A Brilliant Young Student and his Spark of Creativity from a Youth Consultation Workshop
© UNICEF Viet Nam
Vo Nguyen Dinh Tri, a second-year student at FPT University in Da Nang, recently returned from an event hosted by the Ministry of Education and Training to honor the top 15 educational innovations as part of the “Young Intellectuals for Education” program. He had a fantastic presentation to the jury on his newly developed product aimed to improve online teaching in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tri (in the middle) honored as the Top 15 innovators in education in 2020 by the Vietnam Ministry of Education. © UNICEF Viet Nam
This was not the first time Tri was recognized as the top innovators in education. There were around 500 applications on average in previous seasons. However, the number of submissions in this cohort spiked to more than 2000. The jury looks for applications and projects that are highly practical and original. This year, Tri presented his project on an online teaching platform that helps teachers design their lessons. What sets Tri’s product apart is its features to enable lecturers to build questions and assignments directly into their lessons. Questions to assess student learning will appear at times during the lecture with real-time feedback. As a result, the tool allows two-way interactions during online class sessions, reduces student boredom and distractions and thus improves teaching quality. The platform accommodates all educational subjects and also incorporates 3-D technology in which students can scan 2-D images from their physical textbooks onto the platform to have three-dimensional visualizations.
Tri started to develop the idea for his product when the first wave of COVID-19 hit Da Nang around March or April 2020. Like other students, he also had to take classes online and experienced firsthand problems related to virtual education. He started to survey his peers to understand the common challenges and collaborated with seven other students to brainstorm solutions to make online lectures more interactive and stimulating, already thinking ahead about a sustainable mechanism in scenarios of a prolonged pandemic.
He was only halfway in his project when he attended the pre-meeting workshop hosted by UNICEF and Da Nang Youth Union on 25 October, with more than 50 other adolescents and youth to discuss ideas to propose to city leaders in response to the impacts of COVID-19.
“After attending the workshop on 25 October and the consultation event on 27 October, I came away with so many ideas and suggestions from other youth. Learning about the problems and constraints experience by other students helped me fully form ideas for my project. So on 27 October, I pulled an alnighter to prepare an application to submit to the Young Intellectuals for Education competition.”
Tri (in black hoodie) brainstorming with his team about the impacts of COVID-19 on student learning at the pre- meeting workshop on 25 October. © UNICEF Viet Nam
In early 2019, Tri and his friend, Nguyen Quang Duc founded REBO when they were still students at Phan Chau Trinh high school. They set out to refashion the traditional 10th grade biology textbook with the integration of enhanced technology. Their product is based on standardized biology curriculum with the addition of mind maps, sketchnotes and aesthetically rendered visualizations. The idea of incorporating 3-D technology was already formed during REBO and continues to be leveraged and expanded into Tri’s online teaching platform this year. Creating REBO while simultaneously having to prepare for their university entrance exams, the pair met with a lot of constraints and pressure. However, the aspirations to make biology more engaging and accessible to students propelled them to bring their technology idea to fruition.
REBO product on display at the Google I/O event in 2019.
© vnexpress.net
From REBO to an original lesson design platform, Tri always seems to be on the quest for advancement. He constantly observes, listens and seeks out problems to solve. Even as young person, he’s already thoughtful and meticulous in his approach. He pilots and lets students and teachers test his products, conducts surveys to understand the end user needs, and actively attends events like the pre-meeting and the consultation events recently organized by UNICEF to continually expand his learning.
There is a long and impressive list of awards, prizes and recognition that this young, brilliant student has already accumulated. He won first prize in all three large-scale technology competitions, including Top 5 most excellent Young Intellectuals for Education projects in 2019 (recognized by the Ministry of Education and Training), winner of Da Nang Hult Prize on Campus (a start-up competition), and yet this year he made it to the top list of innovators again. In 2019, his product REBO was among the 25 selected works to be displayed at the Google I/O event. As of early 2020, REBO has been in use by more than 200 students and teachers from Phan Chu Trinh and FPT high schools with positive reception and continues to expand its scope. Tri is currently the leader of the FPT Developer Student Club, a part of the Google Developer’s mission to enhance IT skills for students globally and to encourage start-up spirits in young people to seek innovative solutions for their communities.
Tri Vo and his teammate launching REBO at Google I/O 2019.
© vnexpress.net.
As a former co-founder of a Da Nang student network and current member of Junko, a prominent youth volunteer network in Da Nang, Tri is very much social-minded. He is passionate about researching and developing technology solutions for the community, particularly issues related to education and the environment. He is hoping to continue perfecting his two recent products and finding partners to scale up his innovations nationwide.
In the midst of his busy life, Tri still found a way to be present at all three recent events by UNICEF as part of the Healthy Cities for Adolescents initiative (HCA).
“To my knowledge, it was the first time UNICEF has organized events in Da Nang, so I was surprised to be invited to the pre-meeting workshop and the consultation event. I was curious to find out what UNICEF’s activities in Da Nang would look like. I really enjoyed these two events because I got to meet new people and listen to a wide range of ideas and suggestions from different topics like health and online safety. I was impressed with the consultation event on 27 October in which we had the opportunity to have conversations with the city representatives and understand the viewpoints of those working on the ground. I hope there would be more events like these in the future with even longer time for us to discuss and propose our ideas.” – Tri shared.
When asked how he could balance his enormous workload and social activities, Tri chuckled: “I am not too crazy about partying. I only spend time on studying and developing new things.” Tri expressed his hopes that Da Nang will organize more events to attract IT talents to contribute innovative solutions for the city.
“I hope UNICEF and Da Nang will be able to connect more people to form a HCA movement. Youth with passion and creativity can network and collaborate together to build something positive, such as playgrounds with the integration of digital technology. I am more than willing to serve as mentors for younger adolescents to contribute to the project.”
He ended our conversation on a delightful and inspiring note:
“Prior to participating in the two events by UNICEF, I only knew about challenges related to university students and had little motivation with my initial conception about an interactive teaching platform. But the pre-meeting with other youth and the consultation event shed light on a lot of other constraints and challenges related to learning due to COVID-19. I decided to give it a try and follow through with the idea. So UNICEF actually gave me that needed push.”
Tri’s story echos our hopes to continue sparking more creativity and inspiration in young people. Filled with passion and innovative ideas, a growing network of technology talents like him holds the very key to build Da Nang into a healthy, dynamic and friendly city for children and adolescents and serve as role models for more generations of youth to follow.
© UNICEF Viet Nam
Pham Vu Hanh Dung
