Virginia teachers balance AI innovation with student creativity amid rising academic pressure

Students face pressure to do well from family expectations, peer competition, college admissions, and a broader achievement-focused culture. Some Virginia education experts say it is leading them to rely on artificial intelligence, at the expense of strengthening their own creative and critical thinking skills.

“They want to do well, and so they tend to turn to AI as a shortcut to completing assignments or getting assistance,” Alexandria City School Teacher Bernadette Desario said. “While I understand that they want to use that, we still want to see what it is that they know, and we want to see their own creativity and their own thought process.” 

Desario and her colleagues focused on teaching history and social studies attended a recent AI workshop at the Virginia Tech Innovation Campus, run by two Virginia Tech professors. 

The event centered on how to use the technology thoughtfully in the classroom, focusing on its capabilities, biases and limitations. 

AI remains one of the most sought-after and heavily criticized technologies available. It has proven useful for processing large amounts of information, making predictions or recommendations, recognizing patterns and automating decisions and actions.