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.
comments: 2
Part of the issue is the difference between taught and learned. An academy is not for memorizing.
I 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.
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