I spent years discussing the “future of education,” whether in my classroom, on stages, or in writing. I explored possibilities, speculated about what AI and other emerging technologies might mean for teachers, and wondered if we’d ever embrace the changes and feel prepared enough for them. I would often say, “Dream big,” and now, we are dreaming big.

School is so different from twenty years ago, when I spent so much time talking about how to prepare students and ourselves for the future. Even though we discussed 21st-century skills and being “future focused” back then, many educators, including myself at times, continued to use traditional models for brick-and-mortar learning, as well as one-size-fits-all methods. That is, until AI and real-world learning catalyzed a new system. 

The Learning Revolution

Let me show you what school is like now. I’m technically a Learning Experience Designer at Phoenix Innovation Lab, but I don’t see it as a single “place.” My classroom isn’t just a room, but rather, it is part of a global ecosystem and network of learning. My students and I are skilled in using AI. We are all learners, and today we are co-designing in virtual spaces. We start the day in the metaverse, participating in a live simulation or collaborating with peers from around the world to follow personalized interests and learn more about cultures,  people, and places that are different from our own. We collaborate, problem-solve, and create immersive learning environments that prioritize choice, real-world relevance, and agency. So how did we get here?

It started with a mindset shift about what school should look like and the role that as educators need to play. Did all students need to be in school for seven hours a day, five days a week? No. We’ve learned that they can engage in learning from anywhere and, even better, decide how they learn best.  Did they all need to do the same task at the same time and in the same place? Nope.

For some, it was a massive mindset shift, which we know is really tough to implement at scale, but today, it is different. Now we begin our day by checking in with a Personal AI Guide. It’s hard to believe, but it’s true. It took time to adjust, but having access to a secure, ethical assistant trained to help me with my goals, provide me with ongoing feedback about my instructional practices, and give me new ideas. It doesn’t tell me what to do, but instead, it listens and sparks new ideas for how I can grow professionally and best support my students. As educators, we model this learning and growth for our learners, as students begin their day by checking in with their own Personal AI Guides—an ethical AI assistant designed to amplify and enhance their learning, not replace it.

It asks them: What are you curious about today? What’s challenging you? How are you growing?  I use these questions to guide my work, too.  Now, unlike years ago, students don’t just ask me content questions. They have bigger, higher-level ones: Can I challenge the AI’s answer? How do I know when my research is “good enough”? What if my solution makes things worse? These are the kinds of questions being asked now that they have their assistants, and ones which tell me they’re not just consuming information, they’re actively evaluating and critiquing it. And this is where my new role comes in. 

I’m finding that I am no longer standing at the front of my classroom giving directions. I’m right in the middle with them. I am a guide, a learner, a processor, and a safety net. I am showing them how to take what may be a vague idea and brainstorm so that it develops into a plan. Guiding them on how to evaluate sources in a highly AI-powered world, and how to adjust when their first (or third, or tenth) attempt fails.

I help spark new ideas when my students get stuck, challenging them to push beyond the easy answers and seek more. I’m also there to support them when the risks they take don’t work out as they hoped. My job is to help them navigate complexity with curiosity and confidence, so they leave not just with a finished project with a finite end, but with the skills and resilience to take on the next challenge, to iterate, whether inside or outside the classroom.

I am an avid learner and connector. When listening to students, I thrive on finding connections where a student’s curiosity aligns with a real-world problem or where a challenge becomes a design opportunity. My goal is not only to help them get to an answer, but to support them as they develop the mindset and tools to navigate the increasingly complex world they may face, long after they leave my class and our school.

A Part of Something Bigger

Planning periods have changed, too. Now, collaboration is a requisite of the role. Sometimes I do this in person with my colleagues, sometimes I put on my headset and step into the metaverse to collaborate with colleagues from around the world, and, sometimes I tap into the vast knowledge held by my personal AI Agents. Here, I can participate in a multi-school simulation that helps me to deepen my understanding of different cultures related to language learning, or to enhance my own professional learning journey. One day, I might be working side-by-side with educators from Madrid, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Naples, or Paris, our avatars standing in a town square that feels so authentic, like I am really there in person. And what makes it so real is that I can hear them speaking as though they’re standing next to me. I can hear the conversations, smell the bread from a corner bakery, and see sunlight on the streets. My colleagues from this space and I recognize each other because our avatars wear cultural accessories that we’ve designed ourselves using AI image generation. We design our avatars to tell a piece of our story and our culture. Despite the distance, it is completely human-centered.

I share these experiences with my students, not just by telling them about it, but by giving them the opportunity to experience these environments too. Students join a simulation of the Encierro de San Fermín, running with the bulls in Pamplona and feeling the rumble of the bulls and the cheers of the crowd. Some choose to participate in “La Tomatina” in Valencia.  The colors are so vivid, and the cheers and excitement surround my students. We use these adrenaline-charged moments to further explore Spanish vocabulary around movement, emotion, and cultural traditions, and even build upon it with other activities.

Other students can “visit” a small kitchen in Naples to talk with a nonna about rolling pasta by hand. In these simulations, she isn’t just watching—she is speaking Italian, mimicking the movements, and responding to directions from her host. When she returns to the real school kitchen, she works with a member of the lunch staff to recreate the recipe, blending the immersive cultural lesson with a tangible, shared meal that drew in other students.

And for some of my quieter students, they choose to spend an afternoon in a Parisian café simulation, in the 1920s, choosing to read Baudelaire alongside Baudelaire himself in case they have questions about his life or a word. The program’s AI populated the space with native French speakers ordering coffee, reading newspapers, and debating current events. For some students, this may be the first time that they feel connected to the language. Textbooks never provided this. This is confidence that develops through immersion in the language space. The metaverse offers another way to build essential skills. It is the design of experiences and a space where we can develop empathy, collaborate, and create. 

The metaverse gives my students something irreplaceable: a space where language, culture, and lived experience collide. It’s not just vocabulary drills or grammar rules—it’s being there. It’s negotiating meaning in real time. It’s tasting, hearing, and feeling a culture. For many of my students, it’s the first time they realize that they are global citizens ready to connect and collaborate far beyond the walls of our classroom.

Learning in the Afternoon

In a world where we spend our mornings in the metaverse, the afternoons are about grounding our learning in the physical world. This is where our students connect their AI-amplified skills to real-world, community-connected projects. My role as a Learning Experience Designer shifts from a virtual facilitator to a community bridge-builder and partnership developer. As a representative of the Phoenix Innovation Lab, I actively build and maintain relationships with local businesses, nonprofits, and industry experts to create authentic, hands-on learning opportunities like internships and community-based projects.

A group of my students, using the Spanish and Italian they’ve been practicing in the metaverse, is spending the afternoon at the local community farm, run by residents who are Spanish speakers. With a little AI translation support, they are co-designing a plan to automate the irrigation system to make it more water efficient, using the engineering and design thinking skills they’ve cultivated. Another student is working with a local nonprofit that helps unhoused veterans. She’s using the ethical reasoning skills she learned from her AI coursework to develop a data dashboard that tracks community resources and needs. She is not just learning data analysis; she is building something tangible that will help her community in real time.

These aren’t just one-off field trips or assignments. These are long-term, interdisciplinary projects that count as core learning experiences. The students aren’t just being graded by me. They are being evaluated and mentored by the community partners they work with. They are learning to navigate complexity, collaborate across different sectors, and apply their skills to real problems—all while building their professional networks long before they graduate.

This is the beautiful synergy of our new education system: AI handles the “what” and the “how-to” of foundational knowledge, freeing us, as educators, to focus on the “why”. We cultivate the uniquely human skills—empathy, creativity, and ethical leadership—that machines can’t replicate. The community becomes our classroom, and real-world problems become our curriculum. We’re not just preparing students for a future job. We are teaching them to build the future themselves.

How Far We’ve Come

Remember back in the early 2020s and even before then, when we were talking about “the future of education” like it was a distant sci-fi dream? We experienced PD sessions, conferences, and other learning opportunities that were full of educational buzzwords such as “innovation,” “student-centered,” and “21st-century skills.” And even though we were thinking ahead, we were still doing very old-school, traditional things like handing out detention slips, scanning bubble sheets, and talking “at” our students. Now that we are in 2040, we don’t even call it “school” anymore.

It’s an evolving ecosystem. Distributed. Decentralized. Completely designed around every learner. AI is working with us, not always running ahead of us. Are there challenges? Of course. We still struggle with ethical AI use, tech equity in underserved areas, and designing systems that are truly learner-centered at scale. But the big difference in 2040? We’re solving all of these challenges together. There are no silos. We are collaborating across work sectors, geographies, and even generations. And everyone is learning, all of the time.

So, when people ask what school looks like today in the year 2040, I tell them: It is not just one space that is consumed with work. It is student-driven projects, amplified voices, infinite questions, and limitless curiosity. It is a network of humans and machines working together to build the future.

In 2024, we imagined a world where AI and learner-led ecosystems could revolutionize learning. In 2040, we’re living and breathing it. The future didn’t happen to us. We showed up and made it happen.

Getting Smart is proud to participate in the Portrait of a Teacher in the Age of AI, a national research effort bringing together more than 25 education organizations and a Brain Trust of educators, parents, and students. Together, we’re exploring how to ensure the teaching profession remains sustainable, relevant, and inspiring in a rapidly changing world.

Our partners at Ed3 DAO are leading this important work and inviting teachers to share their perspectives. By completing this short survey, educators can help shape a framework that will guide preparation, hiring, and professional learning for years to come.