Technology Brings Social Studies Alive!

As a 20 year veteran in education as a high school social studies teacher, administrator, and now for the Kentucky Department of Education as social studies consultant and director of social studies networks, I can honestly say we still have much more to do in classrooms to utilize 21st Century skills.  Our students are living, breathing examples of technology and use these skills daily in their lives like many of us do as well.  The technology covered in this course fully recognizes the importance of technology in education and how it can be a tool to bring our classrooms alive and interactive for our students.  I think it is exciting to have students blogging, making their own screencasts and podcasts, and collaborating with the use of technology.  Technology can change the face of social studies and bring life to history and other content areas rather than stale lectures.  The technology turns the classroom roles into the teacher as facilitator and the student as the actively engaged learner using technology to individualize instruction.  Social studies teachers in Kentucky should embrace technology and use it to spark student interest and inquiry into our field.