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The four factors or phenomena of learning in the 21st Century identified through my survey ofthe literature, reinforced by reflections on relevant experiences, can all be summed up in oneword each as in the illustration here:Figure 4: N 4It is a coincidence that each one begins with a phonic sounding 'n'. One might say, therefore,that learning in the 21st Century, expressed as an equation, might look like this N 4 . Inmathematical contexts a number n to the power of an index - expressed in superscript as in myequation usually means the base number multiplied by itself a given number of times - thus n 4 ,where n = 4 is the sum of 4 x 4 =16 x 4 = 64 x 4 = 256. In normal case, the index would meanthe base number multiplied by the index, n x n which, in my equation would simply be n x 4.This would mean that learning was simply the product of need, knowledge, and networks testedin new instances. N 4 , as I prefer to express it, implies the constant multiplication of need, withknowledge, participation in networks and the ongoing and relentless testing of the idea, concept,skill or piece of understanding in new and ever-changing situations. The more a self adds to theprocess, the better the knowledge gained, or understanding developed.If this is the case then the illustration above might be more powerfully rendered as in the nextfigure:Figure 5: N 4 #276Simon Hughes Ph.D. Thesis (October 2012)