Adult Learning in the Digital Age: Information Technology and the Learning Society

by Neil Selwyn, John Furlong (Editor), Stephen Gorard (Editor)

This engaging book sheds light on the ways in which adults in the twenty-first century interact with technology in different learning environments. Based on one of the first large-scale academic research projects in this area, the authors present their findings and offer practical recommendations for the use of new technology in a learning society. They invite debate why ICTs are believed to be capable of affecting positive change in adult learning the drawbacks and limits of ICT in adult education what makes a lifelong learner the wider social, economic, cultural and political realities of the information age and the learning society Adult Learning addresses key questions and provides a sound empirical foundation to the existing debate, highlighting the complex realities of the learning society and e-learning rhetoric. It tells the story of those who are excluded from the learning society, and offers a set of strong recommendations for practitioners, policy-makers, and politicians, as well as researchers and students.

248 pages, Paperback

First published September 16, 2005

About the author

Neil Selwyn is a Distinguished Professor in the Faculty of Education, Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. He has worked for the past 25 years researching the integration of digital technology into schools, universities and adult learning. He is recognised as a leading international researcher in the area of digital education - with particular expertise in the 'real-life' constraints and problems faced when technology-based education is implemented. He is currently working on nationally-funded projects examining the roll-out of educational data and learning analytics, AI technologies, and the changing nature of teachers' digital work.