Really? Is it that time of year again already? It seems it was just June and we were getting ready for vacation. So “how did you spend your summer vacation?” I hope you had time to relax and prepare for a new school year…
What did I do, you ask? I spent time on vacation in Gdansk, Poland with a friend and her family. What a beautiful city, full of history, culture and delicious food. It was my first visit to Poland and I hope to return and see more of the country. I may even try to learn a bit of the language; you’re never too old. My friend’s daughter asked what I enjoyed the most and after thinking about it since there was so much to enjoy, I decided it was the Solidarity Peace Center and the museum inside with 7 rooms that took me on a journey through a turbulent time in Poland’s history. It struck me how one person and a grass roots movement of peaceful resistance, can change the course of history and people’s lives.
I was also busy gaining more confidence and knowledge about blended learning and how to use technology in the classroom. Now that I am back at work, I have resumed my pursuit of a deeper understanding about how to use technology to support instruction in the classroom. As Director of the Foundation English and math programs at GUST, I have the opportunity to ensure students will receive the best from their instructors; that includes the use of our LMS system, Moodle, mobile apps and smart classroom solutions. Moodle has a lot of great functions like blogging, communicating and online quizzing. There are so many mobile apps that can be used by students and educators to streamline classroom management systems and reinforce skills; very exciting to think about but daunting at the same time. How shall I decide when and why to use technology?
I keep returning to the SAMR model for guidance. SAMR stands for Subsitute, Augmentation, Modification and Redefinition and was created by Ruben Puentadura to guide my decisions related to technology integration in the classroom and is based on sound curricular decisions. Without such guidance, technology will result in a false sense of student engagement; false because it doesn’t lead to learning gains.
This link has more information and examples: https://thatedtechguy.wordpress.com/2015/03/09/guide-using-the-samr-model-to-guide-learning/
Happy Blending!

In February 2014, I attended a Google Summit as part of my digital migration. My goal was to become an expert in Google for Education and present it to teachers in Kuwait as part of my consulting portfolio of continuing professional development (CPD). Unfortunately, there weren’t enough registrants so they canceled the “boot camp” and then a number of weather events around the country delayed flights so some of the presenters were late or couldn’t attend. I was disappointed, to say the least since I believed this was going to be a game-changer for me in terms of building my digital self-confidence. It was a missed chance since PD is so hard to come by in Kuwait and travel to the U.S. is not something I am able to do very often. So let’s just say I have given up on that goal for now, but it is still on my bucket list.

The good news is my digital journey has continued in spite of this setback. In the summer of 2014, I was hired as the Director of a pre-college program (math and English) at a local private university in Kuwait. My previous experience teaching English at the same university made me realize faculty weren’t using mobile devices or the most basic blended learning strategies available on our LMS to teach our very tech-savvy students. So whenever I had the opportunity, either with my faculty, the VP of Academic Affairs, or IT, I mentioned how keen I was to implement a variety of digital solutions/strategies in our classrooms. Suffice it to say, my department has taken the lead in promoting blended learning with the support of my VPAA and IT department. 2015/2016 is going to be a very exciting year for me as I lead initiatives including smart classroom solutions, eBooks in math, and the use of gamification to engage struggling math students in their homework practice. I can’t wait for the semester to begin!