Salon #4: Digital Technology and the End of Social Studies Education (Bill Tally)

This salon (#4) was based on the article by Bill Tally titled “Digital Technology and the End of Social Studies Education”. In the article, the author touches on the realities that are often faced in education. He poses questions that need to be considered while stating that technologies do have a role in social studies education. They add vigor to the material, and complexity while grounding the content in real issues that “matter to students and their communities”.

While I am not a social studies teacher, I found this article and our salon discussion invigorating. It was interesting to envision the use of technology beyond the scope of simply a tool; to do the same thing already being done with yesterday’s technology. This brings up how once chalk boards were the main visual focus, then white boards, and now Smart Boards. While this is the case, there is a lot of potential that can be used to bring students into the history and promote a greater understanding of any subject that could be learned about in society, history or (in my case) science.

The quote "Technologies as tools that amplify and extend fundamental human capacities to observe, understand and communicate about the world” has great meaning as a science teacher. While this article is geared to social studies, it is also extremely true as a science teacher. Science is based on the idea of understanding our world through observations.

In general the whole idea of fostering creativity and to “slow down” or “dig deeper” is great. The problem usually lies with the way the curriculum is structured. This is dictated by the policy makers. For example, one of the two state tests (8^th grade ILS exam) is in the beginning of May. That means I am forced to omit almost two months of material that may or may not appear on the exam. At the same time, I am expected to review 6^th and 7^th grade science as the exam is cumulative. This is a daunting task to say the least. My two Regents classes have 12 months worth of material crammed into 10 months which leaves little time. Most of my creative work is related to work done as out of class assignments. I find that, with my students, I have to manage them more closely than I would like because at this age (13-14) most of the students simply will not take the task and run with it. I often get stuck managing them closely using rubrics, which are not that far from filling in a worksheet, and they have to gather information etc.

The Museum Box Project was very interesting. I love the idea of gathering information, then taking it, and presenting it to others in this out of the box way (ok I could not resist!). This is something that I try to incorporate and find very affective. It is great to have the ability to get learners excited about a concept and Museum box does that. It is interactive and allows you to represent you ideas, events etc. in any form you choose. This is definitely something my students would find worthwhile and engaging. As educators, we need to keep an open mind and try new things. Every attempt does not need to be a smashing success, but if we do not try we are selling ourselves and our students short.