BYOD in Social Studies

Having students bring their own devices and then using those devices to find out about a certain topic in their own way would give students some flexibility and freedom to find out in their own way while still learning.  However, these devices also have the potential to loose student attention in the classroom.  Because of the way many devices allow people to access multiple things at one time, it can refocus student attention on information that is not relevant to the classroom.  However, at the same time it gives students a geat resource to access relevant information easily. 

Privacy

I think the websites where you type in your address or phone number was most surprising.  You think of both of those things being private and frankly uninteresting.  However, there is a lot of information out there connecting people to those places. I wouldn't have guessed that there would be so much information about my house online.  Yet, it doesn't surprise me. 

Internet Security

I have never had any security problems either personally or professionally.  However, I can imagine that it will be more and more difficult to keep personal information personal.  With everything that can be found out about a person on the internet these days students would be able to find out many things that they haven’t before.  I think that checking out all the different places where students would be able to access information and maintaining those places so that students don’t find things that they shouldn't is the best way to protect yourself against that. 

Class Website

In my classroom website I would include a schedule of classes throughout the day, a place where students can check what the assignments are as well as the due dates for assignments.  A short professional biography about myself as well as my contact information would also be included.  I would also include a place where students could turn in assignments online (a sort of dropbox).  I would also have a page of announcements for instances where school may be canceled, such as snow days.   

Games in the Classroom

Games are becoming more and more common as tools in the classroom.  Many teachers use them to intorduce concepts or to reinforce ideas that need to be expanded upon or even to help students study for upcoming tests.  I think that alot of good can come from using games in the classroom.  It grasps students attention and gives them something new and fun to do.  However, I think that the games need to have a purpose that makes the games relevant to student learning.  I have found several games online that would allow students to use their knowledge and strategic skills to figure things out using a game.  One game I found could be used in a geography class.  This game allowed students to move up levels according to how well they do at the game. Naturally the levels got more and more challenging resulting in student learning. 

Blogging in the Classroom

Having students blog about a lecture or a class lesson would be a great way to allow a class to come full circle about that particular topic.  It would also allow students the opportunity to ask questions about things that they didn’t understand and for other students to answer questions.  Teachers could use student blogs as a way to assess whether or not students understand certain concepts and big ideas or if they are confused and need more clarification.   

Technology in the Classroom

1) In Social Studies there are a lot of opportunities to use technology well.  These include games, interesting content websites, interactive timelines, pictures, web-based primary source documents, etc.  These can be used to help students research, give teachers visual aids to provide students with, students learning through interactive online activities, etc.  There is a wide range of technology that can be used in a variety of ways to help all kinds of different learners in Social Studies.  For example, there is an interactive Constitution online where students can navigate the constitution much more easily than using a printed document and sifting through.  This interactive Constitution also has both the traditional words straight from the constitution as well as a rewritten excerpts that will help students to gain a better understanding.  Using Skype in a classroom could allow students to connect with other kids there age in other countries around the world.  If the teacher could connect with another class in another country students could ask and answer each other’s questions via video chat.  Creating videos could also be very beneficial to student learning.  For example, in a social studies class students could potentially recreate a presidential debate for a government class or recreate a battle for a history course.