Thursday, April 26, 2007

Technology in the American History Classroom


During January, February, and March teachers met with FreshPond Education facilitator Rob Ramsdell in a workshop that focused on integrating technology into the American history curriculum. Discussion topics included evaluating technology-enhanced activities and resources, and the benefits that technology brings to the classroom.

During the two-day sessions, teachers researched and harvested Internet resources, and utilized functions related to Social Studies classroom applications in Inspiration, PowerPoint, and Microsoft Word.

At the end of both sessions, teachers shared mini-lessons that they created in which they incorporated the skills and resources gained from the Technology in the American History Classroom sessions into the U.S. History curriculum. Lesson plans included using primary sources found on the Internet to teach immigration, using a 17th century folk song found digitally on the Internet to teach about colonial life, and using Inspiration software to compare and contrast the teachings of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.