NetSpot Pty Ltd and Massey University

steve@netspot.com.au and d.o'hara@massey.ac.nz

Social networking and your LMS: Pronto InstantMessenger (New!), Wimba Podcaster (New!) and Wimba Voice Tools for Blackboard/WebCT/Moodle

Paper

MSN Instant Messenger, blogs, wikis, podcasts…  This session looks at taking up the challenge for educators in the light of the range of social networking tools used by students.  How can educators reconcile the central role of learning management systems like WebCT, Blackboard and Moodle with a desire to use some of the new social technologies? 

We introduce the experience of Massey University using the Wimba Voice Tools building block, announce “Pronto”, a free, integrated, instant messaging and voice chat tool pre-populated with LMS class lists AND unveil the “Wimba Podcaster”!

About NetSpot
NetSpot is an eLearning technology partner to institutions within the Asia Pacific region and partner for Horizon Wimba. We help institutions focus on their core mission by acting as a flexible out-source provider of services such as Managed hosting, End User help desk, Software licensing and technical support, System integrations and application development.

About Massey University
The Massey University "Training and Development Unit" is a centralised unit of the University, offering teaching and training support services. Recently the TDU successfully won an eCDF project which sees the department delivering online, professional development, materials for around 14 participating tertiary institutions from across New Zealand. The Wimba Voice Tools have been widely used as a component of the eCDF project at Massey.