Beyond the Fire

This programme uses information and communication technologies (ICTs) to explore the human cost of war on young people from their own perspectives. The Beyond the Fire website exposes visitors to the real-life experiences of 15 teenage war refugees, the challenges they have faced, and the conflicts in their home countries. A participatory youth media experience led to the creation of nearly 60 flash movies and audio from the 15 teens.

The primary strategy for engaging viewers in the teens' experiences is personalisation in the form of an online documentary "journey". This interactive site invites each user to navigate through a "world view" map featuring images of the 15 teens in their home countries. By clicking on each teen, one engages in a journey that is visual in the sense that the visitor may view pictures, read stories, and seek factual information (e.g., in the form of country facts and a "conflict timeline" for each teen's country); one also listens to the voice of each teen to increase the sense of personal identification and connection. (A transcripts section of the site enables those with slower connections to read the refugees' stories).

The experience is meant to be motivating to site vistors, since those who participate fully in the reading of the teens' stories are "rewarded" by being invited into an online community. Specifically, after collecting all 15 stamps on a virtual passport, visitors to the site become World Travelers and have the opportunity to have their photos, ideas, and experiences published in the "talkback" section of the website. This section is meant to support the creation of an online youth community exploring issues of war, geography, history, and human rights. Each visitor is also provided with an online travelog. After each teen refugee story is finished, the travelog opens with a question about that refugee; participants record their answers to these questions in their travelogs. Once a student has worked through all 15 of the teen refugee stories, these answers are posted on the site to inspire exchange of perspectives among fellow visitors in the "talkback" section.

The website also includes a number of educational resources for teachers; the idea here is that the personal kind of learning that young people can participate in through the Internet documentary can be enhanced by interpersonal, curriculum-based exchange in their own schools. To that end, a dedicated educators' section of the website includes lesson plans, ideas for using Beyond the Fire in the classroom, printable (PDF) versions of the programme materials, and an interactive teachers' forum. These tools are meant to help spark dialogue that can take place within the classroom and beyond.

Conflict, Youth, Education.

According to organisers, war has killed 2 million children globally in the last decade. Four million children have become disabled and hundreds of thousands serve as child soldiers. Nearly half of all refugees worldwide are under 18, and an estimated 25 million children have been uprooted from their homes as a result of war.