Mark Prensky is noted among many things for coming up with the idea of Digital Natives and Digtal Immigrants. The gist of the idea is that kids growing up in an ever connected world have a much easier time using technology than the adults that were born into the world of rotary phones and eventually modems. I find this doesn’t hold true in the sense that adults think kids know everything about computers. They don’t.
In education and educational tech we’ve had many opportunities to work with students and teachers with technology as a tool. From my experience kids who grew up with the mouse in their hand are not more adept at using computers. They are however in many cases more resilient to learning new things including technology. Their ability to learn makes them look like the expert!
Kids don’t know how to create formulas in Excel, or properly cite works in a document by being born in a certain year. What they’ve learned has been through informal and formal learning. I think the important piece is they are much better with informal learning than a generation that learned everything formally. They are resilient and able to try, fail, and try again to get to the goal, to level up, to try something, to learn.
Many teachers today grew up and learned primarily in formal settings. Not all adults of a certain age cannot learn informally but there are many that need to give up their conception of power rolls. The teacher does not need to hold all the knowledge. The learner does not have to have permission to learn from a teacher. Teachers can be learners and they can learn powerfully from informal learning. Don’t wait for a drive by professional development session!
Ask, try, fail, share, succeed. repeat, help, and celebrate your learning.