Despite efforts to promote 'lifelong learning' and a more equitable and inclusive 'learning society' there is little special or new about adult learning in the digital age, according to research at Cardiff University.

The Adult Learning@Home project found that e-learning tends to be associated with the same factors that determine school-leaving age, such as sex and socio-economic background. "It would seem that patterns of participation in adult education are not being changed for the better by changes in education policy," said Dr Neil Selwyn, who lead the research.

The study, which was one of the first large-scale research projects to focus specifically on information and communications technologies and adult learning, showed that despite 'universal' levels of access to computers and the internet, actual use is limited to just over half of the adult population.

Using the internet to learn a language or other new skill was secondary to communicating with family and friends, producing documents and searching for specific information and general knowledge.

The report shows that e-learning was most often concerned with the technology itself, rather than a means to learn something else.

'We met pensioners who had learned to turn spreadsheets into pie-charts then never used them,' said researcher Dr Neil Selwyn.

Researchers concluded that ICTs appear to reinforce existing patterns of learning and were mainly of benefit to people who were already learners, or who would have become learners without the availability of computer technology.

* The findings were based on a door-to-door survey of 1,001 adults and interviews with 100 respondents, followed by a year-long, in-depth ethnographic study of 25 ICT users, their friends and families.