Wimba's Blog

Owls at EDUCAUSE 2008?!?

Last week represented my 10th EDUCAUSE Conference, and as they rarely say, the 10th time is a charm.  Or in this case, was charming.  Despite the cool weather in Orlando, the conference heated up Tuesday evening at our customer reception at Margaritaville on Universal City Walk where we got to mingle for hours with numerous customers who have meant so much to us over the years.  And though we had a few breakfast presentations at very early hours, we were pleasantly surprised by how many folks dragged themselves out of bed to learn about our upcoming product development plans.  Thank you, you early risers!

In case anyone missed us while they were there, I at least hope they caught a glimpse - or a hug - of our Wimba Pronto mascot.   Watch a video of our mascot dancing at EDUCAUSE 2008 and read a great blog posting by a librarian who snapped a picture of her with our owl.  Hooray for the land of amusement parks and giant fuzzy animals!

Using Wimba to Cut Travel Costs

We can safely say that Wall Street is a bit roller coaster-like right now.  After losing more than 1,300 points last week it rebounded for a record day yesterday (though it still didn't get up to where it was last Tuesday afternoon).  And while we're all hoping yesterday's surge is indicative of good things to come, we one know thing for sure - we don't know for sure what to expect.  Therefore, if you're concerned about cutting a few costs, take a page from from the folks putting on the Illinois School Library Media Association fall conference.  They'll be streaming several conference sessions via Wimba Classroom in the event that would-be attendees can't scrounge up funding to get to the event.  Just another wise way of making its material more accessible and cost effective.

More Awards for Wimba Customers - Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT)

Earlier this year we gleefully announced that Dr. Cris Guenter of Califronia State University, Chico won the National Arts Educator of the Year award for her work with Wimba, and that Dr. Sam Slike and Pam Berman of Bloomsburg University won a distance learning award by the United State Distance Learning Association for their accessible classes with Wimba.  Now the list has grown.

Today we celebrate the achievements of the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) for its award-winning French Language Simulation Program. This innovative online course was recently awarded the European Award for Languages.

The course, titled "The Creation and Everyday running of a French SME [small-to-medium enterprise] -- a French Language Simulation," aims to promote language skills through a 'learning by doing' approach. Participants gain real-life skills in technology, communications and leadership, all while learning French. Wimba Voice(TM), our web-based application for vocal instruction, collaboration, coaching and assessment is central to the learning experience.

Congrats to the innovative folks at DIT!  Tres bien!

Here are pictures of Michèle Boisbourdin and her colleagues receiving the award!

Best Practices of Live Classes

Over the years I've heard serveral theories regarding the optimal length of a live online class.  Some believe it's 5-minutes while others think half-a-day, so needless to say there is no one truth out there.  This brings me to an interesting blog posting by Paul Lowe, a photography lecturer at the London College of Communication.  He explores this notion of ideal length and concludes that 2-3 hours is optimal for his online classes for grad students, as he says it's easier for them to schedule one long block of time per week than multiple shorter sessions.  Let the debate continue....

Wind Powered Wimba Pronto Isn't Just Hot Air

Our announcement of wind-powered Pronto has garnered attention throughout the world, and even royalty has noticed as well..well, kind of royalty.  The E-Learning Queen, one of the education industry's leading bloggers, wrote this piece about using wind power to propel Wimba Pronto. 

Also, the Physics folks at the University of Western Ontario were lauded for their use of Wimba Classroom for holding live online tutorial sessions.

Wimba Pronto on ABC News at Ivy Tech Indianapolis

It's day #3 of our Wimba Pronto roadshow during which my colleague Kathleen Matthews and I are traveling to numerous Ivy Tech Community College campuses all throughout Indiana.  After meeting numerous IT folks, librarians, instructors and students in Bloomington and Terre Haute earlier this week, today found us at Ivy Tech's Meridian campus in Indianapolis...and it also found us speaking to its local ABC news affiliate!

Our work at Ivy Tech prompted us to be the lead story on ABC 6's afternoon and evening news, as the reporter told how Wimba Pronto is connecting students, faculty, and staff at an instant.  And of course, she also mentioned that Wimba Pronto is now eco-friendly, gone green as it's now powered by wind power! 

Watch the 2-minute ABC news clip here!

From the road....
Matt

Wimba Pronto Powered by Wind Blowing Folks Away

Wow!  Who would have guessed that the blogosphere - and even The Chronicle of Higher Education - would be buzzing over our 48-hour-old announcement that Wimba Pronto is now powered by wind?  Our wind-powered announcement has been picked up in blogs as varied as Arizonalog and Contexts Magazine, though they're a bit more excited that professors can stay in touch with students at all hours.  I just want to thank everyone for all the wonderful feedback we've already received...we truly appreciate it!

Matt

Wimba Pronto Powered by Wind

We just gave Pronto a new twist ... twisting in the wind.  Earlier this morning we announced that Wimba Pronto™, our instant messaging platform designed exclusively for education, is now powered by wind energy.  In our latest approach to going green, we purchased renewable energy credits from eGreen certified Community Energy to subsidize the electricity consumption of the servers, routers, and other IT infrastructure that power Wimba Pronto. With Wimba Pronto already running at hundreds of academic institutions worldwide including Grand Rapids Community College, Ivy Tech Community College, University of Missouri–St. Louis, and all 11 public universities in the North Dakota University System, we're excited that we've now given these schools yet another means of communicating in an informal, and now environmentally conscious, manner.

Beyond Pronto, hundreds of colleges and universities around the world reduce carbon emissions by using Wimba for their distance education programs, often reducing the need for students to travel to campus. In addition, students and faculty are able to save valuable travel time and gas money.  This has been seen at schools as varied as the University of Georgia (where by teaching 35 sessions online using Wimba it saved 2,328 gallons of gas and reduced carbon emissions by 5.7 tons in one semester), Midland Lutheran College in Nebraska (which launched an online program using Wimba Classroom to provide greater access to education for students who may not be able to afford today’s gas prices to travel to and from campus), and San Diego State University (where Psychology professor Mark Laumakis estimates that students in his Psych 101 course save in total $234 per class in gas costs by using Wimba for online learning).

And if you're ever near the eastern border of Oregon and Washington like I was last week while on vacation, be sure to take a gander at the hundreds of windmills that line the mesa along the Columbia River...seeing so many windmills rising out of the rolling hills is quite a sight!  Enjoy new Wimba Pronto!


Matt

Seeing Our Good Name in the News

Like anyone, we enjoy seeing our name in the news.  Therefore I was particularly gratified when the second part of Florence Kizza's piece about Wimba Pronto at Our Lady of the Lake University (San Antonio) came out today in the Greentree Gazette.  Kizza's article nicely conveys the role that dedicated instructors and IT professionals play at their schools every day to ensure student success.  Our hats go off to the entire team at Our Lady of the Lake!

Also, yesterday we were featured in an episode of Rod's Pulse Podcast.  The host, Rodney Murray, Ph.D., Thomas Jefferson University, has been conducting these podcasts for several years and we were happy that he took some time to interview us while we were at the BbWorld Conference last month in Las Vegas.   

School's Back and our Wimba Blog is Back

Ok, I figured if you're all back for school, that our blog should be back too.  It's been a whirlwind here at Wimba since I last wrote.  We released Wimba Classroom 5.2, met with educators worldwide at conferences like BbWorld 2008 and NECC, and virtually welcomed thousands of you to our Wimba Distinguished Lecture Series.  Also, we garnered a lot of attention to boot.  View a news clip about Grand Rapids Community College using Pronto, listen to a podcast about Wimba that was recorded at BbWorld 2008, or read any of the numerous articles that were recently penned about us.   Phew!

As we prep for the Fall, there are a few things you should look out for.  First, as always, we hope to see in Orlando at the annual EDUCAUSE Conference, but we'll also be at countless events worldwide.  Second, we'll still be accepting presentation proposals for Wimba Connect 2009 for another 6 weeks, and third, we'll be encouraging you to tell us some of the unique ways you're using Wimba.  In fact, check out this posting today by West Virginia University to learn how they're using Wimba Classroom to train their faculty on how to use an array of educational technologies. 

Good luck getting up to speed!
Matt