AI-powered tools like Google Lens pose a cheating challenge for CA classrooms

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First introduced in 2017, Google Lens allows users of Google devices and software to search for physical objects, translate text and perform visual searches within seconds. But with the spread of artificial intelligence, using it in the classroom poses a challenge to teachers and potentially harm students’ ability to learn effectively.

As CalMatters’ Carolyn Jones explains, millions of California’s 5.8 million K-12 students use Google laptops known as Chromebooks. AI-powered tools like Lens have made it easier for students to cheat on digital tests by allowing them to mark up text on their laptops and have Lens spit out near-instant explanations or interpretations.

Dustin Stevenson, a high school English teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District, said he noticed that students in his class who previously struggled throughout the semester suddenly aced tests after the latest Lens update.

For William Heusler, a high school ethnic studies teacher in Los Angeles, the learning distractions caused by Chromebooks got to the point where he had to abandon technology in his classroom altogether and go back to pencil and paper.

• Heuisler: “Can you go through life without knowing how to write, how to express yourself? I don’t know, but I hope not.”

Research backs up Heuisler’s concerns: A recent MIT study found that students who used AI to help them write essays had 55% less cognitive activity than those who did not.

Meanwhile, LA Unified has decided to keep Lens on its student laptops, according to a district spokesperson. However, it has put some safeguards in place, including allowing students to access the tool after completing a digital literacy lesson.

Read more here.

An Oregon district court judge sided with California on Friday, issuing a permanent injunction blocking The deployment of troops from President Donald Trump’s state National Guard in Portland, Oregon, including in California.

The ruling ends a three-day lawsuit between the Trump administration against California, Oregon and the city of Portland.

In a sweeping 106-page ruling, Trump-appointed federal judge Karin Immergut pointed to evidence that the violence by protesters outside a federal immigration detention center in Portland did not rise to a level that threatened the federal government or disrupted its operations. She also wrote that local police had done their job in quelling any unrest and questioned the credibility of the federal government’s claims that protesters had seriously damaged or disrupted a federal facility.

• The solution: “There is no evidence that the protesters outside the ICE building in Portland acted to preempt an instrumentality of the government through illegal or undemocratic means. … Finally, it is telling that all of Defendants’ evidence of dangerousness predates July 5 — more than two months before the president’s federalization of the National Guard.”

Immergut’s decision follows its temporary ban, which sided with California and Oregon last month. This is the second time a district judge has sided with California against Trump’s use of the military after a trial.

Meanwhile, the US Supreme Court is weighing an urgent appeal from the Trump administration over the sending of National Guard troops in Illinoiswhich remains temporarily blocked by the lower courts. His ruling could have national implications for how courts consider future contested troop deployments.

Ten months after the Palisades Fire tore through Los Angeles County and killed 12 people, Will Rogers State Historic Park finally reopened Saturday, albeit partially, after being closed since the devastating wildfire broke out.

Members of the public can once again access approximately 4.2 miles of trails and visit the park’s main lawn and picnic area, returning a valuable park to a region with limited supply of green spaces. Will Rogers has also reopened his equestrian operations, albeit on a smaller scale, as restorations continue. Its remaining 4.8 miles of trails are still closed for repairs.

The Palisades wildfire on Jan. 7 burned about 8,000 acres of land in state parks, including the famous Will Rogers Ranchpark facilities and hundreds of historic trees located in the Santa Monica Mountains.

The park’s reopening is “a catharsis for both park staff and visitors,” said Noah Halili, acting senior environmental scientist for the state parks’ Angeles District, who helped rescue historic artifacts from the ranch house.

• Halili: “(The fire) is traumatic for those of us who work here in this beautiful place. And so the process of repair and rebuilding is healing.”

From CalMatters climate reporter Alejandro Lazo and environmental justice reporter Alejandra Reyes-Velarde:

As the United Nations Climate Change Conference gets underway, California officials are the most senior U.S. delegation this week in Belem, Brazil. Although the Trump administration abandoned the Paris climate accord and will not send officials to the talks, subnational governments such as California cannot participate in the negotiations. But representing the world’s fourth-largest economy, Gov. Gavin Newsom will burnish the state’s reputation — and his own — for clean energy policy and regional agreements.

Scholars say the state’s presence in Belem carries some weight.

• David G. Victorprofessor of climate policy at UC San Diego: “If we didn’t do things like this, then the rest of the world would be even more puzzled about what’s going on in the United States. The symbolic value of showing that the United States hasn’t completely abandoned climate and clean energy … is pretty important to the rest of the world, but it doesn’t have a huge calorific value.”

The University of California then avoided what could have been one of the largest labor strikes in its history reach a preliminary agreement on Saturday with the university’s Professional Technical Employees work group.

The union represents 21,000 health care, technical assistance and research professionals. After 17 months of negotiations, it threatened a two-day walkout on November 17, which included other allied unions. The statewide strike was expected to affect more than 80,000 workers, including health care workers and nurses at five medical centers — paralyzing the university system’s health and research operations.

The preliminary agreement includes salary increaseslimits on health care premium increases and “improvements in work-life balance, career advancement and job security,” according to UPTE.