This engaging book sheds light on the ways in which adults in the twenty-first century interact with technology in different learning environments. Based on one of the first large-scale academic research projects in this area, the authors present their findings and offer practical recommendations for the use of new technology in a learning society. They invite debate on: why ICTs are believed to be capable of affecting positive change in adult learning; the drawbacks and limits of ICT in adult education; what makes a lifelong learner; and the wider social, economic, cultural and political realities of the information age and the learning society. "Adult Learning" addresses key questions and provides a sound empirical foundation to the existing debate, highlighting the messy realities of the learning society and e-learning rhetoric. It tells the story of those who are excluded from the learning society, and offers a set of powerful and stark recommendations for practitioners, policy-makers, and politicians, as well as researchers and students.