Council Member Maloney questions DOE on homework, AI tools, and digital divide

Councilmember Maloney.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you for being here.

I'm glad to see that the report, that was quick.

All right, thank you for your questions.

That you recognize how tech and AI can be used to enhance education, but it really cannot be used to replace any human interaction.

And that these tools are changing how students are learning, including testing and homework when you're tempted to turn to chatty instead of going through the mental efforts to get to the answer yourself.

So to the homework question, how are you rethinking in-person instruction and testing versus at-home assignments to mitigate some of the risks that come with these tools that students are going to have access to?

At home?

Thank you for the question.

I think what this moment is offering us now is exactly that.

What does homework look like when our students leave?

How are we asking them to demonstrate their thinking so that we know this is their work?

What are ways that we can have them

show their work as well.

So it's, you know, we can really get into how they're processing.

and understanding content.

I don't have a clear pulse on how much digital homework versus paper pen homework takes place.

Our policy does not speak to homework per se, but this is an important place for us to dig into.

Even written homework, you can still have those digital tools.

The second thing I wanted to dig into is the digital divide issue.

How many of these students are dependent on their schools for getting access to these devices, or do they have access on their own?

Thank you.

Scott, can you talk?

Just to say this is, it is a valuable tool in some cases, and how often are parents or students relying on

public schools for that access.

Yes, so I'm going to bring in Scott to just talk a little bit about our device distribution and what is available to our students.

Sure, as I mentioned early on, at the pandemic, we got a device to every student, took us six months, and that policy has continued through several other administrations.

Rule is a school should provide a personal device, DUE laptop, Chromebook, iPad, to every student in the school.

Off and on, there's been access to LTE services, internet services connected to that device.

So if the home base doesn't have

Broadband internet, they still have a connectivity.

And recently that was ended, but each school can purchase LTE connectivity for individual students that need it.

And some schools have taken advantage of that.

So as of right now, every student should have a device that's been issued to them and has a way to get over the divide through either their home-based internet or getting it through the school.

So DOE is very involved in ensuring no student is left behind.

Yes.