ABSTRACT
While the le@rning society thesis is a compelling one, even its most enthusiastic supporter would concede that many of the claims upon which it is founded remain untested. As a field of academic and practitioner endeavour, educational technology has promised much over the past 30 years but could be criticised for delivering rather less. Notwithstanding the undoubted potential benefits of new technology for adult learners, it is important for educationalists and policymakers to restrain from unconditionally assuming ICT-based education and training to be a universal panacea for educational problems. For all the perceived benefits of ICT there are a set of corresponding caveats, drawbacks and unresolved problems which tend to be ignored or summarily dismissed by some in the educational technology community. This chapter balances the claims and contentions made in Chapter 1 about the educational promise of ICT by outlining some of the potential limitations of ICT-based adult education. These can be seen both in terms of technological and social impediments to the realisation of the le@rning society vision.
