Brazil: Strategic developments in Campinas
Teachers use artificial intelligence to innovate and engage students “What do you want to be when you grow up?” The common question asked of children about which career they want to pursue inspired teacher Giovanna Macedo, from Campinas (SP), to use artificial intelligence (AI) to show her students, aged 9 and 10, how they would be represented in the future, pursuing the professions they dreamed of. Related news: Flávio wants military schools; Lula proposes expanding full-time education. Scientific immersion takes students and teachers to technological centers. The acceleration from childhood to adulthood, with the help of ChatGPT, was generated by the teacher's initiative based on photos taken in 2025 of her 31 4th-grade students from Escola Estadual Professor Carlos Cristovam Zink, located in a peripheral neighborhood of the interior city of São Paulo. The video with the emotional reactions of the children went viral on social media and took the world by storm. The answers ranged from soccer player to astronaut, including veterinarian, ballerina, singer, artist, and others. A post shared by ChatGPT (@chatgpt) Giovanna explains that the intention was to allow children to imagine a phase of life that is still distant for them. “For me, as a teacher, it is very significant to create situations where students feel valued and see that someone believes in them, that they have the potential to go beyond.” The teacher told Agência Brasil that she had the desire to teach since childhood. This October 15th, Teacher's Day, the 27-year-old celebrated another year of work in teaching, a career she embraced 8 years ago, in 2018. Despite her time in the profession, the teacher admits she does not yet have training in artificial intelligence, but says she is always attentive to innovations and uses technologies intuitively to get ideas and produce visual resources that make her classes more interesting. “More than using a new technology, our role is to find ways to awaken children's curiosity, strengthen their self-esteem, and broaden their horizons. The more we can show what they are capable of learning, creating, and dreaming, the more meaningful our work will be.” Professor Giovanna Macedo, from Campinas (SP) - Giovanna Macedo/ Personal archive After the repercussion of the activity carried out with the help of generative AI, Giovanna confesses to plans to specialize in methodologies and didactics to improve her knowledge of the new technology. “I would like experiences like this to inspire other educators to explore new methodologies and think of creative ways to bring school content closer to students' reality.” Digital culture In this new digital culture, where blackboards and chalk are being replaced by computers, schools need to keep up with social and technological changes responsibly, in a scenario where students already grow up with access to information delivered in seconds, but who often do not know how to transform this content into knowledge. This is the position of Kassula Correa, general director of Start Anglo Bilingual School, a private school in Rio de Janeiro. “A child may be good at using a cell phone and still not know how to research in depth, identify false information, or understand the risks of sharing certain data.” For the educator, the use of artificial intelligence must still consider the diversity in the classroom. “We need to offer tools, training, and conditions for teachers to be able to teach this generation where each child has their own pace, their own doubts, and their own way of learning.” Even in times of digital transformation, Kassula argues that the school should preserve its role as an environment for socio-emotional development. “No matter how much technology advances, school remains a place for human relationships. It is where children learn to coexist, deal with difficulties, get to know themselves, and discover what they are capable of.” Teacher training Professor Marcio Luiz Dias has been training teachers for 13 years in the use of educational technologies, with an emphasis on Artificial Intelligence - Marcio Luiz Dias/Personal Archive The professor, doctoral candidate, and master of Education, Marcio Luiz Dias, has been working for 13 years in continuing education in educational technologies for teachers in the public school system of the Federal District. His focus is on artificial intelligence in education. He understands that continuing education is indispensable for both teachers with analog training and recent graduates in licentiate degrees. “In the digital field, changes occur so rapidly that it is practically impossible for college curricula to be always up-to-date.” Marcio finds the apprehension of some fellow teachers about using artificial intelligence in education legitimate; however, he considers it a path of no return. “It is something that became popular relatively recently but has been expanding its presence rapidly and broadly.” In the training offered by the Secretariat of State for Education of the Federal District (SEEDF), the guidance to teachers is to mediate so that the class overcomes the mechanical use of digital tools. “The Curriculum in Motion of Public Schools in the DF advocates that continuing education should go beyond the instrumental use of technologies and move towards critical, collaborative use focused on pedagogical intentionality,” relates Professor Marcio Luiz. Educational manager Kassula Correa, on the other hand, advocates for the importance of valuing teachers' previous analog experience and bringing it closer to new technologies in a practical, continuous, and welcoming way. “Many of them have developed incredible teaching strategies using blackboards, books, paper, and a lot of creativity. What we need is to bring these professionals closer to new possibilities, respecting their journeys.” Tasks AI can also contribute directly to automating and optimizing bureaucratic and repetitive routines, such as administrative and operational tasks, and also to developing activities that promote more collaboration and significant student engagement, lists the professor from DF. As a direct consequence, Professor Marcio Luiz points to the release of quality time for teachers to study more, plan lessons, and dedicate themselves to the individualized support of students' needs. “We teachers find ourselves with a series of bureaucratic, repetitive, tiring routines that, although essential for the school's operation, take up our time for studying, planning lessons, testing formats and adaptations, as well as more closely monitoring our students.” Although technology brings agility in diversifying exercises, adapting difficulty levels, elaborating lesson plans, and speeding up objective corrections, director Kassula emphasizes that the choice of the best strategy for the class depends exclusively on the educator's human judgment. “The quality of teaching continues to depend on the ability to transform technological resources into experiences that help students learn. Evaluating a child's development requires understanding their journey, their difficulties, and their progress.” Classroom The professor at the Center for Integrated High School Education in Professional Education (CEMI) in Taguatinga, a city in the Federal District, Jaime Guilherme de Oliveira, teaches graphic computing to high school students aged 14 to 18. Many of them do not even have computers in their homes. Coming from the corporate world, in the public network, the teacher underwent training through the School of Continuing Education for Education Professionals (EAPE) of the DF education secretariat. These include: Courses on Digital Languages and AI in Teaching Practice, as well as a postgraduate degree in Proficiency in Digital Technologies for Entrepreneurial Education and permanent online courses. As a result of the incorporated learning, Jaime Guilherme uses artificial intelligence to his advantage in his teaching routine, such as in creating content for expository lessons that facilitate comprehension; in planning activities for each class; in elaborating assessments adapted to the needs of students with neurodivergencies or specific needs; and in developing educational games for reinforcing and reviewing content. The interactive game Arena ABNT, with the rules of the Brazilian Association of Technical Standards (ABNT) taught playfully for writing academic papers, is authored by tutor Jaime, via ChatGPT. In pedagogical dynamics, Jaime sees AI as an opportunity to bring students closer to the transformations in the world of work. The teacher, however, reflects that more important than knowing how to generate content is knowing why it is being created, for whom it is intended, and what consequences it may produce. “The tool can do a lot for us, but the intention, sensitivity, critical thinking, and responsibility remain essentially human.” Challenges: from copying to learning In his role as a trainer of other teachers, Marcio Luiz Dias sees that access to mobile devices and the internet in the Federal District is widespread, but the main challenge is to transform connectivity into critical, citizen, and productive use. And the educator encourages connectivity to go further: “Digital literacy should act strongly against risks, such as scams and fake news spread through social media, as well as becoming a source of new learning that a person may need in their personal life or for citizenship.” Specifically addressing students, Professor Marcio encourages education professionals to have the authority to establish that AI be used by students as a support tool for assimilation, reasoning, research, questioning, and debate. “I recognize that this is not easy, but the path of digital literacy, teacher training, establishing and demanding analysis, synthesis, and student argumentation has already been successfully tested,” concludes Marcio. The fight against the "shortcut" requires students to have the capacity for analysis, synthesis, and their own argumentation, developed through digital literacy. Within the school environment, professor Jaime Guilherme de Oliveira teaches young people that AI should be used with clear intentionality; otherwise, the tool's shortcuts lead to empty deliverables. "When there is clear intention, the tool amplifies the reach of those who already have something to say." Future of AI in Education The professor from Taguatinga, Jaime Guilherme, projects the growing presence of AI in teacher planning and personalized learning. He argues that technology does not replace the teacher, who has an irreplaceable role in pedagogical mediation, ethical guidance, data checking, and critical formation of students. AI and public network The Ministry of Education (MEC) informed Agência Brasil that a new resolution on the use of artificial intelligence will be published soon, without specifying a date. The document will aim to expand the pedagogical use of technology, preserve teacher autonomy, and ensure student protection. With the future publication, the ministry seeks to establish clear guidelines and legal security so that managers and educational networks can use new technologies safely, inclusively, and responsibly. “From the resolution, the country will have, unprecedentedly, a unified national parameter to guide the conscious and ethical adoption of artificial intelligence at all educational stages,” states the MEC's note. Regarding connectivity in public basic education schools across the country, the MEC has the National Strategy for Connected Schools (Enec). In July of this year, 108,658 schools were connected within adequate quality parameters, classified in levels 4 and 5 of the Connected Indicator (Inec), which corresponds to 78.7% of the 138,086 schools monitored.
Event details
These categories are assigned by an automated classifier and are not manually verified — they can be inaccurate or mislabelled. See how Newsmap classifies events.
Source
This event was reported on rssby @Agência Brasil. The summary above is an automated, neutral description; always consult the original report before relying on it.
Related reports
Other recent reports about the same actors or country: