Finding the Geek and Nerd Within

A colleague recently sent me a video that was amusing at first. It shows an elderly woman dealing with the digital conversion of television signals. 

Kinda cute, huh? However, the more I think about it the more uncomfortable I feel.  Somehow it is ok in our culture to be technically challenged.  I can understand that not everyone knows how everything works under the chassis of the computer, but would we have videos of people struggling to learn how to read?  It reminds me of the huge perception difference in the ability to read and the ability to "do math".  How many parents have brushed off Johnny's poor achievement in math by saying they were not good in math either? Would they say they could not read so openly and unashamedly?  I fear the same is true for digital literacy.  The digital immigrants are using the  same excuses to hide heads in the sand about transforming education to teach digital learners.  We know that "developing critical thinking skills and authentic literacy skills is certainly not a new idea-- educational thinkers like John Dewey and Paulo Freire wrote about these things many years ago and in great depth." (W. Fryer)  But the education landscape has changed dramatically due to technological innovations and we need for this skill development to be within the technological context of the twenty-first century. (David Warlick has practical ideas for teachers on how to make this change happen in the classroom with his book "Redefining Literacy for the 21st Century".)

In the meantime, we need to rethink how we filter our own thoughts and perceptions about those who we think are better at technology than us--the "geeks"-- and those who we think are more interested in technology than us--the "nerds".  We must all become "geeks" and "nerds" with a healthy curiosity and willingness to go where no teacher has gone before--preparing students for THEIR futures, not ours.