Dad-dancing

It's a widely accepted fact that kids know more about ICT and the 'cool' apps than teachers do. They have the time, the insight and the word-of-mouth recommendations to keep them ahead of the game (and their prying parents). Is that actually true, I wonder? Let's assume for now that it is, and that our learners really are the gatekeepers to all that is cool on the Internet. So, where does that leave us?

It leaves us in a very powerful position; we get to sit back, and let the kids do the work for us. We let them be the compass and barometer of our ICT lessons. We let them decide what to teach, and we let them teach it. Let them be the ones knackered at the end of each working day, instead of us.

What role do we have in our own lessons if we are as hopelessly behind the curve as we assume we are? We could just worship at the altar of our beneficent superiors, and let them run the show, whilst we watch on, impotently. We could play the buffoon to their straight-man, dad-dancing our way through our ICT lessons, embarrassing ourselves (and our cringing pupils) with our hopelessly out-of-date talk of MySpace, and this cool new 'social-networking app' (remember to do the air-quote thing with your fingers for extra cool-appeal) called Bookface. And why not? If we can't win this race, why even try? Let's just be content to support them as best we can, to try inject some actual guidance in the application of these tools, rather than try to keep up with them. They provide the tools and skills, we provide the ideas and pedagogical insight.