Wednesday, November 07, 2007

WebCT troubles caused by firewall issues

What's new... If there is one recurring issue in implementing ICT tools for education it does seem to be firewalls getting in the way. This seems to have been the case for the WebCT troubles at Utrecht University. This should now have been solved. You can read the article (in Dutch) in the university magazine.

5 comments:

Wilfred Rubens said...

Hi Keith,

This is very bad for the adoption of technology enhanced learning in general. I hope it will work now. Let's see before we believe it is true. Big black 'B' is very good in making promises...

Sneezy said...

I don't get it... Is Big black 'B' the implementor of the firewall or firewall policy?

Wilfred Rubens said...

Big black 'B' is the company with so much experience with implementing VLE's in education. Nevertheless they were not able to analyse the problem.

Keith Russell said...

Hi Sneezy,

I am sorry that this is going to be a very careful and correct answer as I am not responsible for WebCT at Utrecht University. Other's bear this responsibility and as this concerns responsibility and liability I would rather not discuss this on my blog. Sorry also that the article in the University magazine is in Dutch, I can imagine it makes it slightly difficult to follow ;-)

Sneezy said...

Ah...
1) My expectation is for Big black 'B' to support what they have created or bought. Their ability to support the OS, network, or even technology stack underneath the application is limited.

2) Since they bought WebCT, they have lost the employees with years of Vista support experience (especially with Vista 3), which means the DBAs in my group have more support experience than Big black 'B' support with which we work. Most of the people who have "so much experience with implementing VLE's in education" are no longer with the company. Right now, they are trying to rebuild that experience. That sucks....

Thankfully, here at the University System of Georgia, our network and systems people are top notch and usually quickly identify issues. They make my job easier.

I read you use Vista 3.0.5. We are using Vista 3.0.7. Please keep in touch. We probably share some concerns.