Last weekend has seen a very successful Technology Conference in school. The Vietnam Tech. Conference is an annual EdTech event organized by Saigon South International School and United Nations International School of Hanoi. The conference was held this year at SSIS from March 7 to 8.

Congratulations to everyone involved, an absolutely positive experience in every way. The school was a buzz of activity with teachers attending from all around Asia. For the first time, a contingent of UNIS and SSIS students joined forces to form the conference’s tech support team: The Geek Squad.

The conference took off with our keynote speaker, Robert Appino, sharing up-to-date research on gamification and game-based learning, and how both of these practices can be used to create highly engaging and relevant learning.

One of the weekend’s highlights was the Speed Geeking session. Speed Geeking is a participation process used to quickly view a number of presentations within a short period of time. The presenters have only 6 or 7 minutes to present one idea and to answer any questions to a group. When the facilitator signals time, the presenter rotates to the next group.

The Conference continued with a wide variety of teaching and learning topics in over 30 sessions. It was fantastic to be part of a proactive teaching community that discusses innovative education methods and shares best practices.

The weekend of activities finished off with a with a lucky draw and the announcement of the winners of the “Selfie Competition” by our Geek Squad.

At SSIS we understand that education is at the crossroads and technology has opened up new possibilities, both for teachers and students alike. Its pervasiveness is changing how we learn and, by facilitating Professional Development in these areas, SSIS is making sure that teachers are trained in how to use relevant technologies in the classroom. Thank you to all the SSIS presenters and Geek Squad students who came in to make of this conference a very successful one. They truly showcased what a great school we are.

Save the date for VTC2016 in Hanoi. It is destined to be another great event.