Wimba Unveils New Collaborative Messaging Tool
by Dave Nagel
At the inaugural Wimba Connect 2008 user conference Tuesday, Wimba unveiled its new Wimba Pronto, a collaborative instant messaging tool geared specifically toward education.
Wimba Pronto is an instant messaging and voice chat tool, part of the Wimba Collaboration Suite that also includes Wimba Classroom (a virtual classroom environment) and Wimba Create (a utility for converting Word documents to LMS-friendly formats), among other technologies.
It should be noted that in K-12, a vast majority of districts ban instant messaging and online chat. (See sidebar for more information.) However, Wimba is undaunted. Said Annie Chechitelli, director of product marketing at Wimba, “Wimba pronto offers the educational advantages of IM in a protected, closed environment. Only authorized teachers and students have access to Wimba Pronto ensuring student privacy.”
Wimba Pronto provides live online communications for students and instructors. Some of its features include:
- Audio and video conferencing capabilities, including a “follow the speaker” audio feature;
- Desktop application sharing;
- Support for queuing for individualized help; and
- Automatic population of contact lists based on courses.