Momentum for Collaborative Technology Builds in K-12 Classrooms

Schools Select Wimba to Enhance Engagement and Learning


NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - April 16, 2008) - Wimba®, Inc., the education technology company that helps people teach people, today announced that K-12 schools spanning the country, and Canada, are turning to Wimba to foster interactive learning environments. Wimba technology provides the platform for teachers and students to collaborate with each other in an interactive online learning environment. The following schools recently selected Wimba technology solutions to enhance their education programs and join Wimba's existing K-12 client base in effectively using collaborative learning solutions:

--  Arkansas Virtual High School, AR
--  Chinook School Division, Saskatchewan, Canada
--  Kamehameha Schools, HI
--  Kenai Peninsula Borough School District, AK
--  Myron B. Thompson Academy, HI
--  Virtual Virginia - VA Department of Education
    

The Magnolia Independent School District in Texas has been a Wimba customer for two years. "Magnolia ISD utilizes Wimba Classroom for meetings at every level of the district, serving the upper administration, the curriculum department, the support personnel, and the teachers with professional development needs," said Charlie Brown, Distance Learning Facilitator of the Magnolia Independent School District. "Additionally, teachers use Wimba for after-hour tutorials, synchronously and asynchronously, and the Special Education Department employs the convenience of Wimba to bring homebound students back into the classroom."

When eHigh School, Cobb County (GA) School District, considered offering foreign language courses, which require vocal interaction among students and instructors, it needed more collaborative online technologies. eHS turned to Wimba Classroom and Wimba Voice solutions to add those collaborative elements. After only a few days of using these tools, eHS quickly realized the potential they held for the entire school. Cheryl Rowley, an administrator at eHS, knew that the Wimba tools could make a difference in the school's entire educational program, which, until the use of Wimba, had been asynchronous only. eHS has been a Wimba customer since Spring 2006.

Throughout the country, K-12 schools have started to use Wimba learning solutions to better address the educational needs of traditional, home-schooled, at-risk, and gifted students. Wimba's usefulness extends beyond the obvious subjects like foreign languages and speech, enabling teachers in every content area to communicate personally, above what can be accomplished in text alone.

"Technology has enabled many new educational opportunities, including support for different learning styles and providing greater access to high quality coursework," said Yancy Oshita, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Wimba. "We are pleased to be part of this process and helping to further elementary and secondary teaching and learning."

The Wimba Collaboration Suite™ includes Wimba Classroom™, Wimba Pronto™, Wimba Voice™, and Wimba Create™. These enterprise solutions facilitate the use of online video, voice, chat, application sharing and white boarding. The integration of these tools into typically static, text-based online courses or the traditional classroom enhances the learning experience through greater collaboration and interaction. Real-time communication around rich content, visualization using video, and participation through voice in an otherwise text-based course compels active involvement to facilitate the learning process. Wimba enables greater teaching opportunities by allowing teachers and students to express their most important asset -- themselves.

For more information about the Wimba Collaboration Suite, visit www.wimba.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. Wimba's 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 teachers 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. Teachers 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

Contact Information: Wimba PR Contact Melissa Chotiner DBC Public Relations +1.202.292.4572 Melissa@dbcpr.com