This is Vancouver – “What are Vancouver schools doing about AI and fake news?” is an episode from CBC’s “This is Vancouver” podcast, that was originally released January 13 2026,
While the episode starts talking about fake news and misinformation, one of panelists is from Vancouver School Board and their comments on AI in schools are worth knowing.
It is a conversation between:
- Pedro da Silva, Vancouver School Board Associate Superintendent
- Mark Pearmain, Surrey School District Superintendent
Episode Transcript
Expand to read the full transcript, or just scroll to where they start talking about AI in schools.
Preamble
(Skipping initial clip from the 2017 CBC story)
Stephen Quinn:
That is a clip from a CBC story that aired back in September of 2017. Yes, nine years ago. It’s all about some schools in California learning to grapple with the rise of fake news.
Well, nine years later, there’s another element to contend with, and that would be the rise of artificial intelligence. And so how are we teaching kids to spot fake images and videos? And what does that teaching look like at schools in Metro Vancouver? I’m Stephen Quinn, and you’re listening to This Is Vancouver.
(Jingle)
Stephen Quinn:
And this episode is about Vancouver and Metro Vancouver, but I want to take a quick moment to talk about Finland.
Since the 1990s, that country has built media literacy into its national curriculum, and that means Finnish schools are required to teach media literacy to children as young as age three. Lessons include how to analyze different types of media, how to recognize disinformation. Finland has long viewed misinformation as a threat in part due to its proximity to Russia, and that concern is starting to become more urgent.
The rise of AI and algorithmic-driven bias means fake news is everywhere, and it’s also becoming increasingly difficult to spot. In response to those concerns, Finland launched a new central authority at the start of this year. The Finnish Arts and Culture Agency now handles the coordination of their national media education policy.
Now, Canada does not have a national strategy like Finland does. Since provinces develop their own curriculum, we all end up with different versions of digital literacy, depending on where you live. So what’s being done to teach children in Metro Vancouver about AI and misinformation, and what does the curriculum look like in schools here?
Well, to learn more about that, we’re joined by two guests.
Pedro da Silva is the Associate Superintendent at the Vancouver School Board, and Mark Pearmain is the Surrey School District Superintendent. Thank you both for being with us. Mark, to you first, what are some of the main ways, I guess, that media literacy is handled differently in Canada when we compare it to someplace like Finland, where they start so early, for instance?
Mark Pearmain:
Yeah, it’s a great question. And first off, I just want to just say thanks for having us. It’s a really good topic to be discussing.
I think contextually, we just need to remember that Finland is a country of 5 million. Canada is a country of 40 million. And so, you know, as you talked about, British Columbia has its own education system that the province is responsible for.
In 2016, we came up with new curriculum. We have within the new curriculum three big core competencies. One of them is Thinking. And if you think of within Thinking, that’s Critical Thinking and Reflective Thinking.
And ultimately, for us in the province, Critical Thinking and Reflective Thinking is driven through all of our courses that we are offering kids from K through 12.
Inclusive of that is digital literacy and understanding how to be an ethical digital citizen, how to use digital resources appropriately, and so on and so forth. AI certainly has taken that to the next level.
I will say I’ve been in education over 30 years. I’ve never seen something move so quickly and so rapidly as AI has been coming into our system. And that’s how we are addressing it in the province and certainly in Surrey through the digital literacy component of the curriculum.
Stephen Quinn:
And when you say that’s how we are addressing it, what are you doing to address it?
Mark Pearmain:
So this year, for example, in November, we started a two-year session called Digital Literacy for grade four through nine. It was an online live session for our students and teachers. We had 400 teachers and over 10,000 students participate in the live sessions. We had one last Wednesday. I don’t have the stats in terms of the numbers of kids that participated, but I would expect it to be pretty similar. And we’ll have a third version of that coming up in April.
That is specifically targeted to AI. One of the topics that we’ll be talking about is bias and misinformation or disinformation and specifically allowing teachers and kids to have that type of a lesson provided for them. We also then actually just record it, put it on the website so that our students, teachers, and parents can also utilize it for themselves as we move forward.
VSB and AI
Stephen Quinn:
All right. Now, Pedro, for you, with the same rapid advancements in AI, how are you approaching that in the Surrey district?
Pedro da Silva:
Yeah.
Stephen Quinn:
Pardon me, Vancouver district, rather. Pardon me.
Pedro da Silva:
That’s okay. Similar with Surrey, we have a multi-tiered kind of strategy. We’ve had public sessions with parents. We’ve invited parents. We had a session with over 6,000 parents, so we’re taking a look at some of the social media platforms. We’ve invested some resources in staffing. We have a digital literacy mentor teacher who goes out to schools and has conversations with principals in schools. I had a privilege just in November.
We did a survey last year because of some of the cell phone restrictions and some of the feedback from the students is they wanted to be part of some of the decisions around their education. Our team met with some of those students, and they created a conference in November. And, you know, as part of the agency work that we do in Vancouver, they invited some adults. I was privileged enough to be asked to come. That session had some students, a student panel. Many of them actually were influencers. They talked about social media. It was on a professional development day. They took time out of their own schedule. We were at Eric Camper, and all 18 schools brought some students.
The second part was a really interesting activity where they asked myself and another educator to be debaters for or against AI. It was a fascinating activity where I was really the talking head, and it was the students that were the ones that actually make arguments for or against.
It was one of the more exciting educational experiences I’ve had. I think from our lens, the takeaway I think is that particularly with AI, I feel that the students that are in the system really want to stake in their own education. They really want to be able to talk about how to leverage the technology.
I don’t know, Mark, about you, but one of the challenges we’re finding right now, there’s a bit of a cat-and-mouse game happening in AI where we know that, for example, that students are using the technology. We see that in the data. If you take a look at the data drop in the summertime.
there’s a bit of a cat-and-mouse game happening in AI where we know that […] students are using the technology
Pedro da Silva, Vancouver School Board Associate Superintendent
However, the conversation and the entry point is quite awkward because the system is just adapting to it. I know in Vancouver we’re going to be introducing Copilot at some point for students, but they definitely are into the conversation.
They’re incredibly articulate, and I think that’s actually the work that needs to happen at the school level to address some of the concerns.
Stephen Quinn:
They’re using AI, but they’re also running their AI through AI detectors to repair the AI so it’s not detected if somebody runs it through an AI detector. I mean, that’s how fast it’s moving.
Mark, how do you keep up with that?
Mark Pearmain:
Yes. It’s also something that we, I think, need to have a bigger conversation on in terms of what we’re assessing at this point in time. There is a space that you can certainly use AI just to create a document or an essay.
So part of this comes down to the questions of, okay, if you’re going to use AI, how are you using it? Why are you using it? Why did you choose to use it? What were your prompts? What was your experience from it? And how did you actually assess what you were receiving from the tool?
And that’s a space that we’re certainly starting to work with our teachers in terms of helping them understand the processes of being able to have those questions.
It’s going to be really important that the student … assess themselves in terms of what they used [AI] for and the why.
Mark Pearmain, Surrey School District Superintendent
I want to build on something that Pedro said is that I think it’s going to be really important that the student themselves becomes someone that they’ll be assessing themselves in terms of what they used it for and the why. Or why they didn’t use it.
Because sometimes, actually, it might not be beneficial to be using AI at all. You actually want the actual creative concepts from the human brain to flourish.
Stephen Quinn:
I hear that as well.
But when it comes to the actual issues, Pedro, I mean, we talk about misinformation and disinformation. And Mark talked about it a moment ago. I guess, how do you teach that without coming off as having some kind of bias while you’re doing it? Because misinformation is there. You could, I suppose, argue that one political bent or another is most likely to use misinformation or disinformation. And in addressing that, do you worry about fairness?
Pedro da Silva:
Oh, absolutely. I think that’s something we all struggle with in our current context, whether it’s social media or AI.
I do think the critical part of this conversation is critical thinking and the work that we do with our young people.
And I find that we need, again, back to the conversation of opening up dialogue and talking about these. I referenced the debate that I was a part of just earlier. It’s interesting because it’s an AI conversation. But really, the lesson in that session, and we spoke to the students about it, was that we were forced-
So I actually had to speak against AI, or I was prompted by students to speak against AI. The purpose of that activity, though, the more important part, was that we were forced to listen to opposing views to guide our future.
We have a very polarized society. I think the work around being critical thinkers, listening to other people, engaging in conversations, those are universal educational themes.
And I think that will lend us well moving forward.
Stephen Quinn:
Part of what is driving the effort in Finland, we’re told, is proximity to Russia and Russian influence. Do we partially do this as a reaction to American influence?
Mark Pearmain:
I think, speaking on behalf of Surrey, but also Vancouver, we have over 200 languages spoken in Surrey and similar to Vancouver.
And we know that our students and families are getting their news from multiple platforms of social media, not necessarily North American. So really, this is more about teaching the skills to the students to how to critically analyze. How can they actually check to see what they’re reading is correct? What are other good, solid sources for them just to cross-reference?
It’s those skills that I think that are really important for our kids and families to be able to know, so that they can then actually assess what they’re reading to ensure that it is actually either factual or true, or there may be a different perspective that they haven’t been considering based off of whatever platform they’re getting it from.
Stephen Quinn:
And do you feel, Pedro, do you feel confident that that’s happening, that those students are getting those skills right now? And what more needs to happen?
Pedro da Silva:
I am confident that it is happening. I mean, the earlier question was around what is BC doing? Like, there is a digital literacy framework that the government has, and districts do have the autonomy to create the sandbox for people to operate in. So the philosophy is a little bit different.
But I have a lot of confidence that conversations are happening in the classroom. I do believe through ADST, you know, Applied Design and Skills and Technology, that it is getting integrated. And I do think AI is a propeller of this. I think it is forcing this conversation and this movement to really gain some momentum.
Stephen Quinn:
Well, raising a bunch of critical thinkers, I guess, is the best we can hope for, really. I guess that’s what we all want.
Thank you so much for the time. Really appreciate both of you coming in this morning.
Mark Pearmain:
Thanks for having us.
Pedro da Silva:
Thank you.
Stephen Quinn:
Thank you.
And that is it for this episode of This is Vancouver.
[End of transcript]