teaching digital natives

My friend phoned me the other day to give me the reservation number for our campsite.

“Text me,” I said, “I’m on my cell walking down Broadway and I don’t have a pen.”

“Gawd, I don’t even know how to do that,” she complained.

Thank goodness I have a teenage daughter, I thought for a change. My daughter taught me how to text message so that we wouldn’t have to ‘waste time’ talking on the phone. Initially I was insulted, I then I began to experience the benefits. You can text in places where phoning is not great (loud bus, meetings, workshops), you can convey important information without having to spend 5 minutes on the phone with social niceties, you can text multiple people at the same time, you can remind people very quickly (get milk), and you can tell your teenage daughter to get home now without embarrassing her in front of her friends.

“No matter if I finish reading my books,” my daughter said, “I can just watch one of several movies on my iPod.”

“You have movies on your iPod???” I asked in disbelief.

She rolled her eyes, “Duh, like its 4 gigs.”

She taught me how to lock and unlock photos on my camera, how to limit profile access on Facebook, how to use Facebook chat, how to drive to Ikea using her cell phone to get directions, and how to set the clock in our car. 

These humbling little episodes beg the essential question: Who is teaching whom?

And how do I teach digital natives using technology? 

I think you just jump aboard, get some good firsthand experience and understanding, and finally, get them to teach you.

Wisdom from Lana: digital natives have short attention spans, so give them lots of different things to do (and choices for assignments)