Sioux Falls School District committees will look into AI, phone use in schools

The Sioux Falls School District plans to assemble a committee of 25-30 people who will discuss the topic of phone use in schools, Assistant Superintendent Jamie Nold said at a school board retreat on Monday.

“There’s no question that cell phones can be a problem in a school setting, especially for some students that just cannot manage that,” Nold said, noting it’s a problem at high, middle and even elementary schools.

This committee could include parents, community members, teachers, middle and high school students, school administrators and district leaders, Nold said, and could meet starting in October to come up with a multitude of ideas.

Nold said the committee would look at the district’s current policies on phone use in schools. The current policy for elementary, middle and high school students who use phones at school when they’re not supposed to include warnings and confiscations, then detentions at the middle and high school level, and potential suspensions at the high school level.

“At some point in time, it becomes a dysfunction,” Nold added later in the meeting, saying some students would rather take a suspension than give up their cell phone.

He noted high schoolers can use their phones at lunch and during passing periods in between classes, but must put them away once classes begin, unless the teacher asks them to use their phone for a class activity or research, for example.

Other South Dakota districts like Gettysburg have gone device-free and/or purchased high-tech magnetic pouches for students to keep their phones in throughout the school day, but that could cost several thousands of dollars to purchase for each individual student in the Sioux Falls School District, Nold said.

More: Sioux Falls School District not copying Gettysburg School District's 'device-free' policy

Nold said he’s also heard from other districts and from local teachers that keep fabric or clear plastic pouches hung up on the classroom door for students to keep their phones in throughout the school day, but some have seen the phones “disappear” or go missing out of those pouches.

Superintendent Jane Stavem said she knows a “phone-free environment” is a hot topic right now, and that a legislative group would be meeting on the topic soon. Stavem also said the district has given some feedback to the legislators on the committee, and to South Dakota Department of Education Secretary Joe Graves on the topic.

The district had already planned to have a group of people convene and talk about the issue collaboratively during the school year, Stavem added, which tracks with the district’s initial statement in late July that it wouldn’t review or consider a policy change on cell phones in classrooms before the start of the school year.

Artificial intelligence committee will also begin meeting

Assistant Superintendent Kirk Zeeck said a different work group will also meet monthly beginning in September and ending in December to discuss artificial intelligence (AI) and its use in schools.

“We are going to be just carving out a general, rough sketch of what it is that we want to do, and the main theme that we have when we looked at AI is, ‘Begin with a human, insert AI and end with a human,’ rather than somebody just typing into ChatGPT or going into one of these many, many, many resources that are now out there,” Zeeck said.

Zeeck said this group will also learn about AI; look at ethical uses of AI, student interaction with AI, and what students and teachers can do with AI; and review past guidance the district has sent out about AI. There are AI tools that can help teachers create lesson plans faster, for example, Zeeck said.

More: Sioux Falls School District encourages community to ‘Show Up’ for its students

Board President Carly Reiter said it would be beneficial to hear from this committee in a board report about how AI is being used in schools, since she said she and many other people don’t know much about it, while there are other people who seem to know everything about it.

“I feel like it would be nice, even just from a public perspective, for people to understand that we’re aware, we’re talking about it, we’re talking about it with our staff, we’re looking for anything that we need to either implement or change to be supportive of it, but also not take away from educational experiences that our students can have,” Reiter said.

Stavem said AI is so ubiquitous that yes, she wants students to learn how to use AI in applications like with Spell Check, but not to have ChatGPT type their entire paper.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Sioux Falls School District committees will look into AI, phone use in schools