Key Points:
- Breakthrough assessments will try to break through.
- Self-help bots will proliferate in consumer and education markets.
- AI will start to displace our weak ties.
- Colleges will be forced to grapple with the looming experience gap.
- Districts will renew their focus on whole child and economic mobility efforts.
Breakthrough Assessments Will Try to Break Through
Perhaps the most exciting developments in AI for teaching and learning could come from novel assessment models that can offer formative, dynamic performance task assessments at scale. We’ve long seen that underinvestment in diagnostics, assessments, and outdated policy has prevented schools from adopting truly personalized, competency-based systems. The question is not whether new technologies could overcome that but if our policies and practices can absorb the potential of those new technologies into an entrenched system anchored on high-stakes summative tests.
Self-Help Bots Will Proliferate in Consumer and Education Markets
A video of Sal Khan instructing GPT-4o to tutor his son was widely circulated last year. But while that portrait of a parent, bot, and student solving a problem together was compelling, I’m not convinced tools are being built with the core assumption or hope that users will be surrounded by human support.
AI Will Start to Displace Our Weak Ties
Self-help bots are one aspect of a much larger category of AI companions gaining steam in consumer markets. As I’ve noted in the past, AI companions are on a clear path to disrupting human connection as we know it. They cater to one of the most fundamental things that make us all tick: our deeply wired need to connect.
Colleges Will Be Forced to Grapple with the Looming Experience Gap
While AI stands to revolutionize how schools approach assessment and support, it also puts greater pressure on what schools are expected to do to prepare students for the labor market. As education and workforce analyst and investor Ryan Craig has pointed out, entry-level jobs increasingly (and ironically) require multiple years of experience. Craig argues that even if recent graduates have the skills required for a job, employers today are looking for more.
Districts Will Renew Their Focus on Whole Child and Economic Mobility Efforts
This is part prediction, part hope. As AI tools start to support districts’ immediate challenges, like absenteeism and proficiency, I’m waiting to see if schools start to demand tools that reach higher. What makes school districts tick in 2025? Before the pandemic, many districts were operating under an ambitious north star and harnessing a broader aperture in terms of the scope of their impact – namely, supporting whole child development and working to ensure they were planting the seeds for students further from opportunity to be on a path to upward mobility.
Conclusion
As we enter 2025, it’s essential to consider the motivations behind the trends we’re watching. AI is a common denominator to most of the trends I’m watching this year, but it’s the motivations behind those trends that merit a closer look. I’ll be watching for breakthrough assessments, self-help bots, AI companions, experience gaps, and whole child and economic mobility efforts, and advocating for schools to demand tools that tackle both information and connection gaps with a longer view toward the supports and networks students need to succeed.
FAQs
Q: What are the key points of this article?
A: The key points of this article are breakthrough assessments, self-help bots, AI companions, experience gaps, and whole child and economic mobility efforts.
Q: What is the main theme of this article?
A: The main theme of this article is the impact of AI on education, workforce, and beyond in 2025, with a focus on the motivations behind the trends.
Q: What are the author’s predictions for 2025?
A: The author predicts breakthrough assessments, self-help bots, AI companions, experience gaps, and whole child and economic mobility efforts, and advocates for schools to demand tools that tackle both information and connection gaps.
