A Response to Chapter 10: "Adult Learning and the Digital Age"

Credit: C. Anderson

Technology is getting more useful and time saving as time goes on. Our educational settings and workplaces are becoming more connected and reliant on technology and the digital world. This means that adults are having to adapt and use this technology both in the classroom and in the workplace. It is changing the face of education and the face of the business world. Lisa's wonderful introduction on the "Digital Effects on Adult Learning and Education gave me a lot to think about. In that post, Lisa discussed the increasing numbers in adults accessing the internet and how adults now seek to find information. This really made me think about the ways in which we need to address our adult learners, both in the classroom and in the workplace.

How Technology is Changing the Workplace

In a blog written by Katherine McKnight titled " Top 12 Ways Technology is Changing Learning", she lists several things that are changing learning. While the author of the blog focused on 12 things that have changed, here are 2 of the ideas she discussed that really made me think...

1) No More Papers and Binders - 

We have moved away from binders and paper and moved into the digital age. More often that not, a person (whether student or employee) is carrying a digital devise with all their information and notes on them. No longer are individuals carrying around this information in books and binders... now it is all digital. This means, that in teaching and directing, we must start to develop our training and teaching methods around this new method. We cannot expect our students or employees to respond to the standard note taking learning style, we must develop learning situations and training around the digital world. This may mean that we create digital portfolios or assignments. It could mean working in shared documents during classes or training. Basically, we must adapt to our adult learners in their digital world. It is the best way to teach our adult learners.

2) The Rise of Web-Based Research - 

Credit: R. Bailey

We have moved away from the world of being told all of the information needed in a setting. We have also moved away from card catalogs and library-based research. We must take this into account when planning learning experiences for our adult learners. We must remember that information may be found instantaneously and we must work to create learning experiences that will take more than a click of a button to solve. When we plan classroom activities or training that require the use of problem solving skills, we must be creative to develop assignments and objectives that take real world problems that have more than just a simple solution. We have to develop these experiences for adult learners to have to think about a solution other than letting them google a quick solution.

We must also remember that information is readily available and that long lessons and long training are becoming a thing of the past. We must make these experiences short, sweet, and to the point. Remembering that the adult learner can google the basics. We must give the adult learner the application and let them gather the basics through access that open information.

The biggest thing we need to remember as leaders of adult learners is that we must always be ready and willing to adapt. This means that updating our training and our approach to teaching must always be under the scope and we must be willing to change. In this day in age, no matter if we are teaching in a classroom or training employees, we must always be adapting to the new digital world that continues to change faster than many of us can adapt.

We must keep learning!!! We all are life long learners who must adapt. :)


Resources:

Merriam, S. B., & Bierema, L. L. (2013). Adult learning: Linking theory and practice. John Wiley & Sons.

McKnight, Katherine. "Top 12 Ways Technology Changed Learning." Web blog post. Teach Hub. K-12 Teacher Alliance, 2012. Web. 9 Apr. 2016. <http://www.teachhub.com/how-technology-changed-learning>