Technology and Adult Students In Higher Education: A Review of the Literature

Abstract

The chal- lenge is to find cost-effective yet engaging solutions to the intractable problem of getting faculty to take seriously their own professional de- velopment with regard to new technologies for teaching and learning. Mclean, Cilliers, and Van Wyk (2008) express a typical perspective on this issue: “If senior faculty administrators pay only lip service to fac- ulty development, academic staff will perceive little need to partici- pate and will spend their time where they derive most personal benefit” (p. 563). This perspective reflects the widespread view that fundamentally, academic staff do not wish to participate in profes- sional development, as they do not associate it with sufficient person- al benefit. They