Teacher Professional Development: A Workshop Proposal for High School–University Collaboration Using Technology and AI

This study explores the integration of technology and artificial intelligence (AI) as catalysts for professional teacher development within the context of Mexico’s educational challenges. Adopting a qualitative and exploratory approach, a four-phase workshop was conducted with 40 high school and university-level teachers from the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN). The methodology included scientific modeling activities using traditional methods, software (Tracker, ver. 6.2.0), and AI tools (ChatGPT-3.5), while analyzing participants’ perceptions and experiences. The findings reveal a clear disconnect between teachers’ theoretical competencies and their practical skills, with persistent gaps in scientific literacy at both educational levels. However, this study documents that the workshop functioned as a genuine professional learning community, where inter-academic collaboration and peer-learning proved to be an effective strategy for addressing these deficiencies. Technology, specifically the Tracker software, served as a catalyst for conceptual understanding. Despite AI’s potential for research, its limitations in the precision of responses reinforced this study’s central conclusion: technology does not replace the teacher’s work but transforms the teacher’s role into a critical mediator, responsible for guiding students to develop analytical and critical thinking in a complex digital environment.