Our kids have spent the last five years in Nintendo Boot Camp, in the privacy of their bedrooms, their dens, and their family rooms. And, all the while, we adults sat by, shaking our heads, thinking our kids were just playing video games. According to Jim Dezell of IBM, the new knowledge of the 21st century will be created and communicated on multimedia computers. If this is true, then our young Nintendo jockeys are future computers' first masters, pilots, and pioneers. For years we have created inservice programs devoted exclusively to adults.
Students are marvelously swift learners.
As a result, adults make extraordinary progress during the workshop. They typically start the day with only a smattering of computer skills and a Pandora's box stuffed with fears and inhibitions about the tools they are expected to use. The miracle is that by the end of the day, these same adults emerge, puffing, panting, and exhausted, but clinging to a newfound joy of learning and a videotape that makes them glow with pride. The Teacher Explorer Center's primary mission is teacher training, yet it has also trained hundreds of students. We have had teams of students ranging from the second grade on up through seniors in high school.