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For a social studies or history teacher, blogging offers a unique way to really stimulate students’ minds using a variety of media. With the presence of video sharing sites such as YouTube, we are able to present students with topics through a different kind of medium thanks to the Internet. It’s not that video hasn’t been around for years, it’s just that we haven’t been able to offer it in such a direct and immediate way. Links, podcasts, video and images can all easily be embedded into a blog. This offers a teacher a variety of tools to choose from when approaching a lesson.

This first example really shows us what one can do with multimedia and blogs in the social studies classroom. The creator of the blog, Mr. Shelnutt, offers up images, videos, poetry and lots of questions for his students to comment on.

To view Mr. Shelnutt’s blog, click HERE.

This next example comes from Lea Hansen-George and her high school social studies class. She takes a similar approach as Mr. Shelnutt, offering lots of visually stimulating material for her students to consider. What I think stands out is that she offers lots of project ideas for her students by pointing to various resources on the Internet.

To view this example, click HERE.

I’ll leave you with a video and link to a blog that showcases how Eric Langhorst, a history teacher at South Valley Jr. High in Liberty, MO, uses blogging to bring his students together for a common project about the Civil War. The focal point is book called The Guerilla Season and it is discussed over a four week period among students via the blog. The video says it all.

To view the blog, click HERE.

White clickers are oftentimes used to get student input in response to multiple choice or true and false questions, they can also be used to facilitate discussion. By using a particular topic to poll or survey students, you can get a good idea of what the classroom opinion is. Because students have already input their responses via a clicker, they might be more likely to participate in the discussion that follows. This is a great tool for things like social studies class when teaching about living conditions in the past.

This video comes from Promethean and showcases how Lurlene Gerard, an elementary school teacher at Gladys A. Abraham Elementary school in St. Thomas, uses the Activote clicker with her students. The unit is called “The U.S. Virgin Islands - America’s Carribean” and it shows how both the Activboard and Activote can be used together to create a truly meaningful experience for students.

To view the video, click HERE.

When I think of how digital video could integrate with Social Studies, the first thing that comes to mind is reenacting a particular portion of history. The experience becomes much more meaningful to the students than simply reading it out of a book. I know that it would probably be impractical to film a reenactment every week, but it could definitely be a highlight for the year…perhaps a project to showcase at an open house. I see this as being exceptionally interesting for students as they would get to incorporate clothing, foods, or any other noteworthy characteristic from a given time period.

This first video was created students at Brightwood School performing what they call a Walk through Egypt skit. The costumes are exceptional.

This next video is actually the first of four videos that reenacts various elements of the civil war. You can see that these kinds of things can be challenging to do within the confines of the school. It’s important to predict what kinds of things need to be done prior to recording such as making sure everyone is well informed so that the scene is set when ready to film.

This final video is a creative way to approach the concept of the amendment procedure for the US Constitution. It’s basically an ad that plays on the pharmaceutical industry’s approach to marketing to sell the amendment procedure. This one was done by students at McKinley High School in Buffalo, NY.

One of the key components of social studies class is to make students aware of how ancient civilizations lived. Mrs. Conjura of Washington Irving School in Tarrytown, NY decided to bring the ancient civilization of Mesopamia together with the technology of the 21st century. To do so, she had her students record commercials for a restaurant that might have been typical of the Mesopotamian times. For more information on the project, click HERE for the Washington Irving web site.

To listen to the student created commercials on their version of a Mesopotamian restaurant, click on the links below:

Ancient Sundays

Mesopotamian Breakfast

Out to Lunch

Tinky Winky

I came across another set of podcasts that were tied in with a project at Jamestown Elementary. The podcasts were put together by 4th graders and the project was to convey their knowledge and understanding of the Jamestown Settlement. Because the podcasts were only a portion of this overall project, I think it’s important to provide a link to the project home page. I thought it was fantastic.

For the Jamestown Elementary School Interactive Project, click HERE.

I have provided links below to a couple of the podcasts from the project. For more, click HERE.

Poem Describing the Trip Across the Ocean

Nathaniel Bacon Interview

Finally, I’d like to include one more way to utilize technology to diminish the boundaries that exist because of our geographical locations. This is actually a site called Our City Podcast where kids can share a recording about the location they live in. It also includes an interactive map that has markers for the participating cities. The podcast below highlights 7th grade students from Lincoln Park, MI.

Lovely Lincoln Park

These two videos were put together by social studies teacher Tim Hopper at Chippewa Middle School in Okemos, MI. Not only does he provide an excellent overview of how the Whiteboard (he’s using a SmartBoard brand Whiteboard), he also shows how it can be integrated into social studies class.

In addition to these videos, I’ve located Web-based activities that can be used with a Whiteboard. Remember, Whiteboards are basically large, touch-sensitive computer monitors. With that in mind, take a look at these activities designed to be used with a Whiteboard in social studies class. The first is about famous people and the second is to develop mapping skills. Both are aimed at younger students between 7-9 years old.

Click HERE to begin “Famous People”.

Click HERE for “See you see me - Landscapes”