Background
Fire and Ice is an award-winning initiative driven by Elluminate, Inc. of Calgary, Canada, that delivers distance education programs to rural schools in developing nations, using cost-effective web conferencing technology that excels across low bandwidths and in unstable internet conditions. Fire and Ice connects schools from remote, rural communities in the Southern Hemisphere (the "Fire") with partners in the Northern Hemisphere (the "Ice") and delivers two types of online educational programs.
The first program involves distance training, whereby content providers (universities and training organizations) from the North America and Europe deliver live, online professional development courses and workshops to rural schools in developing nations. The second program is school-to-school collaborative projects, whereby students from different countries collaborate live on topics of social importance including climate change, peace and poverty reduction. Watch Video
Fire & Ice is an award-winning project founded in July 2006 by Elluminate senior managers Stace Wills and Dan Rickard. Since inception, Fire & Ice has hosted numerous live events with schools spanning six continents, including those in some of the world’s most remote areas including the Brazilian Amazon, rural West African areas, and the Australian Outback. The project has been featured by a variety of local and international media, including CBC Business News (Canada), CNN.com, CTV News (Canada), Fast Company Magazine, Rio TV Sul (Brazil), and others.
Stace Wills,Founder, Global Coordinator
Dan Rickard, Founder
Jules Anicet Ouedraogo, Coordinator, West Africa
Mayte Esponda, Coordinator, Latin America (Spanish-speaking countries)
Valmir Azevedo, Coordinator, Brazil, Mozambique and Portugal
Cindea Hung , Coordinator, Asia Pacific
- Born:
Calgary, Alberta, Canada - Current Home:
Calgary, Alberta, Canada - Background:
Finance and Marketing - Languages Spoken:
English (native), some French and Spanish, learning Portuguese. - Countries Lived in:
Canada, Poland. - Countries Visited:
40+ countries in South America, Africa and Europe. - Most Memorable Fire and Ice Experience:
presenting the Fire and Ice Leadership Award to a village school in remote part of Brazil in Feb 2008, interacting with the local teachers and students, and observing the educational impact that we helped their community achieve. - Persons I Admire:
Fire and Ice teachers and students. Undoubtedly, these are some of the busiest people in the world, but few people take action to create meaningful change like they do. - Words to Live By:
"think globally, act locally"
- Born:
Lloydminster, Saskatchewan, Canada - Current Home:
Calgary, Alberta, Canada - Background:
Research and Development - Languages Spoken:
English (native), Bahasa Indonesian, learning French. - Countries Lived in:
United States, Canada, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia. - Countries Visited:
Too many to count. All continents, except Antarctica. Extensive travel throughout Asia and the Middle East. Getting to know South America and Africa. - Most Memorable Fire and Ice Experience:
Helping students in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso share ideas with students in Calgary, Alberta Canada, and listening to them sing their respective national anthems. - Persons I Admire:
My Dad, for taking a chance the dragging the entire family overseas in the early 70’s. He continues to show me that we are citizens of the world before anything else, and to look past the horizon when seeking knowledge. - Words to Live By:
"You must be the change you wish to see in the world". -Gandhi.
- Born:
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso - Current Home:
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso - Background:
Electronics, Computers Science - Languages Spoken:
French (native), English, Moorée (local language). - Countries Lived in:
Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Niger. - Countries Visited:
Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Niger, Chad, Senegal, Guine Bissau, Guine Conakry, The Gambia, Kenya, Mali, Ethiopia, France, Italy, Switzerland, Canada, United States. - Most Memorable Fire and Ice Experience:
Helping students of Les Violettes in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso share ideas with students of Belfast Elementary school in Calgary, Alberta Canada. - Persons I Admire:
Reverent Père Dominique NOTHOMBE for his love for the poor, as well as its assistance to the many people in giving them spiritual lighting for a happy and fulfilling life. - Words to Live By:
Action speaks louder than words.
- Born:
Rosario, Santa Fe, Argentina - Current Home:
del Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina - Background:
Education, translation, social psychology - Languages Spoken:
Spanish, (native), English, Italian. - Countries Lived in:
Argentina - Countries Visited:
Many South American countries, USA and Mexico and many European countries. - Most Memorable Fire and Ice Experience:
Attending to a meeting in which participating schools from Brazil's Amazon, Canada, the U.S. and Argentina discussed environmental issues. - Persons I Admire:
Enrique Riviere, (Pichón). He was a doctor and psychoanalyst who was brought from Switzerland to Argentina when he was very little and developed the theory of dialect process in groups. This theory considers that all contributions are important when working in groups: "The more heterogeneous is the group the more homogeneous is the task" - Words to Live By:
is always something to learn from others.
- Born:
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - Current Home:
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - Background:
Language and Literature - Languages Spoken:
Portuguese (native), little French and Spanish - Countries Lived in:
Brazil - Countries Visited:
Canada, Norway, Netherlands - Most Memorable Fire and Ice Experience:
Participating, even as an observer, in the Burkina Faso Ceremony, held in Le Petit Seminaire de Pabré, October 23rd, 2008. The whole event was beautiful, but the choir made up of the students of the Seminaire touched us all. - Persons I Admire:
Those, professionals or not, who care about life in its diverse forms and, through their actions, make a difference. - Words to Live By:
"Moderation in all things" (Ovid)
- Born:
Taichung, Taiwan - Current Home:
Kaohsiung, Taiwan - Background:
Education - Languages Spoken:
Chinese (native), English - Countries Lived in:
Taiwan - Countries Visited:
Too many to count! - Most Memorable Fire and Ice Experience:
The Me and My Community Live Event in June, 2008. I was so touched, and all of the participants developed a harmonious friendship after that event. Also, the Organic Garden Live Event in June, 2008. Being an observer of that event, I later made a recording for it, and that was my first impression about Organic Garden.
"Sun is delighted to sponsor the Elluminate "Fire and Ice" series of interactive network events as part of the Learning Across Borders Initiative. Our two companies are both deeply committed to the creation of next-generation immersive virtual classrooms on the net, and to bring students together to discuss the ideas that will shape our collective future."
Immersive Technologies Global Education & Research, Sun Microsystems, Inc.
"Fire and Ice has a very innovative and interesting proposal. It favours not only the use of technology, but it also allows poor students to access information, to do research, and to get to know other ways of learning on the web. Besides, Fire and Ice's power to promote interchange among schools from different cultures, in different countries, makes time and physical distances short for experience and learning exchanges."
"Participating in Fire and Ice has allowed us to apply the pedagogical strategies of collaborative projects in our school curriculum, integrating such areas as natural science, social sciences, art, humanities, Spanish Language, and English – all bridged by the discipline of information and communication technology. The whole process was highly enriched by the opportunity to connect synchronously and asynchronously with students and teachers from all over the world, going beyond boundaries and discovering in our colleagues the same desire to learn, to know, to find solutions for the different problems we face, from different contexts. This exchange, with all the tools Fire and Ice made available to us, allowed us to build a sense of belonging, knowing that we are all part of this global multicultural village.”
"It was very rewarding and innovative for our school to participate in Fire an Ice. It is the first time we participated in a project in which what is happening on our planet “matters to all of us” as a real need. Our participation also gives us the chance of contacting other schoolmates from different countries who are sharing the same needs in terms of climate change. Lastly, it was a great chance to improve our knowledge and use of IT tools."
"Our school is very happy and grateful to Fire and Ice for allowing us the opportunity to participate in this international educative collaborative project, which contributed to our teaching–learning process in a very innovative and creative way and which let our students "learn how to learn".
"Ha sido para nosotros la oportunidad de entender como las tecnologías de la comunicación están al alcance de las escuelas, sean cuales sean nuestras condiciones, porque nos une un objetivo común que hace que las dificultades se aminoren, y más en este acompañamiento que hace posible que sedes educativas como las nuestras, de bajos recursos, logren estar conectadas, y activas desde una plataforma que se convierte en un lugar mágico de encuentro en pro de una participación en colaboración. Somos afortunados!!"
"Ha sido un proceso participativo bien interesante, que plantea oportunidades diferentes no solo para los estudiantes, sino también para los docentes, padres de familia y comunidad en general, donde se involucran conocimientos que mantienen expectantes a los participantes, llevando consigo aprendizajes desde los lineamientos que permite hoy el proceso de globalización, aprovechando la tecnología de la Información y la Comunicación, que hoy exige integrar los procesos educativos."
"...participar en el proyecto es tener la posibilidad de que alumnos, docentes y padres de familia trabajen y aprendan de una forma diferente con mucha expectativa y motivación de conocer jóvenes y docentes de diferentes latitudes por medio de las tecnologías de información y comunicación en donde más niños y niñas se quieren vincular."
"Through the Machinto project, students have developed a deep understanding of the effects of war on children. With Elluminate's Fire & Ice events, the students can expand their friendships, share their thoughts, and extend their knowledge to others in a live, interactive and engaging way."
"What a great session to show how small contributions can reach a long way and to contrast this world we live in. I also applaud the generosity of the Elluminate staff and LCS with the rewards ... gives us all a good deal of hope as someone mentioned in the chat last night "among all the gloom and doom".
"Virtical" Education
I have been working with/using Elluminate software for several years now. It is not alone in the virtual classroom / meeting space technology arena. WebEx is another application, WIMBA another.
Burkina Faso
C’est par une des enseignantes de l’école LANCELOT en Finlande participant au projet et qui informait via twitter que nous avons pris connaissance du projet Fire and Ice Burkina ( en Anglais seulement )qui est propulsé par Elluminate (en Anglais seulement).
Education Week
Andrew Trotter, an assistant editor for Education Week and a writer for Digital Directions, has covered educational technology issues for more than 20 years. Katie Ash is a writer and Web producer for Digital Directions and a co-author of Education Week’s "Motivation Matters" blog.