This photo of my parents was taken in May at my younger daughter's wedding. I'm visiting them right now. My dad asked my mom to find something on the computer for him, and I seized the opportunity to "Teach Someone how to do Something." He is 76 years old, so just keep that in mind. My mom is much younger and hipper, a fact with which they will both readily agree. They just visited our baby girl and her new husband at their summer internship with a church in Kansas. My new son-in-law was set to preach a sermon last Sunday evening, which my dad wanted to watch but wouldn't be there for. The pastor offered to record it for him and put it on Facebook. My dad wanted to watch it, but he didn't realize he was about to have to learn how to find it on his own! He had no idea what he was getting himself into. We both had a lot of fun!
I took him to the search engine and asked him what he would do if he was home alone. He said he would call mom! I asked him what he would do if she didn't answer. He said he would wait for her to get home! I said, "Come on dad, help me out." He said he would type it in Google. I asked him what he would type. He said my son-in-law's name. Finally we were getting somewhere! I asked him if he would type anything else. He said he would add sermon. I told him that was exactly what I was hoping he would say. Then we looked at the video results at the top of the page. The first one was him preaching at their college congregation in March. We didn't even know that existed! I was so glad my dad didn't say to type the name or location of their current church, or we wouldn't have found it. The second and third ones were both what we wanted, but one was really short, and one was the entire church service. The fourth one was of someone with the same name who was a DA somewhere in Texas. Since my son-in-law is not an attorney, we discarded that one. Dad got to watch the longer of the two videos from this past Sunday, and as a bonus, he will get to watch the other sermon at some later date. This was a smashing success! Now he can Google all alone.
I love the title for this. It is so sweet, and I bet this is something you can always joke with him about to make sure he is being independent. Tell him next time it will be a pop quiz! This is also a great experience for those students who do live with older grandparents. Having to explain it to their level is different than a child or someone who has grown up with technology. It really makes you think about how to word things so you don't make them feel "dumb" or that technology is useless and they don't need to learn it at their age. My Grandfather is quick to jump to saying that he is 77 years old; if he didn't need it before, he does not need it now.
ReplyDeleteCarrie, I love that you chose to teach an adult for this lesson. I would say that the majority of the time I need to explain technology things to someone, it is a parent who cannot login to Schoology or some other site. There are so many considerations and it is really hard to explain it to an older learner. The students pick up on things much quicker. Your blog post gave me the idea to record videos like this, including a screencast of me doing each step for parents. This is time consuming up front but will save so much time in the long run!
ReplyDeleteThis story is wonderful! I love how you turned a routine tech moment into a teaching opportunity and how your dad gained confidence searching for videos on his own. It’s a perfect reminder that patience, prompting questions, and celebrating small wins can make all the difference for older learners. Thanks for sharing such a sweet and inspiring example!
ReplyDeleteThis was such a heartwarming post. I'm glad that your posted this. I think when I think of technology instruction I think of students and seeing an adult learn something new was eye opening. Especially as librarian, I can see myself doing community outreach.For those adults parents or guardians that may need help with technology such as registration and fafsa.
ReplyDeleteThis was such a wholesome read! Thank you for sharing pieces of your personal life with us! Something I loved about this course is that I truly did learn new stuff regularly, not to mention the saved websites and tools I was able to learn and save for later. Part of being librarians is simply assisting people with their information, learning, and other type of needs that all lead to growth!
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