Academic
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ISSN 1096-1453 Volume 13, Issue 4
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Elementary
Social Studies and the Internet
Alison A. Dobrick,
Dobrick,
Ed.D. is Assistant Professor of Elementary and Early Childhood Education in the
Abstract
Elementary teachers face many challenges
when they integrate the internet into their Social Studies instruction. This
article examines the internet’s relationship with cognition; effective
practices in Social Studies education; and findings from a study in which
teachers reported their internet-based instructional activities. This article
provides suggestions for teachers who wish to more effectively harness the
opportunities of and address the concerns related to using the internet in the
classroom.
Introduction
The internet is ubiquitous in modern life
and education. The question of whether
to use the internet as an instructional tool is no longer relevant; instead,
educators must determine how to effectively
and responsibly use the internet to help students of all ages meaningfully
understand content. This article examines research about the internet and its
relationships with cognition, education, and literacy. In addition, primary,
empirical findings from a recent study examining teachers’ instructional
decisions related to the internet are examined. This research provides specific
examples of the nature of relevant issues related to internet-based instruction
in elementary level Social Studies. Exploring this research leads, finally, to suggestions
for teachers who wish to harness the incredible opportunities offered by the internet
in their classrooms.
Challenges
Presented by the Internet
In a recent article in the Atlantic provocatively entitled “Is
Google Making Us Stupid?,” Nicholas Carr (2008) bemoans the fact that he is
“not thinking the way [he] used to think…the deep reading that used to come
naturally has become a struggle” (p. 57). Carr supports the assertion that this
has become a common phenomenon, using studies oriented toward both social life
and brain chemistry that claim that our pervasive use of the internet has begun
to shape the way we think:
The
advantages of having immediate access to such an incredibly rich store of
information are many, and they’ve been widely described and duly
applauded...But that boon comes at a price…media are not just passive channels
of information. They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the
process of thought. And what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my
capacity for concentration and contemplation (Carr, 2008, p. 57).
Carr’s assertion demonstrates a sharp contrast
between how the internet may affect cognition and how teachers wish students to
understand content. Historical studies must promote a deep and meaningful understanding
of the many, complex perspectives of multiple eras, events, and cultures. Teachers
commonly use the internet both to find resources of information and to guide
students in independent research. As teachers engage in these processes, they
must contend with the fact that the internet does not encourage deep thinking
about a given topic. Rather, in Carr’s words, the internet presents information
as “a swiftly moving stream of particles” (p. 57) upon which students drift,
finding bits of information as needed rather than engaging in meaningful
consideration of the nuances of selected topics.
Researchers have proposed that consumers
of information on the internet must become proficient in a variety of skills if
they are to meaningfully enhance their knowledge through internet research. The
number of skills one needs in order to maximally benefit from the offerings of
the Internet is vast, especially for young students who are just beginning to
engage in abstract thought. Selber (2004) describes the notion that today’s “functional
computer literacy” includes a multitude of skills:
…computer literacy is a vexing and ongoing problem…for more
than two decades, the discipline has attempted to make some sense – in social,
political, historical, professional, pedagogical, and functional terms – of
computers not as computational machines but as literacy environments,
environments that leave very few activities, individuals, or structures
entirely unaffected (Selber, 2004, p. 471).
Selber's description of computer literacy
as “a set of interconnected capacities” (p. 472), ranging from using a word
processor to interacting with others in online discussions to searching
successfully for desired information, demonstrates the challenges facing
teachers who seek to use the bounty of information on the internet as a basis
for or supplement to their curriculum. Many
elementary students come to the classroom with some aspects of “functional
computer literacy,” from basic skills like typing to complex abilities like interacting
in online virtual “worlds” (Valentine and Holloway, 2002). A recent study (Kuiper, Volman & Terwel [2009]) found that elementary
students’ internet searches were often characterized by “inconsistency,
impulsiveness, and impatience” even when they possessed the adequate basic
skills needed for internet use. Villano (2008) describes the movement, based in
the
Specific
Concerns about Teaching Social Studies to Elementary Students Using the
Internet
The challenges inherent in internet use
discussed above have profound implications for the use of the internet in
teaching social studies content to students. The National Council for the
Social Studies (2002) provides
“essential characteristics for powerful Social Studies” that offer teachers a
research-based understanding of the concepts and attitudes that should ideally shape
their instruction. Keeping these characteristics in mind while using the
internet as a teaching tool allows educators to enhance the goals of Social
Studies education and not to work against them by, for example, addressing
historical topics in the quick and surface manner often associated with the
internet. Some of these characteristics include ensuring that students:
…
learn connected networks of knowledge, skills, beliefs and attitudes that they
will find useful both in and outside of school…become aware of the values,
complexities, and dilemmas involved in an issue…[recognize] opposing points of
view…[and] engage in reflective thinking and decision-making
(NCSS,
2002, p. 12-13).
The use of the internet in Social Studies
classrooms has mostly been examined at the high school and college levels. Examples
of successful uses of the internet in high school Social Studies instruction include
the encouragement of critical discussion on teacher-selected primary sources on
the Vietnam War (Warren, Memory, & Bolinger, 2004) and the guiding of students
to create their own Advanced Placement Examination-style Document Based
Questions using primary sources they found online (Kotzin, 2001). Newmark (1997)
notes that the use of primary sources is vital in Social Studies instruction,
and that the internet is by far the best place to find primary sources,
particularly from the perspectives of traditionally underrepresented groups of
people; future research should focus on ways to make these primary sources more
accessible and meaningful for young students.
Unfortunately, the unique concerns related
to using the internet to teach about Social Studies at the elementary level are
not frequently addressed in the literature. In her discussion of the “pitfalls”
of using the internet to teach history at the college level, Noonan (1998)
states that “the place of the web in higher education is quite different from
elementary and secondary schools where the emphasis has been on constructing
sites for use in the classroom rather than on how to navigate the web” (p.
205-206). For example, Risinger’s (2006) study examined classroom websites that
elementary teachers created and successfully used as resources for instruction,
but did not explore more general classroom implications of using the internet
in social studies instruction. However, as will be shown in the next section of
this article, elementary teachers frequently report that they allow their
students to engage in research on the internet, rather than just on
classroom-specific websites. Young students must at times engage in such
navigation in presumably less than effective and meaningful ways, demonstrating
the need for further research on elementary students’ internet experiences in
the classroom.
One example of a historical topic that presents
particularly difficult problems for elementary teachers, yet is required or
encouraged by many states, is the Holocaust. Multiple states mandate its
inclusion in elementary teachers’ Social Studies curricula (Weeden, 2005). Scholars
of Holocaust education (for example, Totten, 1999), recommend that age-appropriate
resources must be used with young students. This recommendation must be adhered
to when selecting internet resources as part of elementary level Holocaust
instruction and Social Studies instruction more generally. In addition, when
including the internet in instruction about the Holocaust, teachers must be
aware that the internet presents information from both highly reliable and
extremely questionable perspectives.
The example of teaching about the
Holocaust provides a particularly clear example of the importance of media
literacy, one important aspect of which is the ability to critically consider
the sources behind any website (or any media in general). Reliable, fact-filled
websites for learning about the Holocaust, such as that of the
Learning
from Teachers’ Experiences
Studies about teachers’ experiences with internet-based
instructional approaches are often small-scale case studies that examine the
classroom experiences of high school or college level students, or, as
mentioned above, investigations of specific websites’ use and content. However,
because elementary teachers are expected to include complex historical topics in
their instruction, more research that examines the integration of the internet
into the elementary Social Studies curriculum must be accomplished. The author
of this article attempted to address the need for increased research on
elementary teachers’ decision making and actions in relation to their Social
Studies instruction with a study focusing on elementary teachers’ decisions to
teach about the Holocaust in a large school district in southern
In this study (Dobrick, 2008), 128 fifth-grade
teachers described through survey responses a range of practices related to the
nature and extent of their instruction on the Holocaust, but only responses
dealing with their use of the internet are considered here. Teachers in this
study used the internet both as a source of information for themselves and to
inform their students’ own, independent research. Teachers reported that they
used the surveyed county’s paper
version of their school district-published guide, which had been distributed to
all of its schools, more frequently than the same guide provided on the
district’s website (43.6% of them used the paper guide, while 25.7% of respondents
used the guide in its online form). It
may be surmised that some teachers simply did not know that it was available
online, or that some teachers did not possess the level of familiarity with the
internet needed to access the mandated guide.
A further finding must be considered alongside
the data on the school district’s guide. A full 20.8% of teachers used the comprehensive,
authoritative guide published online by the
Suggestion
1: Promote the Use of Single, Comprehensive Guides
Several suggestions can be drawn from an
examination of the above concerns related to the use of the internet in elementary
Social Studies instruction. If users of the internet tend to prefer a research
approach characterized by quick searches for surface information, as described
by Carr, a possible counterbalance might be to direct teachers toward comprehensive
guides or databases that present relevant, meaningful information in one,
convenient location. In the
Having a set of comprehensive facts and
methods in an approved guide can also address concerns related to developmental
appropriateness. Schrum (2001) encourages the use of history databases that
organize the immense number of primary and secondary sources available on the internet
so that students can be helped to effectively assess the validity of online
sources of information (p. 329). Teaching about the Holocaust is a clear example
of the concerns that emerge when teaching history to young students, but many
historical events bring up similar concerns of being considered objectionable,
controversial, or psychologically difficult for elementary students. Central guides and databases produced by
experts in a given field promote accuracy and consistency in teachers’ curricula.
However, it is important to note that this practice does not add to teachers’
or students’ ability to sort through and evaluate multiple sources of
information.
Suggestion
2: Create Professional Development Opportunities on Computer Literacy
As mentioned above, computer literacy is
comprised of multiple complex and basic skills. Professional development must
be encouraged that helps teachers to attain and constantly improve a diverse
set of technology skills. Norton
& Hathaway (2008) describe a successful graduate course in “Web 2.0”
technology, which included topics from basic computer literacy to an overview
of social networking models on the internet; such a graduate course could be
modified to fit the needs of in-service teachers who are not in a formal
academic program.
Professional development opportunities, ranging from onsite workshops at
elementary schools to activities in pre-service teachers’ undergraduate
courses, must offer interactive, hands-on instruction in a wide assortment of skills
so that teachers can learn to build upon their own, diverse levels of
understanding. Teachers, like their young students, possess different levels of
knowledge and skills considered part of a comprehensive computer literacy. Guiding
teachers toward an understanding of how to promote meaningful, directed student
research must be part of any professional development experience in computer
literacy.
Suggestion
3: Engage in Deep, Not Surface Teaching of Historical Content
Teachers and prospective teachers must be
encouraged to teach about culture and history in a meaningful, not simply surface
manner. This is true regardless of the source of information, but is especially
relevant when considering the previously mentioned pitfalls of internet-based instruction
(Carr, 2008). Pang (2005) discusses the
difference between surface and deep cultural studies. She describes three
levels of culture and encourages teachers to draw from all three levels, not
from just “surface” cultural items when teaching students about cultures other
than their own:
Level 1: Language, Symbols, and Artifacts
Level 2: Customs, Practices, and Interactional Patterns
Level 3: Shared Values, Beliefs, Norms, and Expectations (Pang, 2005, p.1)
Pang’s three
levels of cultural expressions demonstrate a belief in the importance of
teaching students to consider aspects of cultural groups that are deeper than
surface, external details like clothing and foods. When using the internet in Social
Studies instruction, teachers must be careful to lead students toward
meaningful understandings of the events, people, and themes they learn about.
Students who are left on their own to “research” a given group of people or
historical event are likely to quickly find and report on Level 1 cultural
items and ignore the more complex realities of the aspects of culture that
comprise Levels 2 and 3. Teachers who guide their students toward a realistic
understanding of the dynamic complexities of culture, for example, leading students to learn about how children
live their daily lives in multiple cultures, will be more effectively harness
the opportunities provided by the internet in the area of Social Studies
education.
Conclusion
Challenges faced by elementary teachers who integrate
the internet into Social Studies instruction include ensuring that websites are
age-appropriate and developing media literacy among young students. This
article provided several suggestions for improving teachers’ use of the
internet with young students. First, teachers should be provided with
personalized professional learning opportunities in computer and media literacy.
Also, teachers should be encouraged to use comprehensive online guides that
provide meaningful content and effective methods. Finally, teachers must
approach Social Studies education in a “deep” rather than in a “surface”
manner. Implementing these suggestions may help elementary level teachers to more
effectively use the ubiquitous internet in their Social Studies instruction.
References
Carr, N. (2008). Is Google making us
stupid? The
Dobrick, A. (2008). History at the gates: How teacher and school characteristics relate to
implementation of a state mandate
on Holocaust education. Unpublished doctoral dissertation,