Social Science as a Web of Trails: Building Social Inquiry and Collaboration
Abstract: Social studies are increasingly marginalized in school curriculum as students perceive it as disconnected from their lives (NCSS, 1988). The emergence of the World Wide Web as a tool in research and discovery offers Pre-K-12 social studies education an opportunity to share information and perspectives which build HOCS while engaging students in meaningful curriculum (Zoller, 2011). Students are able to access open, transparent sites creating common resources pools and autonomous working groups which can be used for shared problem solving. Social studies teachers should carefully build Web 2.0 technology into their practice based on a changing pedagogy. Instead of focusing on teaching rule based concepts and processes in which the teacher’s role is that of expert, education should be focusing on possibilities of the Web both in social inquiry and problem solving.
Presider: Gregory Samuels, University of South Florida