Page: In The News
SBS Portland In The News
Five Elementary Schoolers Show Just How Much Screen Time Varies Across PPS (Willamette Week)
In recent months, a chapter of the national parent advocacy group Schools Beyond Screens has mobilized in Portland. Its founders say they hope to persuade the School Board to pass policies to regulate screen time and use of artificial intelligence across the district. Miranda Rake, a co-lead of the Portland chapter, described the June 15 meeting as “uncomfortable.” She says PPS officials presented their understanding of expectations for screen time in the classroom, but a crowd of parent-advocates disputed those accounts. “I’m not in every classroom every day,” Adams told board members that day. “I would not purport to refute or challenge what parents are saying is their experience.”
School Board Pauses Generative Artificial Intelligence in PPS (Willamette Week)
The Portland School Board unanimously approved a temporary pause Tuesday night on generative artificial intelligence use, buying it time to develop a more official and durable policy.
The board’s resolution will apply both to contracts Portland Public Schools is currently in and ones it may sign in the future—preventing, for now at least, the expansion of generative AI use in the district. The resolution defines generative AI as artificial intelligence systems that “generate text, code, images, audio, video, or other content in response to prompts or other use input.”
The resolution directs the district to bring the board a more comprehensive overview of its generative AI implementations and uses.
“Chaotic” Middle School Assembly Underscores PPS’ AI Problem (Portland Mercury)
On a Friday last month, some Portland middle schoolers went home from school with new Nike swag and tales of an unusually eventful assembly.
The event, hosted at Beaumont Middle School on May 8, featured former NFL player, activist, and EdTech CEO Colin Kaepernick, Rip City Remix’s DJ O.G. Too, and a bunch of free swag, reportedly distributed via T-shirt cannon. (Two students allegedly got into an altercation over the free stuff, leading one to punch another.) Some students from George Middle School and Bridger Creative Science School were bused over for the assembly, which was meant to showcase the results of Portland Public Schools’ partnership with Kaepernick’s startup, Lumi Story AI.
In Portland schools, an ‘optimistic’ new AI handbook proves polarizing (Oregonian)
In a new guidebook issued to parents, students and staff members, Portland Public Schools says it wants to “leverage artificial intelligence as a transformative, ethical and human-centered tool,” to prepare all of its students to be part of an AI-powered workforce and improve their academic outcomes.
The guidebook has raised alarm bells for some parents and teachers, who worry that the district is moving quickly to embrace an emerging technology without considering the potential downsides.
Portland school board to vote on pausing AI expansion plan (KATU)
The Portland Public Schools Board will consider a proposal Tuesday night that would temporarily halt the expansion of generative artificial intelligence technologies across the district until officials develop a formal oversight framework.