Technology is a big part of education here in Westlock, but in some parts of the world educators are still working out how to best utilize the newest gadgets and programs.
It’s that fact that played into local teacher Derrick Toporowski’s recent trip to Belize, where he worked with area teachers to best take advantage of current and upcoming technological advances.
His trip was part of the Belize Literacy Program through Rotary District 5370, he said, with the aim of improving all facets of education.
“They’ve been going to Belize and just providing a resource for teachers in Belize and just providing some support in developing extracurricular materials,” he said.
Toporowski got involved with the project because of the online work he does with his Science 10 course. Rotary members and project organizers became aware of his work, and realized he would be a solid addition.
“They had looked at what we were doing and it was sort of in the right line with what they were trying to promote,” he said, explaining those goals were to use online resources to deliver content that allows all students to learn and work at their own pace and by whichever learning style works best for them.
Toporowski was on the ground in Belize from Nov. 5-9 working in various schools across the country and taking part in four days of workshops.
Although he and his colleagues were the ones doing the teaching, he said it was never a case of telling the Belizean teachers what was right or wrong about their use of technology.
“It was not really going in and telling people what to do,” he said. “It was trying to make the teachers think about how they can build capacity and what are some considerations if you’re thinking about building technology into your program.”
In essence, Toporowski said it was all about the teachers having a plan in place before going out and getting the latest and greatest in educational technology, and then not really knowing how to utilize it effectively.
One part of the trip that stuck with Toporowski was the wide range in how well equipped the schools in Belize are. In some, they are fully outfitted with such tools as wireless Internet; in others, they only have access to an intermittent power supply.
Yet, he said the teachers never once complained about their situation. Instead, they were all excited for Belize’s future.
“As a teaching staff, the one thing that I picked up was that the teachers were very positive about Belize becoming a more connected country in terms of the Internet and getting connected with the rest of the world,” he said. “That was very impressive because those guys had every reason to complain.”
Although he was only in Belize for less than a week, Toporowski said he took away several lessons about the experience.
“For me, it was encouraging to see a country that felt that … they really were on the cusp of some major changes and that it was going to be positive,” he said.
He also took to heart that no matter where a teacher works, he or she is pretty much tasked with trying to extract the most value from the least resources.
“The challenges of a school in Belize are essentially the same as the challenges that an Alberta teacher has,” he said. “You come back with a greater appreciation of what you have to work with and it gives you the incentive to go back to square one.”
Another thing that stood out for Toporowski was that he and his colleagues visited “real schools,” and not ones that had been put together and cleaned up to show off the Belizean education system.
“It would be like if you drove into Pembina Hills and looked at a school, you knew you were seeing a real school,” he said. “You weren’t seeing one that had tons and tons of money dropped into it and was there to show off. You felt like you had a pretty good idea of what the country was actually like.”
