This contribution explores the role of memory in today's teaching and learning, especially in (higher) education. While the paper engages with the relation between memory and identity, it is primarily concerned with the impact of technology (e.g. the Internet) on teaching methodologies and students' approach to learning and their ability to retain and recall information.
The paper investigates to what extent educators reflect with students on the role of mnemonics and memory in the learning process: from the acquisition of notions (vocabulary, definitions, periodisations), and the processing of information (e.g. calculations), to the development of analytical and critical skills (e.g. intertextuality; the ability to distinguish between facts and fake news).
Whereas rote learning (memorisation) is widely condemned as not conducive to proper understanding or reflection, the overreliance on an external, 'digital', memory has hitherto received little scholarly attention in higher education. Several studies point to the positive impact of 'transactive memory' to group performance (Lewis, Lange & Gillis: 2005; Jackson and Moreland: 2009).
[1] My paper, on the other hand, will investigate what happens when the group (or the transactive memory system) consists of a computer or the Internet, and learners (or users) who systematically rely on computational memory to retrieve information and remember. To what extent is the learners' ability to recall information weakened by this constant reliance? How is the quality of their learning process affected?
[1] Moreland and Jackson define transactive memory as 'a shared awareness among group members of who knows what' (2009: 509).