Book Review

Book 1

Innovation and E-Learning: E-business for an Educational Enterprise
Ian Roffe

This book pretty much talks about the Conditions of Learning.

They are:

The learners need to feel a need to learn.

The learning environment is characterized by physical comfort, mutual trust and respect, mutual helpfulness, freedom of expression and acceptance of differences.

Learners perceive the goals of a learning experience to be their goals.

The learners accept a share of the responsibility for planning and operating a learning experience and have a feeling of commitment toward it.

The learners participate actively in the learning process.

The learning process is related to and makes use of the experience of the learners (PERSONAL NOTE: this is especially good to think about when working with Adult Learners)

And finally,

The learners have a sense of progress toward their own goals.

This book also talks about corporate training and the use of e-learning.

Book 2

Understanding Learners in Open and Distance Education
Terry Evans

The most important part to me in relation to Adults and their Distance Education experience is their ability (or disability) to balance work and study or home and study. The fact that MOST of them are carrying on lives that include work and family and then balancing an education on top of that can pose a problem for some. Sometimes adult learners with families have a harder time than others would because although their available time is changing, their prior commitments do not.

I will probably use this source when I write about the disadvantages of adult distance learning.

Book 3

Teaching and Learning at a Distance: Foundations of Distance Education
Michael Simonson

This book defines two types of Adult Learners: “white collar” and “blue collar”. The author says for the white collar workers, access to needed resources is easier and more available. And for the blue collar workers, the access to distance learning resources is more limited and their work schedules conflict a lot.

Book 4

Microcomputers in Adult Education
Stephen J. Bostock and Roger V. Seifent

This book talks about the concern for learners over the age of 25 in an institutional setting where the instructor is not physically present. The book addressees the four main features of this kind of Adult Education which distinguish it from education at school and college and from other types of adult learning and training.