Wimba Connect 2008

Wimba Connect 2008 was the inaugural conference for Wimba, a software company that provides a variety of educational software, some of which is used at the LSE. The big announcement at the conference was a new version of “Pronto” a tool we don’t use. It is an instant messaging (IM) system and Wimba are calling it the “first academic centric IM platform”! They argue it is different to IM systems such as MSN & Yahoo as you pre-load it with students (and staff). Students then see a list of contacts for each course they take as well as having the ability to create their own ad hoc groups. A basic version of Pronto has been around for a while and it will continue to be available offering text and audio communication between groups of students. “New” pronto, due for release in June, offers the following additions:

Video
Queued chat – allowing staff to run office hours with a queue of students in a waiting area. (Potentially of use for help desks etc too and Wimba are pushing it as an institutional system)
Application sharing – users communicating via Pronto will be able to share documents, for example a word document
Institutional announcements

According to a Wimba case study video the phrase, “I’ll Pronto you” has been heard on campus at Grand Rapids Community College who have been involved in the beta testing.

Is it worth a look? Perhaps, but an immediate issue is that it has to be installed. Is there a point in trying it with students if it’s not available on the student PCs? Plus a Moodle integration will not be immediately available. So, first stage try it internally?

Update… 12/03/08: Conference Presentations