Speaking to the importance of partnerships for professional development, Los Angeles County Office of Education spokeswoman Elizabeth Graswich said one of the best things her organization did early on was partner with the nonprofit Project Tomorrow. They worked together to conduct needs assessments; marshal a task force of districts, university partners and nonprofits; and draft a document of guidelines and best practices for publication last summer.
Graswich added that partnerships were also critical when wildfires recently displaced many of the region’s students and staff.
“The lessons we learned in the pandemic, we had to apply again during the fires,” she said. “There’s also reason for hope in that, right? Where we were able to partner with some big tech companies on getting devices for kids who were displaced and getting them connected again. And unfortunately, we already have the road map on how you quickly move to online learning based on our pandemic experience.”
In her experience working with state agencies, Julia Fallon, executive director of the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA), said their priorities often reflect those of local districts: educator recruitment and retention and improving academic outcomes. But among SETDA’s members in the tech and digital learning community, cybersecurity remains No. 1.
The other hot topic is artificial intelligence, Fallon said, which has been a challenge because it’s such a fast-evolving technology, and state agencies aren’t designed to be rapidly adaptable. But she said 28 states have published some form of guidance for AI in teaching and learning, and she expects the coming months to focus on how to implement and integrate those policies.
“The biggest theme that we started to see was really [distinguishing] between consumption versus creation, and then tying it to your ‘portrait of a graduate’ work. It's really asking questions like ‘What do we want our kids to do in terms of prompts and recognizing what AI can generate,’ and what is it and how can I use it, and asking themselves those questions,” she said. “We know that [AI] is impacting every single career sector that's out there. Regardless of your career pathway, you will likely be using AI in some form or fashion, and we want to make sure that students are prepared for the workforce.”
Fallon said another critical technology issue at risk of losing ground is the digital divide, which persists despite heavy investment during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“What we're seeing in terms of best practices … [is] states are really leveraging those granular data maps, and really trying to hone in on where there are underserved and unserved places and then targeting those investments where there's critical need,” she said. “Many state education agencies are collaborating with their state broadband offices as well as using the FCC and the NTIA broadband maps along with local data sources. So that has really been critical in getting a good map of where you need to be putting your investments.”
In Illinois' Lake County Regional Office of Education, Superintendent Michael Karner said the biggest challenges he observed regional leaders dealing with have been mental health concerns, workforce preparation at the high school level, testing different AI tools and options, and meeting new state mandates and laws.
To purchase technology, he echoed other speakers in suggesting private-public partnerships as well as state grants, nonprofits and consortiums that can negotiate and purchase tech in bulk.
To craft policies for AI specifically, Karner said many states have availed themselves of literacy and policy resources on TeachAI.org.
Asked to suggest one critical action for staying ahead of K-12 policy and funding issues, each speaker gave a different answer. Karner pointed to high-quality professional development. Graswich said districts need to be working on their own fiscal stability, having a healthy reserve fund, and also talking to students to find out what they’re thinking. Fallon suggested taking the long-term, big-picture view.
“Part of our job is to try to read tea leaves, be good forecasters and trend watchers, because we have to anticipate where the policy is going, and we don't have the luxury of time,” she said. “It takes a long time for policy development to happen. Someone once told me when I joined our state agency here in Washington that it's like watching grass grow, which is so true, [hence we really need to take] a long-term systems approach, like how does it all work together so that you can design environments that can withstand future challenges and maximize the potential of technology in education?”
