Last week, I took the opportunity of working in the Columbus area to meet with the publishers of my book, Redefining Literacy for the 21st Century, Linworth Publishing. The night before our meetings, several of us had dinner at a very nice restaurant, and during the conversation got into a discussion of blogging, RSS, and podcasting (SURPRISE).
The next day, Donna King, one of the Linworth people, came in talking about having told her teenage son about what she had learned about blogging and podcasting, and that he at first said, “Mom, this is kinda strange, you telling me something about technology that I didn’t know.” She continued to talk about these ideas, and finally he said, “Stop! Stop! I can’t take this any more!”
Might we come to a time when there is no more digital divide between the techno-young and techless old? I think so. When we, as adults, working in an industry (and world) that is changing rapidly, master the digital literacy skills to become true self-learners (life-long learners), then we may be able to keep up. When we have to wait for staff development, then we languish behind.
Pretty weird coming from a staff developer.