Interested in new classroom technology?
By Taimoor Farouk
Saturday, July 19, 2008
A development in computer-to-computer technology that can help bring classrooms, conference halls and meeting rooms to a screen is being considered for license renewal at The University of Western Ontario.
But first the university needs to know how much interest in using the product exists among faculties and departments.
The Wimba Collaboration Suite is a sophisticated yet easy-to-use collection of online educational tools, including helping instructors to carry out distance learning as well as teaching in a personalized way.
These tools include Wimba Classroom, Wimba Pronto, Wimba Voice and Wimba Create - providing online video, voice, chat, application sharing and white boarding.
Angela Borchert, Comparative Literature Graduate Chair at Western, says her experience with Wimba Classroom was rewarding, as the software made it possible for her to present a paper at a conference being held outside of Canada.
“The participants listened and watched remotely as I presented my paper. It was easy to talk and negotiate the text and slides simultaneously. My image appeared in the branding frame to help personalize the session,” says Borchert.
Wimba is a company that focuses on the use of technology to educate and draw people closer. Their collaborative software applications are being used at various universities in the United Kingdom and North America.
According to Peter Flanagan, Director eLearning Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry (SSMD), Wimba tools help bring a human touch to online teaching and learning.
“The MD program at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry will be moving to a distributed model of teaching in September 2008 as part of an expansion to Windsor. Twenty four members of the class will receive instruction in Windsor with 123 students here in London.”
“We view Live Classroom as an important tool to facilitate synchronous instruction of groups of these two cohorts of students,” he says.
At Western, The Wimba Pilot program was funded by Schulich which freely offered access to all with intention of finding partners to share the cost of renewing the license.