Technology in today’s classrooms is advancing rapidly, reshaping the way students learn and teachers teach, especially with advancements in AI. Educators play a vital role in shaping meaningful and impactful learning opportunities for students through emerging technologies like AI. It’s more important than ever to provide teachers with tools and opportunities to explore technology to empower them as agents of change in the classroom.
One initiative aims to do just that: HP AI Spotlight Schools, a partnership between HP, Microsoft, Intel and Digital Promise. It features state-of-the-art computing devices, professional learning experiences and community resources. These schools are working to equip educators and students with essential skills to harness the power of AI in an increasingly modern technological world.
While state, federal, district and school-wide policies for utilizing safe and ethical AI are important, educators will drive the implementation of AI technologies in the classroom. Educators bring humanity, relationship building and a nuanced understanding of students’ needs, enabling them to create powerful learning experiences that foster curiosity.
AI is a tool to lighten the load so teachers can focus on the more important things in education — like building relationships with their students.
At Anaheim High School, teachers are exploring how AI can further enhance and support pedagogy — from ideas for creating engaging lesson plans to increasing efficiency and time spent with tasks and more. These educators are utilizing AI both as a tool and as a thought partner in teaching, which helps create more opportunities for mentoring and cultivating meaningful connections with their students.
In December 2024’s “What Are You Doing with AI in 2025?” LinkedIn Live panel, Anaheim educator Lex Vargas shared, “AI is a tool to lighten the load so teachers can focus on the more important things in education — like building relationships with their students.” Lex explores AI in his own classroom practice as a physics teacher with advanced simulations that create dynamic learning moments for students. He also encourages peers in his coaching capacity to explore AI in specific instructional tasks, such as differentiating lesson plans in a more timely fashion.
Fellow educator Bill Johnson added, “AI sparks conversations and ideas that lead to creative, engaging performance tasks, which bring excitement and energy to the classroom.” He recounted a collaboration with a colleague to develop an innovative cross-curricular lesson plan. While brainstorming, they used an AI tool to explore ways to combine physics and history. Although the AI’s direct output was unremarkable, it sparked a conversation that led the teachers to conceive their own exceptional idea. This teacher-generated concept, inspired by the AI prompt, ultimately resulted in a powerful learning experience for students.
Principal Ruben Calleros stated, “We’ve been leveraging AI in our professional learning communities to create innovative projects and analyze data that supports impactful teaching strategies.” Calleros also went on to share the support from the administrative side for helping teachers see the wide variety of ways that AI could be used, not just as one tool, and emphasized the importance that AI will never replace the educator’s role in building relationships or delivering lessons to students.
At Anaheim High School, both students and teachers are exploring AI. In the Digital Promise white paper Access to Powerful Technology as a Catalyst for Career Pathway Engagement, 12th-grade student Andrew shared the importance of the HP Learning Studio in providing access to technology for students who might not have similar resources at home. “Being able to have a lab that’s open and we have easy access to is crucial… It’s going to allow them to explore different careers that they maybe weren’t considering before.”
AI sparks conversations and ideas that lead to creative, engaging performance tasks, which bring excitement and energy to the classroom.
Similarly, Vargas, a physics teacher, shared how AI-powered simulations and high-performance tools facilitated by the Learning Studio enabled his students to engage in complex, hands-on projects that were previously unattainable due to hardware limitations. Teachers like Pat Barba also noted how the integration of AI and professional-grade technologies made lessons more relevant, giving students the tools to connect their learning to real-world career opportunities.
Schools are redefining how education prepares students for success in an AI-driven world. Through continued innovation and educator leadership, HP AI Spotlight Schools are empowering both students and educators to utilize technology’s potential in meaningful and ethical ways. By incorporating labs equipped with high computing machines and through teachers’ facilitation, students continue their development of future-ready skills like adaptability, collaboration, innovation and computational thinking. Computational thinking, an important framework for understanding and utilizing AI, is a foundational part of the approach, which empowers students to tackle multifaceted problems and transform them into manageable parts. This skill set, paired with opportunities to engage in real-world learning and problem-solving, begins to bridge the gap between academic learning and workforce readiness.
Educators are at the forefront of exploring AI’s potential, using it to rethink instruction and better support students. As students engage in hands-on, real-world applications of AI, they develop critical thinking, problem-solving and career-ready skills that prepare them for success in an increasingly AI-driven world.
