Response to "Most-Used Technology Tools"

EXPLORE and EXPLAIN: Teaching with Technology in the Subject Area:

 

Most-used technology tools:

 

Open Source Options (p. 338):

 

I'm going to briefly describe the tech apps from the Open Source and Top Ten Apps lists, and then I will give a short explanation as to how and why they might be used. 

 

 Poll Everywhere is a site that allows you to create polls. You could use it to have students take a stand on a controversial issue, either from history or in the news. You could also have a mock election if you were in an election year, where students could say who they would vote for if they could vote.

Bubbl is a site designed for brainstorming ideas. It primarily functions as an idea map with different graphic bubbles connecting to one another. You could encourage students to use it in lieu of simply just providing them a pre-made graphic organizer. You could also suggest that students utilize it when doing group projects.

Glogster is a site for creating posters. Students could use it instead of making Power Points or Prezis for presentations in front of the class.

Dipity and Timetoast are both sites for creating timelines. This does exactly what it says on the tin. It's intended for the creation of timelines, which is always useful for social studies. However, it's advantages comes from the fact that they do it in a slightly more interactive and creative way. 

 

Prezis are an alternative to Power Point. They can be more visually dynamic and pleasing, and they seem to be better at incorporating media. The function is very similar to Power Point, however: your basic direct instruction presentation.

Nation Center for Education is intended for the designing and building of graphs. There are number of reasons for building graphs in social studies: charting economic growth/decline, examining population growth, etc.

Top Ten Must-have Apps features (p. 340)

Google Earth is an app for exploring the Earth through an interactive digital map. National Geographic World Atlas also features a collection of maps. Historians, as you may well know, are fans of maps. They're pretty important to the study of history and to get a perspective on the geography and politics of a given period.  These two sites could be useful for presenting maps to help support instruction.

Stack the States is a game that helps you to learn more information about the states in the United States. The game is a fun and easy way to get students to learn more about the geography of states.

CNN is a news site. This could be a useful source for your students to do research or to stay up with the latest information about current events. 

 

Civil War Today is an app that talks about what happened, each day you use it, during the Civil War. It could be really useful for teachers trying to discuss U.S. History and the Civil War. 

 
Library of Congress U.S. Constitution: Analysis and Interpretation is a mobile version of the Constitution with annotations interpreting it. This could also be pretty useful for teaching American history.

My House allows users to keep up to date with Congressional activities and to get in touch with their legislators. It could be good to encourage students to write to their representatives about issues that interest and concern them.

American Presidents for iPad is an app that looks at American history from the perspective of the presidents. It could be a unique, interactive way for students to become interested in U.S. History.

National Archives DocsTeach is a resource for exploring primary source documents. This could potentially be useful for having students do research and write essays.

Back in Time is an interactive resource for exploring history. This could also be useful for research purposes.