While the details have become vague, I remember getting in trouble for cheating during a spelling test in the second grade. I don’t remember the word, but I apparently “looked up” the word somewhere during the test. Perhaps I was a neurotic second grader, but I really felt bad about “cheating,” but at the same time I felt compelled to find an answer for that test, which I did.
It’s been a years since I thought of this test. But for some reason it came to my mind the other day. And then I remembered this quote by Einstein, "
Never commit to your memory what you can find in a book." How many of us have everything we know truly tucked up into our brains at all times? I don’t know about you but I usually have to do some research and refresh on details and facts before I talk or present on a topic. Is that “cheating?”
On a regular basis we are now surrounded by technology and our access to information has dynamically shifted. Back when I was getting caught cheating on 2nd grade spelling tests, if you had asked where knowledge could be found, the answer would most likely be the library. But where can knowledge be found today? Everywhere. Knowledge is literally at our fingertips and in the air around us.
So how much of this has been reflected in how we treat knowledge and education? Now don’t get me wrong, I am not condoning students who buy papers or text each other test answers. That is ignorance and gets one nowhere. But how much has pedagogy shifted to imparting knowledge within an environment with increased and immediate access to information?
During the Q&A portion of my teaching demonstration for my current position, a particularly wayward student attempted to give me the “doozy” question. He asked me if I was familiar with a certain design program, to which I said I was. Then he asked which key was the hotkey shortcut for a particular function of this program. This sparked a twenty-minute debate between the student and the faculty about the validity of the question. When I was finally able to contribute my own answer I asked him this question, what makes someone a good cook? Are you a bad cook because you can’t produce every food item in existence? Sure you can make a badass scaloppini, but you don’t have a Étouffée recipe memorized, pah!
Does it take having every recipe in existence memorized to be a great cook? Of course not. So why would this be true of software programs or any other field? Sure everyone should learn facts. We must be exposed to ideas and concepts to be aware of their existence. But I believe we should also focus on teaching
how to find information rather than belaboring over teaching infinite details. Teaching students how to utilize resources of information will prove much more valuable with the increasing interplay of technology into our everyday lives. There is the old adage, “
Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” True, I don’t know every software hotkey shortcut. But I do know where to go to find that information. And that is what I focus on in my teaching. Giving students the tools to teach themselves, to find information and to utilize the resources that we are surrounded with everyday. Which reminds me of another quote by Einstein, "
I do not teach anyone I only provide the environment in which they can learn."
Think back to how many tests you’ve taken that were just a regurgitation of facts you quickly memorized before the test. How much of that information have you retained? Chances are not most of it. But I bet you can “google” it, can’t you?
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image credit:
Jared Stein, Utah Valley University
