Teaching subjects such as Social Studies, History or Political Science can be daunting because it mostly consists of reading a lot of text. Most of the students consider Social Studies boring as most of the topics requires memorizing facts and figures. It is therefore important for the teachers to create a learning environment that help students learn in an enjoyable manner. Technology can be handy for creating an interactive Social Studies class.
Teachers can make use of technology in the class room, for homework or they can even take printout of various interesting topic related activities for use in the classroom, if there is an issue using technology in the classroom. Today I will share some free online learning resources keeping in perspective the Social Studies Syllabus in Pakistan.
If your are teaching about natural wonders and landmarks of the world, nothing works better than visiting the place in person. Of course, its not always possible. However, there is a free alternative. Simply use Google Street view for taking a voyage through important landmarks. You can use it to navigate through major cities of the world as if you are present there in reality. In addition, you get to see the important and interesting facts and information about each place on the screen. Point in a direction on the screen and click to follow the route to explore the surroundings So, in order to grab the helm and take your students to a world tour while sitting in the class. Follow the following simple instructions
- Open Google maps Street Views
- Choose the City or the Landmark from the wide range of options
- Sit back and enjoy the breath taking views,
- Explore the Sydney Opera House and views of the Harbor here.
EdPuzzle is a free Video editing tool. Using this tool you can use any video available on You Tube, Khan Academy or Vimeo, edit it, add quiz questions at any point in the video and can even add your own voice to create a personalized video for your students. Once the students log in, their responses will be recorded and can be seen in real time through teachers’ dash board. This help teacher understand the extent to which the students are clear about a concept. These videos can be a great way for reinforcing the concepts taught in the classroom. The link to videos can be shared with the students in Google Classroom or EdPuzzle Classes. Have a look at this quiz embedded within video, about the Government and Types of Government.
Khan academy is a wonderful free resource where you can find a collection of videos and practice tests related to World History, US History and much more. The resources can be used for classroom or for homework. The resources and information can help teachers plan outstanding lessons.
Quiziz is a free teacher created quiz platform that can be used to motivate your students. Teachers can use text or images to create the quiz questions. It can be played as a live game together in class or in homework mode. Students can use any device and progress at their own pace. Teacher can create a new quiz from scratch or find a quiz already made by millions of teachers around the globe.
Check out this quiz about the renewable and non-renewable resources.
Kahoot is another game based quiz platform , which is an excellent tool for creating a fun based learning environment in the class. But it requires each student to have a computer or mobile device to respond to the quiz. Alternatively, the quiz can be played individually at home. For more details about how online quiz can be used in or outside classroom, read my post about How to Use Kahoot to add excitement and fun to class quiz.
Timeline JS is a free tool that enables users to build an interactive timeline story using a Google spreadsheet. It allows to add a variety of content such as text, tweets, images, videos, sounds and even maps to make the timeline visually rich. Once the data is entered, it can be easily published to share with students in class or on the website.
PBS learning media offers a range of free resources such as videos, interactive lessons, lesson plans, games and much more on topics such as Geography, Elementary Social studies, US history and World History etc. The resources can be directly shared with students via Google classroom or can be used for classroom instruction.
This website has especially been designed to assist K-12 History teachers. Apart from other informative resources such as teaching materials, videos and quizzes, it also provides interactive posters for History class.
Using one or more of the resources mentioned above will certainly bring life to an otherwise boring class.
Happy Learning!!!!!!