This study was undertaken to explore the extent to which, and the ways in which, information and communication technology has impacted on learning. The author has chosen to concentrate on independent, self-directed adult education.
Insights gained from the study: 1. Online learning offers the potential to engage learners who may have been marginalised, disadvantaged or excluded from traditional education and training programs. 2. A particular strength of the online environment is the availability of information 24 hours per day, without geographic boundaries or restrictions. This potentially liberates users from historical limitations of time and space. 3. Online learning is becoming increasingly commonplace, and its popularity is bound to increase as young people who have grown up with digital technologies enter adulthood. 4. Online learning is particularly suited to the acquisition of specific facts or reasonably coherent bodies of information, especially in rapidly developing fields. In its current form it is less well suited to learning highly contextualised information, large quantities of textual material, the development of certain practical skills, and areas that involve and depend on direct face-to-face human contact including emotional and affective learning.
Issues pertaining to access: 1. There are many impediments to online participation for any purpose, including learning. These include technological barriers, financial barriers and education/psychological barriers. 2. The most obvious barrier is the issue of connectivity, having access to robust affordable telecommunications or broadband technology and equipment that is capable both of connecting to the Internet and engaging with the information and activities to which it gives access. 3. Computer terminals provided in shared spaces such as shopping malls, public libraries and government offices do not represent a viable long-term solution to people’s need for easy, convenient, confidential and reliable access to the Internet. 4. There is at present a generational divide between young people and older Australians with respect to their familiarity and comfort with digital technologies. 5. The ability to make use of online resources entails more than simply ICT literacy – it also necessitates the ability to be discriminating about the information that is encountered online.
This report was funded under the Research Fellowship Scheme of the Department of Education, Science and Training.