I spent my long weekend exploring the 2025 AI-in-Education report - two graphs showed a major disconnect!
We might think we have an AI adoption story, but the reality is different: we still have a huge AI understanding gap!
Here are some key stats from the report that honestly made me do a double-take:
▪️99% of education leaders, 87% of educators worldwide & 93% of US students have already used generative-AI for school at least once or twice!
▪️Yet only 44% of those educators worldwide & 41% of those US students say they “know a lot about AI.”
‼️this means our usage is far outpacing our understanding & that’s a significant gap!
When such powerful tools are used without real fluency, we would see:
▪️complicated implementation with no shared strategy (sounds
familiar?)!
▪️anxious students who’d fear being accused of cheating (I've heard this from so many students!)
▪️overwhelmed teachers who feel alone, unsupported & unprepared (this one is a common concern by some of my teacher friends)!
The takeaway that jumped out at me:
▪️the schools that win won't be the ones that adopt AI the fastest, but the ones that adopt it the wisest!
So here's what I’d think we should consider:
✅building a "learning-first" culture across institutions & understanding when AI supports our learning vs. when it gets in the way!
▪️more like, we need to swap the question "Are we using AI?" for "Can we show any learning gains?"
⚠️so, what shifts does this report data point us to? Here is my takeaway:
✅Building real AI fluency:
▪️moving beyond simple "prompting hacks" to true literacy that includes understanding ethics, biases & pedagogical purposes,
▪️this may need an AI Council of faculty, IT, learners & others working together to develop institution-wide policies on when AI helps or harms our learning,
▪️it's about building shared wisdom, not just industry-ready skills
✅Creating collaborative infrastructure:
▪️the "every teacher for themselves" approach seems to be failing,
▪️shared guidelines, inclusive AI Councils & a culture of open conversation are now needed to bridge this huge gap!
✅Shifting focus from "using AI tools" to "achieving learning outcomes":
▪️this one really resonated with me because unlike other tech rollouts we've witnessed, AI directly affects how our students think & learn,
▪️our institutions need coordinated assessments tracking whether AI use makes our learners better thinkers or just faster task completers!
The goal that keeps coming back to us
▪️isn't to get every student using AI!
▪️but to make sure every learner & teacher really understands it!
⁉️I’m curious, where is your institution on this journey?
1️⃣ individual use: everyone is figuring it out on their own (been there!)
2️⃣ shared guidelines: we have policies, but they're not yet deeply integrated (getting closer!)
3️⃣ fully integrated strategy: we have a unified approach with a learning-first, outcome-tracked focus (this is the goal!) | 24 comments on LinkedIn
