Bringing Social Studies Into the Technology World

Advantages to Technology

There are many advantages to intergrating and using technology in the classroom. From a Social Studies view, technology allows the concepts to be brought to life. It has the potential to transform a learners experiences and actively engage them in learning the concepts. Teachers who are constantly integrating tech into their lessons are allowing students to become more familiar with the tech and more involved in not only the lesson, but with other classmates. Using tech in the classroom can range from using a time line generator software to using the iPad or mobile device to allow for research on topics. The technology does not have to be a high-level of technology, it can be as simple as opening GoogleEarth and searching for something. The video below shows how a 9th grade Social Studies teacher uses YouTube in his classroom. 

Disadvantages to Technology 

One of the many problems that teachers have when teching social studies is covering all of the material in a short amount of time. There are 10 different themes that teachers must cover or hint at in social studies. Intergrating technology into these themes can be hard. Since, in the past, the teacher has been the main or primary source of information , many teachers feel that intergrating technology will take away from the teacher- student relationship. When information is given to students by the teacher, we know and assume that it is reliable and truthful, but when students use the internet to search for materials, they are not always obtaining reliable and vaild information. One of the more voiced problems with intergrating tech into the classrooms, is the cost. To supple 30 students with a time line generator software costs around $1,000 dollars. This is just not relisitic to every classroom and school system. The video below details a couple of disadvatnages of using and intergrating technoogy in the classroom. 

Activites and Programs

While it is still not a definite good or bad idea to intergrate technology in the area of social studies, I have complied a list of specific programs and activites that teachers can use to begin to intergrate technology into thier lessons.

• GoogleEarth
• Google Maps
• Geospacial Technologies
• YouTube
• Geocaching
• Google Docs
• TimeLiner

Some other great resources are digital storytelling, virtual field trips, adventure learning, concept mapping, and even creating news articles. The possibilites for using technology in the social studies classroom is really unlimited.