ABSTRACT
Throughout the previous two chapters we have made the case for researchers to move beyond a view where ICTs may have ‘universal’ effects (for better or worse) on adult education. Instead we have suggested that research should start from the premise that the implementation of technology in adult education is intrinsically entwined with the social, economic, political and cultural aspects of adult education. We therefore start our own empirical investigation of adult learning and technology from Fitzpatrick’s observation that:
New technologies do not emerge ex nihilo, but are always embedded within social contexts whose contours shape the ways in which technologies are constructed and utilised.
