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.
ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.
"showing students that there are a lot of ways to learn one thing" Great point in that technology allows teachers to approach learning in multiple ways.
ReplyDelete"students are more likely to remember any content if they are engaged in the learning." I just saw a quick video clip that cited a study that showed the lack of retention in students - Students retook a Science final exam 3 months later, and average score went from B+ to an F. Just 3 months and subject matter that they showed as mastering was now lost to them! We need to rethink how we're teaching. And, I think active engagement as you point out is one of the keys to retention of learning.
Thanks! Lisa