A middle-school dean of students, talking about AI:
“The challenge is there, but our superintendent would say it’s a tool like a calculator. I don’t need to know specific names and dates of things anymore, because I can look them up. What I need to know is, am I a critical consumer of the media, of the technology, right? So that’s the skills we push.”Sigh.
But wait a minute: I thought the Internets themselves were supposed to make it unnecessary to know things. See, for instance, this 2006 post about looking up answers during tests.
Part of the issue is the difference between taught and learned. An academy is not for memorizing.
ReplyDeleteI can look up, or "teach" you, that the Battle of Hastings was in 1066. But the responsibility for ensuring a lasting peace is something a student can only "learn" over time.
I mean, the folks who crafted the peace treaty of 1919 thought they were doing the right thing.
Sure, there’s a difference between memorizing and understanding. But it’s better to carry some things around in one’s head. I know of college students who didn’t know what side the United States was on in WWII.
ReplyDelete