Using Technology to Teach Social Studies

Teaching social studies, and particularly the past, means that things don’t change much as far as content goes. In some areas, things are constantly changing, but when you speak of a specific war, for example, there isn’t a lot of new information coming out each year. This means that it is up to teachers to change how the content is taught so that students are engaged and excited about the topic.

The relative advantage of using technology to make social studies more engaging, relevant and authentic is that you are showing students that there are a lot of ways to learn one thing. Robyler (2016) discusses the fact that social studies in particular often requires a large amount of reading, so “educators should consider how to provide multiple means of accessing information such as photos, movies, audio and simplified text” so that students can find out that same information without having to simply read a large amount of text.

In general, students are more likely to remember ay content if they are engaged in the learning. Simply reading a textbook is not going to help most students, especially in this day and age when kids are used to getting everything instantly, highly adept at using technology and will most likely be using technology in their future jobs. The practice of using technology will only benefit students as long as it is used properly. In this way, students will not only see technology being used and learning both content and technology, but they will learn the advantage of using technology as opposed to traditional styles.

References

Roblyer, M. D. (2016). Integrating educational technology into teaching (7th 
     ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson. 

Gaming

Using games in a classroom can be a great way to motivate students to learn about something that they may not be particularly interested in otherwise. They can be used to help differentiate instruction by giving students the opportunity to work at their own pace and be rewarded for growing and incremental accomplishments rather than finishing a complete task. Willis (2011) discusses the benefits of incremental goal progress stating that “when the brain receives that feedback that this progress has been made, it reinforces the networks used to succeed” meaning that players will want to continue to achieve a dopamine reward and will continue to work at the next level, and then the next level.

Though I do not agree with most of his views on Millenials and the fact that they should not be blamed for things like not taking responsibility for their actions, Langlois (2013) discusses the benefits of playing video games today by Millenials versus the games played by Generation X.  He says that today’s are “game worlds where survival and thriving require critical thinking, social collaboration, and lots of trial and error for mastery” as opposed to games like Pong where maybe hand-eye coordination was a benefit.

Games in all forms can benefit students. This does not always mean video games, but could be print based games as well. This type of learning makes it possible for students to discover something that will work for them and can bring them to higher levels than they ever thought possible.

References

Langlois, M. (2013, January 23). Epic every day: What video games and the millenials can teach us if we let them. Retrieved March 8, 2017, from Game Therapist website: http://www.gamertherapist.com/2013/01/23/epic-every-day-what-video-games-and-the-millenials-can-teach-us-if-we-let-them/

Willis, J. W., MD. (2011, April 14). A neurologist makes the case for the video game model as a learning tool. Retrieved March 8, 2017, from Edutopia website: https://www.edutopia.org/blog/neurologist-makes-case-video-game-model-learning-tool

Walled Garden

Please have a listen below. Thanks!

References

Bumgardner, S., & Knestis, K. (2011, May 1). Social networking as a tool for student and teacher learning. Retrieved March 1, 2017, from District Administration website: https://www.districtadministration.com/article/social-networking-tool-student-and-teacher-learning

Staff Writers. (2010, May 4). 100 inspiring ways to use social media in the classroom. Retrieved March 1, 2017, from Online Universities website: http://www.onlineuniversities.com/blog/2010/05/100-inspiring-ways-to-use-social-media-in-the-classroom/

Walled garden (2017). Retrieved March 1, 2017, from Webopedia website:

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/W/walled_garden.html