Preface

In the digital age, adults are engaged in learning as ubiquitously as technology is available. Yet, this fact is one of the best-hidden secrets because of society's general lack of understanding, recognition, and awareness of adult learning. Although adult education is accustomed to being considered marginal by many policy makers, administrators, and funders, compared to P–12 education, the digital age provides a tremendous opportunity to change that experience.

This book provides a compelling read, easily accessible discussion, and abundant resources and strategies for educators and learners interested in adult learning and technology. In addition, it was written to accommodate the needs of readers across all levels of technology expertise. This approach enables everyone to become versed in the unique discussions of the sectors in which technology and adult learning intersect.

Adult learning experts and learners will discover that this book provides the foundation to understand and vitally contribute to 21st-century instructional innovation related to technology. Many examples are provided to reflect on the possibilities of transforming one's own practice and also to apply those transformations across different areas of instruction, professional development, research, and knowledge-building agendas, goals, and projects.

This book also offers a great opportunity to change the landscape of technology based on adult learning design. As readers gain understanding and experience in this area, they can contribute to initiatives that customarily are designed by people untrained, or minimally trained, in adult learning. From the distance learning efforts of educational institutions and corporations to online gaming, learning management systems (LMSs), YouTube, virtual reality, instructional television, podcasts, videocasts, blogs, and wikis, scores of venues and technologies are being used to develop adult learning materials with little vision of the connections to adult learning research, principles, or strategies. This book prepares readers to do the following:

• Incorporate adult learning concepts into instructional technology design.
• Identify opportunities and critical issues for adult learning in the midst of 21st-century's ongoing technology innovation revolution.
• Understand emergent technology issues and trends through examples related to formal and informal learning and real-life contexts.
• Contribute to the application of adult learning across its many settings and contexts.
• Converse as professionals knowledgeable about adult learning with technology experts.
• Use adult learning as a foundation to advance the knowledge base and research agenda of technology innovation.

This book accomplishes these objectives, but it also prepares adult learning professionals to pose additional questions and shape the future of learning in the digital age.

Authors always have to define the scope of their work. In that vein, it is helpful to recognize what this book can and cannot provide. First, important characteristics of this book emerge from the need for the field of practice to (1) have literature written in accessible language and style for educated adults and (2) employ examples to illustrate concepts. Therefore, it will not provide bleeding-edge technology-jargon-laden discussions of hot, new trends for technology aficionados (“techies”). Second, instead of solely focusing on the instructional applications of technology, this book examines the use of technology in learning, classroom applications, as well as its opportunities and future.

Who Will Benefit from This Book?

There will be many interested and relevant audiences for this book across the fields of adult learning, instructional technology, and higher education. Such audiences include learners in adult learning degree programs, learners in other programs, faculty members and instructors, researchers, and other professionals.

The primary audience is people who want to create materials for and teach returning adult learners according to comprehensive theories. It especially addresses the needs of faculty members, instructors, and other professionals, such as administrators, directors, faculty developers, and trainers who are already work with adult learners.

Some of these readers may be students enrolled in adult learning, adult education, and higher education master's and doctoral programs. Course titles may include “Adult Learning, Emergent Technologies,” “21st-Century Learning,” “Nontraditional Student Learning,” “Instructional Technology,” and others.

Other students, graduate and undergraduate, may be enrolled in closely related fields such as (1) human resource development programs that prepare trainers and consultants; (2) instructional technology programs that get ready to work with librarians, P–12 or higher education faculty members; and (3) professional and higher education preparation programs for faculty members, instructors, directors, or other administrators serving adult education and postsecondary (or tertiary) education. These academic programs have various names (lifelong learning, andragogy, social education, adult and professional education, community education, etc.), but often such programs have a course on adult learning and a keen interest in technology.

For example, individual instructors, administrators, and student development personnel may build their understanding of emergent technology, new avenues for adult learning research, and knowledge building through this book. As with some other valuable educational publications, faculty development groups (such as faculty study groups) may read, discuss, and apply the book. Such groups meet one to two times per month and function similar to a workplace book club. Not only do these faculty members desire transfer of learning for innovative instructional practices and peer learning but also they enjoy discussing philosophical and theoretical issues together.

Although the primary audience for this book is academic, in the identified programs most learners are practitioners working with adult learners in many different contexts. As a complement to traditional books on adult learning, this book extends the conversation in new directions for practitioners to reconceptualize (1) their profession, (2) instructional efforts, and (3) future adult learning opportunities.

Overview of the Book

This book is organized according to how the material would be presented logically for a graduate course or study group on this topic.

Part 1: A Foundation for New Learning

The first section of the book provides a vision of how differences in our lives, work, and learning in the 21st century develop urgency for reconsidering the role and opportunities for adult learning.

Chapter 1: The Digital Age Secret for Success: Adult Learning

There are many powerful ways in which technology has pushed adult learning to the forefront of our lives in the 21st century, yet the phenomenon has gone largely unnoticed by most people, including experts in the field. This chapter introduces major influences that technology has on adult lives and how that relates to adult learning, all of which are discussed in separate chapters in Part 2.

Chapter 2: Understanding the Evolution of the Digital Age

How did we arrive at this point at which technology is changing our lives rapidly and providing many demands for adult learning? This discussion discusses details of three major areas of emergent technologies and demands for different ways to think and interact from the perspective of adult learning. Social adoption, political changes, globalization, and cross-culturalism are explained as they relate to the digital age and adult learning. The terminology of technology is also explained in this chapter with vital examples related to adult learning.

Chapter 3: Adult Learning and Living in the Digital Age

Where does adult learning occur in everyday life in the digital age? This chapter not only provides many examples but also integrates adult learning theories and models throughout these discussions. This chapter provides vivid examples of adults learning throughout their daily and work lives, as well as adult learning theories and models.

Chapter 4: Biological Concerns: Development, Aging, and Neuroscience

New developments in neuroscience provide life-changing possibilities for adult learning and adult development. At the same time, how will young and mature adults be affected as they advance in the digital age? This chapter includes examples of applying research findings that provide valuable strategies for designing and facilitating adult learning.

Part 2: Scaffolding Essential Skills for Learning in the Digital Age

This section addresses in detail the essential skills demanded of adults to be successful in their daily lives in the digital age. Each chapter in this section provides scenarios, theories, models, and strategies (which include an individual, workplace, and classroom focus).

Chapter 5: Andragogy Illustrated

Andragogy is the first section discussed in Part 2 aimed at orienting the reader to the literature of adult learning. By discussing andragogy's background and providing examples, this section illustrates the value of using aspects of these principles to understand the roles of adult learners and instructors.

Chapter 6: Motivation's...