Do we need another blog about social studies? I mean, there's got to be hundreds, maybe thousands of blogs that talk about social studies. And almost all of them are very good.
I'm a little biased, of course. I like this one. It's been around since January 2008 and so I'm kind of invested. But I do think there is room for another social studies blog - the more conversations we have about what we do and how we do it the better.
I will be flying to the great city of Atlanta to attend the Spring iPad Summit at Georgia Tech. The new conference (which has sold out at every offering) is hosted by Ed Tech Teacher. I will be presenting this Friday, focusing on using the iPad for personal professional development.
Keep an eye on my blog where I will be live blogging the event with assistance from Beth Holland. You can also follow the event on twitter using #ettipad. If Fall was any indicator, this will be an amazing event for educators and administrators alike.
If you teach Social Studies or History and want to incorporate more technology into your curriculum, check out “Teaching History with Technology.” The site includes many free and paid resources. Every week, they highlight a tool in their “New Resource of the Week” section. It contains a variety of lesson plans on various subjects, US and World History, AP Subjects, Geography, and more. They even provide ways for educators to expand on a favorite of multimedia incorporation: the PowerPoint presentation in their “Presentations and Multimedia” section. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Visit “Teaching History with Technology” to explore further.
This quarter’s Gilder Lehrman’s “History Now” series features the historical role of first ladies in American politics. The issue, “First Ladies’ Contributions to Political Issues and the National Welfare” highlights the roles of the President’s spouse from Martha Washington all the way to Betty Ford. It explores their personalities, political temperament, social role, and even controversial status.
In addition to these fascinating articles, they include two lesson plans that help educators present the material in alliance with the common core as well as an interactive map of their birth places. Gilder Lehrman provides a plethora of resources for teachers of American History.
I first heard about The Southern Poverty Law Center from my aunt. She told me all the things they were doing to rid the world of hate and injustice. Civil rights lawyers Morris Dees and Joseph Levin Jr. founded SPLC in 1971 and the organization is known globally for “tracking and exposing the activities of hate groups.” SPLC’s project, Teaching Tolerance, offers free magazine subscriptions to teachers, as well as free film kits, which include DVDs (and accompanying teacher’s guide) about bullying,…
A Media Specialist’s Guide to the Internet: Teaching Tolerance to Our Students.
I’ve played with Google Art Project since its inception, but recent renovations make me very excited! If you’re unfamiliar with Google Art Project, it is an online “museum,” a repository of high resolution images and 3D gallery views of art collections from more than 40 countries and 151 collections. Here’s a brief video outlining how it works:
If you teach Art, Art History, or want to incorporate artworks into your classroom, it is a great free resource to explore collections from around the world. Students can even collect and curate their own works. They have several lesson plans and ideas in their education section.
Another year of school is upon us. My son, who just turned three, just started his first school. He excitedly talks about it, plays pretend school with his Superman and Thomas the Train toys, and loves to carry his new backpack around our house. Watching his eagerness, I hope that, in some way, we all feel that way about this new school year.
And why not be excited? We teach in amazing times. Just think about the technology that you carry around in your pocket or the things you are able to do on the Internet. Technology makes meaningful collaborative and engaging interactive classroom experiences possible with minimal effort….
Doing More with Less (and Other Practical Educational Technology Tidbits) | Edutopia.
This is reposted from my article PLP Voices.
Many educators feel overwhelmed by new technology and may feel apprehensive when it comes to adopting it in the classroom. But I’m here to make the case that learning to use technology and employing it as part of your curriculum is actually easier than ever. Way easier.
Both hardware and software have never been more user friendly. Developers know that consumers want ease of use and have delivered in an unprecedented manner. Additionally, all producers are now compelled to provide free and easy how-to instructions – trust me, no more 1000-page manuals written in convoluted “tech speak” or a quick trip to the big box bookstore for the Dummies guide.
If you see a new project or idea that you want to bring to your own classroom that requires an unfamiliar software tool, do not hesitate to adopt it. With rare exceptions, you’ll find introductory videos at the producer’s website, tutorials by fellow educators at YouTube, and a community of users at the product’s Facebook or social-network page who are eager to help. If you’ve developed a Personal Learning Network using Twitter and other social media (and if you haven’t, now is a good time), you’ll have even more potential sources of support.
Here are just a few methods that I use to teach myself new tools as well as provide my own “technical support.”
If I am interested in trying out a new (and most often free) tool in my classroom (Google Docs, Evernote, iMovie, Dropbox, or more) then as Nike taught me, I “just do it!” I download the software and start exploring. Most people are surprised at how easy these tools are to use.
I set aside one hour of uninterrupted time where I simply sit down and play with the program or tool. I try out the features and get creative! No one else is watching. This is time for me to get familiar with the designers’ intentions, the user interface, and to brainstorm about its possibilities. I don’t have to worry about colleagues, students, or anyone else looking over my shoulder.
When I was first learning about digital stories and exploring how to employ them in my classroom, I sat down with iMovie and tried to make my own documentary. While using this software, I found that I had a series of questions. For example: “How do I add a transition?” or “How do I insert credits?”. How did I find my answers? I simply googled it. Google’s algorithms are so user friendly now that you can simply type in the question: “How do I add credits in iMovie?” and your browser displays a series of instructional documents and videos. If you have a question, “google it.” Googling is also a good way to search for examples of how other teachers using the same tool you’re exploring.
YouTube isn’t just a place for silly cat and adorable dog videos. Amid the dreck there’s actually an amazing repository of knowledge, including lots of helpful clips posted by educators.
A quick YouTube search, using nothing more than the name of the tool or program you’re exploring, will turn up step-by-step instructions on how to troubleshoot common problems, use specialized features, and even more. (Videos with high numbers of views are a good place to start.)
I have a series of Ed Tech channels that I follow for my favorite webtools and programs, where I often learn about new and exciting features. I can honestly say that YouTube has become my go-to resource for any technology problem, question, or pursuit currently on my plate. It’s so easy to find what you need and the information is usually offered in an easy to follow format, with little to no technical jargon. If you find that’s not the case, try another video on the topic. There’s seldom just one.
As an educator, I often go through some internal struggle before I look to my students for answers to technology quesitons. After all, aren’t I supposed to be the font of knowledge? Then I get over it. They often know more than I do about available programs and features, and they also have the knack for figuring out the user interface quickly. I can tell you that they are never more excited than when they can show their classmates and me something new. Not only does it allow them to showcase their talents, but also it provides them key opportunities of leadership in the classroom. As a result, they become more confident and engaged in their academic environment.
What I have learned over the years about employing technology in my classroom is that you have to stretch yourself, get over your fears, and trust your skills as an educator and your students as learners. The results I have gotten have far exceeded my expectations. The resources and tools now available for those who want to learn to use these tools is not only free, it’s readily accessible and easy to use.
So go in your room. Close the door. Boot up (or wake up your iPad). Guess what. You can’t break this stuff. And as your confidence and knowledge grows, you’ll be amazed at how much these tools can actually make your teaching more engaging, more fun and more effective.
My students are currently working on two projects: a digital story and a research essay. Both of these assignments require ample amounts of research using a variety of sources – books, academic journals, and yes, even websites. This time around, I took a moment to show my students Evernote, a handy little tool for organizing, well, everything. Better yet, it’s free! If you’re not familiar with Evernote, check out this introductory video below and be sure to visit their website.
I find Evernote especially useful to students who are trying to organize a variety of media for some type of presentation or research project. Its great search features and innate organizational tools help even the most disorganized student to “keep it together.”
For these particular assignments, I like to encourage my students to create a notebook for their project “Research Essay” or “Digital Story” will all work well. This is where they will store all of the material that they find for their topic.
Next, I make sure that they have downloaded and installed Evernote’s webclipper. This allows you to save anything that you pull up online – images, documents, videos, etc. It goes right into the folder that you select.
Now you may think “I don’t want them to just use the web.” However, remember, that many traditional resources are now digitized! Virtually all academic journals are hosted online via repositories like JSTOR. Many books are also hosted digitally via institutional databases or resources such as Google Books or Project Gutenberg. Even for those resources that are in traditional “paper” format, students can take pictures with their smart phones (preferably using a document scanner like Genius Scan that will enhance the images and store them as a grouped PDF) and then send those materials off to the same Evernote folder!
One of the best features of using the web clipper is that it includes the information students need to cite their sources. A struggle for many beginning scholars is that they are just learning about citation and copyright. Often, they do not realize they are missing key information until later, when they are formulating a bibliography or works cited page. This can be detrimental if the resource is no longer available or, worse yet, they don’t know where they found it! However, with Evernote and the Evernote clipper, it’s now all at their fingertips on any device (their computer, smart phone, or tablet). It’s phenomenal!
Perhaps the greatest feature of using Evernote and Evernote webclipper is that it truly does save time and energy. Instead of copy and pasting content and URL’s (hoping not to forget anything) into another document that you then email to yourself or put in the cloud, it’s all simply one click. Literally! Click it (perhaps add some notes and/or a few tags) and you’re done! Finito! Fertig! It’s all stored for you to go back and read over, think about, and organize into a final working piece.
I can tell you, I’ve never seen a piece of technology picked up as quickly as Evernote when my students begin their work on a new research project. Now… if I could just get them as eager about it when organizing their general course notes…. Perhaps a post for next time?
A great, short video about how to investigate and analyze digital content
