Information Age Technology:
Implications for Adult Educators
Thanks to colleague, John Fleischman, Director of Instruct. Tech. & Learning Resources, The
Sacramento County (CA) Office of Educ., for some of the material used in several slides.
for
PAACE 2002 CONFERENCE: BRIDGING THE GAP
Hershey, PA, 2002
Information Age Technology:
Implications for Adult Educators
by
Roger Hiemstra, Professor and Chair
Adult Education
Elmira College, Elmira, NY
www-distance.syr.edu; rhiemstra@elmira.edu
Top 10 signs that you’re on
information overload
•Your reason for not staying in touch with a family
member is that they don’t have an email address.
•Every commercial you see on television has a Web
site address at the bottom of the screen.
•You chat several times a day with a stranger from
California, but you haven’t spoken to your
neighbor in a year.
Top 10 signs that you’re on
information overload
•You haven’t played solitaire with a real deck of
cards in years.
•You email your son in his room to tell him that
dinner is ready, and he emails you back with
“What’s for dinner?”
•You didn’t give your valentine a card today, but
you posted one for your email buddies from
bluemountain.com yesterday.
Top 10 signs that you’re on
information overload
•You hear most of your jokes via email instead of
in person.
•You buy a computer and a week later it’s out of
date and now sells for half the price you paid.
•Your daughter sells Girl Scout cookies via her
Web site.
AND NUMBER ONE ………..
The top sign that you’re on
information overload
•You try to enter your password on the
microwave.
Rapid Technological Change
But new and ever-changing
technologies can really
challenge our mindsets and
often will push us out of our
comfort zones!!!
Growth in Computer Usage
Expansion of Internet Hosts
1960s
Went from 0 to 4
1970s
Went from 5 to 188
1980s
Went from 189 to 250,000
1990s
Went up to 60 million
Aug., 2001
estimated at 130 million
----------------------------------------------------------------------Host = A node (computer, server, or gateway) that
people use to access or connect to the Internet
The Internet
Where do we stand today?
Over 60 % of U.S. households have Internet
access
Over 70% of U.S. population have been on-line
at least once in previous 30 days
89 million people (at home or work) used the
Internet in April, 2001 (up 19% in a year)
The rate of high speed Internet access has nearly
tripled in the past two years
The Internet Worldwide
Estimates range from 134
million people to as high as
half a billion users
worldwide over the next
few years!
The Real Revolution:
The World Wide Web (WWW)
Grown from 130 sites in 1993 to over 35 million by the
end of 2001
The Impact on Learning On-line/Virtual Education
• 40 states have adopted virtual
university strategies
•Universities throughout the world are
carving out virtual markets via the
WWW
•There are more than 30,000 courses
and 4,000 programs on-line as of 9/1/02
----------------------------------------------------------------
Emerging Strategies
Dolence says, “The 21st Century is not a
century of either online or classroom
learning, but both. It is a century of
vastly expanded choices. For learners
this means any time, any pace, any path,
any place. For educators it means
transformation!”
----------------------------------------------------------------------Dolence, M. G. (2001). Emerging strategies for 21st Century learning systems. [On-line].
http://www.mgdolence.com/
Digitization Trends
• New ways for delivering courses and
supplementary learning materials (Web
pages/WebBoard/Blackboard, etc.)
• Wireless connections to the WWW
• Increasing bandwidth/speed
Emerging Trends That Will
Impact our Work with Learners
•Learner Centered Environments
•Virtual Learning Environments
•Internet2
•“Oxygen” Project
Learner Centered
Environments
•Accommodates learners’ constraints
•Accommodates individual learning
styles
•Self-paced, self-directed, and selfmotivated
Virtual Learning Environments
•Access to a networked system of
learning resources
•Learning content, access, communities
available electronically 24 by 7
•Computer mediated interactive dialogue
(synchronous or asynchronous)
Internet2
•200 universities in partnership with industry and
government to develop advanced network
applications and technologies
•Information collaboration and access in new
ways not yet possible (voice, video, etc.)
•Multicasting common at high speeds
•Partnering means research/knowledge sharing
worldwide
M.I.T.’s Oxygen Project - The Future
of Information Age Technology
•Computation freely available everywhere like
the oxygen we breathe
•The system will not require typing, clicking, or
pointing, but will be based on speech, vision, and
recognizable phrases
•The system will be pervasive, embedded,
nomadic, and eternal
The Oxygen Project - How it
Will Work
•Handy 21 (H21s), handheld devices with
visual display, camera, infrared detectors, and
a computer to accept speech & visual input
•Enviro 21 (E21s), stationary devices
embedded into offices, buildings, homes, and
vehicles to create intelligent spaces and
interfaces with H21s
•Users will be able to access their own and
other knowledge bases as needed/on demand
Why Use Technology as Adult
Educators?
Access to almost limitless information
Facilitates and extends learning
opportunities and resources
24 by 7 classroom possibilities
Increases motivation for some learners
Enhances access to learning resources
Why Use Technology as Adult
Educators?(cont.)
Addresses some of the limitations of our
increasingly mobile, busy, and stressed
society
Can improve cost effectiveness with
skillful planning and management
May reach new audiences (disabled,
isolated, from great distances, etc.)
Today’s adult educators must prepare
learners for a different world
It really is up to us and I believe
we are up to the task. I hope you
will embrace technology as one
of the ways of bridging the many
gaps we face as professionals.
Ten Top "P's" for Being an Excellent
Adult Educator in Pennsylvania
Let me end with these charges to you:
•
Perseverance - staying with the process of being a better
professional; learning to do better as you grow and
develop as an experienced educator of adults
•
Pride - pride in yourself, pride in your profession; this
includes learning to love yourself and recognize the
personal attributes you have; it also may need to include
reading personal development books
•
Patience - with yourself, with learners; remember that
becoming a highly proficient and skilled adult learner
takes time
Ten Top "P's" for Being an Excellent
Adult Educator in Pennsylvania (cont.)
•
Patterns for success - there are existing models for
teaching or training adults that work; find mentors
that understand these various patterns or models and
seek guidance from them
•
Persnickety - become more organized and disciplined
in what you do; depending on your personality style,
this may take lots of effort, but it is worth it
•
Preparation/preparedness - do your homework,
practice everything before you do it, refuse to "wing"
it when you are working with adult learners
Ten Top "P's" for Being an Excellent
Adult Educator in Pennsylvania (cont.)
•
Personal philosophy - develop a personal
philosophy statement, statement of personal ethics,
and/or a personal statement of professional
commitment that will serve as the foundation for
what you do in the future
•
Presentation skill development - continuously work
on developing your platform presentation skills;
seek feedback, obtain evaluations, video tape
yourself, etc.
Ten Top "P's" for Being an Excellent
Adult Educator in Pennsylvania (cont.)
•Professionalism - develop your professional writing
skills, participate in the leadership of PAACE and/or
other professional groups, and understand and live by
those professional standards that apply to you
•Potentiality - strive to live up to the potential that is
within you; I truly believe there is a greatness in each of
us that only remains to be unlocked, to be developed;
you can do it!!!