1 Chapter to be published in Belzer, A. & Beder, H. Defining and improving quality in adult basic educat ion: Issues and challenges. New York: Lawrence Erlbaum. Reconceptualizing Adult Basic Education and the Digital Divide Elisabeth Hayes University of Wisconsin-Madison The use of computer-based, or digital technologies in adult basic education (ABE)is increasingly widespread, along with the proliferation of instructional software designed specifically for adult literacy learners. Some advocates claim that computer- based instruction offers learners a wider range of engaging, motivating, and presumably more effective learning opportunities. More significantly, another argument for incorporating such technologies into ABE is that the mastery of what are commonly now called “ digital literacies” can be crucial to adults’ success in accessing information important in their daily lives, obtaining better jobs, helping their children succeed in school, and generally improving the quality of their lives. The rhetoric surrounding the use of such technologies, most commonly the Internet but also other computer-based tools, suggests that those who do not have access to such technologies are becoming increasingly disadvantaged in this “ Information Age.” The so-called digital divide has been linked with economic disadvantage, low levels of educational attainment, and other indicators of social disadvantage and quality of life. For example, the types of jobs with higher economic and social rewards now tend to be those that provide “ symbolic-analytic services” requiring the use of multiple forms of oral and visual representations, problem-posing as well as problem-solving (Reich, 1992), typically associated with the use of new technologies. Social disadvantage has been characterized as a cause as well as a