’t that easy because Vista is not compatible with Blackboard Sync at the present time.
Greg Ritter, one of Blackboard Sync’s developers, said in an email, “because of certain specification of the Vista and CE products, we are not able to make Blackboard Sync available to users of the Vista and CE product lines at this time.”
Ritter indicated that the program would be available for all Blackboard services in the future.
The question of when that future will be is uncertain.
Lou Harrison, associate vice provost for educational technology services of Distance Education and Learning Technology Applications, said that Blackboard Sync will probably not be available until the next version of Vista is released.
“[Blackboard] should announce [the next version] at [its] summer conference. But, we typically don’t move to a new version right away,” Harrison said.
Before implementing a new version, DELTA tests its usability for any design flaws or bugs. According to Harrison, it could be four to six months after the release before DELTA switches to an updated version.
The timeline is an estimate, but if it is accurate, Vista users may not have the chance to try Blackboard Sync until late 2008 or early 2009.
Harrison also said that DELTA has not made any decisions about whether to allow or block Blackboard Sync from students’ use since the program is not currently applicable.
“We haven’t had any serious discussion about it yet. We could go either way — there are University policies we have to consider.”
Harrison sited integration issues, server space and legal problems as possible reasons to block the program.
Several North Carolina colleges have already blocked Blackboard Sync. Their reasons for blocking the application were not immediately available.
Blackboard won’t be the last education company attempting to break into Facebook’s user pool. It’s a phenomenon that Harrison called the ‘creepy tree house effect,’ defined by technological education experts as an online environment created by instructors or institutions that mimics an established and trusted environment.
The term arises from the concept that children can identify a ‘creepy tree house’ that adults built and will avoid it. Perhaps it explains why, when this issue went to press, Blackboard Sync had only 161 daily active users.
The first paragraph of Blackboard Sync’s Facebook Web site states, “Imagine a world where you could manage your entire life from Facebook– it’s not that far off!”
It’s an unsettling thought. Facebook already has a stronghold on the Internet presence of many users, offering photo storage, networking, community membership, social news and a chat feature.
With online education applications like Blackboard Sync added to the mix, it may one day be possible to oversee all of your personal, social, educational, work-related and financial information with one Web site. At least you’d only have to log in once.