Our experience at recent conferences, including the ICDE World Conference 2025 in Wellington, EDUCAUSE 2025 in Nashville, and the EDEN 2025 Annual Conference in Bologna, is that we are all trying to make sense of what AI is doing to learning. So how about we start by paying closer attention to the moments where we actually see learning occurring?
We’ve tried to identify and group these moments into what we call 22 micro-moments. We’re not suggesting this is a definitive list. We’re simply offering it as a helpful starting point for us to explore together what may be shifting.
AI is having an impact on these moments. Sometimes it helps, sometimes it disrupts, and sometimes, yes, AI is taking parts of them over.
It is not replacing teachers, instructors, or faculty like us, but we all have to admit that it is shaping the conditions we work within. And every one of us is trying to figure out what that means for our day-to-day practice.
Because these micro-moments are shifting quickly, we are planning to update the snapshot below every six months to help us stay attentive, notice the patterns, and learn alongside one another as the changes unfold.
| # | What AI Can Currently Do (2025) | As the teacher, you… (Mitigation / Human Role) |
| 1. Detecting Readiness to Learn | Analyzes response time, hesitation, and errors to estimate readiness. | Confirm whether the student’s struggle is emotional or cognitive by checking in directly. |
| 2. Introducing a New Concept | Generates explanations and visuals tailored to the learner’s level. | Make the concept meaningful by linking it to real-life, cultural, or personal experiences. |
| 3. Checking Initial Understanding | Uses short adaptive questions to identify early misconceptions. | Notice subtle cues such as tone, posture, or hesitation that reveal hidden confusion. |
| 4. Noticing Confusion | Flags long pauses or repeated corrections that may indicate confusion. | Determine whether the issue is frustration, anxiety, or misunderstanding. |
| 5. Offering Clarification | Provides revised explanations, examples, or step-by-step breakdowns. | Decide when the student needs thinking time rather than more information. |
| 6. Asking Deeper Questions | Creates targeted follow-up questions to probe reasoning. | Guide the discussion with tone and curiosity to encourage deeper thinking. |
| 7. Responding to a Learner’s Answer | Evaluates correctness and offers immediate feedback. | Adjust your response based on the learner’s emotional reaction to maintain confidence. |
| 8. Adjusting Task Difficulty | Automatically raises or lowers challenge based on performance. | Sense when the student is losing confidence and intervene to support motivation. |
| 9. Giving Corrective Guidance After Error | Identifies where thinking broke down and suggests next steps. | Choose whether the moment calls for correction, reassurance, or celebrating effort. |
| 10. Reinforcing Partial Understanding | Highlights correct elements within an incorrect answer. | Provide personalized and sincere feedback that reinforces effort and progress. |
| 11. Encouraging Persistence | Detects fatigue and simplifies tasks to keep students moving. | Use empathy, humour, and relationship-building to strengthen perseverance. |
| 12. Providing Alternative Representations | Switches between text, audio, visuals, and simulations. | Select representations that reflect the learner’s identity, culture, or interests. |
| 13. Modeling Expert Thinking | Shows step-by-step reasoning similar to expert logic. | Model authentic expert behaviour, including curiosity, doubt, and trial-and-error that AI cannot replicate. |
| 14. Pacing the Interaction | Adjusts lesson pace based on timing and accuracy data. | Recognize when silence signals deep thinking and decide when to wait or proceed. |
| 15. Checking Comprehension Mid-Lesson | Inserts quick comprehension checks and interprets results. | Read the collective mood and understanding of the group, which AI cannot detect. |
| 16. Encouraging Reflection | Prompts students to explain their thinking or compare methods. | Help learners connect reflection to their identity, values, and long-term goals. |
| 17. Extending Learning Beyond Mastery | Offers advanced or creative tasks once basics are secure. | Judge whether learners are emotionally ready for risk-taking and open-ended challenges. |
| 18. Connecting New Knowledge to Prior Learning | Retrieves past work and identifies basic conceptual links. | Guide learners to build deeper meaning across personal experiences and contexts. |
| 19. Capturing and Analyzing the Learning Exchange | Logs interactions and generates progress trends and analytics. | Interpret which patterns matter and avoid relying on data that misrepresents understanding. |
| 20. Re-Engaging After Loss of Focus | Detects inactivity and introduces prompts or new tasks. | Reconnect by addressing personal or emotional reasons for disengagement. |
| 21. Transitioning Between Concepts | Summarizes previous content and previews the next topic. | Create the narrative thread that ties ideas together and keeps learning coherent. |
| 22. Closing the Learning Loop | Produces personalized summaries and next-step suggestions. | Provide emotional closure by recognizing effort, growth, and the learner’s journey. |
