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Distance Learning Technology

The Web affords us a unique opportunity in the history of education to harness the energy expended in discrete, local efforts to educate adult learners and their teachers. By creating a digital framework in which a community of peers can evaluate and organize these efforts, we can begin to build not only an increasingly robust and complex array of learning opportunities for adult students of diverse and often entrenched learning styles, but the knowledge base by which their teachers can establish best practices, pedagogical strategies, and an in situ understanding of their endeavor.

The use of digital technologies for learning both supports local efforts to educate adult learners and their teachers and extends educational opportunities to reach new groups of students. The thoughtful integration of digital technologies into the traditional scheme of education and their use to develop new ways of learning is necessary to ensure students have the tools to thrive in a complex and rapidly changing technological society.

Digital technologies for learning, such as self-paced learning modules, multimedia case studies, simulations, video tutorials, and communications and assessment tools, can increase the array of learning opportunities for adult students and their teachers. By creating an online framework, these two communities can access, organize, and collaborate in the production of new knowledge about these enterprises and provide for the possibility that adult students and their teachers will flourish as learners.

This page provides information about digital technologies and how they are being used to improve the quality and scope of adult education in the following areas:

• Increasing the learning possibilities for students of diverse backgrounds and competencies
• Motivating students and teachers alike to become resourceful in finding, evaluating, and sharing information
• Helping to structure and develop online student teacher and peer-to-peer interactions to invigorate learning
• Supporting measures to evaluate teachers' and students' acquisition and performance of particular content knowledge

Research and Evaluation

• Expanding Access to Adult Literacy with Online Distance Education: An Overview of Online Distance Education PDF(672K). National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy, 2003. Funded by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Vocational and Adult Education, this monograph explores the potential of online distance education to serve the needs of adult basic education students.

• Technology in Today's ABE Classroom: A Look at the Technology Practices and Preferences of Adult Basic Education Teachers PDF (1.33MB). World Education, 2003. The report provides highlights from World Ed's recent survey of the Northeastern United States.

• Assessing the Impact of Technology in Teaching and Learning: A Sourcebook for Evaluators. Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, 2002. PDF (428 KB). The Sourcebook provides an overview of measurement issues in seven areas, from learner outcomes to technology integration. A collection of appendices includes examples of measures used in a variety of technology projects previously funded by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES).

• Learning Online: Extending the Meaning of Community PDF(134K). A Review of Three Programs From the Southeastern United States. NCAL, 1999. Describes the general features of "online learning communities," and then highlights three organizations that demonstrate these features.

• National Center on Adult Literacy Research Projects. List of various research projects.

Noteworthy Practices

• The California Distance Learning Project for Adult Educators includes an overview of distance learning as well as research and resources for teachers and program administrators.

• Project IDEAL (Improving Distance Education for Adult Learners) is established to discover the potential of distance teaching strategies to increase access to education for adult learners and to systematically examine effective distance learning practices. The project is funded in part by the U.S. Department of Education.

• California's Outreach and Technical Assistance Network (OTAN) provides ABE and ESL resources and publications for teachers, students and administrators.

• Anywhere, Anytime Learning is the Massachusetts Adult Basic Education Distance Learning Project. This Web site provides information on the activities conducted by this statewide partnership.

• Florida's Distance Learning and Technology Project (TechNet) is a one stop shop for finding everything from online curricula to professional development opportunities. This Web site provides several resources for the teacher who wants to become more technologically savvy.

• GED Illinois serves as an access point about GED preparation and testing in Illinois. GED Illinois enables students to prepare for the GED completely online.

• For more information about how OVAE uses national activities investments in technology and distance learning, please consult the fact sheet.

Additional Links

• Enhancing Education Through Technology. Section of No Child Left Behind that describes proposed grants for education technology.

• The U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational Technology (OET) was established to provide leadership in the development of policies and resources in order to use technology to promote achievement of the National Education Goals. The OET Web site provides links to the National Educational Technology Plan currently being developed, the State Educational Technology Directors Association's National Leadership Institute Tool Kit, the What Works Clearinghouse, and other resources related to technology and distance learning.

  ERIC Database provides summaries of a number of books on information and technology with links to ordering them.

• Community Partnerships for Adult Learning, sponsored by the Office of Vocational and Adult Education, includes practical How-Tos for program administrators and instructors on implementing distance learning and integrating technology into the adult education classroom.

• The Literacy List, Adult Literacy Resource Institute, University of Massachesetts, Boston, provides a collection of adult basic education (ABE) and English Literacy Web sites, electronic lists, and other Internet resources for ABE learners and teachers.