February / March 2007


ORION, videoconferencing bring Africa to Ontario students

Expedition Africa wraps up with closing presentation at Megaconference Jr.

Big Picture, Small World: Expedition Africa wrapped up last month and a presentation on the hit expedition's impact on students will be showcased at Megaconference Jr. on February 22.



Ottawa's Algonquin College is leading the project and worked closely with district school board educators across Ontario to develop curriculum for classroom delivery and for any teachers to develop learning materials to support their curriculum. Five Ontario school boards from Ottawa, Toronto and Windsor incorporated the 'safari' in their curriculum.

Janet Murphy, Program Manager of Advanced Broadband Enabled Learning (ABEL), and Stephen Rensink of the York Region District School Board will share their learning experiences of corresponding through technology with an expedition team as it travelled through Africa from Cairo to Cape Town over the course of 20 weeks. The expedition team remained in daily contact with Ontario students through blogs, videocasts, daily journal entries posted on a website, and real-time videoconferencing sessions enabled in part by ORION's high-speed network, so that students could participate in the adventure and learn about Africa along the way.

The five-month journey began in September, 2006. Students experienced second-hand the cultures of Africa and learned about the history, geography, ecology, art, politics and health crises of Africa's nations. Specific lesson plans were developed around subjects including math, science, history, anthropology, and international relations to incorporate Expedition Africa into the curriculum.

The expedition was led by accomplished expedition leader Ben Webster, also a professor-at-large at Algonquin College, photojournalist, TV producer and documentary filmmaker. Webster has led five successful multimedia expeditions to the summit of Mount Everest where he produced the first live broadband TV broadcast from the mountain to North American networks CTV and ABC. In 2003 and 2004, he mounted a Discovery Channel Expedition to the mountain and produced an award-winning six-part mini-series, Everest: Ultimate Survival. It is no surprise then that Webster should come up with the idea of an African expedition to bring to children and teens through similar broadband technology, and he set about planning how he could bring this great learning experience to students.



Expedition Africa Team arrives at their final destination: Cape Town.

Participating students of all ages from elementary and secondary schools in the York Region District School Board, Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, Ottawa-Carleton Catholic School Board, Windsor-Essex Catholic School Board, and Renfrew County Catholic School Board were able to speak directly to and ask questions of the expedition team and African children via videoconference. Anyone from around the world, though, can access the website where photos, blogs, audio clips and daily journal entries were recorded. A partnership with CHUM TV resulted in brief updates of the progress of the expedition team on the 6 o'clock news programs of CHUM's television channels across Canada, which further promoted the initiative.

Expedition highlights included a visit to Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned, the Cotlands Children's Hospital in Johannesburg which cares for orphans living with HIV/AIDS, climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, spending time with the Maasai and Bedouin tribes, and, of course, a visit to the Pyramids.

Feedback from students has been enthusiastic. "The students wondered why we couldn't do this sort of thing all the time," said Janet Murphy. "They were blown away by the capabilities of the videoconferencing technology - the fact that they could see and interact with people so far away but in real time."

"Most importantly, what they got out of it was a real connection to their peers in Africa. By talking to them and having their questions answered, our students learned that African children their age are not all that different from them, that they have the same general likes (parties, sports) and dislikes (homework), and that they could relate to each other despite differences of culture and economic status."

Expedition Africa was designed to actively engage Canadian school-aged students, their teachers and their families with respect to the Continent of Africa, its opportunities, its challenges and its peoples. Through the innovative use of advanced technology and high-speed networks such as ORION, these individuals were able to better understand the realities and challenges facing people and their communities in developing African countries.

"Algonquin College is the postsecondary leader in our community, if not all of Ontario, with respect to the integration of technology in the learning environment," said Kent MacDonald, Executive Director of Algonquin's Strategy and Business Development Division, at the expedition's official launch at the college last September. "This project allows the College to cooperate more closely with our educational partners and leverage satellite, telecom and computer technology to bring a new and unique way of learning into classrooms across Ontario."

To learn more about Expedition Africa, visit www.algonquincollege.com/africa. For more information about Megaconference Jr. 2007, visit www.megaconferencejr.org.

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