“E-stablishing a Learning Society”: ...

the use of the Internet to attract adults to lifelong learning in Wales

an article by Neil Selwyn, Sara Williams and Stephen Gorard published in Innovations in Education and Training International Volume 38 Issue 3 (August 2031 [sic])

Abstract

The Internet has recently been heralded by both politicians and educators as a ready means of promoting “lifelong learning” and widening the numbers of adults participating in education. Yet, despite such enthusiasm, the use of technology to attract adults to lifelong learning is only now beginning to be implemented on a widespread basis. Thus much of the technology-based vision of a “learning society” remains empirically unproven. This paper, therefore, concentrates on the longer-established efforts are being made in Wales to use the Internet as a gateway for learning opportunities for adult learners. Focusing on a Web-based Welsh language programme over a 12-month period the paper empirically examines the role of the Internet in providing effective access procedures to adult learning and, moreover, gains a sense of who such methods are attracting and what learners are beginning to use the Internet for. In particular the paper examines:

• how the programme was presented on the Internet;
• when learners were using the Internet-based learning programme and what they were using it for; and, finally,
• who was accessing the learning programme via the Internet and how usage of the programme reflected the wider goals of extending participation beyond those social groups already engaged in learning.

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