Education

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is giving money to 27 districts across Michigan to buy 100 electric or low-emission school buses, with Grand Rapids and Kent districts receiving the largest amounts.

Moved by research into the mental-health effects of cellphone addiction in young people, administrators at Wilton School District in Connecticut will form a committee to discuss the idea of restricting phones in schools.

The Oklahoma Educational Technology Trust will give $40,000 each to schools across the state to buy iPads, Chromebooks, esports equipment, various robotics, virtual reality equipment and other tech supplies.

The state will require students to stow phones during class — a decision that comes as states across the country fight back against excessive teen phone use, citing growing research on its negative impact.

Schools that had already embraced the imperatives of Internet access, digital literacy and 1:1 device plans fared better for it during the pandemic. AI could be a similarly urgent pragmatic concern.

A new bill signed by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine gives K-12 school districts until 2025 to craft new policies limiting the use of personal devices, and related distractions, in the classroom.

A public community college in Kansas aims to rely on Open Education Resource (OER) materials, or online sources, rather than hard-copy books. The college offers over 160 OER-certified courses, most of which are online.

At a roundtable discussion celebrating the 10th anniversary of Tech Foundry, a Massachusetts program that teaches computer and technology skills, state and local leaders said training and apprenticeships have been critical.

Computer science majors aren't the only ones worried about how artificial intelligence could impact the value of their degrees, as automation could reduce blue-collar jobs and new AIs could affect knowledge-seeking ones.

UC San Diego's TritonGPT, a suite of AI assistants built in-house for data control and cost savings, is writing job descriptions and helping with grant accounting. It's part of UCSD's strategy for handling the mundane.

While school leaders at Orange County Public Schools are not second-guessing the need to provide devices to students, which they've been doing since 2013, they are looking at leasing and other ways to curb costs.

MSU is polling the Internet to name its new autonomous electric bus that will start driving a set route this fall. It comes with six light detection and ranging sensors, six radars and eight RGB cameras.

A new four- to six-month adult education program will pay students $4,000 a month during their training with the agreement that they'll work where the company places them for three years upon completion.

What started as adult education focused on agriculture and home economics has grown into a flagship program at Louisiana State University, with certifications in fields such as AI, cybersecurity and cloud computing.

The Academy at Larragoite in New Mexico rebranded in 2020 as Desert Sage Academy, an almost entirely online school for K-12. Some of its latest graduates say it offered flexibility at a time when they really needed it.

Two years after the Dougherty County School System in Georgia partnered with Apple to train teachers to use iPads, MacBook Airs and other devices to enhance lessons, teachers say student engagement is up.

Since implementing online tutoring services from Paper in fall 2022, Elko County School District in Nevada has seen significant year-over-year growth in the number of students using the service.

Western Maricopa Education Center school board member Robert Garcia recommends that school districts engage directly with employers to get a sense of what AI skills will be most important for students to learn.