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Wimba - Blackboard Integrated e-Learning Solution Expands Educational Opportunities Across Pennsylvania
Blendedschools.net Creates 21st Century Learning Environment for More Than 130 Schools
| Source: Wimba
ORLANDO, FL--(Marketwire - January 22, 2008) - FETC 2008, Booth # 719 -- Tens of thousands of
Pennsylvania students now have access to new educational opportunities as a
result of blendedschools.net, a non-profit organization that provides
complete K-12 online core curricula to more than 130 schools across the
state. This expanded access to education is made possible by an intuitive
e-Learning platform provided by Blackboard Inc. (NASDAQ : BBBB ) and
integrated with a comprehensive suite of interactive solutions from Wimba,
the education technology company that helps people teach people.
The blendedschools.net courses are developed in the Blackboard Academic
Suite™ and with the Wimba Collaboration Suite™, enabling synchronous
interaction through video, voice and chat sessions, as well as asynchronous
collaboration via discussion boards, podcasts and archived classroom
lessons.
This comprehensive solution makes it possible for students to continue
learning on their own time and addresses diverse learning styles. For
example, The William Penn School District can now offer more course choices
for students in small rural communities, as well as better serve special
needs students.
"Wimba allows me to reach those students that otherwise we'd lose,"
explains Cynthia Hyland, MEd, Distance Educator at William Penn School
District Cyber Academy.
These benefits can now be realized by all K-12 Blackboard Learning
System™ clients with the general availability of the Wimba Collaboration
Suite Express. This exclusive offer for Blackboard's K-12 customers at no
additional cost provides turnkey collaboration between teachers and
students to improve student achievement.
"We're delighted that blendedschools.net is providing our proven solutions
to the K-12 community in Pennsylvania, enabling teachers and students to
benefit from enhanced professional development opportunities and new
methods for meeting the needs of all learners," said Jessie Woolley-Wilson,
President of K-12 at Blackboard. "We look forward to working with Wimba to
help K-12 schools and districts around the country create stronger learning
communities and improve student achievement."
"Blendedschools.net is a perfect example of how technology can directly
impact learning across diverse communities to meet many different needs,"
said Tommaso Trionfi, CEO of Wimba. "The combination of the Wimba and
Blackboard solutions provides new ways to reach and engage students to
ensure their success."
Demonstrations of the Blackboard-Wimba offering will be given at Booth #
719 on the FETC exhibit hall floor. For more details on the
Blackboard-Wimba collaborative learning environment please visit
www.blackboard.com/K12/collaborativelearning.
About Blackboard
Blackboard Inc. (NASDAQ : BBBB ) is a leading provider of enterprise software
applications and related services to the education industry. Founded in
1997, Blackboard enables educational innovations everywhere by connecting
people and technology. Millions of people use Blackboard everyday at
academic institutions around the globe, including colleges, universities,
K-12 schools and other education providers, as well as textbook publishers
and student-focused merchants that serve education providers and their
students. Blackboard is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with offices in
North America, Europe, Australia and Asia.
Blackboard
Educate. Innovate. Everywhere.™ www.blackboard.com
About Wimba
Wimba is a company focused solely on education and dedicated to the
principle that people learn more when they are drawn closer together. Our
collaborative software applications for the online 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 course
content and to create and administer tests, quizzes, and exams. Our focus
on education and collaboration with educators fuels our product
development.
Wimba. People Teach People. www.wimba.com