In a small provincial village school there is... a Microsoft expert

Teacher Nguyen Bich Ngoc

In Lam Dong, it's a different story. The expert is a teacher at a primary school in a remote area.

And that technology expert has a very "feminine" name: Nguyen Bich Ngoc (34 years old, teacher at Le Loi Primary School, Da Teh district).

I am very happy that society recognizes me. What I share is simply because I want to spread the love of technology to teachers. I also learn from the community, not to discover anything great myself.

Teacher NGUYEN BICH NGOC

Learn English by yourself to communicate with international experts

Teacher Ngoc began his story with a name that until now he did not know why his father named him that.

"It's fun. Because of my strange name, teachers and tech-savvy friends I meet on online forums can easily remember me even though they mistook me for a girl before" - Mr. Ngoc laughed.

In technology forums related to teaching activities, many people were effectively guided by Mr. Ngoc and were curious about his background in the field of information technology.

Mr. Ngoc is honest about his humble beginnings: "I studied hardware and network infrastructure at a private college in 2008. After working in Ho Chi Minh City for a while, I went to study pedagogy and applied to teach at a school near my home."

Having no expertise in software and programming, Mr. Ngoc taught himself English and then discussed with international experts on open forums.

Teacher Ngoc said: "In the past, every time my parents were away from home, I secretly connected to the Internet to play with software I found in the magazine Making Friends with Computers. As a result, one month I was punished by my parents with a cane and couldn't run away in time. At that time, I studied computers, technology was forbidden, so my passion was suppressed.

After I was "let out of the cage", I threw myself into studying tirelessly. Now, whenever my wife and children are sleeping, I continue to learn about the latest technology trends that I have only heard about but have never known or understood.

Born from passion

In 2020-2021, when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, online teaching and digital transformation in education exploded. Passion urged teachers to find this, learn that to guide other teachers.

"I and many teachers are afraid that if we passively wait for our superiors to train us, it will be slow and disadvantageous for the students who are at home due to the epidemic," Mr. Ngoc confided.

Mr. Ngoc was recognized by Microsoft as a Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert (MIEE) for his contributions in the 2022-2023 school year. The village school teacher being recognized at the expert level surprised many people, including Mr. Ngoc.

He said: "My contributions to the MIEE community come from passion and common sense. So being recognized by Microsoft surprised me."

Mr. Ngoc talked about his process of joining the expert community: "The COVID-19 pandemic is also a time of strong digital transformation in teaching. I am a teacher in a remote area and am very passive. I joined the Microsoft expert community to receive guidance from my seniors. Thanks to that, my teachers and I quickly joined the digital transformation of teaching and learning.

I am fortunate to have a background in technology, so I try to think more to come up with small initiatives to design lessons, grade, teach, and share them back with the community. That is also my way of giving back."

Teacher Nguyen Bich Ngoc is close to students and guides them in loving computer technology - Photo: MV

Vietnamese language training for ethnic minority students

Ms. Nguyen Thi Kim Phung (Principal of Le Loi Primary School) said that the school is located in a remote area, so the ethnic composition of the students is diverse. 50% of the students are from Chau Ma, Nung, Tay, Stieng ethnic groups...

The problem the school faces is that the students cannot speak Vietnamese fluently. We must improve their Vietnamese to help them study well.

The class is large, teachers cannot tutor all students one-on-one, so the results are not as expected. Mr. Ngoc has researched Microsoft's Teams software in depth and discovered that he can turn the Reading Process tool into a language teaching assistant for students.

The nature of this tool is real-time voice transcription, helping groups using Teams to more closely monitor lessons or meetings.

"I discussed with teachers about using the application to teach Vietnamese to students. Students just need to receive exercises from teachers, sit in front of the computer and read so that the software can recognize their voice. If students read incorrectly, the software will display the error in the text. Teachers will re-train them.

The good thing about applying technology is that students can practice on their own without a teacher, so they feel more comfortable," Mr. Ngoc explained.

Ms. Phung said that Mr. Ngoc often studies the teaching activities of other teachers. When teachers encounter difficulties in applying technology, they often seek Mr. Ngoc, so he has a lot of material about teaching activities. Therefore, Mr. Ngoc's initiatives are closely related to the teaching activities of not only the school but also the district and the province.

Mr. Ngoc simply talks about his approach to technology: "Every time I play with a software, I often wonder if it can be used for teaching. Or every time I teach, I often wonder if it would be better if I applied this or that tool? I ask myself and answer myself."

Teacher of the year

In addition to teaching, teacher Nguyen Bich Ngoc also manages the website lamdong.itrithuc.vn under the management of the Department of Education and Training of Lam Dong province. To promote Da Teh district, teacher Ngoc also participates in managing the Da Teh in me forum on Facebook. For his personal contributions to education for many consecutive years, at the end of 2023, the Ministry of Education and Training recognized teacher Ngoc as "Outstanding Teacher of the Year".

"Miracle"

When mentioning Mr. Ngoc, almost all the technology-savvy teachers in Lam Dong remember the "miracle" of 2020. That day, to start teaching online, it was necessary to create 30,000 Teams accounts for primary school students in the whole province.

Students in this grade certainly cannot do it themselves. A data entry group was set up to create accounts for students within two weeks. Mr. Ngoc was invited to join the group.

After three days of hard work, Mr. Ngoc realized that if he continued to do it manually, he would never be able to complete it. He began to withdraw from manual work.

"I'm also afraid that teachers won't understand why I stopped entering data and will blame me. But I think I need to reevaluate my work and find a technological solution to complete it on time."

While the group was still working hard on data entry, Mr. Ngoc researched to create a software that helps create accounts in bulk. The software was created based on a software platform that Mr. Ngoc shared with the international technology community.

The completion date was only three days away. After presenting the plan, the group focused on standardizing the data to enter into the software. And with just one click, tens of thousands of accounts were created. Mr. Ngoc's group was surprised because they reached the finish line so early.

This achievement is the highlight for Mr. Ngoc to be noticed by the education sector for his ability to apply technology.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/o-ngoi-truong-lang-tinh-le-co-chuyen-gia-microsoft-20240229233533013.htm