Summary
This evening in my EDTC 400 class was the first day of our The Great EdTech Debate. The 2nd debate of the evening was : Schools should stop teaching “googleable” facts and information. Sarah Stroeder v. Sarah MacCaskill.
First of all what is a google fact? A google fact is are trivial facts that can be looked up in any search engine and that their usually easy to memorize.
Stroeder agreed with the statement that schools should STOP teaching “googleable” facts and information. On the reasons of, first is it irrelevant to teach facts that students can look up on their own. For example, teaching students to memorize the multiplication table, when they can just look it up on a device. Everything carries a phone with a calculator app with them or they can use search it up on any search engine. Second, it places too much emphasis on memorizing. Again teaching students memorize multiplication, instead of having them memorize it, teach them to learn WHY 6 x 3 equals eighteen. Third, is it detrimental because that is takes up time where students should be taught critically thinking, collaboration, and innovation. Essentially, students need more time to understand things more in dept and less time memorizing trivia.
MacCaskill disagreed with the statement. She states that school should KEEP teaching. On the reasons of, first these “googleable” facts make up the make of knowledge and commonsense. Second, it create a bank of information that students can build on which can lead to deeper understanding. And these “googleable” facts and information are reference a that students can use to create, critically think, and think practically.
My thoughts
I think agree with MacCaskill that students should be taught “googleable” facts because is does make up the bases of a lot of knowledge. I think people take for granted that kids should already know bases facts because its considered commonsense or its knowledge that everybody should inherently know. Which I disagree with from personally experience. For example, when I was in high school, one my sibling’s schoolmates (both of them were in high school with me) thought that was a crust that covered the Earth that it protected They believed that we lived under the Earth. They spend over a decade with no one telling the truth because its commonsense that we live on the surface of the Earth not under it. I conclude that we still should teach “googleable” facts and information.
