Once again, the blackboard has become obsolete. No, not the kind with the chalk and the awful sounds when fingernails rub across it. This time, it’s the educational website Blackboard.

After talking to department heads at Westside High School and Westside Middle School, District 66 has decided not to renew its contract with the enterprise technology company. Starting Aug. 10, 2015 the district will shift to wikis, Google Sites, Google Classroom and Quia. Teachers will have the rest of the year to make the transition.

Many of the same features from Blackboard will be available for teachers to use on the other sites. For example, quizzes and tests will be available on Quia. However, lockdown browser will no longer be a resource for testing.

Many teachers across the high school rely on Blackboard to teach their students. One of these teachers is science department head Brenda Zabel.

“Since the courses I teach do not utilize a textbook, Blackboard is the primary resource our students use to access all documents, web links, ​video tutorials, calendar and syllabus links, teacher contact information, practice tests, etc,” Zabel said. “Virtually everything we share with students is accessible through Blackboard.”

The science department is not the only department using Blackboard. The social studies instructors, namely the AP United States History instructors, utilize Blackboard frequently, although they were in the process of making the switch to other sites.

“I haven’t been using much of Blackboard,” history instructor Nathan Bramley said. “Over the past few years, we have switched over to wikis and [Quia] for testing information. However, in AP we have used it. It’s going to take considerable time to switch over. It’s going to take a lot of work.”

Foreign language teachers are also going to be faced with challenges caused by the switch.

“It’s going to be a lot of work for me to change what I have,” Latin instructor Carolyn Harvey said. “I have 54 chapters worth of material listed on Blackboard that I can just go to every year. I don’t know how I’m going to put it on a wiki or blog.”

Although this will be a change the staff will have until next August to complete, many classes have already shifted into using the wiki system, so it is not a complete overhaul. Also, the technology department will be offering training, time and assistance to teachers making the switch.

For more information visit: http://area66.westside66.org/lms-transition/

UPDATE (Tuesday, Dec. 2 1:30 p.m.): The tech department has listened to feedback, and now will renew the contract with Blackboard. In an email sent to district staff, District Technology Coordinator Paul Lindgren said “We are reversing that decision and are re-affirming our commitment to, and support of BlackBoard as our full-featured online learning management system for our secondary grade levels.”

The platform will be able to be used next year, and teachers will be encouraged to use the software because it will require a “significant financial commitment from the district.” Quia’s, Google Sites, and Wikis will be available for teachers to use as well.