How's this for a learning adventure?
A recent report in a national publication provided information about an interesting project developed by a teacher of 10 and 11-year-old students. That would put them in what? Grade 5?
On the first day back in school after summer break, she gave her class an assignment of 100 general knowledge and trivia questions to answer in a week.
The students grinned. It would be a piece of cake. Give them an hour and ... and then the educator dashed their plans with the second part of the assignment.
They had to answer the questions without the use of the Internet. In other words, no Google or Wikipedia junk. In fact, no computers allowed.
The questions were wide ranging, such as "What is the population density of Hong Kong? What is the German word for horse?"
Now this was not some old-tyme granny teacher one-year removed from retirement. This was a rather recently graduated educator who was, quite frankly, worried about her students' achievement levels. She wanted to test their critical thinking and problem solving skills. She warned them that they had to find the answer sans Wi-Fi or any other cyber time savers.
Soon the students began to discover they actually had people around them.They had sources of knowledge and didn't really need Wikipedia. They stepped away from the gadgets. The withdrawal pains were brutal at first, but they stuck to the rules of the assignment. At least they said they did.
A lot of the parents weren't much help. They didn't know where to look for answers either. No surfing on smartphone? Whaddya do? Where's the library?
Well, the kid who was featured in the article had an elder relative who was a retired German teacher. He not only learned the word for horse ... but a whole lot more about Germany.
The Hong Kong answer was found in a book called an atlas.
He also needed to get the postal code for Ulukhaktok in the N.W.T. Well gee, there was this place called a post office. Never heard of it before. Didn't know what went on there. He found out it was a place where things called letters went. A strange new world, and also a place where you could find out about Ulukhaktok.
Our featured kid managed to find the answer to 99 of the 100 questions. He missed the world record for haggis hurling.
The adventure taught the 11 year-olds that actual people, not computer sites, could help them and they were happy to do so. They learned how to be sociable, how to keep their heads up while talking to these humans ... look them in the eye instead of down at a Droid. It was a great adventure for the kids who reported that they kinda enjoyed this unique experience of finding things that weren't on a screen.
But before we get too excited, let me give you the results of a similar assignment given to a class of Grade 11 students. They were challenged to go three days without Internet technology. Not so encouraging on this file. It seems less than five per cent of the class had the willpower to go the three days. So while the Grade 5s may not have been completely hooked, the Grade 11s were totally addicted.
Hey, Christmas is coming. Just remember it's not about your presents, it's about your presence.
People make Christmas events memorable, not gifts. Just in case you were wondering.
