Some Brooklyn educators and parents are pressing the city to take more time evaluating how students and staff should use Artificial Intelligence in classrooms, as platforms have become a part of many students' lives.
The Department of Education on Tuesday released its preliminary guidelines on the use of AI in the city's public schools, and many teachers and parents had a multitude of questions and comments.
Kelly Clancy, a member of Community Education Council 20 and the founder of Parents for AI Caution in Educational Spaces, called for a 2-year moratorium on AI use in classrooms.
"This document lays a floor for protecting privacy without attempting in any way to consider the pernicious impact access to AI has on student cognitive development, learning, and mental health," she said. "The lack of thinking reflected in the document is an argument for why they need to meet with parents and advocates and enact a moratorium."
Clancy said the DOE seems to be relying on the same privacy protection policies it currently has, which are "neither effective nor enforced."
"My sense is that any teacher reading this document would assume that students can use AI in the classroom for any assignment, for any reason as long as privacy concerns were addressed, which is a disaster for learning," she said.
Craig Garrett, a Williamsburg father of a first grader, said the guidelines read like it was developed with input from tech-industry representatives and a corporate consulting firm.
"The process included minimal, if any, input from teachers, students or families," he said. "Its fundamental premise is that if AI is being used outside our schools, teachers and students should be using it inside our schools. If they had invited tobacco-industry reps to develop school policy on vaping, they would've ended up with a document that emphasizes the importance of responsible vaping at school."
Garrett started District 14 Families for Human Learning a couple of months ago, after becoming dismayed with the use of Amira Learning, an AI literacy tutor, in some classrooms. The platform teaches young students to read by having them read to a chatbot rather than a teacher.
Liat Olenick, a teacher and a Clinton Hill resident, said that many parents are unaware of how AI is already in the classroom.
"There hasn't been a system-wide communication. Parents are finding out, like their kid came home and they said, 'Oh, I have a friend who I read to, and they tell me things.' And it turns out the friend is an AI chatbot," Olenick said.
Martina Meijer, who teaches in Ditmas Park, said she has already witnessed how students using AI run into media literacy issues, or when students are unable to tell whether the information they receive through AI is accurate or not.
"There's this really mad dash, a push to put technology, and specifically AI in children's hands, without the other accompanying skills that should go along with it," including how students can discern facts available from reputable sources, she said.
While some Brooklyn parents and teachers expressed concern about children's voices collected like data by tech companies, Lauren Monaco, a Ditmas Park resident who teaches Pre-K in Manhattan, said she is not a fan of using AI to lessen the workload.
"AI creates more problems than solves them," Monaco said. "It doesn't help with best practice and observation. Quizzes that have questions built in are not accurate. Teachers would need to fact-check because AI is biased. I can't see any good reason for these tools."
In the past year, several CECs, including in Brooklyn, have passed resolutions for a 2-year moratorium on AI. One petition now has 1500 signatures.
During a Manhattan town hall with NYC Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels on March 15, Clancy, Garrett, and several other education advocates handed out flyers to voice their concern about AI use in schools. Before the event began, Clancy's son, a middle school student, gave Samuels the petition.
The chancellor acknowledged all the concerns.
"I hear you," he said. "We need to think of how we function in this new world. This is a huge, huge deal. We cannot make fear paralyze us."
Brooklyn parents can attend a CEC20 Town Hall event with Chancellor Samuels on March 30, at I.S. 259 William McKinley School, 7305 Ft. Hamilton Pkwy, at 6:30pm. To livestream the event, click here to register.
