If you ever feel like technology is moving so quickly you can barely keep up, you share that in common with school districts, both globally and locally. When it comes to potential negative impacts on students, how are local school districts adapting as they try to match — or even get ahead — of the curve?
Two months ago, the Kingston City School District KCSD) announced plans to lean further into being a cell-phone free environment by using Yondr in its secondary schools. Students at Kingston High School and both J. Watson Bailey and M. Clifford Miller middle schools will be given a Yondr pouch at the start of the school year, which they will bring with them each day to school. Upon arrival they will open their pouch using a Yondr unlocking base, insert their phone, then re-lock the pouch. They will then carry the pouch with them during the school day, and can unlock it before heading home.
Each of the three schools using the Yondr system will have delineated spaces in administrative and nurses’ offices where they can go to unlock their phones if they need to contact parents or guardians. Students who use their phones for medical reasons will have different pouches allowing them access when needed.
In a May 22 presentation to the KCSD Board of Education, Assistant Superintendent for Secondary and Pupil Personnel Services Lynette Williams cited a December 2021 study published in the Journal of Adolescence which found that among adolescents between the ages of 11-15 there was a correlation between social media use and poorer sleep quality, anxiety, and depression. Using data from the worldwide Programme for International Student Assessment, the study further found that while loneliness remained relatively flat in studies conducted between 2000-2012, in the next six years nearly twice as many teenagers displayed elevated levels of school loneliness, which is claimed to be a predictor of depression and mental health issues. Critically, the study was conducted before the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, which experts believe may have worsened those trends.
KCSD officials are hoping Yondr helps, and other local school districts are paying attention.
“I’ve read several articles recently about the success of programs such that Kingston is embarking on,” said Saugerties Central School District Superintendent Daniel Erceg. “According to what I’ve read, there appears to be an adjustment period for students that once overcome, can have positive impacts including increased student connections. We will be following their implementation closely to see if it is having the intended impact.”
Erceg added that an participation in a program like Yondr wouldn’t happen overnight.
“At this point, our budget will not support such a program for the 2024-25 school year,” he said.
The Onteora Central School District (OCSD) is also keeping an eye on how things go in Kingston.
“My understanding is that the governor is contemplating instituting a cell phone ban in schools statewide,” said OCSD Superintendent Victoria McLaren. “I’m interested to see the Kingston program implemented and to hear what the governor learns during her listening sessions across the state.”
That’s not to say that local school districts are ignoring the issue altogether. In the New Paltz Central School District (NPCSD), the use of smartphones isn’t strictly regulated, with some educators believing they have value in the classroom.
“Teachers have the rights to make their classroom rules,” said NPCSD Superintendent Stephen Gratto. “The teachers have cell phone policies that work for them in their classrooms, and they communicate them well to the students, so the students are aware of what they’re allowed to do in classrooms.”
The SCSD also employs a flexible class-by-class approach to smartphone use.
“Currently, cell phones should be away during academic periods unless our teaching staff is allowing students to use their phones for a specific purpose,” Erceg said. “Some staff do allow students to listen to music during independent work.”
The OCSD has its own set of rules, which is less rigid for some than others.
“Our middle school students are not allowed to utilize their phones during the school day, and our high school students have not been allowed to utilize their phones during instructional time,” McLaren said, adding that the present limits are not set in stone. “This is reviewed each summer by our building administrators and their teams.”
In anticipation of the rollout of Yondr, the KCSD has also changed its code of conduct ahead of the 2024-25 school year to eliminate passages that are no longer relevant.
“In the past there had been some areas in the building where it was acceptable to use your phone,” Padalino said. “We wanted to make sure we took that out.”
Artificial Intelligence use in the classroom
But smartphones and other mobile devices aren’t the only technologies schools are adapting to keep up with. Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) can have practical uses in the classroom, but it can also be misused by students who might, for example, enter a series of prompts to use ChatGPT to complete a homework assignment.
Few states offer much in the way of guidance for how to handle the potential pitfalls relating to A.I., leaving local school districts to come up with their own solutions. In an October 2023 survey, the nonpartisan Center on Reinventing Public Education reached out to the 51 State Departments of Education requesting updates on their approach to A.I. education. Only two — California and Oregon — had offered official guidance to school districts. A further 13, including New York, were in the process of developing guidance. 21 states were not providing guidance, and the remaining 17 — including Washington, D.C. — did not respond.
While awaiting official guidance from the state, the KCSD has now included the use of generative A.I. in a section of the district’s code of conduct focused on plagiarism.
“That suggestion came from our faculty and staff asking them to put something there just specifically to mention Artificial Intelligence,” said Padalino. “That has become a real issue in terms of plagiarism. You can type anything in there and it’ll give you a three-page paper on Theodore Roosevelt. You go in, you personalize it a little bit, and next thing you know, you got an ‘A’ paper sitting there.”
Erceg said the SCSD believes that one of the keys to preventing A.I. misuse was to educate staff and students about its implications and ethics.
“Students must be taught how to use A.I. in a responsible manner,” Erceg said. “When is it appropriate to use A.I.? What are the drawbacks of A.I.?”
Erceg added that the board of education’s policy committee is working to develop an A.I. policy to explicitly state the district’s philosophy for its use.
McLaren agreed that awareness of the pros and cons of A.I. is a key to ensuring it’s used appropriately by students and others.
“Our faculty is aware of the prevalence of A.I. and has been provided with professional development on its use in both productive and disruptive ways,” she said. “Our faculty also have access to tools that can detect the use of A.I. in assignments as well.”
Padalino agreed that using technology to detect the use of technology can be a big help.
“We’ve not only been using (detection) programs but also just being able to see it with the naked eye is critical,” he said. “If you have a student who is doing ‘D’ work all year long, all of a sudden all his papers, his or her papers are right up there on college level, it’s curious.”
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