Just the facts, ma’am May 4, 2007
Posted by jethro in : Uncategorized , trackbackThis article over at Teach42 speaks to the problem of providing up-to-date information for the students of the 21st Century. I think Steve hits it pretty well when he says
“I’ll take someone who can think critically and problem solve over someone who has facts memorized any day. If I’ve learned anything from Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader, it’s that the things we’ve forced our 5th graders to memorize are largely irrelevant. Sorry, but I don’t think it’s embarrassing not to know who the first president to be impeached was. Or whether polar bears eat penguins. Those are facts, and for the most part they come easy. Concepts, critical thinking skills, the scientific method, those are things they’ll carry with them for life.“
That is not to say that facts aren’t relevant, just that it’s far more important that learners be taught how to learn, not just how to parrot facts. The days where teachers and librarians and college professors were the gatekeepers of information are long gone, and it’s vital that our children be taught the best ways to access information on demand. Skills in research (something only briefly covered in my school years) are what will make students successful, not merely having the ability to parrot back often outdated data. Unfortunately it will be a while before the people responsible for examining learners and quantifying educational successes understand this. How long will it be before we see Final Exams where the students are asked to use a computer and an Internet connection to research a topic and provide a logical argument to support their conclusions?
I know that when my own kids were younger, they would roll their eyes every time I responded to a question they asked by saying “Google it!”. Now, however, they instinctively use the Internet to find answers to questions I couldn’t even hope to explain to them, and I am confident that whatever information they find themselves in need of, they can find it rapidly, sort through the results to determine quality of data, and reach a conclusion based on that research.
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