Mi–Life, Her–Life, The Stories of Generations

Yesterday's destination was Traverse City, Michigan, for a renewal in my efforts in Mi–Life, the technological leadership program sponsored by the Michigan Department of Education and Microsoft. One of the topics of the day was Web 2.0, e.g. using wikis effectively, blogging, watching podcasts, etc. I'm familiar with most of the items (all of them, actually; I've just never made a podcast ... stay tuned!) but many of the other administrators, i.e. students, in the class are not. It was worthwhile.

Amber, a senior in high school taking a college introduction to teaching class on Thursday nights, arrived home. I asked how her class was. Her reply was that it was okay. She said, "We had a presenter talk to us. I mean he just talked about wikis, blogs, and podcasts. Things I already am familiar with."

Is there some kind of generational gap here? We're talking about a senior who has already discovered the uses of Web 2.0. No one has taught her the Web 2.0 pieces, she's found them with her friends. I never started this blog until 2006, even though I had thought about it. One day, Courtney, 12 at the time, was telling me about her blog. She showed it to me. I said, "How did you pay to do that?"

"It's free," she said.

And I created Rick's Writing Again that day.

I'm just amazed that veteran administrators are just learning about things that kids TAKE FOR GRANTED. We have to adjust to their world, or we will lose them ... how can we compete as educators???