Complicating Students’ Historical Thinking

Using Uncomplicated Technologies

Presented by: Dr. J. H. Bickford III, Eastern Illinois University

 
Course Description:
To best challenge students’ thinking, educators must find and/or create innovative ways to stimulate enthusiasm.  Diverse technologies elicit students' engagement and offer learning opportunities if and only if they are efficient (as judged by user-friendliness) and effective (as measured by their ability to rouse students’ criticality and expressivity).  This presentation will explore my experiences as a middle school social studies teacher using PowerPoint (and other “old” but effective and efficient technologies) in two creative ways.  Both methods enable students to express complex understandings about historical, political, and current events using “old” technologies inventively. 

 This presentation investigates how students’ original political cartoons and visual slide shows can positively impact students’ engagement, interpretational skills, criticality, expressivity, and the class’s discussions.  Since students constructed and expressed interpretations of historical and contemporary events using technology, creativity, and historical understandings, they were “doing” history in ways similar to a political cartoonist, a movie producer, and a historian. 

   
Grade Level(s): 5-12, College, and Adult Content Area(s): Social Science and Technology
   
Session: 1 or 2 Room #: 305