Guidelines for Using Technology to Prepare Social Studies Teachers

New technology is changing the way educators use and present materials to their students, and technology is evolving so rapidly that educators may find it difficult to accommodate them into their curricula. One scholarly article that proposes criteria for prospective high school social studies teachers to prepare strategies to include technology into their curricula is Cheryl Mason and Michael Berson's "Guidelines for Using Technology to Prepare Social Studies Teachers".

Mason and Berson's article proposes five guiding principles to help prospective high school social studies teachers to infuse new technologies into their classes. These guiding principles help the reader to make their own conclusions if technology is beneficial or detrimental for social studies teachers to use in their classrooms.

I consider Mason and Berson's five guiding principles to be the major focus of this article and thus, I consider them the article's salient points. The first of the guiding principles is "Extended Learning Beyond What Could Be Done Without Technology", and it cautions against using technology for the sake of using it. This useful principle cautions "... against using technology for technology's sake, and encouraging faculty and preservice teachers to consider if the technology is allowing them to learn in a way they could not without the technology or if they are at least learning in a more meaningful way." (Mason, 2)

This is wise advice for a beginning high school teacher, because a teacher may feel the need to include technology into their lesson, simply because their colleagues are doing so, but the teacher must ask himself or herself, will the students benefit from their use of technology? If a teacher...

... middle of paper ...

...ementary, middle, high school, or post secondary environments by which to judge the effectiveness of technology on either student or instructional performance in the social studies." (Mason, 12)

Clearly, more long-term studies have to be performed at the national level to gauge the effectiveness of technology in social studies. As a prospective educator and as a current student, I know there are great benefits to the use of technology. I state this in a purely colloquial manner, because I am not an expert in pedagogy or technology, but when the studies are performed, I feel the results will be beneficial for both educators and students alike.

Works Cited

Mason, C., Berson, M., Diem, R., Hicks, D., Lee, J., & Dralle, T.(2000). Guidelines for using technology to prepare social studies teachers. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education.