This document discusses the educational potential of technology and video games. It notes that today's students learn differently than in the past. While filters and concerns about tech for its own sake exist, the document advocates being proactive rather than restrictive. Video games engage complex patterns and collaboration in ways that match how the brain operates and learns best. Games can provide emotionally engaging content that encourages survival-focused problem solving in a way that traditional school often fails to do. Overall, the document sees games and technology as providing opportunities to better align learning with how the brain naturally functions.

1. software,
tech web sites and
some other
stuff cool stuff
for social
studies
Glenn Wiebe
glennw@essdack.org
ESSDACK

2. some assumptions

3. “Today’s students
are no longer the
people our
educational system
was designed to
teach.”
Marc Prensky

5. tech for tech’s sake is bad

6. tech for tech’s sake is bad
technology changes

7. tech for tech’s sake is bad
technology changes
be pro-active vs. filtering
systems

8. tech for tech’s sake is bad
technology changes
be pro-active vs. filtering
systems
your best tech in-service
will come from a kid

9. social
networks
internet
myths
where
are we
going? video
games
cool
software web
sites

10. www.socialstudiescentral.com

11. social
networks
internet
myths
where
are we
going? video
games
cool
software web
sites

12. • Dihydrogen Monoxide Research
Division
• Your All Natural Friend

13. • A Short Introduction to Holocaust
Revisionism
• Holocaust Hoax
• United States Holocaust Memorial
Museum
• A Teacher’s Guide to the
Holocaust: Survivors

16. The Web is a giant encyclopedia

17. The Web is a giant encyclopedia
Filters actually work
• Martin Luther King

18. The Web is a giant encyclopedia
Filters actually work
• Martin Luther King
All information on the Web is true

19. Peter Stiener July 5, 1993 New Yorker

20. social
networks
internet
myths
where
are we
going? video
games
cool
software web
sites

21. my Favorite
“Five”

22. • Word Magnets
• Garageband / PhotoStory3
• SlideShare
• Tagxedo
• BibMe

23. • xTimeline
• Graphic Organizers
• Skype
• Google Tools (Docs, Picasa,
Earth)
• Kan-Ed Empowered Desktop

24. What do you use?

25. social
networks
internet
myths
where
are we
going? video
games
cool
software web
sites

31. “news feeds”
from a web site

32. “news feeds”
from a web site
“news reader” to
display the feeds

33. Find the button

35. social
networks
internet
myths
where
are we
going? video
games
cool
software web
sites

36. Tic Tac Toe

37. Pong

38. Galaga

39. SimCity

40. World of Warcraft

41. games
haven’t
gotten
simpler over
time

42. they’ve gotten more
complex

43. Why?

44. because the brain
demands it

45. “The brain developed to solve
problems relating to surviving in
an unstable, outdoor environment
and to do so in near constant
motion.”
John Medina
Brain Rules

46. can I eat it?

47. can it
eat me?

48. can I have sex
with it?

49. what then . . .
is your job?

50. convince a middle
school kid that a five
paragraph essay
is essential for her
survival

51. brains
search for
patterns

54. brains work best when emotional
chemicals are increased

57. brains want to
work with
others

58. games provide “tasty patterns of
reality”

59. games create emotional
connections

60. games encourage collaborative
learning

61. games become about
“survival”

62. “Better theories of learning are
embedded in the video games many
children play than in the schools
they attend.”
James Gee
What Video Games Have to Teach Us
About Literacy & Learning

63. Grand Theft Childhood
Lawrence Kutner
How Computer Games Help
Children Learn
David Williamson Shaffer
Don’t Bother Me, Mom --
I’m Learning!
Marc Prensky

64. what’s makin’
sense?

65. your games?

66. Some great examples

68. iPod Touch

69. Traveler IQ

70. www.stopdisastersgame.org

72. d World Farmer
Thir

82. social
networks
internet
myths
where
are we
going? video
games
cool
software web
sites

83. my Favorite
“Five”?

84. • Thinkfinity
• National History Education
Clearinghouse
• Best of History Web Sites
• Teaching History with Technology
• Gilder Lehrman modules

85. • Social Studies Central Tip of
the Week

86. “There are many ways of
moving forward but only one
way of standing still.”
Franklin Roosevelt

87. have more questions?
contact:
Glenn Wiebe
glennw@essdack.org
socialstudiescentral.com
historytech.wordpress.com
View presentations at:
slideshare.net/glennw98