Chattanooga Area Educator Recognized By Amazon As A 2020 Alexa Champion
Wednesday, January 22, 2020
Pictured are students and fellow educator presenting at Project Voice. Left to Right: Kevin Zhou (9th), Lorraine Hoffman (director of International Program, Chattanooga Christian School), Ment Meesuk (11th), Julie Daniel Davis (director of Instructional Technology and Innovation, Chattanooga Christian School) Alisa Zhu (9th), Loc Pham (10th).
Chattanooga educator Julie Daniel Davis has been recognized by Amazon as an Alexa Champion for 2020. According to the Amazon Alexa blog “Alexa Champions is a recognition program designed to honor the most engaged developers and contributors in the community. Through their passion and knowledge for Alexa, these individuals continue to educate and inspire other developers in the community – both online and offline.”
Ms. Davis has been recognized as one of only 63 Alexa Champions worldwide. "Her role as a director of Instructional Technology and Innovation in Chattanooga pushes her to consider emerging technology that might be beneficial for learning," officials said.
The voice paradigm was one of these areas that she started considering in 2014. Since that time Ms. Davis has started pilots at her school that allow interested teachers to use the Echo Dot or the Kids Edition Echo Dot to enhance the learning in the classrooms.
Ms. Davis has had the opportunity to share nationally through educational conferences about this pilot and the pros and cons of this emerging technology where it intersects education. Through this sharing, she created the Alexa flash briefing “Voice in Education” where she weekly shares information about voice with educators. Recently this podcast was recognized as one of the finalists for Flash Briefing of the Year at the Project Voice awards and Ms. Davis herself was a finalist for the This Week In Voice Award Voice/AI Commentator Of The Year.
"Ms. Davis continues to strive to create opportunities for educators to speak into their wants and needs in regards to voice," officials said. "She sees herself as an advocate for voice in education to both the developers and the educational world. She desires to be an influence so that the voice paradigm does not just happen to education, but through her work she is creating opportunities for this technology to be used for human flourishing both now and in the future in the lives of students everywhere."