The paper offers a set of actions and initiatives for consideration by adult education champions to spur innovation, including:
• Policy makers should conduct regular technology audits of adult education programs and establish incentives for program improvement;
• Program administrators and practitioners must clearly define their programmatic vision and the role and opportunity for technology;
• Foundations and private-sector funders should raise awareness of the need for new technology and can act as catalysts for policies and programs that support experimentation and collaboration in adult education;
• Suppliers and entrepreneur should seek to adapt existing K-12 and postsecondary solutions for adult market and explore channels for supplemental, mobile-first, out-of-the-classroom solutions.
Conducted in November 2014, the survey collected data from more than 1,000 program administrators and practitioners across the adult education system. The data provide insight into the opportunity for technological innovations to take root more broadly in the U.S. adult education field. A second complementary report, focused on the current ecosystem of adult education suppliers, will be available later this spring. “Learning for Life: The Opportunity for Technology to Transform Adult Education” is available for free download now here.
Tyton Partners (formerly Education Growth Advisors) is a provider of investment banking and strategy consulting services to the global knowledge sector.
The Joyce Foundation invests in solutions to pressing economic and social challenges that affect the quality of our lives, the well-being of our communities and the fairness of our society.
Material from a press release was used in this report.
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