Interview Report: British Columbia 1

Anna Murphy

EDTC 645

July 20, 2017

Dr. Derby
Interview Report: British Columbia 2

Name of Country

British Columbia, Canada

My Name

Anna Murphy

Introduction

Students, teachers, administrators and anyone else involved in the school system

can learn from schools in different countries by researching or interviewing people from

those schools. By allowing yourself to learn from these people, or articles you can

become a better teacher, and learn new and better ways to teach the students in your

building. The purpose of this report was to discuss the findings after interviewing a

teacher, and a technology expert in British Columbia, Canada. This report will discuss the

positive technology incorporation that they experience within their school; along with

some technology incorporation they think needs improvement.

Interview questions

1. What grade level and subjects do you teach?

Rationale: It is important to identify which subjects and grade level a teacher

teaches because they may have access to technology that other grades or subjects

do not. For example, a math teacher may have access to calculator applications

that an English teacher would not. It is also important to determine if the

interviewee is a teacher, administrator, or technology expert.

2. What is the name of the school where you teach?

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Rationale: This question was asked to see where the teacher currently taught, and

if it was at a public or private school, or to see if the teacher is currently teaching,

or retired.

3. What technology do you or your students currently use in your classroom?

(Laptops, iPads, SmartBoards)

Rationale: It is important to see what technology the interviewees have available

to them on a regular basis to use in their classes

4. How often do you use this technology in your class?

Rationale: It is important to see if the teachers use the technology, or if they were

given it with no assistance or desire to use the technology in their classroom.

5. What technology software do you or your students currently use in your

classroom? (Any specific websites or iPad applications that you use often?)

Rationale: It is important to see what technology software the interviewees have

available to them on a regular basis to use in their classes.

6. How often do you use this software in your class?

Rationale: It is important to see if the teachers use the technology software, or if

they were given it with no assistance or desire to use the technology in their

classroom.

7. Does your school or region offer professional development for technology

training?

Rationale: It is important to know if teachers are given assistance when they have

new technology given to them, and it is important to see what additional training

they are given throughout the year.

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8. Do you have technology assistants in your building to help you learn new about

technology? Do you, or would you use them to learn about new technology that

could help your class?

Rationale: It is important to see what help the teachers or staff have in their

building in regards to technology, or if they are expected to troubleshoot and

solve problems on their own. This question will help determine what technology

help the teachers have in their building

Strategy used

In order to obtain my interviewees, I spoke with a family friend who lives in

British Columbia Canada. She put me in touch with a math teacher in her area who I was

able to email and get a response within the week for questions and follow up questions.

Over the summer, I also had the unique experience of attending the ISTE conference in

San Antonio, Texas. While there, I was able to network and meet a teacher from British

Columbia, Canada. After one of the sessions we both attended, I was able to interview

her and ask her questions about the technology they used in their school.

Persons interviewed

The first person interviewed was Dana Thiessen. Dana is a math teacher at

Salmon Arm Secondary School in Salmon Arm British Columbia. She teaches grades 9-

11 and has taught in the British Columbia Public School System for over 20 years. I

selected this interviewee because she was a secondary math teacher, and I thought I could

learn a lot from her since I am a high school math teacher. I also choose this interviewee

because she responded quickly to my emails, which allowed for follow-up questions if

necessary.
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The second person interviewed was Rachel Pezim. Rachel currently teaches

middle school math at Collingwood Schools and was a substitute teacher and a

technology expert for British Columbia Public schools for two years prior to teaching at

Collingwood Schools. I selected Rachel to interview because she is a math teacher, and I

thought that I could learn a lot from talking to her. I also interviewed Rachel because our

schools have a lot in common since we both teach at private schools. Rachel was a

technology expert while she worked in the public schools, which also gave me insight to

a lot of information about technology in Vancouver.

Findings

Completing two interviews from teachers in British Columbia has taught me a lot

about the public school system as a teacher, and as a technology expert. After speaking

with Dana Thiessen, I learned about the different technology that they have access to. She

uses a SmartBoard, and was just recently given a teacher laptop to use for the year. She

also uses the Desmos application, which is a graphing application that students are

allowed to use on their phones. Though Desmos is a free application that any student or

teacher can logon and use, it is good to see that they are using the technology available to

them. When asked what technology help there is around the building, she responded,

For the most part it seems we just have to find it and figure it out ourselves. She also

stated that, I would love to have someone around who did all the research and learning

then just showed me how to work things - and the time provided for them to do that.

Unfortunately, we don't really have people in place who would specifically be showing

me things in my area. This led me to ask more questions about the professional

development that was available to them, and she stated, we really don't have great
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support or pro-d for all the new stuff out there that could be really valuable. It seems that

they have a lot of technology coming to their school like the Smartboards and IXL, but

they dont have a lot of training to help them learn about the computers or software. Dana

also stated that, Our school is just being rewired so that each classroom will have wifi

access. This was a surprise to me, because I thought most schools in that area already

had access to wifi within their building that students had access to.

After talking to Rachel Pezim, a former teacher and technology expert in the

British Columbia Public School System, she stated that, English, math, and science

teachers will have a conference run by the British Columbia Teachers Association and is

mandatory that they attend every year. These conferences will be run by tech experts

like Rachel, or other teachers in the school system. In Vancouver, Rachel said that,

During 4-6 days per year, there are speakers that come to Vancouver to present

information, and attendees will spend the day given opportunities. However, Rachel

stated that teachers usually arent allowed to attend these conferences. These conferences

are mainly principals and other districts leaders that attend. This was concerning to me

because the teachers are the ones who are in the classroom everyday working with the

students, and they could benefit from listening to experts speak about the technology

changing in education.

How it changed your initial perceptions

Completing these interviews has somewhat changed my opinion of the technology

usage and professional development in British Columbia Public Schools. After reading

and researching two separate scholarly articles in the previous assignment, I knew that
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the lack of professional development had been a problem for teachers. However, I did not

know that schools do not have people in the building like information technology

specialists to help them learn how to use the technology and software. At one point Dana

had said that she missed the intro-workshop for an application called Moodle, so she has

not begun looking at that software. This changes my initial perceptions because I thought

there were people in the building who were there to teach them how to use the software

and technology that was made available to them.

I was also surprised to find out that schools did not have Wi-Fi access for all of

their students in the building. When Dana had stated that this year will be the first year

for Wi-Fi access in the classroom, it surprised me. With all of the technology available to

them, I thought that they already had Wi-Fi in their classrooms. Having Wi-Fi will allow

students to use the tools they already have like Moodle and IXL while they are in the

classroom on Wi-Fi.

Concluding Statement

This project taught me a lot about networking, and how to get in touch with

teachers from other countries. I expected to have a lot of problems getting in touch with

educators from other countries, but it was surprisingly easier than I thought it would be.

This project also helped me realize how many teachers are in other countries that would

be willing to complete a global project with my classroom. I learned a lot about what

British Columbia Public Schools offer their teachers in regards to professional

development, and what they do (and mainly do not) offer their teachers in their own

building. Having access to technology is a great thing for all teachers, but technology and

new software can be implemented in a much more efficient way when there are teachers
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or technology experts in the building who can help teachers implement the technology

they want to use in their classroom. When talking to anyone from a different school, you

have the ability to learn from them, and how they o things in their school. This is

especially the case when dealing with schools in other countries. In an article titled, Why

Are We Not Learning From Other Countries Educational Success the author writes,

Are not two of the most important points of education to (1) gain an understanding of

how much we do not know and then (2) to seek to learn from those that do (2017)? This

quote sums up why it is important to learn from other countries. We do things differently,

and it is important to understand what works, why it works, and how to make it better.

Doing this will make the educational system in all countries better for our students.?
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References and Attachments

Pezim, Rachel. (2017, June 27) Personal Interview

Thiessen, Dana. (2017, June 27). Email.

Why Are We Not Learning From Other Countries' Educational Successes? (2017).

Retrieved July 22, 2017, from https://www.americaspromise.org/why-are-we-not-

learning-other-countries%E2%80%99-educational-successes
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