Learning by heart is 'pointless for Google generation'

The ideas presented in this article follow the ideas of asking essential questions.  With textbooks and computers storing all the dates and facts, is it important for students to memorize these facts or learn about and apply deeper understandings and connections between these facts?  

As a student of the traditional approach of memorization, I did not learn memorized items for any longer then the test.  Even today, I cannot recall many dates in history.  The things that stayed with me over long periods of time are the things we explored and discussed-not just memorized.  In order to create a more meaningful learning environment, I believe you have to have lessons that engage and interest the students.  Is it more important to know the dates of the Civil War or the reasons that brought about the war and what we learned from it?  In my opinion it is more important to know the what and why not just the when.

Now for all those die hard history buffs that love those date, I am not saying we abandon the importance of dates and facts.  How else would we we be able to have Jeopardy?  I am saying to create opportunities for students to learn how to interpret and apply the knowledge surrounding these facts.  When this occurs, it engages the students in a higher level of thinking and can assist in them learning the "google" facts.  These types of activities are the ones that I remember the most, not the tests on the dates of the wars or years the Presidents were in office.  I guess it is for each person to decide which is most important to them.