Fire and Ice develops the “leaders of tomorrow” – our children and students – by connecting schools in North America and Europe with schools in developing nations (particularly those in rural and remote areas) and engaging them in live, online collaborative projects that address critical social challenges (such as climate change and poverty reduction) using the most advanced, yet economical and accessible ICT solutions to ensure that no student is left behind due to geography or financial resources.

Our vision is to develop tens of thousands of "leaders of tomorrow" in North America, Europe, and developing nations by using ICT technology to engage students in live, school-to-school collaboration projects on the world's most urgent social topics.  Since launching in August 2006, Fire and Ice has quickly reached the “proof of concept” milestone, having developed over 200 of tomorrow’s leaders, aged 8 - 14 years old, from across three continents.  The model has been successfully proven, even in some of the world's most remote communities and most challenging Internet environments.   

In 2008, Fire and Ice will launch a full-scale global rollout.  To achieve this objective, we are identifying a global education partner with the infrastructure and local reach to replicate our existing Fire and Ice template across thousands of schools worldwide. Fire and Ice is projecting to grow from 100 classes (2,500 students) in 2008 to 4,000 classes (100,000 students) in 2012, with projects in over 180 countries. 

Collaboration is most effective when it is live and deeply interactive. ICT plays a critical role in the achievement of Fire and Ice’s collaborative objectives in four key ways. 

Firstly, we provide schools with online "virtual classroom" software (called Elluminate Live!) to collaborate, brainstorm ideas, ask questions, and present projects in real time. Students share PowerPoint presentations on an electronic whiteboard, and interact using tools such as Voice-over-the-Internet (VOIP), webcam, and text chat.  The entire session is recorded and can be converted to standard video formats for future viewing. 

Elluminate Live is the world’s best web collaboration technology for developing nations. The solution offers an exceptional communication experience on both fast and slow Internet connection speeds (minimum 28.8 kbps dialup, satellite or mobile), and uses a proprietary buffering technology to adjust for short Internet delays and outages.  These advantages enable the delivery of Fire and Ice initiatives to rural and remote areas of the developing world, where Internet bandwidth is often limited, and where connection stability is inherently unpredictable.   

Secondly, we set up a free webpage, using an open-source Learning Management System (LMS), for Fire and Ice schools to share and manage their project content (presentations, Elluminate session recordings, photos, research articles, and much more). 

Thirdly, we offer two options for schools that are challenged by lack of hardware or Internet connectivity: 1) we solicit local Internet cafés or telecentres to host and support the live events on the schools’ behalf, or 2) we donate a "Classroom-in-a-Box" hardware station to enable students to join events directly from their schools.  The Classroom-in-a-Box is a groundbreaking solution that consists of a laptop, LCD projector, speakers, webcam, electronic whiteboard and writing tablet – all packed into a protective carrying case.  The solution is ideally suited for the developing world -- portable, easy to use, and a fraction of the cost of traditional video conferencing systems.   

Lastly, the pinnacle of any Fire and Ice project is the live event, where classrooms, Internet cafes and telecentres are transformed into powerful eLearning "nodes", giving students and teachers a "window to the world" to showcase their projects to a local, national and international audience.  Social entrepreneur "guest speakers" often play an important role in Fire and Ice events, inspiring students that individuals can make a difference in effecting social change.  Most importantly, we engage the local community, government and education representatives, as well as media in the live events to ensure that students’ messages reach the broadest audience possible. 

As previously mentioned, we are in the process of identifying an NGO to help us replicate our project globally.  Qualifications that we are seeking in the partner organization include local staff in numerous countries, a network of thousands of schools, and solid experience managing school-to-school collaborative projects.  We provide the partner with the missing ingredients: the template, training, support, and expertise to launch meaningful, live Fire and Ice collaboration projects across their network. 

A typical Fire and Ice project starts with identifying two or more schools from different countries who wish to collaborate on a particular topic of interest.  At least one school is from North America or Europe (the “Ice”) and at least one other is from a developing nation (the “Fire”). 

Projects are divided into three phases: 1) introductions, greetings, and cultural presentations, 2) research, brainstorming and presentation of project plan, and 3) showcasing project results to a global audience.  ICT plays a primary role throughout the project, since each phase is highlighted by a live event, hosted in Elluminate’s “virtual classroom”.  

During the live events, students share PowerPoint presentations on an electronic whiteboard, and they interact and ask questions using the VOIP, webcam, and text chat tools.  Guest speakers often participate remotely to inspire the students.  Language is never a barrier. We engage live interpreters to provide two-way translation, and sometimes, we leverage the closed captioning technology provided in Elluminate Live! 

For schools that do not have access to computer equipment or Internet connections, we engage with local Internet cybercafés and telecentres to host the live events and provide equipment, connectivity, and technical support.  In other cases, we have donated the “Classroom-in-a-Box” solution to enable students to participate in live events directly from their own schools, providing there is at least a dialup Internet connection (min. 28.8 kbps). 

In between the live events, collaboration continues as students and teachers share content on their Learning Management System website, and communicate via email to build rapport (free translation websites are used in cases where live translators are not available).   

In summary, the combination of Elluminate Live! virtual classroom software, the learning management system, and the “Classroom-in-a-Box” hardware station, offers a compelling, affordable ICT solution to develop tomorrow’s leaders in Fire and Ice projects, no matter where the school is located.