Thing 3: Technology and the Ancients (i.e., My Aged Relatives)

I recently had the pleasure of hosting my parents and two of my dad's sisters here in LA and had the opportunity to witness the crimes they commit against technology. Yes, crimes I say, in my very own home. Now, I am not the techie guru that some of my contemporaries are, but I do have a trusty laptop, know my way around Adobe Photoshop Elements, regularly post photos to facebook from my smartphone, have several tabs open on Firefox at any given time, and etc. So watching my aunties typing at criminally slow speeds, usually into a text box that was never selected, really shocked my sensibilities. (I won't even mention how all my lovingly saved tabs had mysteriously disappeared one morning when I logged on with not even a trace in the recently closed tabs history). And these people aren't exactly as aged as this blog entry's title implies (they're between 50 and 60 years old. If these people commit crimes then my 84 year old grandfather commits attrocities).

As a recent graduate of the MLIS Children's Services track it has been drilled into my head that children and teens not only need access to, but instruction in technology. But since I'd paid little attention to adult services I'd never given much thought to how necessary technology instruction is for adults. Perhaps at the dawn of retirement and the golden years technology literacy isn't as vital for my older relatives as it is for our children, but why should they miss out on what technology has to offer?

These musings led me to wonder whether teaching technology literacy differs between children and adults. And, gasp, could children be used to teach adults in a library setting? It's not unusual to have one group of children teach another group, mixed classrooms employ this tactic all the time. Would it work with adults? Has it been tried? I suspect the children in question would have to be screened for patience, amongst other qualifications...