Fire and Ice delivers live distance training to teachers, students and health care professionals in regional and remote areas of the developing world and, when appropriate, leverages instructors and content from abroad to enhance the online learning experience.
In partnership with some of the world's leading universities and training institutions, Fire and Ice currently delivers courses in two areas:
- English as a Second Language (ESL) training for K12 teachers and students in developing countries
- Training for African health care workers in malaria and other major disease topics.
West Africa – Burkina Faso Malaria Training Project - July 2009
Malaria poses a tremendous health challenge for Burkina Faso, a population of 15 million inhabitants. Malaria accounts for 35% of hospitalizations and 25% of the deaths in the country and, each year, over 200,000 children under the age of five die from the disease (Source: researchafrica.rti.org).
One of the best ways to combat Malaria in Burkina Faso is to spread the knowledge to prevent it. In spring 2009, Elluminate, along with its partners, the University of Hertfordshire (Hatfield, UK) and PNPL – the National Program to Combat Malaria (Burkina Faso) delivered an online Malaria training course to regional health care workers, located in four remote areas throughout the country. The course was delivered in a blended learning format, using a combination of synchronous (live virtual classroom) and asynchronous (CD) techniques, to maximize the quality of learning experience for the trainees.
Jules Anicet Ouédraogo, General Director of INFOLEC and Fire and Ice’s West African regional coordinator, trained and supported the health care trainees to use the ICT tools required for the course. Trainees met instructor Jay Ragoo (located in the UK) in the Elluminate virtual classroom for six sessions of 75 minutes duration, over a three-week period. Offline, trainees also shared experiences and content in an asynchronous platform, and each trainee received a CD containing the recordings from each of the live lessons to review on their own time. As a next step in the program, trainees will apply the knowledge learned from the course and spread to their local communities by creating public awareness posters about Malaria prevention, as well as organizing face-to-face training sessions for at least five new students in their local area.
“The advantage of using this tool (Elluminate) lies at all levels, namely the reduction of distance, the cost of training, the care of the participants, and the quality of the trainers,” said Mr. Pascal Ouedraogo, Director of Studies and Internships at the National School of Public Health in Ouagadougou, Burkina’s capital city. “The first distance learning course on Malaria in Burkina Faso has been a frank success…and especially thanks to the quality of technology of Infolec’s Canadian partner, Elluminate.”
China - English Training and Collaborative Project for Huangpu School – 2009
In spring 2009, Elluminate and its partner, LANCELOT School from Europe, trained students and teachers from Huangpu School, a middle school located in Shenzhen, China, to improve their speaking and listening abilities in English.
Shenzhen is city of 12 million people, and is located an hour train ride from Hong Kong in China’s southern Guangdong province. Using the Elluminate virtual classroom, Huangpu students improved their abilities to communicate with native-English speaking instructors from abroad (all located on the European continent). As a final component of the project, students applied what they learned from their training sessions and collaborated live, online with a middle school from Germany, whose students were also learning English.
Huangpu students were fascinated with the new training methodology and found it to be an excellent supplement to the traditional English training already provided in their schools. They also loved to learn about other cultures.
In the final ceremony to honour the first phase of course completion, Shenzhen education officials said this was just the beginning. “I’ve seen a very creative thing here today, which is very good for all the schools in Shenzhen,” according to Mr. Tang, Head of Bureau of Education, Shenzhen. “It is a completely different way from traditional teaching methods. It might happen that all the students in Shenzhen will be learning English together through Elluminate a few years later and I hope there will not be a traffic jam online at that time!”
Colombia Teacher Training in ESL - June 2009
In spring 2009, Elluminate and its partners Queen’s University (Kingston, ON, Canada) delivered English as a Second Language (ESL) training to middle school teachers in regional and remote areas of Colombia.
The course was taught by a native-English instructor from Queen’s and focused on improving the speaking and listening skills of the trainees -- a supplement to their existing ESL continuing education initiatives.
Colombian teachers from the Antioquia region (near Medellin) and the La Guajira region (near the Caribbean) completed the course. Not only did teachers improve their English, but they also learned valuable Web 2.0 collaboration tools. These new skills will enable the teachers to participate more effectively in collaborative online projects with schools worldwide.
The course was delivered both synchronously (using the Elluminate virtual classroom) and asynchronously (using the NING social community). NING enabled trainees to share content, information, photos and videos and practice the knowledge learned from their live sessions in their own time.
Trainees felt the course was extremely helpful. The average course approval rating (based on a post-course survey) was 4.85 out of 5. According to one of the trainees, “I enjoyed the course very much because I not only learned about ICT but also I could learn more about other cultures and share it with facilitators and classmates.” Another trainee found the teaching methodology of the course to be “motivating and highly innovative.”