About Annie

Annie Chechitelli joined Wimba in 1999 and has played a number of roles as both the company and the market have matured.  Positions included Director of Business Development and Sr. Director of Product Marketing.  She has represented Wimba on standards bodies for the past three years, and in her current role, VP of Product Management, Annie works with academic leaders, faculty and staff as well as education industry leaders, and partners in the industry to shape Wimba's product strategy. Annie holds a BS from Columbia University and an MBA/MS from Drucker School of Management.

About Wimba

Wimba is a leading provider of collaborative learning software solutions and services to the Further/Higher Education and K-12 markets.  Wimba’s Publishing Services and Solutions are widely adopted in academic publishing.

From its inception almost a decade ago, Wimba has been solely focused on education and committed to harnessing the most powerful element of teaching—the human element—so that facial expressions, vocal intonations, hand gesticulation, real-time discussion, creativity and passion can be conveyed in the on-line learning environment.

What Craig and Annie Discussed

Technology Has Accelerated and Supported Major Shifts in Teaching and Learning: The gradual introduction of educational technology furthered the notion that ‘the sage on the stage – lecturing one to many’ is perhaps not the best way to engage students – particularly with today’s generation that has grown up with the Internet and are active participants in much if not all of their activities. Wimba has played a central role in supporting and accelerating this shift.

Wimba’s Technology has Evolved over the Past Decade to Meet the Changing Needs of Academia: In the past decade educational technology has changed drastically from the use for satellite learning centers with TVs and cameras early on, to Web 2.0 tools available anywhere, anytime. Wimba’s kept its focus on creating technology to support learning not the other way around. Overview of the Wimba Collaboration Suite 6.0:

• Wimba Classroom 6.0™ - online environment that enables synchronous and asynchronous interaction via audio, video, application sharing and content display, and MP4 capabilities, simulating the face-to-face classroom experience.
• Wimba Pronto 3.0™ - the only academic-centric instant messaging system for online office hours, an online interactive whiteboard, automatic population of classmate contacts and school-wide notifications.
• Wimba Voice 6.0™ - features threaded voice boards, voice-enabled email, embedded voice within course pages, and the ability to host live group discussions and debates.

The Wimba Collaboration Suite replicates and enriches the highly personal and dynamic elements of the traditional classroom setting in an online learning environment. Great teaching is involves both verbal and non-verbal cues communicated by facial expressions, body language, etc. Wimba’s combination of interactive technologies

The Wimba Collaboration Suite Supports Educational Opportunities that Might Otherwise Not be Possible - A virtual classroom, that is accessible anywhere and anytime provides the flexibility and convenience to support nontraditional students and learning experiences such remedial and advanced placement courses, adult learning and continuing education.

Accessibility is Key. Student hardware, software, networks, and IT skills vary; Wimba’s products perform in challenging user environments supporting dial-up access and multiple computer platforms including PCs, Macs, and Linux machines. In addition closed-captioning and screen reader compatibility are both possible with Wimba Classroom.