Post #13
Wimba
“Moving well beyond web conferencing technology, our comprehensive, easy-to-use, and proven solutions improve student engagement and support critical business initiatives with time and cost-saving efficiencies.The most powerful elements of in-person or face-to-face interaction – facial expressions, vocal intonations, visual cues, real-time discussion, creativity and passion – can be harnessed, enhanced and conveyed in the online environment to learn, meet, and work together effectively.
Focused exclusively on education, Wimba’s software and services are used by teachers, students, and administrators at schools and universities around the world.” http://www.wimba.com/products/
The Wimba Collaboration Suite™ —awarded the 2009 “Best Education Solution” CODiE award by SIIA— offers students, teachers, and administrators an engaging and comprehensive collaboration environment for dynamic instruction, efficient meetings, and effective delivery of academic and administrative help.
Wimba Classroom™ A live, virtual learning environment that includes audio, video, application sharing and content display used for formal, scheduled instruction and meetings.
Wimba Pronto™ An instant collaboration system designed to promote learning through group work and academic and administrative help.
Wimba Voice™ An audio solution for anytime vocal instruction, practice, collaboration, coaching and assessment, especially in language learning.
http://www.wimba.com/company/
I thought I would take up your question Rick and see if I could find exactly what Wimba added to Blackboard collaborate (formerly Elluminate). Guess what – not really easy to do. Most of Wimba’s home page talks about it being Blackboard collaborate. Going through what the company offers was almost like reading through Blackboard collaborate again. One frustrating aspect of trying to navigate Wimba’s site was that the links didn’t work well, with a lot of the pages not displaying if you clicked on them. I had to log into each area to be able to open the pages up and even then some weren’t available. So in the end Rick, I can’t tell you how the combo that is now Blackboard collaborate is enhanced in any way!? I wonder if the Blackboard collaborate is just an enhanced Elluminate with a better server base and more power?
http://www.wimba.com/index.php
1 comment:
Thanks, Maureen. It was an honest question because I too couldn't seem to find a clear answer. I have a feeling you are right that Collaborate is really just an enhanced Elluminate, although I'm not sure what the exact enhancements are either.
In the end, Blackboard Collaborate (Elluminate) is a pretty good tool, and I've come to depend on it as an enhancement in our classes. It's performed well for the most part.
My dream videoconferencing tool would have more video feeds available. I know the tools exist, but they are expensive and rely on a lot of bandwidth from what I can tell.
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