Even though Google’s mobile search has been available to students on their phones for about half a decade, it has been only recently that some educators are becoming concerned about the implications of “instant information” so easily available “on the go”, especially during test time! This scrambling around by faculty and administrators was triggered, not by ubiquitous Google but instead by the explosive adoption of ChaCha by the “under 25” age group.
While ChaCha performs as a dramatically better search (answers) capability on mobile phones, perhaps educators and others might take a broader and more progressive view of the implications of this easy way to get answers on the go. This new technology might be the underpinnings of better education for the actual future for which these students must prepare.
Albert Einstein claimed never to memorize anything which could be looked up in less than two minutes. I think he was onto something. Why do I need to remember what time the Colts play this week or what time my favorite museum opens on Saturday? What’s the point of rote memorization and “carrying” around a bunch of random pieces of information? As the story goes, one of Einstein’s colleagues asked him for his telephone number. Einstein reached for a telephone directory and looked it up. “You don’t remember your own number?” the man asked, startled. “No,” Einstein answered. “Why should I memorize something I can so easily get from a book?”
Considering that many people seem to no longer know their friends’ (or even spouse’s) phone numbers because they’ve relegated that knowledge to a speed-dial button on their mobile phone, it appears our species is already moving down the path of what I’ve been calling “cerebral augmentation.” Why keep a piece of data in your head, when you can store it in an easily accessible (electronic) scratch pad nearby?
I began musing on this topic and realized that today’s approach to education is far different than when I went to school in the 1980s. Today’s students are learning in a new era of technology, where old school research through micro-fiche archives has been replaced by at-your-fingertips, lightning speed Internet surfing, albeit with sometimes mixed credibility of the information discovered. In any event, as an educator myself (adjunct faculty at Purdue University and Indiana University, as well as occasional lecturer at MIT), I personally prefer a world where students turn their focus away from rote memorization of mere data and instead focus on what the data means. In life this seems much more useful.
Doesn’t it behoove students to begin focusing on analysis, insight and resourcefulness? So, instead of memorizing when Columbus sailed the ocean blue, doesn’t it make sense to understand the economic and social factors influencing why he left Spain in the first place?
As I have led many companies, the most valuable contributors are usually the ones who can do some seriously proficient and deep problem-solving, as opposed to those who can simply recite random facts. Frankly, it astounds me that some people are able to accumulate interesting data for a presentation, but their conclusions are flawed. It causes me to wonder about our education system. Given all the recent work that demonstrates that test scores and grades are not particularly well-correlated with success in life, including work, I think it makes sense to understand which skills deserve more focus in schools.
I would steer toward analysis, problem-solving, deriving conclusions, considering possibilities that are not at first evident, etc. And, to the extent that technology can help us with these “higher” skills, it means that students ought to have access to technology in the classroom, especially if it is ubiquitously available to them in the world anyway! Mobile technology is particularly important because it gives people access to information on the fly. Some academics and professors might not agree with this concept, and some have suggested that texting in the classroom is simply a way for students to cheat. I strongly disagree. That’s the lazy conclusion … to serve students well is to show them how to utilize the tools commonly available to them (e.g. their mobile phone) to use their brains to transform easily-accessible data and information into truly compelling knowledge and understanding.
And if it helps students know that they can learn and be more knowledgeable in any moment of their choosing, even better! Like calculators on the SAT, it’s not about cheating – it enables students to think strategically about problem solving instead of focusing on the mechanics of addition and subtraction.
