Meet Gemma Mclean: Innovating K-12 education at Instructure

In our Meet the APAC Team series, we’re introducing you to the people in our region who are making things happen. We hope you enjoy getting to know the people behind Canvas! 

Leaders who genuinely understand and care about the challenges faced by students and educators are invaluable. Gemma “Gems” McLean, our Regional Director for the Asia-Pacific region, based in Brisbane, Queensland, brings this approach to her role. 

Gemma's journey from a student who hated school to a key member of our team is a testament to the power of innovation in education. Her experiences with undiagnosed ADHD during her school years have shaped Gemma’s vision for how technology can create more inclusive, engaging learning environments.

Those who have been with Canvas for some time may already be familiar with Gems—she worked at Instructure from 2018 to 2020 and now, excitingly for the team and our customers, is back with big ideas and an even bigger passion for the edtech sector.  

In the following Q&A, Gems shares her thoughts on technology’s role in education, innovations in the edtech space, and her return to Instructure after four years spent working at partner organisation AWS. 

What drew you to the edtech space?

I hated school. It was not because of my teachers or my leaders or my classmates. I think it was more so about the fact that it was jumping through hoops to prove who I was. I was also undiagnosed with ADHD for most of my schooling. If I’d had the opportunity to leverage technology a lot more in my class to support my different learning styles, I think my relationship with education would have been a lot more reciprocated.

But I've always really loved technology. I think the ability to bring technology into the education space is an absolute game changer. It leaves no learner behind, and really caters to all of the different learning styles.

As someone who has ADHD and has been called lazy, or distracted or “Gemma would do well if she applied herself”.... am I actually lazy or am I just looking for ways to do things better? If I can leverage technology to do my job quicker, more efficiently, with great results, why wouldn't I want to do that? 

Canvas and the Instructure ecosystem is a game-changer for teachers and students. Being able to access your learning on your mobile phone whilst you're catching the bus to school, for example. I hated homework, but if I had had that when I was younger—wow! And the ed tech space, because it's constantly innovating and thinking of new, quicker, better ways to do things, allows us to support our different learners and teachers who have such a big job. 

How do you see technology's role in education?

Teachers want to teach. They don't want to be technologists. They want technology to make their life easier. I think that's where Instructure comes in. 

Our students are digital natives, which is fantastic, but again, they just want to be able to turn Canvas on and leverage it to be able to do their studies so they can go and be what it is that they want to be and innovate and be the future leaders of who we are right now.

What excites you about the current innovations in edtech?

One of the game changers for me, being an absolute data nerd, is Intelligent Insights. The ability for us to be able to ask our data questions is just a game changer. Tell me what students that are scoring less than 20%, or tell me the students that are struggling with this particular topic. All of these little tools actually give our teachers and admin access to make better decisions.

You’re back at Instructure after four years at AWS. What knowledge and perspectives that you picked up during your time away are you most excited to share with your customers? 

Never in a million years did I think that I would be working for AWS. I didn't finish high school and I haven't been to university. Yet there I was, some country kid who hated every minute of school, working for a global organisation, supporting our customers with their digital transformation journeys. 

I worked with some amazing minds, and one of the big things that I learned was working backwards—understanding our customers, what brings their heart joy and what impact they're trying to make with the help of technology to solve their problems. We were trying to understand exactly what their challenges are, and then bringing together a whole team of experts to develop a technology solution.

Bringing that mentality to Instructure, it’s seeing what drives our customers and developing solutions!  But it's not just me, it's me and a whole ecosystem of specialists, all coming together to solve these problems for our customers.
 

You’re quite keen on working with partners and forming those relationships to better serve our customers. Can you talk more about that?

Working for a global company that scales and partnered amazingly well, and it really gave me a good insight as to what we can do more of at Instructure. 

When you're going in to meet with a customer and you have their whole ecosystem of partners working together and high-fiving, it just gives the customer confidence that we're not just a vendor. We are their partner, striving to help them meet their technology and educationals goals. 

What advice do you have for schools considering or already using learning management systems?

Don't just think about tomorrow. You need to think about how this platform is going to underpin everything that you do throughout your school.

Consider the future growth, your future students, and also how the LMS will integrate with all of your other systems, both today and in the future. I would really recommend our “Your Guide to Choosing a K-12 Learning Management System.”

How do you see the future of education and lifelong learning?

I think we have such an opportunity to underpin what learning can look like for a student’s  lifelong journey. If they’re starting off with Canvas in K-12 and that follows the student up to university or RTO, it's something that they're familiar with. They'll jump on and feel the consistency, 'Oh, it's Canvas, cool. I don't have to think about it. I know how to use it already.'

You describe yourself as passionate, dedicated, and innovative. Can you elaborate on these qualities?

Passionate because we need to make sure that we bring our full self to work and get excited about what we do. Life is too short to come and do the mundane each day. It's not work when you enjoy what you do. Bringing my passion to work is sometimes like an annoying song that gets stuck in your head, and before you know it, everyone is singing the same song! I think I'm really lucky to get what I do.

Dedicated because I like to challenge the status quo. I have something on my wall which says 'Underestimate me, that'll be fun.' Most of my life, I've always been the underdog, always been thrown challenges, and I always come through.

I want to bring my best self for my customers, my teammates, and my organisation. Being dedicated to what you do, constantly challenging the way we do things to improve the lives of our customers and their customers, as well as our workmates—there's so much to be said for dedication. 

Innovative because if you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got. Through innovation, we have such an opportunity to make the world a better place. If you're constantly looking for ways to improve, not just through innovation of technology, but through systems and communications and operations, why wouldn't you want to do that?

Can you share any final thoughts on your role and mission?

I really want to be seen as a partner to our schools and departments. Here at Instructure, we listen to our customers, spend time to understand their challenges and goals. I want to celebrate our Canvassadors, because ultimately, its the same passion we share.

For me, my Canvas journey is ensure that no learner is left behind, teachers feel empowered to teach and innovate and schools can be proud of selecting a platform that meets their needs where Canvas can grow with them. 

*Fun fact: Gems is a self-proclaimed "avid hugger" and her go-to karaoke song is "Mr. Brightside" by The Killers!*

Connect with Gems on LinkedIn.