Good morning.

Welcome to the Education Culture Committee.

It's uh July 27th, Monday, uh just after 9.45, and we are here to talk about some things related to technology and in MCPS.

Um we checked in on these issues about a year ago uh related to the technology modernization capital project and strategic technology plan, as well as the uh artificial intelligence landscape and how we're thinking about or are in integrating that and being careful about it in in MCPS, and then obviously a check-in on the cell phone policy, and now there's a new state law uh in addition to the policy that had already been forward put forward by MCPS.

So we appreciate Dr.

Moran and Chief Technology Officer Kimberly Fields for being back with us today.

Um joined by my colleagues, of course, Councilmember Mink and Evans.

Um I'll just say, you know, this is something we hear about a lot out in the world from parents.

Uh, you know, the use, and I'm sure you're hearing about it too about how technology it's a daily battle for us at many of us as parents of screen time.

I had to take a phone away from my son this morning, you know, like you know, like and didn't say, you know, like he's trying to sneak it in before he gets into camp, you know, because he knows it's no there's no phone at camp.

Um so it's it's a challenge, but uh and so we realize we're not gonna be perfect in this, and it's an it's emerging, but we want to make sure we're asking the questions and understanding what the current thinking is.

So um I'll turn it over to Mr.

Proudie uh to get us started, and then I think there's a presentation, right?

Okay.

Thank you, Chair Zerwando.

Um, to take you through the report in the order in which you're going to hear about in the presentation on page six in terms of the cell phone policy.

We did speak about this last July.

Um there are details in terms of regulation RA and its implementation in your report, um, as well as notes that the Joanne Benson Maryland Phone Free Schools Act will have an effect um and that MCPS is going to have to adapt the regulation and its implementation based on the requirements of that new state law.

Um next would be screen time, which is on page seven of your report.

Um the Board of Education on July 16th passed a resolution to do a study, a comprehensive review of student screen time.

Um there are the purposes of that report on page seven.

Um we are recommending council staff that we monitor this throughout the year.

And then um following that would be the strategic plan and the tech mod budget.

That's on page one and continue on page two of your report.

Um there was a cut to the tech mod request.

Um, so we anticipate that there'll be some discussion about what the effects of that cut will be and how it'll be handled by the school system.

Um some information about the Chromebook inventory, which was a note of a report from the Inspector General last year, and then finally uh AI and um how state guidance has come out about that, some details about that in terms of purpose, in terms of feedback from the counties, and then a delineation of roles and responsibilities for both the state education agency, local, and as well as a school level on page four of your report, and then um MCPS policy IGS, which is a comprehensive technology uh policy, lays out guiding principles in terms of the use of technology and MCPS and professional development.

We mentioned that was something that was discussed last year and was uh in of interest to the committee in terms of a follow-up.

Thank you very much.

Great.

I think we'll turn it over to you, Dr.

Moran.

Thank you very much.

Uh Councilmember Jwondo, good morning, Councilmember Mink, Councilmember Evans.

Uh, we appreciate the opportunity to be here with you today to talk about uh as Doug just described, a pretty um wide-ranging um technology uh infrastructure that we are um collaborating and working closely together to uh support its effective implementation.

Uh the landscape of technology and education continues to evolve.

And um in many cases, it's a wonderful tool to enhance the uh learning environment of a student.

Uh and in many instances, it's a barrier actually to uh the learning environment for a student.

So we are uh really working um hard with uh internally um with our students, um, with our community uh around how to tackle this and make it the most appropriate balance uh in our school system.

Um I believe we do have a slideshow, so if we could bring that up, apologies, bear with us one moment.

So we are really working hard with uh internally um with our students um with our community uh around how to tackle this and make it the most appropriate balance uh in our school system um I believe we do have a slideshow so if we could bring that up apologies bear with us one moment no problem this technology this is all part of the presentation exactly exactly right exactly right so work and if we could go to the next slide please so I have the opportunity to talk to you today about um the uh cell phones and um the first thing that I want to say uh similar to your story uh council member Duondo is I would say that's probably the story that many many of our parents are experiencing on a daily basis.

One of the things that went into making the decision around um the implementation of the state law this year is really based upon parent staff and student feedback we implemented a survey during the spring uh and there was a resounding um feedback from all three parties about the uh the just distraction to the learning environment that cell phones had become um it was very interesting to even see our students recognize that and and provide us with the with very similar feedback to parents and teachers uh that initiated a conversation for us um that was simultaneously happening as the state legislation came out around the um away all day and if you know providing you with some flexibility if you wanted to expand it to high schools one of the things that was a a strong consideration is that we've seen in our middle schools uh it it being well um accepted by our students and them um reaping the benefits of having an away all day policy those students now are matriculated into high school um the students that went through the initial pilot uh a year ago are now gonna be tenth graders the students that are going to be in ninth grade have already experienced this in middle school so we felt that it was appropriate to go um all the way with our with our high school students that's including uh lunch and transition times between classes uh we didn't want to wait an entire year sometimes we kick the can down the road in MCPS and hope that um you know that things uh will be a better position for a successful implementation um in regards to this I think it's a it's important to do it immediately and and go through the learning process as a community uh for how this is going to look in schools and and and also how we support students and families uh with when students are making mistakes um so just to remind you we are away bell to bell for all elementary schools this previous year we were away uh bell to bell for all middle schools and this year in high schools um we maintained the the current infrastructure of allowing students to uh have cell phones while um encouraging them not to utilize them while in in learning um we are now moving to bell to bell in all of our high schools uh with with no cell phones um so one of the things that we um looked at in terms of you know studying the regulation um uh cogra or or or cog dash RA was to align with Maryland's new legislative requirements regarding um student personal electronic communication devices and I think one thing that people are saying cell phones a lot but the the personal mobile devices also includes tablets um need to make sure that people understand that it that it extends actually to that that technology area as well not just your cell phone alone anything that can transmit uh you know text messages um be used as a you know communication access to social media those all those devices are part of this legislation um our goal is simple provide every student with a distraction free learning environment while ensuring uh consistent expectations across every school um and like I said before students are expected to keep personal mobile devices um away and not in use throughout the instructional day so another thing that we need to distinguish for our community is students are permitted to have them on you know with them but they're they're required to keep them away and not visible during the instructional day.

We have developed implementation guidance and resources for schools to support consistent application communication with families and appropriate responses when students do not um comply.

A lot of this is going to be conference based uh with students and with parents so that they understand that you know the rationale for the decision how it's impacting their learning why we're asking them to do this as opposed to moving to a punitive measure for a student that's having a difficult time separating from their technology.

And I and I actually use the word separating intentionally one student said to me you know when I have my cell phone uh in my pocket I have my mom in my pocket I have my brothers in my pocket I have my friends in my pocket and if I take it out of my pocket I don't have like access to them.

And if I take it out of my pocket, I don't have like access to them.

I thought that was just a really interesting um uh you know story from how a student looked at their technology, and that's real, and I think we need to recognize that this transition, when you have those kind of feelings around a piece of technology, it's gonna be challenging.

It's gonna be more about learning and talking with students and talking with families as we go through this transitional year.

So if we go to the next slide, please.

So this just shows the legislative mandate that uh came down from the state, um, our uh system regulation changes um and then moving to the guidance for for the school.

So um one of the things that I appreciate about Ms.

Fields is um Miss Ms.

Fields um has a uh incredible understanding of all these different uh arenas of technology um and supports me with how to actually um uh apply these in a school setting, um, which so we we both uh recognize the complexities of this as we're talking about things relative to AI today and restricting cell phone use and screen time.

Um these things are all very real, but also take a very thoughtful um approach for how to go through this in an incremental change process as opposed to just trying to um you know completely restrict things and and and and hold that as the uh the the be all um as as we uh move into this.

So if we could go to the next slide, and I believe that's I kick this over to Miss Fields and I teach you up there with screen time.

Thank you, Dr.

Moran, Kimberly Fields Chief Technology Officer, want to talk a little bit about screen time.

As we know, screen time is not just an MCPS concern.

This is something that is across the entire country.

We recently just passed the board, just passed a resolution recently to be able to audit what screen time actually looks like for grades K through eight.