Your Device Protection Checklist for Winter Break: Your cheat sheet for safeguarding school tech during the holidays

As the winter holidays approach, students and staff look forward to the upcoming break. School IT administrators face the additional task of safeguarding their school’s ed tech investment before signing off for some well-deserved downtime. Here are a few steps schools can consider taking to protect their devices over the winter break.

For devices going home– be kind and remind

If students are allowed to take their school-provided devices home over the winter break, it’s an ideal time to reiterate the school’s expectations around device use for both students and their families. For instance, one expectation might be that students should put their Chromebook in a protective case whenever it’s not being used to protect it from getting damaged, for instance, in a hastily dropped backpack.

Consider including your school’s Acceptable Use Policy when emailing students and caregivers ahead of the winter break. Remind families that content filters employed by the school aren’t likely to work while the devices are home. If devices are only to be used for schoolwork, reiterate that students shouldn’t use their devices for gaming or streaming purposes.

Temper your temperatures

If you live in a climate that experiences extreme temperatures, it’s also worth reminding students and families that their devices should be kept inside a climate controlled environment. Devices shouldn’t be left in a parent’s car (even if it’s parked in a garage), as extreme temperatures can damage electronics.

Get charged up

As staff and students get ready to return to school in the new year, they might need a reminder to charge up their devices.

For devices staying at school

For devices that will stay at school over the break, winter break offers an opportunity to check on your school’s device inventory, install software updates and security patches, and send damaged devices out for repair.

Back It Up

Students and staff whose devices will stay at the school should be sure to backup important documents before leaving for the break.

Storing and Charging

After devices have been backed up and updates have been applied, they should be stored securely according to your school’s procedures. If your school’s policy is to unplug devices before an extended break, make sure you have a plan to charge the devices before school starts up again.

Take stock of your school’s device coverage

Whether or not you’re collecting and updating devices over the break, it can also be a good time to check in on your school’s device coverage. Is it adequately covering your school’s repair and replacement needs? If not, it might be worth setting up a JonesCare Needs Assessment. By looking at your district’s needs, budget and device lifecycle, we’ll work with you to design a protection plan that’s just right for your school’s unique needs, and ensures that when devices do need to be repaired or replaced, there’s minimal disruption to learning.

Now that you’ve taken care of your school’s technology, we hope you can take time over the winter break to rest and recharge before returning in January. 

How Intel and Microsoft are Harnessing AI to Transform Education: These programs and tools prepare students and teachers to make the most of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence has been with us longer than many of us realize, assisting us in the form of conducting a spell check as we’re writing an email or a chatbot popping up to offer help as we browse a website.

As AI continues to be refined and integrated into daily life, we expect it will bring significant benefits to education. As AI advances and evolves, many expect it to absorb a large portion of the administrative burden educators carry, freeing them up to focus on students. AI is also likely to be used for personalizing learning for students with diverse learning needs.

Below, we’ll take a look at how two of our partners, Intel and Microsoft for Education, are already harnessing the power of AI to improve accessibility and inclusivity in education.

Intel’s AI for Youth program

Intel designed its AI for Youth program to empower students ages 13-19 by teaching them about AI. The intensive program breaks down what exactly AI is and isn’t, arms students with hands-on skills and then supports them as they craft individual social impact projects using their new knowledge and skills. For instance, an eleventh grader in Siberia created a prototype for an app that can help identify mental health issues in its users, while a group of young students who completed the AI for Youth program in Israel crafted an app that helps small retail clothing stores sort and display garments according to their color and design.

Intel’s AI for Youth program offers participants a variety of both technical and social skills and encourages diversity. It’s currently being used in several countries worldwide.

In its mission to \"demystify and democratize\" AI, Intel also launched an annual AI Global Impact Festival, in which students from 26 different countries participate in a competition of their AI innovations. In 2023, a group of teenage students from Brazil took the top prize with a device that can track eye movement to enable patients with ALS to communicate.

Microsoft

Artificial Intelligence is exciting, but it also comes with a learning curve. Microsoft for Education has built a suite of courses that break down the concepts of AI and show educators how specific tools might benefit them.

Microsoft for Education also created the AI Classroom Toolkit. This toolkit is designed to introduce AI tools, such as Microsoft Copilot, to students ages 13-15.

Microsoft Copilot is a generative AI assistant that’s currently available for educators. Generative AI is AI that uses data to create new content. For instance, teachers can use Copilot to tailor lesson plans for students who have different learning styles, assist with creating feedback on student work and help brainstorm classroom activities.

Microsoft has also previewed its Reading Coach tool. With Reading Coach, AI collaborates with readers to create stories and to identify and provide opportunities for practicing particular words a reader is struggling with.

As we learn more about the capabilities of Artificial intelligence and how it can assist educators, students, and the world at large, we’re excited to see what unfolds.

4 Key Considerations from the DOE’s Guide on AI in Education

Policy recommendations from the DOE's first report on AI and Education

In the summer of 2022, the Department of Education convened a group of listening sessions centered on the topic of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and education. Over 700 constituents representing educators, technology developers, researchers, policymakers, learners and their caregivers showed up to voice their hopes and concerns regarding this rapidly developing technology and its potential impact on education.

The 71-page report generated after these listening circles acknowledges the possibilities that AI opens up to educators, such as providing assistance to overextended teachers and creating personalized learning solutions for diverse learners, while cautioning against potential risks including data privacy and bias.

In the report, the Department of Education outlines four foundations that should be considered in regards to moving forward with AI and K-12 education.

Keep it human-centered

Noted as a strong favorite among the constituents, this first foundation is simple: humans, and in this case teachers, should remain at the center of the educational process. Artificial Intelligence should never attempt to replace educators– its purpose should be to assist and enhance the work of educators and students.

While many educators are enthusiastic about the ways in which AI might aid them as teachers, they also expressed significant concerns about privacy. The report suggests that as policies are developed to deal with these concerns, we ensure that human decision makers remain at the center of these policies. As the report states on page 7, "Society needs an education-focused AI policy that protects civil rights and promotes democratic values in the building, deployment, and governance of automated systems to be used across the many decentralized levels of the American educational system."

AI Must Advance Equity

Attendees at the listening session consistently expressed concern about racial equity and AI. Because datasets are used in the development of AI, there was a strong push to create policies which ensure that the datasets used in the development of AI leave no room for bias. The report points out that the historical data that is used as a basis for AI algorithms can, in many cases, be rife with bias.

The report offers the example of algorithms that might be used in colleges or universities to make admission decisions, flag students who might need intervention or alert educators to potential cheating. These algorithms, the report suggests, must be scanned for bias in both the development of the systems and once they’re put into action.

Privacy and Effectiveness

Data safety and privacy was another provocative topic. AI relies on data; developers must be vigilant in regards to data privacy. As the report points out, most AI models have not been developed to consider for use in schools or with student or teacher privacy in mind; thus, the models are unlikely to adhere with existing student and state privacy laws.

Beyond privacy issues, educators made it clear that effectiveness is a key principle of education. They argue that leaders need evidence proving that AI-enhanced edtech aligns with existing policies, such as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).

Proceed... With Transparency

Attendees voiced that educators need more than disclosures as they begin to incorporate AI into their teaching– they should be able to explicitly understand how AI models work so that they can look for and spot problems as they occur. As developers continue to create AI systems and tools for education, teachers must be an integral part of the process, even if that means a slower development process.

Can Educational Technology Replace Teachers?

With impactful technological advances like ChatGPT making headlines, the question on the minds of employees across many fields is– will technology replace me?

When it comes to teachers, we believe the answer to that question is a resounding no.

There’s no denying that technology is changing the way we work, learn and live. The dovetailing of rapid advances in technology with the Covid-19 pandemic, which forced us all to rely more heavily on technology, has had a profound and irreversible effect on education. And technology is definitely changing the way educators teach; immersive educational technology engages students in a way that paper and pencil simply can’t. For example, Stanford University’s virtual reality program, "Becoming homeless," was shown to increase empathy in participants. Similar technology is being used to train nursing and other medical students to gain a better understanding of what their future patients might be experiencing.

Technology is also being harnessed to help balance out inequities in education. Assistive Technology (AT), for instance, can help level the playing field for students with learning differences and disabilities; Microsoft’s Immersive Reader uses features like read aloud and text decoding to help boost comprehension for readers of all levels.

If you’ve ever been stuck on a frustrating phone call with an automated assistant, though, you’ve no doubt encountered one simple truth– technology can’t replace the human element.

Technology doesn’t have the most important qualities of great teachers– passion and heart.

Take a moment and think back to a few of your favorite teachers. I’ll go first– I’m thinking of my third-grade teacher, Mrs. Cahill. I don’t have any recollection of whether she was savvy with the overhead projector or the Apple IIe. I just know that she was warm and kind and she made me feel seen. Technology– as fascinating and helpful as it can be– can’t replace those human qualities.

In fact, as technology plays an increasing role in our lives, soft skills like empathy, problem-solving, creativity, communication and collaboration are becoming more important in the workplace than ever. Students will need to learn these skills in order to thrive in their future work lives and address the complex challenges we face in modern life. While technology may have a place in helping students learn these soft skills, teachers will play a larger role.

The role of teachers is likely to continue evolving. As technology develops, educators will be able to use it to outsource time-consuming administrative tasks like grading, allowing them more time and energy to focus on students and their individual learning needs.

Google Education’s recent Future of Education report predicted, "As the educational landscape changes, teachers shift from being ‘gatekeepers of knowledge' to ‘choreographers of learning.’"

The report forecasts that the role of teachers is likely to continue to shift away from someone who shares knowledge on a particular subject, to someone who facilitates learning through their relationships with their students and their awareness of the various tools– technological or otherwise– that can best support their learning.

While technology is a valuable tool, we need great teachers more than ever.