Shawnee Mission discussing AI, screen-time policies with school just weeks away
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. —
With the first day of school less than three weeks away, the Shawnee Mission School District is working through how artificial intelligence and classroom technology should be used this school year.
First-, second-, third-, fourth-, fifth-, sixth- and seventh-grade students, along with high school freshmen, are scheduled to return to class Aug. 12.
The Shawnee Mission Board of Education is discussing a proposed educational technology guidebook that would help shape classroom expectations for artificial intelligence, iPad use and student screen time.
The topic has drawn growing attention from parents.
“People coming to public comment and saying things like, ‘My child spent four hours on their iPad in kindergarten,’ which I just stop and think like, that shouldn’t be happening,” Board member Jessica Hembree said during Monday’s meeting. “Like if that’s happening in our district, we need to know that, and we need to do something about it.”
District leaders say technology should remain focused on learning, not distractions.
“We don’t want any non-instructional use of technology,” Superintendent Michael Fulton said.
Parents who spoke with KMBC said they support technology in the classroom but want a balanced approach that encourages fundamental skills like handwriting, keyboarding and independent learning.
“We’d like to get some clearer guidelines for our teachers so they’re not having to constantly be thinking, ‘Should I be doing this? Should I not be doing this?'” Shawnee Mission parent Leah Maugans said.
Maugans also said schools need to balance advances in technology with what researchers know about child development.
“We have to keep up. Technology’s evolving and we have not kept up on the research on that. But child development research is pretty well established, and we kind of know what children need to develop and master skills and learn them independently,” she said.
No plan has received final approval yet.