What are some emerging technologies that may make distance learning more accessible to adult learners?

I think accessibility may be helped more by improvements in existing technologies than by the introduction of new technologies. For learners, the important technologies are those that give inexpensive access to computers and the Web-technologies that are utilized by existing "distance curricula" such as GED Connection, GED Interactive (McGraw Hill Contemporary), GED Illinois, English for All, etc. When GED Connection was introduced in the late 1990s the video clips used in the online activities were available on CD-ROM for learners with Internet connections that were too slow to download video easily. Today there is little demand for the CD because most learners have access to faster Internet connections. The improvement was in the speed of connections available to adult learners. Improvements in audio technologies (personal digital players such as iPod) might improve the distribution of audio files important to ESL learners, but these technologies would need to be in widespread use ...  more