Mt. Everest 2005: Climbing Higher - With Leaders in Teaching and Technology: Students to Benefit from Unique Joint Sponsorship of Expedition Everest by Telecom Ottawa and Ottawa-Carleton District School Board

Update

Update 4/12/2005: Ben and his group at base camp...

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Forging a unique relationship that promotes their strengths and innovations, Telecom Ottawa and the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB) announced today that, through joint title sponsorship, they will be supporting Ben Webster's spring 2005 climb of Mount Everest.

    Ben, the expedition leader, is an experienced Canadian climber whose most recent Everest expedition was chronicled by The Discovery Channel. He will again be joined by Shaunna Burke, who is completing a Ph. D. in Sports Psychology at the University of Ottawa.

    The joint sponsorship will bring real-time satellite video of the

expedition delivered by Telecom Ottawa to six schools within the OCDSB. Extensive Everest curriculum offerings will be made available at these schools. Already, Telecom Ottawa has connected all 154 of the Board's school sites to the company's fiber network, which is North America's largest and fastest city-wide network.

    This Everest experience will be explored within the framework of

curriculum designed by teachers to enrich the learning experience of students in various subjects including exercise science, physical education, geography, art, photography, anthropology, information technology, design and technology, business, biology and religion. The students will be placed virtually in the back pack of Ben Webster and take them to the mountain.

    "We're thrilled to be partnering with the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board on such an important and innovative initiative," said Dave Dobbin, Chief Operating Officer, Telecom Ottawa. "It's fantastic that students will be able to benefit from seeing and learning about Expedition Everest in this way."

    "It's all about the students, really," said John Hindle, OCDSB Manager of Business and Learning Technologies. "Giving them the opportunity to experience the satellite video transmission from Mount Everest - in real-time - is amazing. It will provide the framework for learning what's involved, from a whole range of different perspectives, in climbing the world's tallest mountain."

    "The prospect is exciting for us," said Dave Dobbin. "It's something that no one has ever done before capturing live video feeds sent from the peaks of Mount Everest - a perilous setting, in one of the world's coldest, harshest environments and transmitting them direct to the classrooms of Ottawa."

    Steve Gamble, Manager of Network Operations with Telecom Ottawa, will be joining Expedition Everest for the climb to Base Camp. "I'm looking forward to the experience. Base camp Everest is at 18,000 feet, about 4,000 feet higher than our Canadian Rockies, so even at that level, the challenges are significant," said Steve. "It'll be fun to connect with students back home in Ottawa from the other side of the world -at the top of the world."

    About Telecom Ottawa Limited

    Telecom Ottawa is a broadband data and Internet services provider based in Ottawa with operations throughout Eastern Ontario. The company owns and operates the largest 10 Gigabit metropolitan-wide network in North America, with more than 600 kilometers of fibre optic cable. This broadband infrastructure enables the provision of bandwidth capacity for data networking, high-speed Internet access, e-business applications and multimedia services. In providing services to businesses and public-sector organizations, Telecom Ottawa also delivers an extensive portfolio of ISP capabilities such as email, web hosting, wireless and remote Internet access.

    About The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB)

    The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB) is the largest school board in Eastern Ontario, serving students within a 2,760 square kilometer area comprising the city of Ottawa. OCDSB is the seventh largest District by school population in Ontario. Enrolment as of October 31, 2004 totaled 70,526 full-time equivalent (FTE) students (44,535 elementary and 25,991 secondary). The total number of full-time equivalent (FTE) elementary teachers was 2,658 and the number of secondary teachers was 1,586, as of October 31, 2004. The OCSDB has 150 school sites (118 elementary, 27 secondary including the Adult High School and five secondary alternate sites). There are also six alternative elementary programs located or co-located in the District.

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