Teaching Social Studies Using Technology

My first reaction to this assignment is that I did not realize how many classroom specific or classroom capable apps are now available. My second reaction was how entertaining and helpful some of these apps could be for students and teachers. Social Studies is often non-interactive, lecture based lessons that can become repetitive and unapologetically dull to students. I hoped to find ways to use technology to facilitate group learning and to promote techniques like Jigsaw using the apps. All of the apps I chose promote sharing and group activities along with their defined technique. The goal of these apps is not to replace the teacher or diminish their role, but to make the lessons more attainable and enjoyable for the students. Wikispaces, GoConqr, WordPress and LucidChart are all ways to creatively restructure information, share information and visualize information for the students and as students. Quizizz is great for live opinion polls, entry quizzes and friendly competition between students during lessons. While Socrative is an amazing app for keeping data on student progress and comprehension. All of the apps are interchangeable in their uses and often overlap, but can all be used during classroom lessons, review and out of classroom activities. 

As a side note, Venngage is a great tool for easy info-graphs and presentations. It is easy to use, easily customizable and very useful when compiling thoughts and information. The free parts of the app are still very useful and it is not inhibiting to just use the free aspects.   


Venngage -
https://infograph.venngage.com/p/160100/social-studies-and-technology

The History of Technology: The Internet

     PowToon is a very useful tool for unique presentations for all ages and subjects. The website advertises to both the educational setting and the business setting with a huge variety of different backgrounds, transitions and text bubbles. There is definitely a learning curve to the program. I feel as though multiple uses of the application are needed in order to get the best production. Upgrading to a "Premium" package would also allow for more creativity.

     I think PowToon lends itself more towards story telling or a background presentation. In the classroom it could be used to set the stage for a new lesson. But it could also be used as a more entertaining way to present facts or slide shows. As a prospective high school Social Studies teacher, PowToon could be used to present a historical timeline of an event or as a tool to avoid the typical long winded history lecture.

     I tried to focus on the impact of the Internet or "The Web" in the classroom. The first thing I noticed was the delay of the implementation of computers into the classroom. Part of that is their long development from the 1940's to the present. But I believe that computers were most useful in the business and science industry where their memory and simulation could be exploited. The classroom - apart from possibly engineering or science intensive schools - had no need to computers. The development and streamlining of the world wide web changed the equation. In the 1990's computers became a necessity for schools and eventually all classrooms due to the importance of the internet. I also wanted to highlight the struggle that teachers can have with the still somewhat new (relative to other technologies in the classroom) world wide web in the classroom. I hope that my PowToon presentation covers these topics. Although, I do feel with some more practice I could have created a clearer and more creative presentation.

Here is where you can watch my PowToon:
https://www.powtoon.com/online-presentation/fcV8M1sy174/?mode=movie#/