BEING A TECH LEADER IN THE  CENTURY OF COVID-19 The confinement we are currently experiencing has turned the whole life of the University of Vermont upside down. It has now been more than 2 weeks since our university had to close its doors and try to adapt to an unprecedented situation, which radically changes our operating methods, our working relationships, our teaching. That is to say, the effort required of everyone so that our public service missions can be carried out at best; this requires a time of adaptation that everyone, students, faculty and staff, will be able to understand. In an emergency, UVM had to develop and initiate an administrative continuity plan. It is a question of ensuring that the departments can work and guarantee essential activities (staff pay, IT maintenance and response to demand, building security, etc.) even when the university is closed. Equally important, a distance learning plan was implemented to ensure continuity of teaching and...

DIGITAL PORTFOLIO PICTH  _ BRINGING DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP TO DEVELOPING COUNTRIES This Picture makes me think of the Digital Citizenship Webinar by Dr. Marty Park. Based on the readings and the Webinar on Digital Citizenship by Dr. Marty Park, these are the steps that we, educators have to take in order to help shape today's students into the digital citizens our world needs. Level 1: Identify the leaders that we work within our educational institutions ( library leaders, teachers,  schools tech leaders, etc.. Level 2 : Exposure of plans. Encourage teachers to use more technology into the classrooms, (Ie:  videos and creating online lesson plans) Level 3: Check that the students have the skills. ( basic level of understanding or application of skills.) Level 4: Work on a Digital citizenship plan to ensure the students fluency and competency. Encourage the student to demonstrate that by doing and living as a digital citizen through the creation of materials. ...

I had the chance to attend the Digital Citizenship seminar this week and ask a question during the webinar to Dr. Marty Park. My question was: How can we bring Digital citizenship to developing countries and international classrooms where technology isn't always present? Dr. Park's response was the following: Whatever technologies we have access to, there are ways to learn the key concepts and competencies of Digital Citizenship. The core of Digital Citizenship is how to be a responsible, respectful and empowered person. He said that our real life and online life were merging at a rapid pace and we're trying to figure out how to do that really well. He insisted on sharing the common definition of what it means to be a Digital Citizen with people as well as hack the definition of Digital citizenship and making it our own.  He said ''Put a definition that would bring leaders together and share the systems around''. He also said that we ...

Reflection #1 CHOICE ACTIVITY DOES AR/VR BELONG IN THE CLASSROOM? I have really enjoyed learning about the several tech tools over these past couples of weeks. While recovering from leg surgery, I had to be on bed rest, so I had a lot of time to read about AR/VR and how it’s used in different countries not just the United States. As an international student on campus, I was really interested in learning more about AR/VR in the classroom as my developing the country is still far away from using this new technology in classrooms and my goal is to figure out how we could import it at a cost-effective for school. Technology has become a key component of today’s classroom and is here to stay. A recent study highlighted the prevalence of tech in the classroom, as 71% of primary schools and 76% of secondary schools have tablets in the classroom, according to BESA. Tablets and laptops have unlocked opportunities for students to explore and continue...

As we reflect on the voicethread assignment and Dr. Michael Fullan's video, I thought I'd add a list of characteristics I think each leader should have :

DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP Based on the readings and the Webinar on Digital Citizenship by Dr. Marty Park, these are the steps that we, educators have to take in order to help shape today's students into the digital citizens our world needs. Level 1: Identify the leaders that we work within our educational institutions ( library leaders, teachers,  schools tech leaders, etc.. Level 2 : Exposure of plans. Encourage teachers to use more technology into the classrooms, (Ie:  videos and creating online lesson plans) Level 3: Check that the students have the skills. ( basic level of understanding or application of skills.) Level 4: Work on a Digital citizenship plan to ensure the students fluency and competency. Encourage the student to demonstrate that by doing and living as a digital citizen through the creation of materials. I had the chance to ask a question during the webinar to Dr. Marty Park. My question was: How can we bring Digital citizenship to deve...

DIGITAL EQUITY As an international student who's not very familiar with American schools, I thought I'd reflect on inequities in my home country since we follow the French educational system but when I start thinking about these inequities, I found out that they are pretty much the same. Inequity #1: Schools in rich neighborhoods get access to computers, tablets, and better infrastructure because of where the school is located. For Schools in poor neighborhoods, having a computer lab is a luxury they can't afford due to the lack of funding. Education is free and schools get pretty much the same amount of funding. I took an Education policy class last semester and learned that in the U.S, property taxes parents pay determine school funding, however, in Western European countries like France or Spain, schools are subsidized by the government and schools get money based on the number of students enrolled. Let's say that there are ...

I have been working for a global education company based in Southeast Asia for the past 4 years. My goal as a tech leader is to bring tech tools to developing countries where access to technology can sometimes be difficult. These are some of the tech tools that I like using and I think it will revolutionize language learning in international classrooms.

Switch Chapter 1-2 Share a Bright Spot using the DISCUSSION BOARD section for discussing our reading. Tell the story of the successful use of technology in the schools that you have seen that has inspired you. I consider myself lucky and privileged as I had the opportunity to study in the U.S, learn from tech leaders and educators. My goal is to learn new practices and try to use them in developing countries like my home country, in North Africa. I teach at the University of Vermont and supervise the ELL practicum where future educators go to different schools in Vermont and I'm always amazed by the new technologies that are used in American classrooms. One of the tools I particularly liked and that can be used in ELL classrooms is Voicethread. I liked how students could learn, create their own presentations using powerpoints, videos, audio files, etc.. When I went back to Vietnam in the summer of 2018, I recommended that my ELL teachers use voicethread with their teen class...