Why should technology be integrated into social studies classrooms? How has the learning from our first session influenced your answer? Please support your views with content from the readings.
I am constantly amazed by how much technology has changed in my lifetime. It is remarkable how much research I was able to conduct during my undergrad years using online journals, databases, and e-books. Scholarly tales of sitting in the library for hours poring over books will be a thing of the past, if they are not already. The number of resources to which students have access is ever growing, and networking tools like Twitter, Facebook, wikis, and blogs make sharing ideas and knowledge easier than ever before. As a future social studies educator I feel that it would be irresponsible of me not to teach my students how to access and use these resources to their greatest advantage.
In Web Literacy for Educators, Alan November identifies several reasons why teachers need to integrate activities that support media literacy into the curriculum. Most basically, teachers can guide students through reading URLs and determining the reliability of a website (5-14). They can also teach students how to use different search engines and refine their searches so they are more effective (17-24). Most students will have experience using the Internet, but as a teacher you get the opportunity to show them the academic applications of the technology they use on a regular basis.
I think one of the most exciting things November discusses is the way teachers use blogs, wikis, podcasts, and RSS feeds to enrich the learning environment. The experience students get by making presentations in class is important for developing skills like public speaking, but today's technology allows students to make presentations to the whole world, and I think that is just so incredible. The examples November gives, Chris's Story (80) and Natalie's Story (90), make me want to try to incorporate online collaboration in my future classroom. Publishing their work online and working with students from around the world can be a huge motivator for students to participate.
According to the NCSS Position on Media Literacy, “The multimedia age requires new skills for accessing, analyzing, evaluating, creating, and distributing messages within a digital, global, and democratic society.” Therefore, teachers have a responsibility not only to their students, but to society as a whole, to prepare young people to live in a world that will require them to be media literate.
This class, Integrating Technology in Social Studies, has already pushed me out of my comfort zone; I never thought I would sign up for a Twitter account or write a blog, but I already see great value in learning to use these tools. Odds are, my students will use them, and how better to make content relevant than by putting it into a context to which they can relate? In the classroom you can go so much further than a textbook or a lecture when you use resources that engage the students' interest and make them excited about learning.
References:
- November, Alan. (2008). Web Literacy for Educators- chapters 1, 2, and 6. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
