Social Networking--Does it belong in the classroom?

I recently had an assignment where I was required view Ning.com from an educational perspective. I am familiar with social networking sites--I have a page on Ning, MySpace, Facebook, and LinkedIn--but I've never made a concerted attempt to use these sites with my students. My rationale for that was the fact that #1-most social networking sites are blocked in my school district, and #2-I was somewhat concerned about the potential repercussions that may arise from their usage in our school. Because of these two things, I was, and still am, wondering how these two sites would work well in the middle school setting. I can see how they would work at the high school and in post K-12 settings, but not necessarily at mine.



Apparently, the University of Brighton developed a social networking site for academic purposes. Elgg.org is an open source program that schools and district can use to create their own social networks. ReadWriteWeb posted a great article detailing exactly how Elgg can be used in an educational setting. Also of note, according to the ReadWriteWeb article, this site will NOT be impacted by the Deleting Online Predators Act, or Georgia's and North Carolina's state bills restricting access to social networking sites.

I wonder if will be a happy medium for some school districts. Will this site cause some district's chief technology officers to reconsider the usage of social networking sites within their district? Will this benefit middle school and older middle school learners?

New Poll

If you look toward the bottom of this page, you'll see that I added a new poll. Check it out, and vote, please. It's related to a posting that I'll do sometime next week.

Google Earth Pro is free for Educators!

While participating in an online discussion with a colleague, I learned that Google Earth Pro is free for educators! After Googling this for verification, I found that it is indeed true. According to Kevin Jarrett, the teacher who initially blogged about this fact, these are the following steps you must take:

Download the free Pro trial version from http://earth.google.com and then email the answers to these questions to GEEC [at] google.com (at=@)

1. Your name (key contact person)
2. Organization / Institution
3. A brief description of the Institution / Organization
4. Full mailing address
5. Telephone number
6. User name (complete email address that will be assigned to the license key)
7. Institution’s web address
8. Your Institution’s Tax ID (if applicable)
9. Your Institution’s 501©3 number (US only, if applicable)
10. A description of the intended application including grade level(s), discipline(s) or subject.
11. What features in Google Earth Pro are important to you and how do you wish to use them in your classroom.
12. Number of computers you are requesting to download this software on.
13. Prior license key information.

PLEASE NOTE: Applicants are required to download the free, 7-day trial version of Google Earth Pro at http://earth.google.com/ before applying. Please be sure to include your Google Earth trial account user name and license key above.

What can you do with Google Earth Pro? Well, one thing you can do is view an overlay map of the Middle Eastern region of the World in 1861:

(image courtesy Kevin Jarrett)

This is simply the tip of the iceberg. Definitely download it and check it out!

Using Google Earth to highlight the crisis in Darfur

I found an excellent resource for educators teaching a unit on Sudan. The United States Holocaust Memorial has teamed up with GoogleEarth in order to provide visual evidence of the destruction in Darfur.

After downloading the overlay file, you can see the location of damaged and destroyed villages, the location and number of displaced refugees in Darfur and Chad, as well as photos, videos, and testimonials.

For more information, and to download the .kmz file, visit Mapping Initiatives | Crisis in Darfur.
To download Google Earth, visit http://earth.google.com/

Schools' Broadband Needs Grow as Ed-Tech Evolves

It's interesting. I was just discussing our district's slow bandwidth speed to another colleague earlier this week.

Our school district has subscribed to Discovery Education Streaming, however, using it during the school day is rather hit or miss. Educators (including yours truly) have experienced a complete loss of connection while using it, or, the website would be blocked altogether for weeks at a time. (Yes, this occurred last school year.)

Education Week published a great article online a few days ago about this very topic. Here's a quick snippet:

Now that Internet access is pretty much standard in most schools, the next hurdle districts are facing is the speed and capacity of their connections. With the rise in popularity of YouTube and other video-streaming Web resources, many school districts are struggling to provide enough broadband to handle those bandwidth-heavy applications, and experts say the demand will only increase as new technologies are revealed.
http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2008/09/30/01broadband.h02.html

I agree wholeheartedly with the views shared in the article, however it leads me to ask the following question: With our economy in such financial turmoil, and knowing that the budgets of school districts across the nation are affected by the lack of revenue that this economic turndown has brought with it, how will school districts fund an upgrading of technological infrastructure? Is this doomed to fall to a lower level on schools' priority list?

Budget Hero-from American Public Media on PBS

I found an interesting tool that social studies teachers (especially those who teach economics) would be interested in. PBS has posted on its site an online interactive game that allows individuals to balance the budget and postpone its "going bust" date. One can play in order to win various badges, such as a Green badge, a McCain badge, an Obama badge, etc. In addition, after playing the game, students can compare their results across age groups, income brackets, states, and party lines. I played it a couple times, and I must admit it's interesting. This game can make for interesting conversations in the classroom, and can definitely supplement current teachable moments that current national events are bringing to our classrooms.




Check it out at the following address: http://marketplace.publicradio.org/features/budget_hero/

CPS (And no...I don't mean Child Protective Services!)

Last year, a colleague of mine asked me, "Have you ever heard of CPS?" Immediately, I thought of Child Protective Services, but she then told me what she meant. After she told me about it, she showed me how to use the hardware and software, and gave me a chance to try it out with my students. They LOVED it. They were engaged in the lesson, and it gave me immediate feedback on the areas of the curriculum in which they were weak and needed extra assistance.

What is this thing I speak of?

CPS, which stands for classroom response system. In a nutshell, CPS is a wireless, interactive response system that gives educators immediate feedback from their students. It uses a wireless remote, a portable receiver, and a program that can be installed on a teacher's computer which allows teachers to input a list of questions that students can answer, or even an interactive PowerPoint. Some teachers even use this software to keep attendance records. Think "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" or "Family Feud" for the classroom.

I will use the software tomorrow for the first time this school year. I plan on using it to provide formative data on my students' mastery of our unit on the Middle East. I will update this post with pictures that show this being used in the classroom.

For more information about CPS systems, visit http://www.einstruction.com/index.cfm or http://www.mhhe.com/cps/index.shtml

(image credit: McGraw-Hill)

Syncing Up with the iKid...why infuse technology in the classroom?

Edutopia posted an article by Josh McHugh that makes the case for connected teaching.  The article provides a bit of background on the type of kids we have in our classroom (generally, VERY technologically savvy) and ways educators are successfully reaching them.  One item that stood out for me in this article was the fact that the learning power is shifting from the traditional center to the fringes--in other words, the teacher is becoming more of a facilitator versus keeper of knowledge.  It seems as if schools in general are reluctant to release some sort of that power, which explains the restrictions on things such as blogging and using wiki's in the classroom. 

The article can be viewed at the following link: http://www.edutopia.org/ikid-digital-learner In it there are great ideas on how to use technology in the classroom, and background research on WHY we need to use technology.

Introduction...our purpose...and a reflection on what I'd like this blog to be...

I'd like to welcome everyone to Social Studies Connected Teaching. The purpose of this blog is to discuss issues and best practices as it relates to technology and social studies education.  As many people are aware, technology is an ever growing player in the field of education, and its components change so rapidly...it's imperative for those in this field to keep abreast of the issues and changes.

I thought long and hard when asking for contributors.  I wanted the contributors of this blog to provide viewpoints from all aspects of education.  In the end, I received support from 3 social studies teachers (including myself)--one in elementary education, one in middle grades education (me!) and one employed at the high school level.  In addition, there is a media specialist on board, and finally, 3 individuals from the higher education arena.  2 are professors--one from Hampton University and one from University of West Georgia--and one educational researcher from New York University who works extensively with charter schools.

It is my goal as owner of this blog to share my thoughts and best practices on technology as it relates to social studies education.  Perhaps I will introduce a new idea or concept to someone, or spark intelligent debate amongst education professionals and pre-professionals.  Please continue to visit and comment on posted topics that interest you.

Again, thanks for visiting.