#SoL20- Day 12- Tech Coach to My Mom

#sol20- March 12, 2020

My mom is a funny combination. At age 78 I consider her fairly tech savvy. She had a computer before I did (back in the day), has an iPad and an iPhone and even adjusts the volume of her new hearing aids via her phone. But here’s the thing, she is absolutely helpless with new features or problem-solving. I visit once a year, as I live many thousands of miles away and it seems like she saves up a year’s worth of questions all for me (even though I know she is on a first name basis with several people at the Apple store). I spend several sessions with her helping her learn new things and she always is grateful and impressed.

Right now she is under the weather- she has pneumonia and is laying low, trying not to go out much to speed her recovery and prevent complications like Covid-19. When I was messaging her the other day she was mentioning how she was still trying to do some of her meetings via phone (she is “retired” but still involved in so many things). I mentioned Zoom and how we are using it at school to prepare for a possible school shutdown.

I told her to download the app and that she could watch some tutorials, but that also I was happy to Zoom with her and lead her through some of the features. She wanted to give it a try, so we set a time. In typical mom fashion when I emailed her the meeting link she immediately responded that it would have to be later as she was just talking with my son and had yet to get up, feed her animals (an elderly cat and a bearded dragon), or write a shopping list for my brother-in-law who was going to go by to shop for her.

Knowing my mom she will learn the new technology quickly, but not with the detail that makes it useful for her. We shall see. But really, she is the epitome of a lifelong learner-always open to new learning, even if she cannot use it.