1. Frelinghuysen Middle School
Social Studies 2.0: How to Effectively Utilize Technology in the Social Studies Classroom Without Having to be a Guru
Presented by:
Amy Bozza, Ed.M.
Frelinghuysen Middle School
Morristown, New Jersey

2. NCSS Guidelines for Technology in the Social Studies Classroom
The NCSS has created guidelines for Social Studies educators with regards to the purpose of utilizing technology in a social studies classroom.
GUIDELINE CATEGORIES
Technology Operations and Concepts
Planning and Designing Learning Environments and Experiences
Teaching, Learning, and the Curriculum
Assessment and Evaluation
Social, Ethical, Legal, and Human Issues

3. CAUTION!!!
Social Studies educators need to be careful that technology is not being used simply to say that a lesson involved technology.
Having students type a paper in Microsoft Word is no longer an infusion of technology in a classroom.
Technology should be added only when it can extend the lesson in a meaningful way.

4. Beyond Power Point
Use technology to show how we remember the people who have gone before.

5. Beyond Power Point
Use technology to make a large world smaller.

6. Use technology to make history come alive!
Beyond Power Point
Use technology to make history come alive!

7. Beyond Power Point
Warning!
Unpopular Idea Ahead!

8. Beyond Power Point
Trash the Text!

9. Google Earth Can be used to:
Give guided tours of important places within a location
Teach map skills
Teach geography skills
Give students a better understanding of where everything on Earth is located

11. Simulations What makes a strong simulation?
Students take on a “real life” character
Students are required to behave in a manner almost identical to how the actual “person” would have behaved
There are penalties for not making correct choices and students are told how these choices would have affected that character

12. Online Simulations The Luddites Simulation
Settle the Jamestown Colony
Salem Witch Trial Simulation

13. Simulation Games Sid Meier’s Civilization -strategy game
-build an empire from scratch, starting in 4,000 BC with one settler to building the first city, turning into an explorer or warrior
-expand your empire while competing against rivals while using geography and technological development
-engage in military and political meetings with other nations – establish diplomatic relations and explore maps
-plan city construction and scientific progress

14. Simulation Games Age of Empires: Rise of Rome
-students play and try to build Rome as they experience historical moments
With all simulation games, aside from just playing the games, let students find the historical errors

15. Geography Review and Discovery

16. Cell Phones in Social Studies
Be willing to accept a different type of product.
Camera Phones
Immediate polling
Ringtones with historical jingles
Research by dialing Google (Text with your question and they’ll respond within seconds to minutes)

17. Cell Phones in Social Studies
Check district policy and get permission from Superintendent or Principal
Permission forms should go home to inform parents
Toys to Tools: Connecting Student Cell Phones to Education by Liz Kolb (published by International Society for Technology in Education)
Gives lesson plans, templates for permission forms, and many rationales and ideas for using cell phones in the classroom.

18. iPods in Social Studies
Accept a different type of product!
Kids can make a podcast for you!
Go to iTunes and find podcasts on your content and share with kids.

19. Webquests Webquest.org http://webquest.org/index.php
Gives Curriculum Matrix for easier searches
Has a forum for online discussion about webquests
Has a Yahoo Group for further discussion

20. Online Streaming Video
Provides educators a way to show the important pieces of a lesson without subjecting students to an entire video, more than half of which may not be relevant.
Free Sites
Requires Membership (Fee)
Beware of copyright issues – Read Terms of Agreements

21. Virtual Field Trips http://www.projectexplorer.org
Units available on the web are presented in the form of a virtual field trip, and provide students and teachers access to places and people most tourists or school groups would never get to see.
In addition to the FREE content available to view, including photos, video and journal entries from the Explorers, by registering on the site, teachers gain access to lesson plans to incorporate with the web-based materials.

22. Primary Sources The National Archives
American Memory (Library of Congress)
EuroDocs (Digital Primary European Documents)
Making of America (Antebellum – Reconstruction)
New York Public Library Digital Library Collection
(searchable databases, online exhibitions, text, etc.)

23. Digital History Virginia Center for Digital History
Their mission is to develop high-quality, well-researched and reliable historical materials for the internet and make them accessible to the public.

24. Personal Websites and Blogs
These offer ways for teachers and students to interact outside of the classroom and for teachers to offer resources outside of the textbook.

25. Skype
Globalizes the classroom by letting students interact with other students throughout the world
Teaches students how to communicate with people who aren’t “like them.”
Excellent tool for teaching point of view

26. Textbook Support
Many textbooks offer lesson plans with technology already integrated for you.

27. Create Informed Citizens
Use technology to help your students learn about the issues.
Read the local paper online.
Go to CNN.com with students and discuss what you find.
Research the presidential candidates and their stances on the issues.

28. General Interest Websites

29. The Center for Teaching History with Technology
Provides Social Studies educators with instruction on how to create blogs, podcasts, and other technological teaching materials, as well as providing lesson plans, links to helpful websites, and much more.

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