You+Cant+Teach+an+Old+Dog+New+Tricks

=// **MYTH: YOU CAN'T TEACH AN OLD DOG NEW TRICKS** //= ==== On September 22, 2011, Chelsea Clinton interviewed her mom on a number of topics during the Clinton Global Initiative. One of the topics? T echnology. In a candid interview between mother and daughter, Hilary Clinton "stated that through technology, the voices of marginalized women can be heard". The [|interview]streamed on Facebook, turned lively when Chelsea mentioned that she had recently taught her mom to text and that her father, Bill Clinton still calls the internet, the world wide web. The interview fostered me to consider the old saying that //"You Can't Teach an Old Dog New Tricks". M//eaning that is impossible to teach a new way of doing things to an individual who has engaged an activity in the same way for a very long time. ====
 * [[image:mindmaps/group_picturecropped.jpg width="800" height="212"]] **

==== According to Wikipedia, [|baby boomers]are individuals born between 1946 and 1964. Much happended in the lives of individuals growing up during this notable time in US history; the emergence of business, Woodstock, the civil rights movements, the Cuban Missile Crisis, but it should also be noted that baby boomers represent the last group of americans born before that of [|Generation Y]and the associated rise in comunications technologies. The transition of one generation to the next, represents the impediment of old business tricks once effectively used by one generation such as: in-person interactions, letter writing, postal mailing, telephoning, and faxing, to that of the new tricks used by the incoming generation: that of e-mailing, texting, skyping, and social media. New tricks, that not all baby boomers wholeheartedly embrace. ====

==== Like Chelsea, I sought to interview a baby boomer on her opinions concerning technology. I selected an individual who I knew would speak frankly on the topic, was ambivalent to the use of technology, and is considered a leader in her field. My mentor, Mrs. Annette Clark, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and[| Fordham University]graduate. Three important points emerged from the interview regarding Mrs. Clark's views on technology. One, she acknowledges the value of technology, but does not agree with how freely our generation gives information out about ourselves over the internet. Two, she believes at a certain age, the level of concentration required to learn new technologies it not present for some. Three, and most interesting to me, she intially believed that technology was a fad. She shared with me, "as an Administrator, I remember taking my first class on DOS. As I excited the class upon its completion, I thought to myself, "those dots and that screen aren't going to last." ====

==== Mrs. Clark was correct in her assumptions that the "dots would not last", but they advanced us toward new technologies that in this year of her retirement, she has termed as the "take over" and replacement of many of the old systems used in Public Schools. In the Book of Learning and Forgetting, author Frank Smith references this type of change and those who are caught within it. "Technology gets all of the advertising, the visual and the sound bites. There is always more money for equipment than people. It is always universally believed that technology is more cost effective than people in classrooms, in offices, in the cockpit of aircrafts, and in the armed services. Teachers are holding on to classooms in the same way that horse drawn carriages were holding on after automobiles went into mass production." This passage portrays technology in a pervasive way, as almost a brute attack on what one could say baby boomers were raised to know. But what makes one baby boomer dismiss the impending influences of technology, versus another that will consider its embace? ====

====John Dewey, author of Democracy and Education, provides some insight to this question, suggesting that our tendency to embrace certain activities is largely based on the company we keep. Dewey suggests that:====
 * ====We all end up with our individual disposition by imitating others====
 * ====There is a direct relation of human beings to one another====
 * ====It is natural for individuals to copy the actions of others and develop dispositions====
 * ====Unless an individual behaves (in the fashion that he has imitated) and in the order that has been set by the group that he is associated with, he will no longer be part of that group.====
 * ====General social controls requires the formation of a disposition; a way of understanding objects, events, and acts that enables one to participate in certain group activities.====

====For years, activities that baby boomers enaged in were the imitation of thier parents and the larger group to which they belonged. Smith writes, "Young people were expected to learn and lead the same kind of life their parents led." To go against a custom or norm as Dewey put it, was to risk "no longer being part of that group." Viewing the resistance of some baby boomers to technology through this lens allows us to see them as merely staying true to dispositions that have enabled them to participate as a member of a certain group for most of thier lives. In addition, the theory of Learning and Forgetting, the concept that we have a difficult time forgetting what we have learned, could further explain the resistance. According to a March 2011 article by Techno News, Judge Judy, in an interview with Larry King shared in so many words that she was too old to learn new technology and that she had never used a computer. But is Judge Judy really too old? Might she lack the level of concentration required to learn new technologies as Mrs. Clark suggested? Could it be that Judge Judy has learned that she is a member of a certain club and is unable to forget? Smith writes, "remember, we don't always learn what is best for us to learn, and it's not possible to forget something deliberately once we have learned it, especially when it is something about ourselves, about our identity." Meaning, Judge Judy identifies with a "club" of individuals that has learned that using technology is too hard for them and that she does not fit into the club of individuals who find ease in technology use, and she can't forget her allegience to either.====

But whether Judge Judy has ever turned on a computer or not, she is continuing to learn about technology, even if indirectly from the company she keeps. Watch as Judge Judy learns about World of Warcraft from a plaintiff in a case she is trying.

** LIVING ON THE EDGE **
==== No one would disagree that Judge Judy is an expert in her field, as her opinion is sought everyday on TV and on many high profile cases. Perhaps, not as strongly in her situation, but the pursuit of expertise may very well be one of the reasons why some baby boomers have embraced technology, while others have not. Consider the book, //Surpassing Ourselves//, which suggests that experts remain experts because they continually seek out experiences or situations that push the limits of their expertise. In short, experts live on the edge of their competance. I would venture to say that being accustomed to living on the "edge" is not confined to the field in which they are experts. While Judge Judy is coaxed to the edge of her competance concerning technology by way of courtroom situations, baby boomer, President Barack Obama, is jumping off his edge with reliance on his own experiences as an expert in one hand, and a parachute filled with a keen understanding of collaborations that sharpen his expertise in the other! D uring his run for presidency,s o effective was his use of technology in collaboration with Facebook Co-Creator, [|Christopher Hughes] that media outlets dubbed Obama the [|First Social Media President.]. The way in which President Obama embraces technology is a great example of how an individual can change his or her way of doing things, particularly when they understand the change effectively assists them in making thier lives easier. In fact, the possibility of the President having to give up his technology made headlines - [|in this article in the NYTimes.] ====

====I have no doubt that if US Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton chooses to embrace new technologies that she too will be doing much more than texting in the coming years. Whether what took her so long to try was ambivalence, the company she kept, the club she thought she did or did not belong to, or the feeling that she is too old to learn does not matter. What does matter is her willingness to try and to accept offers of collaboration from those who are willing to teach her, like her daughter Chelsea. The Book of Learning and Forgetting states “Classic theory applies to learning from others the ability to complete certain tasks”. Similarly, Dewey wrote “one person’s use of materials and tools is constantly referred to another’s use of these same materials and tool, thus disposition is formed". Although it may present a challenge at first, Hilary Clinton can form a new disposition. She can be taught new tricks (like texting) that improve her old ones, just like so many other mature members in our society. Check out these great examples: ====

//Seniors are definitely capable of learning how to use new technology. So much so that one wonders if they could one day become the majority of those online. Retired persons have more free time to be online and “according to the AARP 2008 special report, 37.6% of Americans 62 or older are using the Internet for a variety of reasons.”// [|Will the Elderly Dominate the Internet Someday?] //They get news online, do research, stay in touch with loved ones, make travel plans, pay bills, play games, search for health related information, and purchase prescriptions. There are even dating sites now for the over 65 crowd.//

//The percentage of seniors getting online has expanded over the last decade as well as their reasons for doing so. Seniors may not ever eclipse the number of young adults or youth online, but they will definitely make up a significant percentage, which debunks the myth that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.//