points to ponder about technology in social studies

I read an article this week entitled "Using Technology for Powerful Social Studies Learning" that asked questions that should be considered when using technology in the social studies classroom based on the NCSS standards.

As I read the article I began to ask the questions to myself of what I've observed in the World Cultures course of the Virtual School.

Powerful Teaching and Learning Questions to Consider

1. Does the technology-based product help promote meaningful social studies?

Students in the virtual school are receiving meaningful information but are also learning meaningful skills through their social studies courses in the virtual school as students learn networks of knowledge, skills, and values that are useful in and out of school.

2. Does the technology-based product help promote social studies that is integrative?

Social studies through the virtual school is integrative as "the curriculum and instruction address a broad range of content, concepts, generalizations and ideas in an interdisciplinary manner. Relevant information is drawn from the social sciences, history, the arts and the humanities. In this context, the web of information resources available on the Internet has considerable potential for integrative learning."

3. Does the technology-based product help promote value based social studies instruction?

The Social Studies standards state that "Social studies is value based when instruction is directed at having students grapple with the ethical and social policy implications of historical and contemporary issues." Students enrolled in social studies courses in the virtual school are asked to connect current events with historical events that combine ethical issues with textbook questions. Free responses and discussions allow student input their understanding of issues and apply their interpretations into the discussions.

4. Does the technology-based product help in planning social studies instruction that is
challenging?

Unlike the confines of many traditional classrooms the virtual school allows students to work at their own pace and provides the ability for students who are especially interested in certain areas to complete additional coursework. For these reasons I think that the virtual school has the ability to provide a challenging form of instruction that the traditional school often is unable to.

5. Does the technology-based product help in designing learning activities that actively engage students in significant social studies content?

Students in the virtual school are able to "construct knowledge so as to develop important social understandings." Students are also given the opportunity to experience social studies first hand through resources such as virtual field trips that can take the student around the world without ever leaving home or by exchanging cultural information with a class on the other side of the globe.


After answering these questions I definitely think that the virtual school meets all the requirements of of the National Council for the Social Studies.

http://members.ncss.org/se/6103/610306.html

learning across cultures

Perhaps the greatest use of technology in the social studies is the ability to learn across cultures through the connection with students who are across the globe. I read an article this week about a teacher in New York City who partnered up with a teacher in a small rural area in New Zealand. The teachers wanted to educate students on the culture of another area but at the same time help them realize the importance of their own culture. The students were able to describe their worlds to people their age in their own words. The teachers "set up frameworks within which students can learn in open-ended and creative ways."

The teachers describe this learning across cultures project: "As a source for learning that “cultures are dynamic and ever-changing,” we made it possible for our students to exchange knowledge with one another. To “demonstrate the value of cultural diversity, as well as cohesion, within and across groups,” we used our two countries as models. Our mutual emphasis on both Maori culture and the family folklore of all our students helped to teach “how language, literature, the arts, architecture, other artifacts, traditions, beliefs, values, and behaviors contribute to the development and transmission of culture.”

To begin the project the students were assigned one local place such as fire stations or parks that were photographed and sent across the globe, rather than sharing about the major tourist attractions, . The students at the other location sent back information about similar places in their country with photographs so that students in each location could compare and contrast the places and cultures. By doing this, the teachers also learned about the lives of their own students.
Students also sent family or local folklore across the globe that taught students about cultural differences and similarities as well as it taught the individual students about their own familial and local culture which they may have been previously unaware of.

Throughout the project, students in both locations learned about indigenous cultures, the importance of preserving language, the importance of understanding new immigrants, and the value of technology.

I think that projects such as these teamed with the virtual school curriculum will ultimately provide the social interaction as well as the personal transmission of knowledge that will help students to grow and understand their culture as well as the culture of others. Technology is opening doors to understanding that have been available before but not as easily accessible.

http://members.ncss.org/se/6302/630202.html

primary sources

For the subject of Social Studies, it is important that students are taught how to find and use primary sources. Students in social studies courses are often uninterested in the textbook approaches. Luckily, with virtual schooling, students have access to primary sources at the click of a button. By teaching students how to locate and incorporate primary sources into their research and education, students are better prepared to meet the demands of college professors in the future.

Primary Source Resources:
One primary source resource that I found this week is the Spartacus Educational website. The website is a tool used by students and teacher in the United Kingdom that provides a list of topics along the left side of the website. When the links are clicked, information provided includes people involved to the historical event as well as many primary resources.
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/

Perhaps the most comprehensive resource for primary documents is the Library of Congress website which I have already included in a previous blog, but the Library of Congress has also created a program for teachers that teaches how to learn with primary sources http://www.loc.gov/teachers/tps/
http://www.eschoolnews.com/funding/funding-news/index.cfm?i=53076;_hbguid=78e814cc-c535-4550-b39c-43445e80aca9

A close second in the running for comprehensive primary source resource is the Primary Source Learning page which is a database of primary resources and links with the Library of Congress. This website helps teachers to identify/locate primary sources that are associated with a specific event or topic that they are teaching.
http://www.primarysourcelearning.org/index.shtml

world cultures

In the article "To Russia With...Technology" Beal explains how using technology can build expectations, create high interest, apply differentiated instruction, and provide alternative assessment opportunities for students. Beal and a team of graduate students work on the Russia Project that created "the ultimate virtual field trip" as Beal and two graduate students blogged and posted photographs of their trek across Russia that was a research based project used to prove that curriculum integration was the answer to how early adolescents learn best.

Beal describes their time in Russia and how the field trip worked: "Each day in Russia, we posted e-mails with digital pictures of the mountains of snow, cultural happenings, and historic buildings. Through word-of-mouth, we gained a following. When we returned, we answered e-mails from a host of sixth-grade teachers and students. Students had questions that we hadn’t addressed in our e-mails. We were asked to visit several classrooms to talk about the trip. Teachers suggested that we might want to broaden the project to involve them and their students."

While it is not possible for every teacher to take an elaborate trip across the globe to create a virtual field trip like Beal and the graduate students did, the resources for students to take the virtual trips that others have created are readily available.

As I observe the virtual school World Cultures class I see how the curriculum lends itself to the supplementary resources of virtual field trips to experience visually the imagery of other people and places. I think it is vital that students learn about the culture of other regions and people groups and it is hard to fully grasp what culture is through text only. I think the idea of virtual field trips will greatly benefit students of the virtual schools that use them as we work on helping students to understand the global culture that is fashioning around them.

http://members.ncss.org/se/6603/660304.shtml

virtual field trips

One of the exciting opportunities that virtual schools can provide students is the ability to travel the world from their computer. Virtual field trips allow students to have access to places they may never be able to go. Whether its the White House or Egypt, student can experience the sites and sounds that have been previously out of reach.

A quick search for virtual field trips pulls up hundreds of resources in any subject area. Students can have behind the scenes access to museums or can learn the history of a specific location. Virtual field trips provide students with the information they would learn from a textbook but it also provides a feeling of exploration and visualization that is often left out of text-based learning. The virtual school can use virtual field trip resources to supplement student learning.

Below are some of the virtual field trip resources I found interesting.


http://www.theteachersguide.com/virtualtours.html
http://www.thinkport.org/Classroom/trips.tp
http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/whtour/
http://www.middleschool.net/curlink/virtual.htm
http://www.techtrekers.com/virtualft.htm


http://members.ncss.org/se/6403/640305.html

technology and social studies

The article "Technology and Social Studies: An Introduction" the author Charles White discusses how technology has and is impacting technology. One important aspect of the impact of technology in social studies, and in any subject for that matter, is that today's students attention is often lost if not visual and technologically stimulated. In classrooms that are strictly textbooks and worksheet based students have little to no desire to learn. The virtual school provides students information through a media that interests them: the internet. Virtual schools, in addition to other technological innovations have provided a way to "attract and hold the attention of a new generation of young computer users, whose expectations for such realism have grown exponentially over the years."

One of the other benefits that the internet provides for social studies that this article mentions is that students are connected globally through newer technologies. White states "students and teachers are put in touch with resources around the world." By having access to people and places around the globe at their fingertips, students are better able to understand world cultures and regions that they may not be able to visit due to location or financial reasons. "Getting connected to distant people, places, and resources is the second great explosion of technology in recent years."

The virtual school that I am observing this semester is attended freely by students all over the state but is available to anyone at a fee. Other virtual schools and courses that I have perused throughout this course have students who attend from around the globe - such as the graduate course in which I am enrolled. Through discussion, blogging, and forums students learn about each other and the places they are from. Thus, culture is shared at the click of a button like never before.


http://members.ncss.org/se/6103/610303.html

Library of Congress Online Resources to Enhance History Teaching

An article published on the National Council for the Social Studies website
provided me with insight to historical resources available at the click of a button. The Library of Congress and the Social Science Education Consortium have digitized collections of photographs, playbills, musical compositions and a wide assortment of other items that place primary sources at a student's fingertips.

In addition to providing these resources, the Library of Congress also has model lessons for teachers to show them how they can incorporate these tools and resources into their lesson plans.

One of the things I noticed in the virtual school this week is that the front course page can be changed to match the course so that when students log in they can be engaged in materials from the first screen. My host said that images and audio could be added to this as well so this would be a good place to incorporate music from a specific location or time period to provide another glimpse into the historical perspective. Links to primary resources throughout the course also help students be able to have a visual connection to the past.

The Library of Congress - American Memory Collection:
The http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html

http://members.ncss.org/se/6203/620303.html