Friday, October 30, 2026
The Oyster Bay-East Norwich Central School District is emphasizing a balanced approach to classroom technology, including limiting device use among younger students and introducing artificial intelligence through teacher-guided programs, district officials said during a presentation at Tuesday’s Board of Education meeting.
Jaclyn Gibbons, the district’s director of technology and data, and Superintendent Francesco Ianni outlined educational technology programs, changes in screen use and policies governing artificial intelligence. The presentation detailed the use of technology at Roosevelt Elementary School, Vernon School and Oyster Bay High School, with an emphasis on developing students’ skills while maintaining traditional instruction.
“We embrace technology as a powerful tool to great teaching,” Ianni said, “but it’s not replacing teaching.”
Ianni identified three priorities: enhancing classrooms, developing independent thinkers and supporting teachers as technology evolves. The district, he said, must prepare students for a future that will look different from the world they know today.
Gibbons de-scribed how technology use progresses as students advance through the district. At Roosevelt, they develop foundational literacy, math and technology skills. At Vernon, they build independence and digital fluency, while middle and high school students use technology for more advanced research, collaboration and coursework.
Among the programs used at the elementary level are Fun Hub, which supports phonics and reading instruction, and Book Creator, which helps students produce multimedia books incorporating text, images and audio.
At Vernon, students have used Book Creator to produce podcasts about their favorite books, combining narration, cover art and music. The district also introduced Magma Math last year, a platform that allows teachers to observe students’ mathematical reasoning and identify areas where they need more instruction.
At the middle and high school levels, students use Albert.io to prepare for Advanced Placement exams and Kami to annotate documents and collaborate on assignments.
The district has also expanded its use of Desmos, an interactive graphing calculator, which was introduced in algebra classes before expanding to geometry. Gibbons said that the district’s Algebra I passing rate increased from 75 percent in 2025 to 92 percent this year after the calculator’s introduction, and the Algebra II passing rate rose from 84 to 96 percent.
She also noted changes intended to limit unnecessary screen time, particularly among younger students. Kindergartners now store their iPads outside their classrooms, reinforcing the importance of hands-on learning. The district also stopped using the iReady MyPath adaptive learning platform as a required classroom assignment in kindergarten through second grade. Gibbons explained that iReady recommends an average of 49 minutes per week per subject on MyPath, but district officials determined that time could be better spent using other instructional resources.
The district continues to use iReady’s diagnostic assessments to measure student growth, and retains MyPath access for students in grades three through eight. Families who want to use MyPath at home can still do so.
Other educational applications that remain available to teachers include PebbleGo, Reflex Math, Raz-Kids and Prodigy. Gibbons said that teachers have discretion over which programs they use based on their instructional goals.
The district also outlined its A.I. policies. Students in kindergarten through fourth grade do not have access to school-sanctioned A.I. platforms. Fifth- and sixth-graders can use MagicSchool AI, while middle and high school students have access to selected Google A.I. tools. Gibbons described MagicSchool as a monitored, closed system in which teachers determine which tools students can access. Students cannot independently explore the platform without a teacher assigning a specific tool.
The district blocks other A.I. platforms through its web filtering system. The approved platforms, Gibbons said, comply with state education law, which governs student data privacy and protection.
The district is also incorporating A.I. literacy into its technology curriculum for seventh- and eighth-graders, including instruction on prompting, ethics, coding and how A.I. systems operate.
“We are continually learning and training our teachers as best we can to integrate A.I.,” Gibbons said, “while still maintaining critical thinking, cognitive friction and student creativity.”
District officials announced that Parent University, a state community and educational initiative, will host an A.I.-focused event on Nov. 16 at Oyster Bay High School. It will feature a speaker from AI for Education, a New Jersey-registered company that provides AI literacy training and consulting, and sessions with district technology specialists and teachers, who will demonstrate how A.I. tools are used in classrooms.
During the public comment period, attendees noted continuing concerns about classroom screen time and transparency. District resident Alina Vegliante said she appreciated the presentation, but remained uncertain about students’ day-to-day technology use. She called for an evidence-based approach to educational technology and urged the district to consider whether device-based activities were improving learning.
“It is a well-established principle that younger learners learn best through play, namely through hands-on social experiences,” Vegliante said. “Technology should be used when an activity or lesson cannot be done without it.”
Several other district parents and residents also expressed concerns about the use of A.I. and technology in Oyster Bay-East Norwich classrooms.
