The book presents the “cutting-edge” requirements of lifelong learning for adults to retain mastery of their own destinies in a world of an accelerating rate of change and rapid globalization. It is a landmark in the presentation of a scientific foundation for research in andragogy and its roots in relationship to the very practical aspects of Internet learning. This is the only book I know that delivers such in-depth information and research actually applying andragogy to Internet learning—and it does that in the very crucial area of a Virtual Health Coach and health related concerns.
This book provides a break-through framework for bringing together the interaction of andragogy and Internet learning, while blending the practical and theoretical, the practice and research, and the technology and learning process. It presents a dynamic design to meet the goal of the International Commission on Adult Education for the Twenty-first Century, focusing on four pillars of learning: To know, to do, to live together, and to be. A fifth pillar of learning, learning to change, was added after the writing of this book to emphasize the lifelong nature of learning (Nurturing the treasure: Vision and strategy 2002–2007, UIE UNESCO Institute for Education, Hamburg, Germany). It addresses the multisided issue of “learning with a face-to-face teacher,” and “learning without a face-to-face teacher.” It presents a state-of-the-art picture of the themes that emerged during the human process: Interest, legalities, money, skill, relationships, doubt, trust, fun, leadership, getting it right, educational constraint, situational constraint, and evaluation. This book sets forth the integrated protocol elements of building this kind of Internet learning program that resulted from merging the protocol elements of thse literature review and the protocol elements of the lived experience. Finally, this book is a very important contribution to the literature of adult education as well as a valuable resource for those individuals and teams who wish to build other adult / lifelong learning programs and systems, dealing with a variety of subject areas that will help in applying andragogy to Internet learning.
John A. Henschke
University of Missouri, St Louis, MO and
University of Missouri Extension