social studies

Are you wondering how to teach technology in social studies, or are you wondering how to use technology in social studies classes?

is it possible to find an article on using technology to teach social studies?

Here's an Edutopia article that's got a number of resources for using tech to teach social studies:

http://www.edutopia.org/digital-generation-social-studies-lessons

Hope this helps! Let us know if you have other questions.

My biggest problem is finding projects to do with World History. I will be doing Aztecs, etc & exploration in jan. wonder what I could do?

Howdy Robert,

For starters, I suggest you check out the following
ThinkQuest Project created by students for students:

"The Ancient Aztecs"
http://library.thinkquest.org/27981/language.html

They have a very organized and complete menu of topics:
Timeline, Rulers (Leaders), Religion, Life (Culture part one),
Technology, Culture (part two), Spanish Conquest, and online Resources.

A second 'infinite' Visual and Engaging resource for you in planning curriculum and projects is always available using "Google Images" search tool: type in "Aztec" ... language, culture, history, technology, etc.

Enjoy the adventure and remember that if you are "organized to facilitate" students learning, they can do most of their own research
online and create a Class Portfolio for publication using Wikispaces and other Web 2.0 resources online.

Check back with any progress reports, further questions, and your students' 'productions', which we would be happy to view in January and further on...

Allen Berg

I am new to PBL and am looking for help with driving questions. I am working on a unit concerning the Enlightenment and how it influenced the development of American political and social thought. I have a few. If you could help refine mine or maybe suggest one I would be appreciative.

Here are the ones I am using as working models:

Why is democracy a good form of government?
How would the U.S. look without democracy?
What democratic ideas were the founding fathers looking to establish in America?

Hi Andrew,
Your 3 examples suggest the important learning goals you're after (understanding roots of democracy, forms of govt., etc.), but I wonder if you might reframe your driving question to spark more curiosity and engagement.
How about asking: How Enlightened are we?
To arrive at an answer, students would need to thoroughly understand Enlightenment thinkers, and then do their own analysis/evaluation of today's system of government (which would mean using higher-order thinking and offering evidence to support their argument). You also want your question to be open-ended and allow for considerable voice and choice when it comes to a final product or performance.
I'm curious to hear how others would come at this project idea.
Suggestions?

I would suggest following #sschat on Twitter or joining the sschat ning. These two places are full of social studies teachers using PBL.

Andrew,

I agree with Suzie about making it more interesting. How about something like "What if you could have designed the United States government?"

I like "What if" questions. You could then have students look at why the founding fathers made the choices that they did. Also what kind of final project and audience will you have? That could influence your choice.

Finally I would encourage you to also look at the roots of democracy in Native American culture, especially the Iroquois Contitution.

Davion,

Not to leave you out in my last comment, but your question is so large. I could spend hours answering it. That is why I suggest joining the sschat community.

If you narrow down your question to a topic or something you would like to accomplish with tech. I could give a better answer.