More than 500 educators, parents, lawmakers, medical experts and advocates gathered in Albany Friday to debate classroom technology and safeguards for students. NYSUT’s “Unplugged: Reclaiming Human-Centered Education” conference examined artificial intelligence, screen use and the role of teachers.
The statewide teachers union said the full-day program considered how schools can use technology without putting it ahead of teaching, learning and personal connections. NYSUT President Melinda Person said the gathering was not opposed to technology but distinguished using it as a tool from designing education around it.
Person said technology can expand access and help educators do work that was not possible a decade ago. She urged participants to begin the discussion with children’s needs rather than the technology itself.
Speakers call for educator involvement
State Education Commissioner Betty Rosa said schools should prepare students without giving up curiosity, creativity, problem-solving, relationships or the enjoyment of learning.
Attorney General Letitia James said teachers should have a voice in decisions about classroom AI because they see how it affects learning, distractions and relationships. She said laws and lawsuits are only part of addressing the issue.
Keynote speaker Jared Horvath, a neuroscientist, educator and author, discussed research on technology’s effects on the brain and student development. He argued that tools designed to help experts get work done should not be treated as substitutes for helping children become experts.
Horvath called for greater understanding and literacy rather than additional technology training. He said access to good teachers and schools, rather than technology alone, is the basis for educational equity.
Three panels explored lessons from a decade of increasing classroom technology, AI’s potential to support or undermine learning, and technology’s future in education. Participants included American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten and state Sen. Shelley Mayer.
Weingarten said AI has potential benefits but requires safeguards, particularly when federal guidance is lacking. She argued that people must remain in control of technology rather than allowing it to control them.
Mayer said the debate is a legislative priority and called for confronting companies she said profit at children’s expense. The release did not announce a new legislative vote or enacted restriction.
Parent describes chatbot concerns
During lunch, attorney and child-safety advocate Megan Garcia discussed her son Sewell’s death in 2024. According to NYSUT’s account, Garcia said an AI companion chatbot contributed to his death and that he had expressed suicidal thoughts to the bots.
Those statements describe Garcia’s account, not a finding by a court. The union said she became the first person in the United States to bring a wrongful-death lawsuit against an AI company.
Garcia urged parents, teachers and others who care for children to recognize potential dangers and work together on protections while the law develops.
Union seeks limits on younger students’ use
The conference followed NYSUT’s 2024 “Disconnected” gathering, attended by nearly 500 educators, parents, students, lawmakers and other participants. NYSUT said that discussion of cellphones and social media helped lead to the state’s bell-to-bell policy for distraction-free classrooms.
The union has advocated developmentally appropriate restrictions on educational technology, including limits on student-facing AI and one-to-one devices for younger children. It says educators, parents and students should help decide how schools use those tools.
NYSUT represents more than 700,000 members in education, human services and health care and is affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers, National Education Association and AFL-CIO.
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