Learning is Change. It is upheaval. It is revolution.

Every time that we learn something new, it challenges our assumptions, it provokes us to act.

Our first action is that of asking questions: What type of change does this learning require: enhancement, correction, contradiction, revision, or transformation? What shift will my mind make that will allow this new learning to take hold?

Through all of the questioning, all of our thinking, writing, understanding: we are the sum total of our learning, the amalgamation of all of the changes we have experienced to date.

If learning is change then what what kind of learning is required in the 21st century?

The purpose of this site is to define this type of required learning. It is to create learning environments worthy of educators, administrators and our primary stakeholders: students. Learning is Change (or LiC) exists to frame the shift toward authenticity in education so that it is purposeful. As the author of this work, I intend to aggregate nearly every idea that I have ever written, podcasted, blogged, streamed, or tweeted in my attempt to answer the call. I may not have all of the answers, but as I continue to make more and more connections, my voice swells with anticipation for the day that students learn in the ways that they need, teachers teach with every resource at their fingertips, and administrators and school districts can guide education into the future without fear of missteps or lack of understanding.

Play chords, not single notes.

A string, no matter how out of tune, can play a note. It can resonate and reverberate for all that it’s worth, but a single string can never play a chord. It can never join together with others to create complex music, moving and memorable.

Such strings are abundant in education. They are the singular solutions to complex problems that are so easy to hear. They appear original and hopeful because we want learning to be the natural product of stretching out our fingers towards one foundational standard. And yet, learning is complex, and reaching for it should not result in the atonal nightmare of plucking at the first things that our fingers run across. It is only through carefully planned finger placement and calculated strumming that Authentic Learning can be achieved.

So, what are the right strings to strum our educational fingers across?

How should we tune our learning environments to make them Authentic?

An Authentic Learning Environment is the foundation for any modern classroom, both brick-and-mortar and online. It is the one place that asks students to take full ownership of their learning by coupling the technologies of creation with the pedagogy of critical thinking, constructivism, and inquiry.

The six strings of Authentic Learning do not ask students to use technology because it is somehow virtuous or out of fear of an increasing flat world. Rather, it is an integral part of the Environment because it is impossible to create immediate context, find elusive connections, collaborate fully, change direction adeptly, forge ongoing conversations, or learn continuously through any other medium.

It isn’t enough to have the pedagogy. It isn’t enough to know that Authentic Learning is important. In order to put it into practice, you must experience the change of Authentic Learning for yourself. That is the concept of 101 Authentic Learning Resources. Although this document goes through many revisions, the idea stays the same: The one place where design, function, and knowledge coalesce into easy to understand chunks of Web 2.0 goodness.