Another obstacle in my particular area is the fact that the content of history hasn't changed and teachers could easily get caught up in doing the same thing year after year. Not wanting to "reinvent the wheel" is a problem many teachers encounter, especially when there are not a lot of new discoveries about the area they teach.
Because social studies is not a tested subject area, the budget is often low and teachers do not have the funds to purchase technologies that are not useful to the entire building. Not being tested means that "technology materials tend to be directed toward other content areas" (Roblyer, 2013). Open source materials are a good solution to this problem, but also take a lot of time to find and learn before creating lessons with them.
References
ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.
Hi Erin,
ReplyDeleteYou make some good points in your blog post! I really like your suggested solution to finding and testing subject area material for Social Studies, with a small group of students and/or colleagues. Great idea. The success of this test will somewhat depend on the patience and flexibility of those who are trying it. I've had experiences where fellow colleagues, and students haven't been fully open to something new. So, having that willingness to really try something and stick with it for awhile is important.
Unfortunately so true about subject areas that are not tested have less resources :( But, like you said, fortunate that there are so many open source, free resources. The key researching and testing them. One of my favorites sites for researching web sites and apps is Common Sense Education: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/educators. They have some great lists of apps by topic and by subject area. From the home page, click on the Reviews and Ratings menu. Here is their page of "Resources for Social Studies Teachers" https://www.commonsense.org/education/social-studies
Lisa