Editor's Notes

Twentieth-century society has been transformed by a series of dramatic innovations in information technology (Lubar, 1993). But unlike the electronic media that have preceded it, the Internet is beginning to break down the distinctions between providers and consumers of information. The ability to search the terabytes of data that make up the World Wide Web at the click of a mouse is impressive, but it is less revolutionary than the ease with which Internet users can communicate their ideas to each other through e-mail, on-line conferencing, and Web pages. Combining a global, omnidirectional communications network with the information processing power of computers, the Internet is reshaping our economic life at the same time it is creating new standards of literacy and new forms of culture.

Adult and continuing educators, like their colleagues in other fields, have been quick to sense the potential of the Internet to change almost every aspect of their practice. While some may hail the new technologies as the key to reforming and revitalizing educational institutions, others may wonder uneasily what place current institutions will find on the Internet. Millions of adults have already put themselves on-line, and millions more will follow (Graphics, Visualization, and Usability Center, 1998). In this dynamic environment, educators must ask not only how the Internet can be used to teach, but how the social structures of traditional schooling can adapt to technologies that are redistributing information and the power to access it.

The purpose of this sourcebook is to explore the effects of the Internet on adult learning--both as that learning is facilitated through formal instruction and as it occurs spontaneously in the experiences of individuals and groups--and to provide guidance to adult and continuing educators searching for ways to use the Internet more effectively in their practice. Taken as a whole, the sourcebook provides a thorough survey of the research literature. The chapters also reflect the hard-won personal experiences of the authors, all of whom are directly involved in the use of Internet technologies to facilitate adult learning.

In the opening chapter, I draw on research in human-computer interaction to describe the nature of Internet skills and the cognitive and social processes through which adults learn them. This provides a theoretical context for a description of the teaching methods used in a successful noncredit short course, "Exploring the Internet."

Chapter Two focuses on the use of Internet technologies within the organizational networks known as intranets. In her review of research, Linda Gilbert shows how intranets can reduce training costs by providing just-in-time learning and performance support. This chapter also describes the shifting balance between human knowledge and the logic and information embedded in software, which may require us to reconsider our ideas about the division of labor between people and computers.

The next four chapters focus on the use of the Internet in traditional educational settings, dealing with the design of instructional Web resources, the characteristics of adult distance learners, group learning in on-line conferences, and the organization and administration of on-line education. In Chapter Three, Kathleen King provides practical guidelines for educators who want to develop their own Web-based course materials, reviewing the instructional capabilities of various web technologies and posing questions about curriculum, construction, and evaluation that can guide practitioners through the development process.

Adult learners and their interactions with different levels of Internet-based distance education are the subject of Chapter Four. Daniel Eastmond presents a typology of distance learning models arranged along a continuum of technological sophistication and shows how each model can be used to support specific characteristics of adult learning.

On-line conferences and discussion groups are among the most powerful instructional tools offered by the Internet, but such virtual communities present facilitators with unique challenges. In Chapter Five, Margaret Holt, Pamela Kleiber, Jill Swenson, Frances Rees, and Judy Milton summarize their findings about the facilitation of group learning on the Internet, based on a three-year series of on-line National Issues Forums.

In Chapter Six, Lynne Schrum looks at the issues facing educators and institutions as they plan, provide, and support on-line education. An overview of research on pedagogical, organizational, and institutional issues suggests methods for the production and delivery of Internet-based courses.

The hyperbole surrounding adult learning and the Internet sometimes tends to obscure troubling ethical concerns. In Chapter Seven, Margaret Holt raises questions of power, equity, access, and privacy that have always been central to educational practice but that take on new dimensions through the mediation of technology.

In the final chapter, I summarize common themes from the other chapters and discuss how emerging Internet technologies may influence adult learning in the twenty-first century.

Any book about the Internet risks obsolescence before it even reaches print. Fortunately, the technology itself offers a partial solution to this dilemma. Hosted by the University of Georgia Center for Continuing Education, the "Adult Learning and the Internet" Web site provides links to most of the Internet resources cited in each chapter, as well as other materials provided by the authors. Readers are invited to share their own experiences and ideas. The site is accessible at http://www.georgiacenter.uga.edu/idl/internet/.

Brad Cahoon
Editor

References

Lubar, S. InfoCulture: The Smithsonian Book of the Inventions of the Information Age. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1993.

Brad Cahoon is the webmaster at the University of Georgia Center for Continuing Education, Athens.