Never mind the technology, where’s the learning?

In a not unsurprising move, Pearson the international education company announced yesterday that it had acquired Fronter, the Learning Platform company from its co-founders Roger Larsen and Bjarne Hadland. Fronter, is one of the major players in the UK School Learning Platform market having secured the London Grid for Learning ‘contract’, and is the recommended choice in an number of other Local Authorities. Fronter has grown revenues at a compound rate of 50% since 2005 and was therefore ripe for picking by Pearson who did not have an effective learning platform in their portfolio. It is another illustration of need for larger players to provide a future for their traditional products by integrating them with a Learning Platform. In the case of Pearson, the prospect of real-time online reporting to parents through its MIS product, Phoenix and web-based e1 upgrade, provided the challenge of co-operation without having control of their own Learning Platform.

Fronter of course has been heavily criticised by open source advocates by adopting the language of open source while providing a proprietory system. Here’s what they said to Miles at BETT 07, while their ‘openness’ tag is still a core of their values and central to their marketing according to Hans at this month’s Online Educa in Berlin where they were a Platinum Sponsor.

Tags: fronter, learning platform, VLE