WBOI Morning Edition Host Brianna Datta sat down with those who work in our area schools to talk about the back to school season. Her first conversation was with Mitchell Locke, a systems engineer at East Allen County Schools.
Below is a transcript of their conversation:
Brianna Datta-Barrow:
I'm joined now by Mitchell Locke, a systems engineer with the IT department at East Allen County Schools. Mitchell, thank you for being here. Thanks for having me. So could you tell us about what your role is in the IT department?
Mitchell Locke: Yeah, my role in the IT department is to support teachers and students making sure that technology runs smoothly throughout the school year.
Brianna Datta-Barrow: So what is the focus of the IT department during the back to school season?
Mitchell Locke: The focus of the IT department during the back of school season is mainly making sure that classes are ready to go for technology, making sure Wi Fi is working, making sure that they have the technology that they need for that first day to make it successful.
Brianna Datta-Barrow: So how do you support parents during this time of year, especially those that may not be familiar with the technology. May not even speak English.
Mitchell Locke: You know, we have some non English speaking students.
Brianna Datta-Barrow: How do you ensure that they can participate in their child's education through these digital platforms?
Mitchell Locke: So our school district has technology coaches. We have a couple in the district that they help quite a lot with parents on that back to school night, making sure that they know how to use the technology and kind of clearly understanding like where to go for certain resources.
In the IT department, we're pretty aware of the language barrier in East Allen County schools, we have a pretty large Burmese population that don't speak English at all. With that, we support technology by making sure that the communication tools that we use to communicate to those parents are able to be translated into their home language, making sure that they're getting that key information that we need them to know for that start of school.
Brianna Datta-Barrow: Have you noticed any challenges in reaching parents that may be in rural areas or underserved areas? How does the IT department or the District address these challenges in terms of technology?
Mitchell Locke: So East Allen County schools, we provide external Wi Fi from all of our school buildings. So if the student needs to be able to connect to a Wi Fi, they can just drive up to the school. They don't have to go inside. They can just sit in their car and be able to upload school assignments that they need to so.
Brianna Datta-Barrow: Something that's become increasingly popular is AI and the use of artificial intelligence. How does it support teachers or support students to combat the use of AI when it comes to students education?
Mitchell Locke: The IT department provides tools for teachers so that way, they're able to monitor students AI kind of usage within their homework assignments, by being able to physically see videos of that, or maybe a history of that, or any kind of indications within that, we provide a couple AI checking tools.
We also provide an AI tool to our teachers to use in the classroom if they want. That tool can be provided to students on like, a case by case basis. It's specifically created for education in mind and for educational purposes.
Brianna Datta-Barrow: So there can be a lot of, I guess, negative aspects of artificial intelligence. Are there any ways that the school district uses AI in a way that does encourage students learning, or a way to engage with the students for learning?
Mitchell Locke: So our school district, I would say, pretty pioneer, or not a pioneer, but maybe very headstrong about adopting AI and making sure that our teachers are trying to incorporate that into their lesson plans, knowing that, you know, that is kind of where we're headed in the future is that AI is going to be used pretty much anywhere, no matter what.
So we use a software, an AI bot, kind of like the popular ones, but specifically built for education. Teachers are able to go in, they can ask it questions, like, if they wanted to create lesson plans for them, maybe help them build out like, any kind of individual learning plans for a student. They can have, have it do that.
They can also use that tool to build, like, a specific chat bot for their students to interact with. So if they wanted to do a history on, like, I don't know anything, yeah, you could. You can create a custom chat bot so, like, you can be like, I want you to be Abraham Lincoln. And then the students can, like, talk to it. I'm doing a lesson over x. And then what they do is they upload that bot to our learning platform, and then the students can just talk to that AI bot. So what they do is that the teacher will give them, like, a homework assignment and be like, hey, I want you to use this, the Abraham Lincoln bot, and talk to it to try and figure out these questions that I've given you.
Brianna Datta-Barrow: Oh, really, that's so interesting to think about. Didn't have AI in my day.
Mitchell Locke: Yeah, students today are often surrounded by technology, including their phones.
Brianna Datta-Barrow: How do you ensure that students use their devices in ways that support their learning rather than distract from it?
Mitchell Locke: The school district has policies in place to make sure that students are using their phones in a educational way, if necessary. Otherwise, we want to make sure that they're out of sight, out of mind, so that way they can focus on learning. Makes sense.
Brianna Datta-Barrow: What's the most rewarding part of working in IT for a school district, especially in terms of helping students and teachers and parents?
Mitchell Locke: I think the most rewarding thing about that is knowing that what I'm doing is going to help a kid from when they start school in kindergarten all the way up to when they graduate high school, when they're 18, knowing that I've been there the whole step of the way, being able to see kids that when I started, we're just in elementary school, now going off to college.
It's pretty exciting and pretty rewarding knowing that I've helped fix all the all the issues and problems that they weren't even aware about, and supporting that educational journey.
Brianna Datta-Barrow: Is there anything that you'd like students and parents to know about how it supports them during this time of year, and anything else that they could do to stay engaged with their child's education?
Mitchell Locke: I'd just like parents and students to be aware. Just be patient when you're talking to somebody in it. We've got a lot going on, a lot of problems, a lot of questions. We are trying our best and to get back with you and to answer your questions the best we can. The best resources to check out are definitely on our district website. They are going to have everything that you need if you have any questions. We also have a help desk line that you can call that's also on our district website under the technology section.
Brianna Datta-Barrow: Mitchell, thanks so much for speaking with me today.
Mitchell Locke: Thanks, Brie for having me.
