Over the last few weeks we’ve been inundated with best-of-2008 lists as well as with what’s-ahead-in-2009 lists. Well, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em, so I just want to quickly point out an interesting tidbit from Inside Higher Ed’s list of 2009 predictions. Among other prophecies, the writer, Lev Gonick of Case Western Reserve University, believes that video conferencing and web conferencing will play an important role inside the classroom this year. What better way to connect students and faculty while reducing one’s carbon footprint, saving travel time and gas, and increasing enrollment and retention rates? I agree with Lev 100%! You can obviously learn more about online video conferencing via Wimba Classroom here. Here’s an excerpt from Inside Higher Ed: Smile, Interactive High Definition Video Conferencing moves from the Board Room to the Research Lab and the Lecture Hall Facing budget pressures and public pressure to go green, corporations around the world are investing in next generation video conferencing. Moving operating dollars into infrastructure investments in this collaboration platform technology has led to significant reductions in travel costs, better space utilization, and a growing conscientiousness about carbon footprints. As businesses continue to look for capabilities to support global operations, video conferencing has become a daily part of many companies. The logic facing corporations now confront the university community. Over the past 18 months some public universities have been mandated to reduce their carbon footprints. Most everyone else is facing growing operating pressures pinching travel and other budget lines. New students care about pro-active green initiatives as part of their university experience. Over the next 12 months look for double digit growth in campus adoption of next generation video conferencing tools, including integrated collaboration technologies.
Hi Matt,
I just came across your link to my blog and photo of myself with the Wimba owl, Yarley. Thought you might be interested in a couple of other blog posts I wrote about Wimba recently.
This post talks about Bloomburg University’s use of Wimba to reach deaf and hard of hearing students. This one talks about Liberated Learning and the Neil Squire Society’s work to create a speech to text Wimba “bridge”.
I am really impressed with Wimba’s Accessibility Mission. Keep up the good work!
SpeakUp Librarian
Greetings Matt,
I love this site! This is the first time I have found something like this and what many people have tried for years in Costa Rica to do, this tool seems to fill that gap.
There are two issues that we need to address for education in this year, at least for us in Costa Rica; ecological education and language instruction.
Here in Costa Rica there are a multitude of “green initiatives” but without the nationals understanding why these are important, there is no foundation for them to understand them nor embrace the ideas. A recent article Surfing the Green Wave discusses how surfers coming to Costa Rica actually help local greening issues by making the issue known back home.
Second, while I do not believe you must speak English to a be citizen of the world, the reality is that good paying jobs and opportunities exist for Costa Ricans who do speak English.
I would love to learn how Wimba could be used and what resources exist for grants to help educate the students in these communities.
Thank you so much!