HOW ARE SOCIAL STUDIES TEACHERS BLENDING THEIR CLASSROOMS?
Pilar Quezzaire (@Quezz), Kyle Shack (@ShackKyle) and I had an interesting conversation last week when we participated in an episode of the MAET Bridge webinar series. This episode was devoted to social studies tech integration. The common theme that we centered our discussion on was the power of communication pathways in social studies teaching and learning.
I used to tell my students that the course is called social studies because it focuses on human interaction. I think traditionally this has meant a study of the human journey from the audience, passively absorbing the cultures of the world. Something that the three of us recognize, and really promote, is that the internet can be an active learning environment. Students as content curators, constant feedback loops, public revision of work, crowdsourcing artifacts and students as content creators are pedagogical elements that are greatly enhanced by the online environment.
I appreciated being able to connect with these educators and discuss connecting social studies students to truly authentic experiences. I encourage you to watch the video above and connect with us to extend the conversation.
