Faculty Member Earns Grant To Research AI In Early Childhood Education

07/23/2026

A faculty member in SUNY Cortland's Childhood/Early Childhood Education Department is part of a research team considering how young children engage with artificial intelligence and ways to address the equity challenges it creates.

Deborah Silvis, assistant professor of childhood/early childhood education, will serve as co-principal investigator for the project, which earned a $75,000 Vision Grant to support a one-year planning period for a Spencer Foundation Transformation Research Grant proposal. The national foundation supports innovative research that aims to improve education systems.

During the next year, Silvis will work with colleagues at the University at Buffalo to build the project's research framework and community partnerships in Western New York.

"As AI is increasingly integrated into our society, the project addresses the urgent need for equitable AI education in the early years, when children are forming foundational understandings of the world," said Silvis, whose scholarship considers the relationship between technology, child development and social change. "Unfortunately, early childhood has been largely overlooked in AI education."

According to the researchers, two interconnected challenges exist related to children's encounters with AI. First, the topic remains largely invisible within early childhood education systems and policy, which can create challenges for young children and their caregivers. Additionally, fragmentation of early childhood education systems across schools and communities can compound those problems.

As part of the Spencer Foundation Vision Grant, the research team will work with local education leaders, community members and technology partners to create a four-year research agenda focused on sustainable solutions that have the potential to scale nationally.

A SUNY Cortland faculty member since 2023, Silvis earned a Ph.D. in learning sciences and human development at the University of Washington's College of Education.

Her work has been published in the International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning; Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, Information & Learning Sciences ; International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction ; Learning, Culture and Social Interaction ; and Cognition & Instruction .