Calgary, AB (CA), December 2009 - Elluminate, Inc., a provider of web, audio, video, and social networking solutions that support 21st-century teaching, learning, and collaboration, has announced that its Fire and Ice initiative has been awarded iNACOL's Best and Most Innovative Online Learning Practice award.
The award recognizes an individual, team, or program whose innovative practices or policies have ultimately led to student achievement and serves as a model for other K-12 online learning institutions.
"It's an incredible honour to be selected for the iNACOL Best and Most Innovative Online Learning Practice award", says Stace Wills, Elluminate's Fire and Ice Global Coordinator. "It validates the tremendous impact that collaboration technologies (such as Elluminate Live!) and school-to-school collaboration projects (like Fire and Ice) can have on development, particularly in rural and remote areas restricted by bandwidth limitations and unstable internet connections."
Fire and Ice connects K-12 schools in the northern hemisphere (ice) with those in mainly rural developing countries in the southern hemisphere (fire). This link-up enables them to engage in highly collaborative projects on universal themes like climate change and poverty reduction using enabling technology that includes the Elluminate Live! virtual classroom.
Since its inception in 2006, Fire and Ice has authored highly creative international content and generated unforgettable learning experiences for thousands of students in over 25 countries, including the, Australia, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Canada, Colombia, Kenya, Mali, Mozambique, Taiwan, Turkey, and the United Kingdom, and the United States.
"Elluminate is committed to breaking down geographic barriers and providing access to knowledge and education in over 170 countries, including some of the world's most remote regions", says Elluminate Founder and CEO Nashir Samanani. "We are now excited to expand the admirable Fire and Ice programs to include innovative, cost-effective, and sustainable training for areas that have traditionally been left out."
Recent training projects include one for healthcare workers in Burkina Faso, West Africa, to combat malaria. Another is providing English as a second language (ESL) training to K-12 students in China and for teachers in Colombia.
"The School of Nursing and Midwifery at the University of Hertfordshire collaborated with nursing personal in five locations in Burkina Faso on the management of malaria", says Senior Lecturer Jay Ragoo. "With Elluminate, distance is no longer a barrier. Students from remote areas can view teaching materials and interact with each other online without traveling, while lecturers can provide education from the comfort of their office in the U.K. The project demonstrated that online education can be delivered with ease and was evaluated very favorably, especially for offering the unique opportunity to have online discussions."
