Sharing My Brain with AARP

For almost a year, I've had the chance to learn and grow in a new job at AARP. It's been an vast change and at the same time it hasn't been too different from my old job as a journalism professor and newsroom manager. I continue to teach and learn and find ways to deliver my knowledge to others. For almost a full 12 months, I have developed training for the organization while learning how it works to offer so much support for people who are 50+. In reality, I feel my job reaches all age groups. I have the chance to teach older generations that have a lot of influence on all other generations. I have the potential to help influence the most influential generation in our country! One of my most public accomplishments happened a couple of weeks ago in time for my second AARP Life@50+ conference. I took a piece of my brain and turned it into a website full of social media training tips. It's just the beginning. I have tips that span from Facebook and Twitter to blogging and photo/video tools. I'm excited to continue to add my tips and tricks for more to use.

I hope to take the training site and use it as a resource as I focus on helping expand a national conversation on why digital literacy can bridge across all generations. Digital literacy is understanding how to conduct yourself on in a digital community. It's very similar to how know how to conduct ourselves in the real world. Digital literacy is knowledge everyone deserves. The trick is finding ways to bridge assumed and actual existing gaps. I cannot tell you how many times I've had someone assume people 50+ are not using computers, smart phones or social media. That is so untrue! That assumption alone hurts opportunities to teach and learn about digital literacy. Traditionally, younger generations look up to the older generations. If there's any decay in that assumption, I feel education about digital literacy can help.

I look forward to sharing more thoughts and discoveries about this topic often along with my adventures in speaking, teaching and learning with AARP.