By NEIL ZOLOT
WAKEFIELD — Use and misuse of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and cybersecurity remain and will remain two issues facing the School Department, but effective policies and procedures seem to be in place to deal with them.
Acceptable use of AI is now addressed in student handbooks, allowing use of tools and websites to augment or create products of learning with the expressed written consent from teachers and appropriate attribution or citation and not taking tests in a dishonest way.
“Teaching appropriate use is the way to go,” Technology Director Jeff Weiner told the School Committee at their meeting Tuesday, November 26. “Everything has AI built into it. It’s growing fast and not going anywhere. There are calls to block it, but it’s out there. If you block it at school, people still know how to use it when they’re not here.”
“AI is embedded in society,” Superintendent Doug Lyons agreed. “It’s ubiquitous,” but he feels concern about misuse and cheating oversimplify the matter. “There are layers to this,” he said. “You can get more information, expanded information and modified information and because it’s interactive, you can guide it. It will give you what you want. Do we need to check in about what kids know and what we want them to know and how to bridge that gap? That’s the next area of growth to this.”
That type of use was confirmed by Student Representative to the School Committee Alla Othman at a School Committee meeting September 24. “There are bad uses, but a lot of us use it for study guides,” he said. “It’s a good tool for that.”
School Committee member Melissa Quinn asked how teachers might be using AI.
Member Kevin Fontanella, also a teacher, answered, “It’s a ridiculously useful tool if used well,” referring to AI providing feedback and accurate grading to students faster than teachers can “even if you’re a teacher grading all night.”
Assistant Superintendent Kara Mauro added, “We’re trying to provide information about what it is and the positives and drawbacks, but we’re not totally there yet. We’re trying to educate where we can and provide guidance for acceptable use. We did a presentation for the Curriculum Department and it’s been the subject of professional development sessions. Curriculum Coordinators have worked on acceptable use. There’ll be a range of use. Some teachers are using it. Some don’t feel they need to. On the student end, it’s through the teachers.”
Chairman Stephen Ingalls related in his experience information and guidance has come through school libraries, sometimes referred to as Media Centers. “I’m thinking that goes hand-in-hand with classroom teachers,” he said.
“There’s a lot of conversations happening in different areas,” Weiner confirmed. “People have different opinions and don’t always agree on how to use it or whether to use it. I get pulled into a lot of these conversations and it’s educational for me. I want to learn about it and take classes on my own. It’s happening faster than I can learn it.”
Quinn asked him if there was a way to track the prevalence of AI use.
“It would be nice, but we don’t have a way to do that,” he answered. “I’d love to see that.”
On cybersecurity, Weiner reported the school system is in the first year of a program that includes data management, security awareness and incident preparedness plans. Activities have included a phishing exercise in which he said no one responded to inquiries designed to glean information that can be used to access private information. These often take the form of seemingly fun recreational Facebook quizzes about people’s first dog, car, concert or favorite teachers, which are often used as passwords at banks and in other networks.
He also told the members understanding common security risks for schools includes preparing for potential security incidents, establishing an incident response plan and team and conducting security testing and vulnerability assessments, like the phishing exercise.
Data protection includes implementing encryption, access controls and data masking techniques. “Awareness is key to ensure staff members are aware of cybersecurity risks to make informed decisions,” he said. “Proactive measures implement robust security protocols and trying to mitigate potential threats and a collaborative defense fosters a team oriented approach to protect the organization against cyber-threats.”
Weiner also reported the new Wakefield Public Schools website was launched in August with enhanced navigation tools, including Google Translation, to simplify using it and staff is assigned at each school to keep information up-to-date.
He also reported the Technology Department is supporting all students from kindergarten to 8th grade using their Chromebooks and, while the policy at the high school is Bring Your Own Device, 230 are being loaned to students there.
He also said every staff member has a modern laptop computer and every classroom has a modern laser projector, except the high school, but they are “coming soon,” presumably at the new high school.
Weiner also said monthly technology newsletters are given to the staff and there are regular monthly meetings with school principals.