Tech for Teachers EDU 316 Lesson 13: Technology and Social Studies

Social Studies Websites Museum Box is a great tool for creating virtual displays of artifacts that you find online. By using Museum Box students can organize images, text, videos, links, and audio clips about any topic that they're researching. When completed, students' "boxes" become digital dioramas. Museum Box Mission U.S. offers two interactive journeys through two important eras in U.S. History. The journeys are designed as role-playing games or missions. Both games can be played entirely online or downloaded for play on your PC or Mac (you do need an Internet connection to save a game in progress). The first mission in Mission U.S. is set in Boston in Students play the role of 14 year old Nat Wheeler who, after the Boston Massacre, must choose to side with the Loyalists or the Patriots. The second mission in Mission U.S. is set in Kentucky and Ohio in Students take on the role of a fourteen year old slave named Lucy. In the mission students escape slavery in Kentucky and navigate to Ohio. Mission U.S.downloadedMission U.S.

Social Studies Websites Hip Hughes History is a fantastic YouTube channel that I promoted a few times in Hip Hughes History is a series of short, upbeat lectures on topics in US History and World History. The videos are produced by Keith Hughes, a high school history teacher in Buffalo, New York. A sample video is embedded below. Hip Hughes HistoryKeith Hughes

Social Studies Websites Meograph is a digital storytelling tool. Meograph provides tools for creating map-based and timeline-based narrated stories. When you watch a Meograph story (click here to watch one about women's rights in the USA) you will notice that it is very similar to a watching a narrated Google Earth tour. That is because it is based on the Google Maps and the Google Earth browser plug-in. As the story plays you can stop it to explore additional content in the forms of videos, texts, and images. Meograph has an education page on which they are featuring examples of using the service in education. Meograph click hereeducation page The Google Cultural Institute offers 42 new online historical exhibitions. The exhibitions feature images, documents, and artifacts from some of the most significant cultural events of the last one hundred years. The exhibitions are built as interactive slideshows that you can scroll and click through to discover the artifacts and stories.Google Cultural Institute 42 new online historical exhibitions

Social Studies Websites European Exploration: The Age of Discovery is a free iPad app that puts students in charge of exploring the "New World." In the game students are in charge of selecting explorers and ships to send out to the New World. Students have to manage the finances of their expeditions so that they don't run out of money before they can return home safely. European Exploration: The Age of Discoveryprovides students with historical information about the explorers that are available to lead expeditions. Some of the explorers available include Giovanni da Verrazano, Christopher Columbus, and Juan Ponce de Leon. The explorers are graded based on their navigation, cartography, and shipkeeping skills. Each explorer has a different salary which students must account for when managing the budgets of their expeditions. The object of the game is to unveil the entire New World. To do this students draw expedition maps and send out their explorers. If the expedition is successful it will earn money that students can then parlay into financing another expedition. Successful managers of European Exploration: The Age of Discovery will be able to manage multiple expeditions simultaneously. European Exploration: The Age of Discovery European Exploration: The Age of DiscoveryEuropean Exploration: The Age of Discovery

Social Studies Websites GE Teach is built around the Google Earth browser plug-in. The purpose of the site is to help teachers develop lessons in which students explore spatial distributions. Visitors to GE Teach can select from a variety of physical geography and human geography layers to display and explore. A fantastic feature of GE Teach is the option use the "two Earths" mode to show two maps side-by-side. In the image below (click to view full size) you can see that I have used the Earth on the left to view climate regions and the Earth on the right to view population density. The "two Earths" mode could be useful for prompting students to make comparisons and or correlations between two maps. GE Teach History Engine is an educational project developed by The University of Richmond for the purpose of giving students a place to explore stories of American life and publish their own stories based upon their research. I was initially drawn to History Engine by the map and timeline that was featured on Google Maps Mania. The History Engine map allows students to search for stories by selecting a decade on the timeline then clicking a location on the map. Students will find stories about ordinary citizens making minor news in their communities as well as stories about famous Americans like George Washington. History EngineGoogle Maps ManiaHistory Engine map

Social Studies Websites History Animated offers animated online tours of notable battles and strategies and the outcomes of each battle in the American Revolution, the War of 1812, the American Civil War, and WWII. History Animated's maps show troop movements throughout the wars. Students can advance through the tour at their own paces using the fast forward, pause, and rewind buttons. History AnimatedHistory Animated's maps Go Social Studies Go is a nice site developed by Kenneth Udhe, a social studies teacher in Michigan, for his students and the world. Go Social Studies Go is essentially a series of multimedia books about common social studies topics. The site is divided into four main sections; World Geography, World Religions, Ancient History, and Colonial America. Within each section is a series of booklets containing text, pictures, videos, and links to additional resources. Go Social Studies Go

Timeline Creation Tools Dipity Dipity is a free digital timeline website. Users can create, share embed and collaborate on interactive, visually engaging timelines that integrate video, audio, images, text, links, social media, location and timestamps. Dipity TimeToast TimeToast is another great tool that allows you to create timelines and share them on the web. The process only takes a couple of minutes and is very simple to use. TimeToast Xtimeline Xtimeline is a free web-based timeline that you can use to easily create and share timelines with pictures and videos. Xtimeline

Timeline Creation Tools TikiToki TikiToki is a great application for multimedia timelines making. It allows its users to create stunning animated timelines. TikiToKi is very easy to use and above all its basic version is completely free. TikiToki Time Glider This is a web tool that lets you create, collaborate on, and publish zooming/planning interactive timelines for free.It is like Google Maps but for time. Time Glider OurStory Ourstory enables you to write stories, tag friends, and add media to collaborative timelines either privately or in public. OurStory Read Write Think Read Write Think has a beautiful timeline tool that allows users to add project labels and easily create timelines. Read Write Think

Assignment I would like to you pick one of the timeline websites and create a timeline of your life including important events and significant accomplishments. Send me the link via or the assignment form.