Jan Herrington’s authentic learning framework asks for tasks that use the same thinking as real professional work. Generative AI can support that, or it can short-circuit the struggle the framework needs. This page holds those two in view.
Last reviewed: 31 August 2026. Source: Herrington, Reeves and Oliver, A Guide to Authentic e-Learning.
Authentic learning is not a realistic-looking worksheet. It is cognitive realism: the same kinds of problem, collaboration and unfinishedness you would meet at work. Generative AI belongs in that picture only when students still have to plan, check and own the result.
