Although classes in the University of Strathclyde’s Extension Programme, run by the Centre for Lifelong Learning are "open to all, regardless of age or previous educational experience" most attendees are adults, who have completed secondary education.

A key feature of adult learners is that, in general, they attend classes voluntarily, unlike the Shakespearean schoolboy, "creeping like snail, unwillingly to school". That said, another characteristic of adult learners is that they have an agenda, a reason to be there. This differs from one person to another. Some researchers suggest that where the motivation is professional or work advancement, attendance cannot be said to be truly voluntary. However, a general distinction can be made between those attending school because it is compulsory or pursuing formal academic and vocational qualifications on one hand, and the majority of adult learners on the other.

The way in which adults learn

It is only relatively recently - from the 1970s onwards - that attention has been paid to the way in which adults learn as distinct from the way children learn. Malcolm Knowles cites four key differences.

· self-concept ; adults are less likely to ’brush off’ failure;
· experience : adults who cannot master a new skill suffer a lack of self-esteem;
· readiness: children are more willing and able to learn and accept new ideas;
· time : children are unafraid of failure as they feel they can always learn later; adults are less likely to feel like this.

Subsequent researchers identified other factors affecting the adult learner:

· Scheduling problems
· Lack of time and money
· Family and job responsibilities
· Transport problems

On the other hand, research also suggests that adults compensate for outdated knowledge by working harder, find it easier to incorporate new knowledge into existing knowledge, are more highly motivated and have a clearer purpose. Some writers suggest that older learners can compensate for being slower in some psychomotor skills by being more accurate and less likely to resort to trial and error. A corollary of taking errors personally and thus lowering self-esteem is that adults take fewer risks, relying on tried and tested methods.

Much of this applies to any class of adults, and it can be straightforward to deal with some issues. For example, open-ended sessions benefit those who do not want to miss their ‘bus or train home.

It could be argued that teaching computer skills to adults is a special case. Older learners are faced with a subject which may not have existed when they were undertaking school or post-school education. At worst, this can manifest itself as "computerphobia" or "communication apprehension". Brosnan and Davidson (The psychologist,vol. 7, 2, 1994, pages 73-8) looked at evidence which suggested that between a quarter and a third of all people are computerphobic. However, surveys suggest that computer ownership amongst older people (55+) is increasing - the so-called "silver surfers" - and that the average age of Internet users is therefore rising.

On my courses, familiarity with the computer, both hardware and software, varied amongst the participants. This confirms the findings of a survey by Clyde and Klobas of Internet trainees based in Iceland. The opening class is a good time to check if students are familiar with right-clicking, minimising windows, etc.

Motivations to learn ICT

Icebreakers in week 1 give each student a chance to say why he or she is there. Some reasons were obvious:

· retired people seeking a new interest (or wanting to keep up with their grand-children!);

Others were less so:

· need to use IT skills at work but lacked training opportunities;
· working towards European Computer Driving License;
· wanted to use Internet to plan and book holiday

With retired people, the motivation was often general - a desire to find out about new technology - but sometimes quite specific. One retired gentleman in my Internet class was also attending classes in JAVA, and wanted to find and download applets from the Web. A former English lecturer was interested in newsgroups and Web sources on his favourite authors. He later returned to my HTML class, and began building his own website. Another class member wanted to research family history, particularly connections with the Boston area. Within the overall plan for the class then, it had to be possible to cater for individual and quite specific interests, without neglecting those whose interests are more general. Learning to use the Internet can be a useful starting point for the acquisition of general computer skills.

Teaching about the Internet should establish general principles about searching, but also pass on useful information such as what to do about spam, or perhaps what not to do. Students should become aware that any information on the ’Net has to be approached with a degree of caution. Anyone who uses the Internet as a source of information has to learn to do so critically. Books on library shelves, articles in a journal, have normally gone through a selection or editorial process, which is transparent to the user. Such quality control does not necessarily apply to Internet sources.

Even those comfortable with the general skills of personal computing can find the Internet daunting. Searching for files on hard disk, floppy or CD-ROM is relatively uncomplicated. Using the Internet to find and download information is less so. Response times vary, error messages can be difficult to understand, and the lack of a coherent structure to the Internet is confusing, like having to use the telephone system without a phone book.

As one of "30 things we know for sure about adult learning", Ron and Susan Zemke say:

"…straightforward how-to is the preferred content orientation. Adults cite a need for application and how-to information as the prime motivation for beginning a learning project" (Innovation Abstracts Vol VI, No 8, March 9, 1984)

Applying that to teaching about the Internet means a minimum of formal lecturing and a strategy of using practical, hands-on exercises where possible. Instead of talking about truncating URLs, which generate error messages, let students point the browser at a problem URL and gradually truncate it until it works. Get them to e-mail a bogus address and then look at the resulting error message rather than just describe it. A student mistake such as typing one ’/’ instead of two in a URL, that can be used to reinforce correct practice. Once again, it is important that the students develop understanding and skills which will be relevant and lasting.

"We have to abandon the idea that schooling is something restricted to youth. How can it be, in a world where half the things a man knows at 20 are no longer true at 40 -- and half the things he knows at 40 hadn’t been discovered when he was 20?" (Clarke, Arthur C. The View from Serendip)