As education moves toward a more technological age, teachers will need to apply their thinking to new, emerging, and integrative uses of technology within the content areas, and to innovative approaches for addressing student needs. In social studies, the role of technology can lead to more active learning and adventurous teaching. By integrating technology techniques into courses, social studies can become more exciting and forward-looking and possibly meet the needs of students with different learning styles. The key is to plan strategies when it is appropriate to the needs of the social studies student. For social studies educators, the challenge is how to use emerging technology effectively and creatively within our curriculum goals.
Studies suggest that the use of technology can enhance student learning.
With an effective series of technology-based curriculum modules and appropriate implementation strategies, social studies educators can realize positive results in learning. Not only can we read about places, we can take our students there with a click of a mouse. We can now see and hear people, we can compare locations, and we can provide visual aids to support concepts that may have been difficult to comprehend by only reading the text. Multimedia Development Fourteen preservice teachers enrolled in a social studies methods course at a Texas university and ten preservice teachers enrolled in a social studies methods class at a Kansas university developed multimedia presentations as an optional assignment for the course. Presentations were developed using Hyperstudio software.