Software, web sites and other cool things

1. Tech Stuff for
Social Studies
Software, web sites and other cool things
Glenn Wiebe
glennw@essdack.org
ESSDACK

2. Sticky ideas?

3. 21st century technology is absolutely
essential for your toolkit

4. Using technology will help you to
become a better educator

5. Pick out your “favorite candy” &
save the rest for later

6. “I solemnly swear to never forsake the
code of the He-Man Women Haters
Club and to share any helpful
resources with my new workshop
buddies.”

7. There are over
150 million people
using Social
Networks
The top 10 jobs
predicted for
2010 didn’t
exist in 2004

8. Last year a seven year-
old signed a six
figure endorsement
deal to play
professional video
games
The 25% of the
population in China
with the highest IQs is
greater than the total
population of North
America

9. So what?

10. “Today’s students
are no longer the people
our educational system
was designed to teach.”
Marc Prensky

11. Internet Social
myths Networks
What
Cool Video
are we
software
Internet
myths Networks
Social
Cool
are we
What
software
doing?
games
Video
Blogs &
RSS
Web
sites
games
doing?
Blogs & Web
RSS sites

12. Internet Myths

13. Dihydrogen Monoxide Research Division
• <www.dhmo.org/facts.html>
Your All Natural Friend
• <www.armory.com/~crisper/DHMO>

14. A Short Introduction to Holocaust Revisionism
• <www.ibiblio.org/team/history/
controversy/abutz/intro.html>
Holocaust Hoax
• <www.natvan.com/national-vanguard/
assorted/hoax.html>

15. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
• <www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/
online/phistories>
A Teacher’s Guide to the Holocaust: Survivors
• <fcit.usf.edu/Holocaust/people/
survivor.htm>

17. The Web is a giant encyclopedia
Filters work
• <www.martinlutherking.org>
All information on the Web is true

18. Peter Stiener July 5, 1993 New Yorker

19. Social Networks

21. www.takingitglobal.org

22. www.digitaldividenetwork.org

23. www.myspace.com/brooklyncollegelibrary

24. www.blogsafety.org

25. Delicious
• <del.icio.us>
Library Thing
• <www.librarything.com>

26. Flickr
• <www.flickr.com>
Box
• <box.net>

27. Flickr Tricks
• <ftsquared.blogspot.com/2006/01/flickr-
tricks-tips-tools.html>
Great Flickr Tools Collection
• <www.quickonlinetips.com/archives/
2005/03/great-flickr-tools-collection>

28. Youtube
• <www.youtube.com>
Teachertube
• <www.teachertube.com>

29. Classroom 2.0
• <classroom20.ning.com>

30. “News feeds”
from a web site
A “news reader”
to display the
feeds

31. Find the button
Lokk for the

32. Best aggregators?

33. Web 2.0 Ideas for Educators: A Guide to
RSS and More
• <www.teachinghacks.com/audio/
100ideasWeb2educators.pdf>

34. Cool Software

35. iTunes / iLife tools
• <apple.com>
Eyespot
• <www.eyespot.com>
Letterpop
• <www.letterpop.com>

36. Google Earth
• <earth.google.com>
SlideShare
• <www.slideshare.net>
Picasa
• <picasa.google.com>

37. InspireData / Inspiration
• <www.inspiration.com>
Google Docs & Spreadsheets
• <docs.google.com>
PBWiki
• <www.pbwiki.com>

38. Page Creator
• <pagecreator.google.com>
Wikipedia
• <www.wikipedia.org>
Quest Garden / WebQuests
• <webquest.org>

39. BibMe
• <www.bibme.org>
Skype
• <www.skype.com>
Comic Life
• <plasq.com/comiclife>

40. What else is out there?
2007 Web 2.0 Awards
• <www.seomoz.org/web2.0>
Complete Web 2.0 Directory
• <www.go2web20.net>

41. Let’s talk a bit!
• What do you use?
• Find your partner & brainstorm some
possible ways to use one of the tools

42. Video Games

43. Tic Tac Toe 1077

44. Pong 1977

45. Galaga 1987

46. SimCity 1997

47. Second Life 2007

48. Games haven’t
gotten simpler
over time.
They’ve gotten
more complex.
Why?

49. Because the brain
demands it

50. “Everything Bad is Good for You”
Steven Johnson
“Got Game?”
John C. Beck, Mitchell Wade
“Don’t Bother Me, Mom - I’m
Learning!”
Marc Prensky

51. Brains search for patterns
• Discrete data doesn’t make sense

52. Emotion & thinking
• Emotional chemicals increase
cognitive activity

53. Brains are social
• Want to work with
others

54. Games provide structured patterns
Games create emotional connections
Games encourage collaborative learning

55. Simpler?

56. “You don’t learn because
you’re engaged. You’re
engaged because you’re
learning”
Nick deKanter
Muzzy Lane Software

57. Games can be used to:
• increase literacy skills
• teach problem solving skills
• simulate authentic situations
• encourage collaboration
• engage students in content
• lead to sophisticated research

58. Gaming myths?

59. “All child drug addicts . . . are comic-book
readers. This kind of thing is not good
mental nourishment for children!”
Fredric Wertham, Seduction of the Innocent, 1954

60. Scientific evidence links violence and
video games
It’s mostly kids / mostly boys
Gaming creates isolated loners
www.pbs.org/kcts/videogamerevolution/impact/myths.html

62. “Mini” & complex games are the same
It’s really not that big of a deal
www.pbs.org/kcts/videogamerevolution/impact/myths.html

63. secondlife.reuters.com

64. Some great examples

66. www.making-history.com

68. www.teamtreks.com

70. www.discoverbabylon.org

72. www.knowledgematters.com

74. www.educationalsimulations.com

76. www.peacemakergame.com

77. What games do you use?

78. You are the Historian
• <www.plimoth.org/olc/index_js2.html>
Stop Disasters
• <www.stopdisastersgame.org>
NPS Web Rangers
• <www.nps.gov/webrangers>

79. More mini-games
<www.socialstudiescentral.com>
• “Web Resources”
• “Online Interactive
Simulations”

80. Useful Web Sites

81. Make a list of three great
sites you use
Share with others

82. Reading Quest: Making Sense in Social
Studies
• <www.readingquest.org>
National Council for the Social Studies
• <www.socialstudies.org>
Marco Polo
• <marcopolo-education.org>

83. Teaching Tolerance
• <www.tolerance.org>
National Geographic’s My Wonderful
World
• <www.mywonderfulworld.org>
HeadlineSpot
• <www.headlinespot.com>

84. Edsitement
• <edsitement.neh.gov>
History Matters!
• <historymatters.gmu.edu>
Kansas Educational Resource Center
• <www.kerc-ks.org>

85. Language Strategies for Social Science
• <www.stanford.edu/group/step/
resources/LanguageSite/
History_Strategies.html>
Digital History
• <www.digitalhistory.uh.edu>
Smithsonian Institute
• <www.smithsonianeducation.org/
educators>

86. Internet History Sourcebook Project
• <www.fordham.edu/halsall>
National Park Service / Links to the Past
• <www.cr.nps.gov>
Using Primary Sources with Teachers
• <www.whyy.org/generations/
primary.html>

87. Center for History and the New Media
• <chnm.gmu.edu>
Teaching History with Technology
• <www.thwt.org>
Best of History Web Sites
• <www.besthistorysites.net>

88. Social Studies Central
• <www.socialstudiescentral.com>
NARA Digital Classroom
• <www.archives.gov/education>
Library of Congress American Memory
• <memory.loc.gov/teachers>

89. Our Documents
• <www.ourdocuments.gov>
America’s Library
• <www.americaslibrary.gov>
Documents for the Study of
American History
• <www.vlib.us>

90. Kan-Ed Empowered Desktop
• <kportal.learningstation.com>
4Teachers
• <4teachers.org>
Multimedia Resources for Educators
• <www.uen.org/curriculum/
multimedia_resources.shtml>

91. New York Times Teacher Connections
• <www.nytimes.com/learning/
teachers/index.html>
Mr. Donn’s Pages
• <members.aol.com/donnandlee/
SiteIndex.html>
George Lucas Education Foundation
• <www.edutopia.org>

92. Google for Educators
• <www.google.com/educators>
Tools for Reading, Writing, and Thinking
• <www.greece.k12.ny.us/instruction/
ela/6-12/Tools/Index.htm>
National Council for the Social Studies
• <www.socialstudies.org>

93. Startspot
• <www.startspot.com>
FirstGov
• <firstgov.gov>
Portals to the World
• <www.loc.gov/rr/international/
portals.html>

94. “The cookies on my computer

95. know more about me than my
teachers do.”
High school student