Despite Government efforts to promote 'lifelong learning' and a
more equitable and inclusive 'learning society' there is little
special or new about adult learning in the digital age,
according to research at Cardiff University. The Adult
Learning@Home project, which was funded by ESRC, concluded that
ICT has not increased participation and achievement rates in
adult education. Instead, e-learning tends to be associated with
the same factors that determine school-leaving age, such as sex
and socio-economic background. "It would seem that patterns of
participation in adult education are not being changed for the
better by changes in education policy," says Dr Neil Selwyn. The
study, which was one of the first large-scale research projects
to focus specifically on information and communications
technologies and adult learning, shows that despite 'universal'
levels of access to computers and the internet, actual use is
limited to just over half of the adult population. Using the
internet to learn a language or o