7 ways to use your iPad in the social studies classroom

Have iPads? Getting iPads? Confused a bit about how to actually use iPads?

You’re not alone. Tons of schools are jumping on the mobile tablet bandwagon. But they often jump on without giving teachers a whole lot of training. The infographic below – created by Tony Vincent and posted on his awesome Learning in Hand site – can be a jumpstart to learning more about how the iPad can impact teaching and learning. (Head over there and get the large six page version or a huge 24 page version.)

It highlights seven ways that you can use iPads in the classroom:

What’s it like to be tech naked?

I don’t know if the term has been used before. I’m pretty sure someone else coined it long ago.

Tech naked

I’m also pretty sure that I just got blocked by 50% of all school filters. Which is a shame. I think we all need to get tech naked every once in a while. What is tech naked?

. . . going for an extended period of time without access to, or choosing not to access, technology such as computers, internet, social media, email, and the Apple App Store.

(Also no Scramble with Friends.)

And it’s a good thing. There has been some interesting research about how the misuse of technology can screw with attention span and deep thinking skills. How the use of social media can be addictive. Let’s be clear. I am a firm believer of using technology as a part of everyday life, of how powerful it can be as part of the educational process.

But . . .

Tweet the Debates: Using Twitter to recreate history

Twitter is a pretty amazing tool. Think about it. With Twitter, I can get constant updates from my friends, family, and colleagues on what they had for breakfast, how their drive to work went, and truly important stuff like how hot they think it will be this afternoon.

Seriously. How did we live without Twitter?

I kid because I love.

Twitter really is a pretty amazing tool. Revolutions in Egypt. Live updates on natural disasters. Connections with loved ones thousands of miles away. Not to mention a decent instructional strategy.

We’ve talked about using Twitter in the social studies before. And so when I came across Tweet the Debates, I was more than just a little curious. Created by artist and lawyer Toby Grytafey, Tweet the Debates is his attempt to recreate the summer of 1787 as if those attending the Constitutional Convention had access to social media.

It’s an interesting concept that has worked for other historical events. And it sounds pretty cool. Toby started a Kickstarter project that was hoping to raise funds for a mobile app and other goodies. Even if the fundraising idea fell through, the actual Tweet the Debates idea is awesome.

Toby uses a quote from James Madison, apparently written in the spring of 1835, as inspiration for the project:

Tip of the Week: MapStory. It’s Wikipedia for Maps

Okay. Not sure if I should be impressed or freaked out by the fact that the founder of MapStory was also one of the original officers of In-Q-Tel. In-Q-Tel, as we all know, is the venture capital group working to keep the CIA equipped with the latest in information technology.

I’m gonna go with freakishly impressed.

Because MapStory looks like a very handy tool for teachers looking for ways to incorporate high-level discipline specific thinking skills into their geography and history instruction. And I’m sure there’s not any chance of teachers getting caught up in some sort of illegal international information gathering syndicate through MapStory.

Pretty sure.

Yesterday I shared some thoughts about using maps to to help generate great questions related to the Kansas state social studies standards and the Common Core. Part of what I didn’t talk about was the last part:

Interactive Civil War maps and digital storytelling tools

It’s always a great day when I get to spend time with people who love talking history. That was my day yesterday. Strategies, resources, what works, what doesn’t.

Good times.

Part of the time involved what I call “play time.” Most teachers have a limited time during a typical day to just play around – browse for resources, chat about scope and sequence, argue about Kennedy’s response to Soviet missiles in Cuba.

You know. The part of the day when real professional learning happens.

It was during this period of sharing and browsing that a teacher found an awesome site that she passed on to me.