Meera Sreekumar
IInd Semester B. Ed.
Option: Social Science
INTRODUCTION
Science and technology have a complex
interrelationship with society. While technology is the impetus to advancements
in human development, technologies also contribute to the perpetuation of
existing imbalances and inequities in power and diffusion of knowledge. Technology opens the door to learning social
studies skills and content in ways which were impossible in the traditional
classroom. The social studies teacher in
today's classroom can use technology to extend learning opportunities for students. Teacher faculties can most effectively take
full advantage of technology by introducing students to activities in which
skills and content are taught more actively and meaningfully. Appropriate training focuses on integrating
various types of technology to make lessons better, rather than learning
technology simply to acquire technological skills.
Social studies educators are living and
working in the middle of a revolution–the emergence of the Internet as an
integral part of education. In classroom,
teachers can combine the Internet with other instructional resources and
methods. Internet technology has had an
overwhelming impact on schools and families. Access to the web has reached critical mass,
and as current initiatives strive to overcome the barriers to access often
referred to as the "digital divide", continued growth will contribute to
challenges for educators and parents, as children and young people go online. Within a democratic society, citizens need
various types of knowledge; consequently, educators must assess how new
technology driven forms of knowledge advance the purposes of social studies
education. Although the force of this
impact is immense, the rising computer culture is not fully understood.
GROWTH OF INTERNET USE IN SCHOOLS
Internet is a large collection of computer
network that can communicate with each other. When we connect our computer to the internet we
become the part of the large network. The
World Wide Web (WWW) is a vast collection of documents stored on internet
computers. A web document can contain
text, pictures, sound and videos. In
1994, the federal government established a goal of linking every school to the
Internet by the year 2000. From 1994
through 1998, the percentage of public schools with Internet connections jumped
from 35 percent to 89 percent. More
important is how the schools are connected. A dedicated line is much faster than a dial-up
connection and allows higher-level use of the Internet. Since 1994, the percentage of schools with
dial-up connections has dropped 52 percent, while the number of those linked by
dedicated lines has risen over 26 percent. While some troubling differences in computer
access and Internet connectivity still exist between inner-city and rural
schools and suburban and medium-sized city schools, the level of computer
access for teachers and students is rapidly improving.
SCOPE OF INTERNET IN SCHOOLS
Using Primary Sources
Teachers have long recognized the value of
students reading accounts of historical events written in the words of those
who were there. The Internet opens the
way to an enormous range of resources. For
instance imagine reading Tacitus's eyewitness account of the burning of Rome,
including the descriptions of "terrified, shrieking women" and
"helpless old and young" fleeing the conflagration, or Corporal E. C.
Nightingale's frightening memories from on the deck of the battleship Arizona
in 1941. Both of these are available to
teachers and students at [http://www.ibiscom.com], one of several commercial
web sites that provide superb resources for teachers and students.
School or Class Portals
One of the best ways to use the Internet to
help students and teachers is to create a "portal" site for a
school's social studies department. A
portal is a World Wide Web site designed to serve as a main "point of
entry" to the web, and features an extensive catalog of web sites and
other Internet resources, a search engine, or both. Portal sites for individual grade levels,
subjects, or courses are frequently part of a school's larger portal site. Portals especially for teachers can include
links to the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) site, professional
development opportunities and other resources. Student pages can include
homework assignments, a course syllabus, links to resources specifically
tailored to class assignments, and even grading rubrics. In some communities, parents are encouraged to
use these sites to stay informed of student assignments and school news.
Virtual Field Trips
Teachers and students can take field trips via
the Internet. From a visit to the White
House to exhibitions of African and pre-Columbian Native American art in the
famed Art Institute of Chicago to a tour of the Egyptian pyramids and many such
historical and contemporary sites are just a few mouse clicks away. Additionally, since many of the virtual field
trip sites are designed specifically for education, they feature lesson plans
and student activities, many of which are interactive. One of the best sites for tours and
well-designed instructional materials is the Discovery Channel Online [http://www.discovery.com].
But do not stop with "taking"
students on field trips in the classroom or assigning students to view field
trips as part of an individual or group assignment. Students can create their own virtual field
trips of local historical sites, or even of their school. Once they see a few field trip sites, they
will understand how to design their own sites. With a digital camera and a bit of practice,
students can create excellent projects.
"Publishing" Student Work
Everything that teachers once displayed on
bulletin boards, from traditional essays to student artwork, can be posted on
classroom or school portal sites. Even
more elaborate projects, such as the five-day world journey described above,
can be published on the site.
Lesson Plans
There is an almost overwhelming number of web
sites with lesson plans. Some of them
are designed specifically for the content on their site. Nearly all of them can provide useful ideas
for teachers, although the lessons may require some revision to meet specific
needs of local curriculum guides and student/teacher needs. Just type "social studies lesson
plans" into any Internet search engine and be prepared for thousands of
hits.
INTERNET IN TEACHING SOCIAL SCIENCE
In Social Studies teaching internet has
following functions:
i.
E-mailing:
The electronic mail service enhance the communication and global perspectives
of the students.
ii.
Remote login: The users anywhere in the world can login to
any other machine on which they have an account.
iii.
News and Information: Thousands of news groups such as topics
including Social Studies, recreation and Politics are available in the internet
which can enrich Social Studies learning.
iv.
Transfer of Files: Vast number of articles, database and other
information from internet and virtual libraries can be copied from one machine
on the internet to another.
CONCLUSION
If technology is truly to impact both
pedagogical competence, as well as increase content knowledge in the social
studies, the apex of the instructional delivery system—the instructor—must be
the continual focus of these beliefs. As
such, both professional development and research efforts must be at the
forefront of infusing these principles, if instructional efforts involving
technology and the social studies are to truly reform classrooms. Using technology successfully requires a
constant and consistent training program. The most effective integration of technology
for enhancing learning in social studies has been found to engage students in
inquiry centered around authentic, complex, real world problems in order to
develop higher order thinking and problem solving skills. These technology enhanced learning
environments allow for student control over the learning activities, provide
opportunities for students to think critically and analytically about
information, provide a variety of information resources and tools for constructing
knowledge to solve these problems, and engage students in representing and
creatively applying the resultant new knowledge. While such learning experiences have been
found to be very successful with older students, young children need to begin
building an understanding of how to navigate in these student controlled
learning environments.
Despite the dramatic rise in Internet users,
new technologies have contributed to a global race for knowledge which has
enticed resource rich countries to add technological pursuit of knowledge to
their goals, while developing countries remain poorly connected. According to the National Center for Education
Statistics, 95% of public schools and 63% of classrooms are connected to the
Internet. While many educators would
agree that the Internet provides an extraordinary opportunity for enriching
teaching and learning, they also hear about the dangers or risks of cyberspace.
Immersion of children and youth into the
computer culture elicits many questions focusing on the enhancement of this
context for promoting teaching and learning. Concerns include issues of how children will
be transformed by this interaction, what role moral reasoning has in
cyberspace, whether a deeper sense of identity is fostered, and how prepared
the young are to manage the risks found online. Researchers should continue to evaluate the
influence of technology on social studies, and should seek to provide exemplary
models for the infusion of technology within social studies methods of instruction.
REFERENCES
Ø Kumar,SPK & Noushad,P.P.(2011):Social Studies in the Classroom: Trends and Methods.
Ø http://www.kidsource.com/education/teaching.ss.internet.html
***************************
No comments:
Post a Comment