Who Has The Upper Hand? Peers or Adults?

Reading the blog post on the MacArthur article, helped me to synthesize and think about some key points. Those that stood out to me the most were the points made about students and who they seek out for knowledge. As young children, many of us were quick to seek our friend's advice over our older, more knowledgeable parents. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that our students today are doing the same thing. However, it is not solely for adivce on friendship anymore, students are seeking out peers for knowledge in various content areas. They know their peers are on their level, share interest and can understand where they are coming from. We, as adults, do not always hold the upper hand.
I think for educators, this idea holds many implications. This should not become a fight over who has more influence over another, but rather an opportunity for experimentation and collaboration. If we know students value each others' opinions and ideas, then we need to set our students up to be responsible and self-propelling learners. If we give them the tools to take learning into their own hands, they will transfer those skills to other students. If we show students how to be collaborative learners, they will transfer those skills when they collaborate and communicate online. I definitely think digital media provides us all a way to push the norms and expectations of who is the learner and who is the teacher. That should be embraced by all and accepted by those who traditional have had the "upper hand." The question now is, how to facilitate that in a productive way???