Blackboard Communications Systems, a networking tool used by universities and learning institutions around the globe, announced that it has joined forces with Sony to produce contactless student ID card systems in the United States. Blackboard is an online teaching aid, in which students and professors may share information, lecture notes, upload assignments and communicate online. Now, Blackboard is venturing into the security business. The multi-functional cards Blackboard plans to develop would combine access, data and security systems. These state-of-the-art ID cards would function as debit cards, building entrance cards, class schedule data devices and more. Professors may even use the cards as a way to take attendance for classes.

The cards will contain FeliCa chips, which integrate with cell phones, door access readers and other card readers– both attended and unattended. From Japan to the Phillipines, FeliCa chips make transit passes and financial cards work. But Blackboard hopes to use these contactless student ID badges not only for convenience, but to deter and prevent violence in schools, since school shootings have unfortunately become an increasingly regular occurence. If the FeliCa cards are used in conjunction with students’ cell phones, it would be possible to send text message updates to all students in the event of class cancellation or, on a more sober note, an emergency lockdown.