The ‘technological revolution’ of recent years has yielded a range of new tools and materials that can be used to assist teaching and learning in adult art and design education. It has been widely presumed that these tools would promote the practice of students‘ ‘self-directed learning’, thus saving money for financially overstretched Universities, and helping educators to cope with the stresses of increased student numbers, and the demands of widening participation. Research shows that this is not always the case, however. By drawing upon the experience of a number of educators in several UK Universities and Colleges, this paper seeks to evaluate how effective are computer-related tools in teaching and learning art and design, how efficiently they are currently being used to enhance art and design education in Britain, and why a backlash in the use of ICT is currently being experienced in some UK art and design education establishments
