The conference web platform developed by the Argentine firm Wormhole IT (WWC) is already being used by important educational institutions like Yale University (USA) and FLACSO, the Universidad de San Andrés and Fundación Evolución (Argentina)..

Videoconferencing via Internet is a simple, economical tool that has become as natural to Argentine professionals and scholars as classroom teaching. The tool they are using is Wormhole Web Conference (WWC), a professional platform that allows participants to communicate, receive training, hold meetings or broadcast live events no matter where they are located. It runs fully on Internet and it is possible to take an aula magna or a medical conference anyplace in the world without altering the dynamics of the meeting.

“Both professors and students alike use online videoconferencing. We’ve already had the opportunity to give a class on ophthalmology to students in the Southern Cone and a web conference with Los Angeles to discuss business. We had an excellent experience since it gave us the chance to teach and communicate one another in spite of the distance,” explainsMiguel A. Materin, ophthalmologist and director of Ophthalmological Oncology at Yale University (USA).

“Videoconferencing via Internet allows us to consolidate our virtual relationships with students without students having to leave home. I believe it is both useful and practical though it does involve challenges such as rethinking the student-professor relationship in the virtual world and addressing the question of impersonality. We generally use it for students completing their graduate degrees or for exchanges and forums that we do virtually and in writing. Now we do them using the Wormhole videoconference tool, which creates a dynamic atmosphere and feedback that virtual relationships didn’t used to have,” says Solange Strugo, Technical Coordinator of the Virtual Graduate Degrees at FLACSO ARGENTINA.

Wormhole IT is the company responsible for the most popular videoconferencing and Internet education platforms in Latin America, platforms that have received international awards. They propose to make communication “flexible and quick with instant answers, allowing people to connect face-to-face without leaving their home or office--no matter where they are,” to quote the coordinator at FLACSO ARGENTINA when asked to explain why FLACSO chose this platform.

The platform created by Wormhole IT allows changes to the way information is accessed. Wormhole’s online videoconferencing platform has received awards by several international entities and companies, including Microsoft. "No special equipment is needed and the product runs on any PC with an Internet connection. This methodology can be used for a regular class or to give a presentation for 500 participants,” explains Ignacio López, one of Wormhole’s four partners and the Director of Research and Development at the firm.

At the Universidad de San Andrés, Alejandro Artopoulos, Director of the Lab for Ubiquitous Learning, says that the platform “is used to give classes, defend theses, hold research meetings and meetings of the university board. This is state of the art in what we refer to as ubiquitous education. We began using it at the end of 2010 when we decided to expand our selection through IT. The platform allows us to provide top-quality distance learning at a low cost. Our best experience was at the meeting of the "Argentine Scholars", students from the rest of the country who receive a full scholarship. This year, all information meetings were held using the Wormhole platform.”

With an average cost of $100 per month, Wormhole’s easy-to-use videoconferencing tool can help you train, hold business meetings or broadcast live events: “The institution or company doesn’t need to have any technical personnel to use the tool. Any Internet user can use the videoconferencing tool online and in real time. It’s quick and easy and it doesn’t require any software. Finally, it adapts to the user’s language,” explains Sally Buberman, a partner of Wormhole IT and the Product and Marketing Director.

Fundación Evolución has also taken advantage of Wormhole IT’s videoconferencing platform as part of its Education 2.0 project: “Different types of activities are organized in the online conference room for both Internet courses and to supplement face-to-face events (exhibitions, conferences, gatherings, work meetings, courses, workshops, etc.) For example, we hold informational meetings, sessions for asking experts, online panels, webinars, colloquiums, online tutoring and orientation sessions held before inter-school projects begin. We are currently working with professionals teams of the projects in the educational design of different events that will be held in the online conference room in the years to come,” reports Marta Libedinsky, Academic Director at Fundación Evolución. “With the online conference room, activities can be organized in real time and then recorded. This means that the contents can be viewed by people who can work online at a given time but also by those who are not able to make the meeting,” adds the director.

For more information:
www.webconf.me

www.fundacionevolucion.org.ar