Your electrician is right. If there is a ground present, connecting it to the receptacle is really all you need to do but the GFCI solves the problem if that ground is compromised or non existent. It was common to use the old style Romex with the 16ga ground in the late 50s, early 60s, connected to the boxes but still installing the 2 pin receptacle. There was a thread here about that with the dates that showed up in the code. Just bear in mind most places do not adopt the new code right away.
