Journal #5 Do students need to memorize facts in the digital age?

Mahoney, R, & Knowles, C. (2010). Do students need to memorize facts in the digital age?. Learning and Leading with Technology, 37(5), Retrieved from http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/201002#pg8

This article featured to teachers with opposing answers as to whether or not students need to memorize facts in the digital age. Mr. Mahoney argues that yes it is important to understand facts as preliminary knowledge for conceptual interpretation. He believes that facts are vital for students to learn as they provide students with the required concrete detail that critical and higher level thinking builds upon. Comparatively, Ms. Knowles argues no that memorization isn’t important. Analyzing information is truly what matters. She believes that learning in the digital age is about finding the information, organizing it and then most importantly analyzing it. She bases much of her opinions on research of human neuron pathways that are reinforced when students critically think about the information they gather, rather than just storing data.

Do you believe that students need to memorize facts in the digital age? I definitely do. However, I can see both sides of the issue and I believe that both Mr. Mahoney as well as Ms. Knowles contrasting viewpoints are correct. It is important to memorize facts. For instance, without the knowledge of basic algebra, a student will have a difficult time analyzing a well worded algebraic situational word problem. It is also true that unfortunately a large amount of education is spent cramming a vast amount of information into the short term memory, regurgitating it all over the test, and forgetting it. Digital resources make it possible to dedicate more time to thinking critically about issues rather than just storing useless unrelated facts. However, that is not to say that all facts are useless.

Is it important to memorize facts, interpret, and analyze them in all school classrooms? No. I would argue that most math classes, with the exception of logic, favor the memorization of concrete facts while courses such as psychology, science and history are much more based on analyzing. However, if one doesn’t have a fact base from their math class on reading graphs, then it will be difficult to interpret and analyze them in a science course. Therefore, the mastery of factual memorization and conceptual analysis is imperative to intellectual thought processes.