Technology and Social Studies

I'm wondering how social studies teachers use technology in their classrooms. I'm actually writing my doctoral dissertation on Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK) using social studies, actually world history, as a framework. TPCK is the knowledge that a teacher has to have to effectively enable students to use technology in the classroom in the same way that practitioners use technology in the work place. So, TPCK with regards to world history would enable teachers to help students use technology as world historians use it.

Tags: social, socialstudies, studies

0 members like this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Darren Rodine on August 28, 2007 at 8:47am

Good Morning, I teach at a technology rich school. Laptops in the classroom on a 2-1 and 1-1 ratio. Our team of specialist is currently working on way to increase this avenue. We have worked up several guidelines in social studies for PPT. I-Movie, podcasting, Excel Posters etc... We have our I-Team (Instructional intergration team) who puts on workshops at late start school dates, before and after school sessions. Our distict awards points for attending which are then turned in to money that they can buy projectors, i-pods, cameras, etc... It was so sucessful that we now have teachers who are submitting their work and how they use it in the classroom as proof of use, and to encourage others to do the same. It has been a wonderful program and grows more every year. The Kansas Dept. of Education is always watching to see what new programs we are doing here at Twin Valley Schools.
If you would like some examples, or other information please contact us or let us know.
Thanks, and look forward to seeing some of the results here.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Nancy Bosch on August 28, 2007 at 6:49pm

Darren--great staff development incentive! We get an extra duy hourly pay for some tech staff development classes---works out to $10.00 an hour after taxes and all the classes are from 4:30-7:30, my nap time!! Not worth going but would make the effort if I got equipment for my kids. I'm passing your post on to our stff dev dept. I'm in Kansas, too. Are you w/ Greenbush? N

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Karen Richardson on August 28, 2007 at 12:57pm

Hi, Andrew. I'm also using TPCK as the conceptual framework for my doctoral dissertation. I'll be studying high school English teachers as they learn about then implement a new technology in their classrooms. We've always done so much tech-centered professional development that tends to make tech seem very generic. I think seeing how it integrates with specific content and pedagogy is an important step in getting technology used more effectively in the classroom.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Matt Richardson on August 29, 2007 at 7:04pm

I hope I'm not too presumptuous, but I think I might be your guy. I teach five periods of World History, and I am starting to use more and more technology in my classroom. Currently, I use an LCD projector connected to my teacher laptop to present information. I haven't written on the board in years -- which is good, since my handwriting is awful! I present using a combination of PowerPoint, MSWord, OpenOffice, Inspiration and Acrobat.

The exciting part though, is that, after two solid years of scheming and and struggling, I finally have a classroom set of student stations! These machines are three-to-five year old Dells that I, um, "inherited" when the business department got a lab upgrade. They are currently loaded with Windows XP, IE7, Inspiration, MSOffice and Google Earth. More stuff will be added as needed, of course.

Now, having a whole set of these machines is new to me, so I'm still working on how to have students using them. So far, we have done basic web-quests, used the machines to automate testing, and I've just started to get their feet wet with using the web to figure out what their vocab terms mean, rather than just the terms' definitions. Mind you, it's only the second week of school, so I'm sure I'll have more things for them to do with the computers as we go along.

Hope this is helpful to you. If you want more information, or have suggestions for ways I might better utilize these machines, let me know.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Ed Jones on August 30, 2007 at 5:54am

L.O.L. , I'm writing on how teachers don't have enough subject matter knowledge, certainly don't pass on enough in history (esp. world history), and how Web 2.0 is a fabulous waste of time that makes the situation worse, not better. As a sub-topic, we talk about how trying to make little learners emulate world historians is the grand pedagogical error of the 21st century.

But I'm game. How do I learn what TPCK is?

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by ddeubel on August 30, 2007 at 6:13pm

I graduated in anthropology and taught geography. Still my first love. Now training teachers in EFL . But.....I use this site with EFL students and it is super for videos for geography lessons. Very adaptable for the teachers and I just gave it 10 stars on my own site of the day thread It is Geography at the movies.A round of applause to these guys and I like the places category best.

David
www.ddd.batcave.net