Dr. Cris Guenter knows how to teach, and thanks in large part to her innovative teaching that heavily relies on Wimba, she recently won the 2008 National Art Educator Award for her “exemplary contributions to the field of visual arts education.” For example, on a stormy northern California evening in December 2007, a graduate student of hers who normally makes a six-hour round-trip drive to campus reaped the benefits of her innovative instruction.
“We were hit with a lot of rain and snow, and one of our students who’s a librarian couldn’t get to campus because of a storm. It was ridiculous for her to get out and drive three hours to campus for our final class,” Guenter said. To accommodate her student, Guenter set up a Wimba Voice Board so her student could leave her comments and even have her classmates respond to it. “If Wimba hadn’t existed, she could have emailed her assignment but this way her classmates could hear her comments and respond back to her. She didn’t feel alone or isolated. I’m using Wimba for the collaborative tools and the focused engagement. The interaction in my online classes is as good if not better than in face-to-face classes. And because everything can be documented, there’s a great deal of accountability.”
http://www.wimba.com/customers/customer-spotlights/cris_guenter_at_csu_chic
