With the rise in artificial intelligence tools and growing concerns around mental health, questions about the use of technology in schools are increasing and are being discussed all the way to the State House. As students head back to school this week, Chris Gosselin talked with the Observer about how he and his team approach these questions and keep up with the rapid pace of change. Gosselin is starting his second year as director of instructional technology and innovation for the Needham Public Schools.
FSL: Can you tell us a bit about your background and how you came to Needham?
CG: I’ve been an elementary school administrator, I’ve been a digital learning coach, and before that I was a high school English teacher. I was drawn to the visioning that Needham has done, especially the Portrait of a Needham Graduate. It’s a philosophy of teaching and learning that I really wanted to be a part of.
FSL: What does your role entail?
CG: I primarily oversee the Digital Learning and Media Department, which includes our technology integration specialists, school librarians and TV/Communications teacher. The other big part of my job is I get to support the district as a whole, envisioning around instructional technology and innovation.
FSL: Can you tell us more about the instruction and innovation piece of the job?
CG: As educators it’s part of our job to educate our students to be ready for not only the world that they live in now, but the world that is next through a variety of ways. I get to work on a number of projects and initiatives to help our students navigate 2024 and beyond.
FSL: What is one of the biggest topics of conversation for your team?
CG: Over the past year our department has done a lot of work in professional development around AI, specifically attending conferences and bringing in experts to help us better understand what AI is and how it can impact teaching and learning. Last week we brought the whole district leadership team to the Google headquarters in Cambridge for a retreat day, and one of our focuses was artificial intelligence, specifically generative AI. We have a lot of work we’re doing in our schools — researching it, living with it and trying to figure out what it’s all about. What we ended up coming up with were these principles for AI — thinking about how AI should and could be used in the classroom setting — that we were able to Needham-ify to make sense for our educators and students.
We’ll be rolling those out and considering them this year, getting stakeholder input. We’ve heard the technology integration specialists’ and the librarians’ and the administrators’ points of view. Of course we need to hear from our teachers, and then of course our students as well. How are they interacting with AI on a regular basis? What are the things we should be doing in the Needham Public Schools to help prepare our students for a world that is even more and more AI-enabled every day?
FSL: What do you consider an appropriate use of AI in education?
CG: I like to think of it as a forklift that allows us to achieve the task a little bit easier, but we’re still in control of the forklift. To use AI appropriately means to use it as a thought partner and as a way to help us do something better in maybe an easier way. Sometimes we think AI is just going to do the homework or write the paper — that would be an inappropriate use of AI. You should use it as a way to challenge yourself or to help you solve a problem, but know it’s never really going to ever do as good of a job of solving a problem as you are.
FSL: There are teachers who have expressed concern around the unwieldiness of AI and managing and tracking its use in student work. Do you think this is going to become a bigger problem?
CG: A lot of people assume cheating has gone way up since we’ve had AI. Studies have shown it hasn’t; it’s been the same. The second thing is, it’s universally accepted that all these AI detection tools don’t work. Our job in our department is to provide teachers with the coaching and support they need to integrate these tools as best they can into their teaching with the hope of elevating the student learning experience.
FSL: So how can teachers help their students benefit from AI without compromising what they’re trying to teach?
CG: The challenge AI presents to us is really like a charge to rethink what we are asking our students to do. We’re still responsible for teaching skills such as writing, of course, but maybe it just looks a little different now and we can use a guide to help us become a better writer. One way I use AI is if I have to write a long email or something I know is really important. Oftentimes, I’ll make sure there’s no personal information and then I’ll put it into an AI tool and get feedback. It’s a really great use of AI because it will find the grammatical stuff; it will sometimes say, “Hey, I recommend you say it this way because it makes it a little bit more concise,” but it’s not writing it for me. It’s just as if we were coworkers and we were writing and you were right next to me and I could say, “Do you mind taking a look at this and let me know?”
FSL: Switching gears a bit, do you think there’s anything students have lost by now having more access to devices consistently, and what should we be doing to support them?
CG: I do think there’s definitely some evidence that shows students who are addicted to their phones — and especially social media — have struggled in some cases. It’s our job as educators and parents to help students identify that and provide them the support they need to be able to navigate that part of their life a little better. As adults, we have to recognize that kids interact with each other differently than they did when we were their age; young people experience the world in a different way.
FSL: How do you feel about the use of devices such as iPads and Chromebooks in the classrooms?
CG: I think it’s absolutely beneficial for our students to have access. I think there’s a misconception that kids are on their school-issued device during the school day for five to six hours. That’s not right, especially in the younger grades. They’re stored in the classroom when not in use and taken out when they’re needed to supplement an assessment or to explore some resource or do some collaborative group work like research a topic. It’s necessary to have those devices because it’s important that we build those foundational skills so they know how to navigate the world.
I think about the incredible work the schools are doing like learning about coding and computer program science principles. Our youngest students are so fluent in a variety of coding tools, it’s so fun to watch them do what they do. I think about the Battle Bots at High Rock where they’re learning how to program those. Then they move to the middle school and they’re doing some really cool work with constructing 3D models, solving problems, building environments. These are really important skills we need them to be able to have when they graduate, so starting at an early age, as long as it’s done purposefully, is a good thing. I know it’s my department, but we do a really good job; Needham Public Schools have done a really good job.
FSL: And phones. There’s been a lot of push to eliminate phones from schools. How do you feel about that?
CG: So first of all in Needham in grades pre-K to 8, phones aren’t allowed in the classroom. In high school there’s a policy where students are asked to put their phone in a phone holder when they’re in a classroom, but we also recognize that some teachers might ask as part of their lesson for students to use their phone.
If the overuse of phones impedes collaboration and working together, then we need to address that. But at the same time, if there’s evidence that shows having a digital fluency and understanding my limits and knowing that, OK, I really should be focused on my work right now and not scrolling through Instagram. Those are also habits that we need to teach as well. And we can’t teach them if we just take the phone away completely.
FSL: What’s one of the biggest concerns you hear from parents?
CG: I think social media is a big one. Social media can be incredibly harmful for students, especially at these really pivotal developmental ages.There are so many different pediatrician recommendations on when this should be allowed. I don’t want to comment on that, but what I will say is I think that if your child is on social media, it’s important that you also have a presence on that social media site as well. I really believe that if you as a parent are scared of social media — because it can be scary — that’s an opportunity for you to have a conversation with your child about what they think appropriate social media uses are and for you to learn more about it. What’s not happening enough are these conversations at home about what is OK and what is not OK and giving the kids the skill sets to be able to report something when they see something that they know is not OK.
FSL: What are some of your hopes for this year and beyond?
CG: We have such an opportunity as a community to really listen, to get some clarity around helping our students be as healthy and happy as they can be, because ultimately that’s what we want. At the same time we also recognize that if you go into any workplace, technology is very present, but it’s incredibly collaborative. It’s not rows of people going in and shutting the door. It’s huddles, collision spaces, people working in open environments and having conversations with each other and collaboratively solving problems. And guess what? Our schools look like that too. That’s the end goal. We want our students to be able to graduate and be able to do that very well.
More information about media and digital learning in the schools may be found on the Needham Public Schools website.
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