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"Hogwash, we say, to the common assumption that senior citizens are not very good at using technology and social media. Who hasn't been stumped by tech at one point? DoSomething.org is planning to give less tech-savvy elders some help though, by asking kids to get their grandparents wired up.\n\"Grandparents Gone Wired\" is a technology campaign encouraging kids to teach seniors how to use technology and social media, allowing them to get online and connect with the (sometimes-younger) people in their lives. The kids will be eligible to win prizes including iTunes gift cards, an iPad and a series of $500 scholarships from DoSomething.\nKids can visit the site to register. They then fill out a checklist with areas of expertise (such as email set up, Facebook, Skype). They are then asked to reach out to a senior citizen that could benefit from those skills and mentor them on how to get connected. Reporting on that progress will make them eligible to win the prizes.  \nThe whole campaign is a nice idea and a lovingly subversive way of encouraging cross-generational communication: Senior citizens are taught how to use technology and tools that will help them stay in touch with family and friends, while kids are given rewards and hopefully a little more one-on-one time with their older relatives.\nAnyone who has struggled to explain Skype to a (grand)parent understands the benefit of in-person training. Of course, there are bound to be some that try to game the system or, despite their best efforts, just aren't good tech teachers.\nEven though these are certainly concerns, the worst case scenario is that younger generations spend some time with their grandparents because of technology.\nThe campaign officially runs Dec. 1 to Dec. 30 but DoSomething already has a site up for kids to start registering. Is Grandparents Gone Wired a stroke of brilliance or doomed to fail? Tell us about your own experience teaching tech to elders in the comments.\nUpdate: Skype has officially signed on as a partner with Grandparents Gone Wired.\n\n\n\n\nImage courtesy of Flickr, babi mouton"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2011/11/29/grandparents-gone-wired/>