Learning in Internet Times…

Sergio C. Fanjul, a journalist at El País, Spain’s leading daily, sent me some questions by email on a subject I am passionate about, the learning model and the use (and abuse) of memory, for an article entitled “¿Merece la pena memorizar algo con tanta tecnología?” (“With so much technology, is it worth memorizing anything?”) (pdf).

It’s a tricky subject, and above all, one that is difficult to explain. For some reason, as soon as you try to explain to someone that memory is the most abused capacity in traditional learning models and that the ability to remember stuff does not make you more educated or more intelligent, they automatically think that you want to see a society of ignoramuses who have to Google everything, which makes me wonder about their iry intelligence. Who would want a world like that?

In short, this view has nothing to do with the new model of learning I defend, where memory is used, but in a natural way: you memorize what you usually use, what is very valuable to know without having to search for it, and that you have seen most recently. This RFV (Recency — Frequency — Value) algorithm allows the memory to work optimally, rather than rote learning. The key to remembering stuff is through use, by practice, by the attribution of value, rather than being tested. The value of the methodology, moreover, is that this learning is also done in an interesting, entertaining and painless way: learning doesn’t have to be painful.

Here is the full text of the exchange with Sergio:

Q. What are the advantages of having most of the world’s knowledge at a click?

R. The emphasis must shift from memorization to knowing how to search efficiently. The problem, at the moment, is that too many people take the first result they find, and are often unable even to differentiate advertising from genuine results, or that because they have previously clicked on a series of results, their search engine has locked them in a loop that reinforces their biases and beliefs, and avoids exposing them to other types of results. The problem (and the solution) lies in education: for too long we have believed that we should incorporate technology to education vertically, as another science, when what we should be doing is incorporating it horizontally, into all disciplines, and teaching everything within a digital medium. We are still overly dependent on textbooks, an outdated approach that makes students believe that everything they need can be found in them, rather than encouraging them to take advantage of technology and look for more answers, which in turn will help them spot fake news and disinformation.

Q. So should we stop storing information in our brain and simply rely on technology?

R. The memory is an algorithm: we naturally memorize what we have seen most recently, what we see most frequently, or what we attach most value to. This RFV (Recent, Frequent, Valuable) algorithm is what leads us to memorize some things and not others. We become knowledgeable on a subject when we memorize concepts and their relationship, not because we’ve learned them by heart. We learn and memorize information we are constantly reading about, and that has a very high value. This is the difference between somebody who knows what they know merely from books, and those who have applied it and acquired experience. Education should be a process that allows the memory to be grounded in experience, through application, not repetition or note-taking. We learn best through direct experience, through stimuli of various kinds.

Q. How will we use information in the future?

R. We manage information best when we place it in context, and the best way to build contexts is to navigate in that information, seeing everything around it, how it is organized, who is saying what, etc. For this reason, the pre-digested experience of a textbook is much more impoverishing than the opportunity to search — with the proper training in how to search online — and gain the bigger picture. When the process of getting the right information, discussing it, etc, becomes the first phase of learning, the moment comes when we can use that information in context, and that mean designing learning around practical experiences, managing concepts, discussion, role-playing, the case method and many other possibilities.

With the technology we have at our disposal, we should never have to read notes over and again, and instead we should be able to “get” into history, watch movies, discuss, understand the context of each historical fact, etc.

Mathematics? Obviously, we have to have a grounding in the basics, but searching the web for the different ways theories are explained is a valuable process in itself. We have to apply this approach to every subject, each methodology: once students know how to search for information online, there is nothing they cannot learn. The stuff we memorize simply to pass an exam tends to be forgotten very quickly, while what is learned in a practical way stays with us for much longer.