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Wimba Powers US-Brazil Higher Education Program Bridging Miles, Languages and Cultures
(Marketwire Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) NEW YORK, NY, May 13 / MARKET WIRE/ --
Wimba?, the education technology company
that helps people teach people, today announced its involvement in a
cross-continental higher education program, connecting students and faculty
across four universities. The U.S.-Brazil Consortium enables global
collaboration among teachers and learners at The University of Georgia
(USA), Utah State University (USA), Universidade Federal do Cear? (BR) and
Universidade Estadual Paulista, Bauru (BR). The program is a finalist for
the IMS Global Learning Consortium Learning Impact Awards, which will
announce the winners this week at the annual conference. Wimba's technology
is used to bridge differences in culture, language and distance of
participating students and faculty.
Daniela Maestro of the Universidade Estadual Paulista, Bauru, and Myra
Blackmon of UGA are graduate students enrolled in the program. Maestro also
works full-time for the Brazilian education technology company MStech, and
appreciates the 24X7 access to lectures and course materials provided by
Wimba.
"With the Wimba Classroom technology I can access the content anytime,"
Maestro said. "It makes it possible for me to study, communicate and work
on assignments any time of day and from any location."
Blackmon is switching careers and pursuing a Masters degree in Education
Technology while working. She says Wimba allows her the flexibility to go
back to school and maintain a full-time job.
"I take all my collaboration classes in the evenings from my home office
using Wimba Classroom," Blackmon said.
The consortium is supported by grants from the U.S. Department of
Education's Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) and
the Brazilian Ministry of Education's Fundacao Coordenacao de
Aperfeicoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior (CAPES). Through the program,
instructional technology professors at all four of the participating
universities teach courses to students on both continents using Wimba
Classroom(TM) and other learning technologies.
Enrolled students spend time on-site in both the United States and Brazil,
over the span of three semesters plus one summer month, while also
participating in distance learning courses. The blended educational
approach, where students learn in face-to-face and online classrooms from
both locations, enables them to be fully immersed in both cultures and
languages.
University of Georgia (UGA) Associate Professor Michael Orey serves as
principal investigator under the FIPSE/CAPES grant and teaches Learning
Theory, Introduction to Instructional Technology, and the doctoral seminar
for the consortium.
"For the core, recurring distance classroom components of our program, we
rely exclusively on Wimba Classroom to enable our continual collaboration,"
said Orey. "Wimba provides a vital part of our program and is truly making
higher education more accessible to more students."
"Participants in this program will gain invaluable experiences by
connecting with students from different regions, and backgrounds," said
Steve Kann, Co-founder and Senior Vice President of Engineering at Wimba.
"We are pleased that Wimba is helping facilitate new ways for students and
teachers to learn and interact."
Wimba enables 24X7 access to archived classroom lectures and materials,
supporting the varied needs of the consortium's instructors and students.
Participants in the U.S.-Brazil Consortium program are gaining new
experiences and knowledge about how educational technologies can connect
people across cultures and locations. This information can help them to
further break down learning barriers tied to geography, language, and
culture. Wimba Classroom provides a vital part of the infrastructure
supporting this powerful education endeavor.
About Wimba
Wimba? is a leading provider of collaborative learning software
applications and services to the education industry. Our collaborative
software applications for the online and blended education market enable
institutions to bridge technology and pedagogy by supplementing course
management systems with many of the proven disciplines of in-person
learning environments. Wimba's intuitive solutions enable educators and
students to quickly and easily teach and learn live online, engage in live
chat and instant message exchanges, benefit from oral content being added
to text-based course content, and more. Instructors can also use Wimba
solutions to convert Microsoft Word documents into accessible web pages and
to create and administer tests, quizzes, and exams. Our focus on education
and collaboration with educators fuels our product development. For more
information, please visit www.wimba.com or send an email to info@wimba.com.
Wimba. People Teach People. www.wimba.com
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Media Contact
Melissa Chotiner
DBC Public Relations
+202 292-4572Melissa@dbcpr.com
Copyright ? 2008 Marketwire
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