Thoughts on Rubrics and Strategies for Social Studies Educators

Part IV: Teaching and Learning Across the Curriculum

 

Ch. 12 Teaching Social Studies with Technology

As far as rubrics go, few strategies for assessment of technology integration are as sound and reliable as the good old Tech-Pack. This was discussed way back in Chapter 1, but the underlying principles work pretty much for any subject area or topic. The Tech-Pack considers the overlap of content knowledge and technological use, and how effectively the two areas impact one another and result in quality instruction (Roblyer, 9) .

There's also a really useful rubric specifically for social studies teachers in Chapter 12. The chapter notes that social studiesteachers are required to be prepared to teach about a wide array of topics and that they won't necessarily always have the background for this. That lack of background can also extend to an understanding of the necessary technology to integrate (Roblyer 348-49).

There are numerous skills that are necessary to master in order to be an effective social studies teacher. However, I just wanted to focus on a single skill area: digital information critiques and electronic research strategies. The chapter has these two categories as separate knowledge bases and integration strategies, but to me they're interrelated (Roblyer 348-49).

For starters, we as teachers need to provide examples of good and bad sources, and explain why certain sources offer poor or questionable information. We also need to breakdown the process of how to research and come by effective, reliable information. This can be done initially by examining and questioning primary source documents or secondary source readings written by historians or scholars. But it can also be done by taking a look at the news and looking for biases in the presentation of information. Students need to be taught about the types of sites that could be useful, and they need to realize that certain resources are very easy and readily accessible, such as Wikipedia, Google News and Google Scholar. Since search engine results will be a popular go-to method by which students come by their information, we have to teach them how to sift through search results in order to determine worthy, credible websites.

That's just one set of strategies I recommend for building up teachers' skills for social studies instruction and integration of technology. If you have any other suggestions, please feel free to suggest them.

References:

Roblyer, M.D. (2016). Integrating Educational Technology Into Teaching (ed. 7). Boston: Pearson.