READERSrespond
POLL RESULTS
No
35%
Do Students Need to Memorize Facts in the Digital Age?
Although some believe the ability to research is more important than the
ability to memorize, the majority think some facts need to be top of mind.
The Best Mobile Device? Your Brain
Basic math facts and formulas are
essential to many jobs. Imagine a
construction worker having to look
up a formula every time he wanted to
estimate materials for a job, or a nurse
who had to look up the definition of
medical terminology before caring
for a patient. Yes, the Internet is a
vast resource, but it is also not always
available to everyone all the time.
Terri Koenigsberg
Elementary Technology Specialist
Portage, Pennsylvania, USA
The Big Picture
How many biology definitions do you
remember? If you hated biology, probably not a lot. Many children feel the
same way, and those with ADHD really struggle with memorization. Facts
are only a part of the bigger picture of
information fluency. If you give kids
facts, they’ll have some knowledge for
the test. If you teach them how to find
and evaluate facts for themselves, they
can have knowledge whenever they
need it.
Laura Smith
Technology Coordinator/Instructor
Memphis, Tennsessee, USA
The Art of Conversation
Memorization is an important life
skill. When defending a position in a
conversation or responding to a question, some details have to be committed to memory. It’s not always practical to say, “Hold on while I pull out
my cell phone and check the Internet.”
Judy Okazaki
Executive Director, SET Connections
Barrington, Illinois, USA
Lesson in Creativity
Instead of memorizing the date of
the Constitution, have students write,
create, or present something that describes why it was written. Have them
use the date, but allow them to be creative and do something they like. They
will memorize the date anyway and
will have a sense of accomplishment.
Jeremy Hendrix
Teacher
Glendale, Arizona, USA
Matter of Survival
Mental conditioning is just as important as physical conditioning. As a
nation we have become lazy on both
counts. When teachers allow students
to Google it rather than train a student’s mind, they do them a major
disservice. In the military, I had to
memorize, among other things, the
entire Soviet Naval Arsenal. In combat situations, as with many other life
stuations, if you pause to look it up,
you lose.
John Peters
Director of Technology
Lyndonville, Vermont, USA
Problem Solvers Rule
Those who can problem solve, find
information quickly, analyze the information, and make sure it is valid
are far more likely to be successful.
The ability to memorize facts does
not mean the student understands the
concept. Only when they apply them
to solve real-world problems will we
know they truly understand.
Sue Stoddart
Chair, Curriculum and Instruction
Marian University, Wisconsin, USA
Yes
65%
Build a Framework
Memory is essential to learning because it lets you store and retrieve
the information you learn. Learning
also depends on memory, because the
knowledge stored in your memory
provides the framework to which you
link new knowledge, by association.
And the more extensive your framework of existing knowledge, the more
easily you link new knowledge to it.
Robin Ruiz
Comment on ISTE.org poll
Manage the Information Overload
In former years, it was faster to rely
on memory to retrieve information
rather than go to the library to look
up what you needed. But requiring
students to memorize information is
an overwhelming task in this day of
information overload. The amount of
information available to us now has
exceeded human capacity to be able to
remember it.
Julia Poole
ICT/IML Integration Teacher
Surrey, British Columbia, Canada
Editor’s Note: Starting with this issue, readers will be responding to the same question in
Readers Respond as in Point/Counterpoint.
You can follow the conversation here and on
pages. 6–7. To contribute to the discussion, go
to L&L’s group page on the ISTE Community
Ning at www.iste-community.org/groups/
landl.
