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Andrew Westrope

Managing Editor, Center for Digital Education

Andrew Westrope is managing editor of the Center for Digital Education. Before that, he was a staff writer for Government Technology and a reporter and editor at community newspapers. He has a bachelor’s degree in physiology from Michigan State University and lives in Northern California.

AI tools excel at generating content, but knowing what to do with that content is the skill that human users must bring to the table. Students tend to learn it best when trying to solve problems they care about.
For all the opportunities generative AI brings to middle and high school students, it could also undermine their proficiency at reading and writing. Experienced teachers have some suggestions for how to make it work.
Eight presenters at ISTE’s annual conference Tuesday in Denver shared their own visions, anecdotes and suggestions for innovative changes in their field, each making a case for exploration and openness to technology.
Experts say relationship-building, collaboration and effective pedagogy are essential to hybrid learning programs, ideally giving students flexibility while teaching them the drive to take control of their own education.
Schools that had already embraced the imperatives of Internet access, digital literacy and 1:1 device plans fared better for it during the pandemic. AI could be a similarly urgent pragmatic concern.
Western Maricopa Education Center school board member Robert Garcia recommends that school districts engage directly with employers to get a sense of what AI skills will be most important for students to learn.
In Bakersfield, Calif., Chris Cruz-Boone and other school leaders gathered input from parents, teachers and industry leaders on what every graduating student should have. An ability to innovate was one priority.
At the National School Boards Association conference in April, school board members from across the U.S. said they intended to find partners and leaders who could help their districts make decisions about AI.
CIO, Bellevue, Wash.
In a presentation Monday at the National School Boards Association conference in New Orleans, Lawrence Public Schools officials explained how building a private fiber network improved digital equity and saved money.