Trends in Adult Education

PID 3100 – Assignment 2: Post #1 – Trends.

Assignment

For this assignment, my learning partner and I were given the task of identifying 2 trends in adult education that are of interest to us, and writing a series of 3 blog posts on them. We’ve decided to write on the use of Technology in Adult Education and the shift in focus to Higher Order Thinking in Adult Education. For my partner’s take on these trends, check out her blog at mypidpblog.wordpress.com.

Technology in Adult Education

When speaking of Technology use in Adult Education, one must consider the perspective – use by the instructor, and use by the student. There has been a trend to move instruction online in the form of Learning Management Systems such as Moodle. From the student’s perspective, modern cell phones have put an infinitely big, instantaneously accessed library at their disposal 24 hours per day. How does this affect the education dynamic?

Higher Order Thinking in Adult Education

Gone are the days of the teacher standing at the front of the class, reciting facts for the students to memorize. In today’s classroom, the trend is to move beyond simple memorization. Instructors are developing methods to help foster critical thinking and understanding in their students. It is thought that these skills are truly required in today’s fast paced, ever-changing work environments. I’ve chosen to write specifically on Higher Order Thinking in Vocational Training.

Our research on these topics took us to many articles on the internet. We chose 2 articles to share with our readers; you can find them here and here.

I’ll explore the implications of these two trends in the next blog post.