Adult Education E-Archive

Ben commented on: Groups 3 and 4
Chris commented on: group 3 & 4
Mary commented on: Groups 2 & 3
Rob commented on: Groups 2 & 4

Roles:

Ben - built the Wordpress site, found some content, and helped with placing/formatting content

Chris - helped build the Wordpress site, found content, and helped with placing/formatting content

Mary - found content for the site, worked on several pages, and helped build our references

Rob - found content for the site, helped with editing, and wrote our summary

To summarize what we have worked through and learned this semester, our group has created an Adult Education E-Archive using a Wordpress blog, and written a concise summary.

To understand adult education, one cannot look to single areas and deduce that all adult education is the same.  Many times it appears as if adult education stands in contrast to its own being.  That is because adult education can simultaneously be entities that are defined yet broad, big while small, certified while not and organized and undefined at the same time.  Simply put, it is everything that encompasses learning at the adult level.  Often these areas clash and make it difficult to define adult education, yet the field continues to adapt and change and rebrand itself.

Finding the origins of adult education is even difficult because to do so one would have to have a universally accepted definition of adult education.  Even today, that cannot be said to exist.  It often seems like trying to find the source of a river with many channels.

Still, there are areas that have developed and can be quantified.  From early political systems, apprenticeships and religious studies, the field began to take shape.  In more modern times leaders like Knowles and Freire surfaced in different eras.  The focus on the adult as a unique learner developed and the need for empowerment for the oppressed were examples of how adult education was fostered from a need in society.  Career training has continued to develop while new global concepts of lifelong learning have emerged. 

Today there are countless examples of programs that are in existence that serve participants.   As unique as adult education is, so too is each program.  There are programs that have world wide, regional and community influence.  Programs may range from ones that help in literacy, job skills, political effect, the arts, or any of a number of areas where there is a need.

Organizations have helped to solidify parts of adult education and associations have made common interests in the field a place where participants can come together for direction and influence.  Government focus in departments has helped to ensure that the positive aims of adult education can be used to benefit the individual and the common good of society.  The impact of adult education has many times been aided through organization that has made a consolidated voice heard.

Most importantly, however is how adult education affects the learner, the adult.  If a person was to identify the learner first and then define adult education, they would understand that it is the outcome that is important.  The adult is the beneficiary and thereby the one that defines what adult education is to them.  Thus adult education can be as unique as each individual and each need that derives from the learner.  We also know that learning is a lifelong experience and the needs of the individual will change.  And, that is why adult education is flexible to the learner and in constant flux.