Are iPod-banning schools cheating our kids?

Memorizing information is valuable but not as valuable as the ability to find and use information. Yet we teach the low-value skill and ban the valuable one.

When kids take math tests, most teachers require them to "show their work" instead of doing problems "in their heads." Or they require calculators. Teachers are preparing students to function in a world where pencils and calculators are generally available. Banning iPods is like banning pencils or calculators.

What's the point of creating an unrealistic scenario that involves the total absence of widely available tools? Outside the classroom and after high school, a student can "always" have access to an iPod or an Internet-connected phone or computer.

Schools need to learn, too

If Johnny can get an "A" by using his iPod, what does that tell us about the necessity of memorizing the knowledge? What does that tell us about the power of electronic gadgets?

The larger, more interesting question is: Why do we devote so much time and energy teaching kids to memorize facts we know they'll forget? We should instead teach critical thinking, creative decision-making and sophisticated information retrieval.

We should teach kids how to function in the real world -- the world they live in, not the world their grandparents lived in.

That means kids should learn how to efficiently pack a gadget or computer full of content and figure out how to quickly access and use that content to solve problems and answer questions.

We need the iPod equivalent of "open-book tests," where gadgets are required, the tests are harder and demand of the student problem solving, creative thinking and deep understanding of the ideas, not just the ability to spit out words fed to them earlier.

Kids need to learn relevant skills in order to function in a changing world. Schools need to learn, too. It's time that schools accept the fact that the Internet and little electronic info-gadgets are everywhere and here to stay.

A revolution has occurred. In one generation, we've transformed a world where information is scarce and hard to find to a world where nearly all knowledge can be available to everyone, all the time.

Instead of pretending that revolution never happened, let's take advantage of it to propel students into a successful future. Let's teach them how to deal with the new problem of too much information.

Let's stop banning iPods and start requiring them.

Mike Elgan is a technology writer and former editor of Windows Magazine. He can be reached at mike.elgan@elgan.com or his blog: http://therawfeed.com.