Our Social Studies Sputnik Moment: A Message from the OCSS President

Presidential Address by Dr. Brad Maguth

October 14th, 2019

Embassy Suites, Dublin, Ohio

As President of the Ohio Council for the Social Studies it is my pleasure to welcome each of you our 63^rd Annual Conference. The Ohio Council for the Social Studies is the state’s premier voice for social studies teachers in Ohio. This includes fighting for a robust, rigorous, and inclusive social studies learning experience in Ohio’s schools and communities. Your membership and attendance at this year’s conference supports our network’s critical work.

As first reported in the Atlantic in 2016, I believe we are entering our nation’s social studies “sputnik” moment. On October 4th, 1957, the Soviet Union officially became the first nation to launch an artificial satellite (named Sputnik) into low Earth orbit. In the midst of a global Cold War, a period of history that pitted two ideologically opposed nuclear-armed states against one another, the Soviets had the technological, interstellar edge. Soviet scientific superiority posed a direct threat to the democratic ideals and values the U.S. stood for. Soon afterwards, mounting criticism over the U.S. education system grew, and over 4 billion dollars of National Defense Education Act [NDEA] funding poured into advancing math, science, and engineering, in the nation’s schools.

While the Cold War waned after the collapse of the Berlin Wall, a new threat has emerged working to undermine the health and vibrancy of U.S. democracy. Since the signing of No Child Left Behind [NCLB] in 2002, research clearly demonstrates deep national and state cuts in the teaching and learning of history, civics, and social studies. The CCSSO reported that 44% of districts surveyed reduced social studies instructional time since NCLB. Locally, OCSS’s higher education faculty found in a 2015 white paper that nearly 40% of state principals interviewed felt there was less curricular attention to social studies since the suspension of the 5^th grade Social Studies Ohio Achievement Assessment. A 2017 report from the Education Commission of the States, shows urban schools that serve mostly low-income, students of color are often afforded fewer and lower quality social studies and civic education learning experiences due to an increased curricular focus on tested subjects.

With the decay and marginalization of social studies in our schools, research shows civic literacy levels are dismal. In a recent Annenberg survey, more than two-thirds of Americans could not name all three branches of the federal government. Only 26% of millennials say that free elections where citizens choose their leaders are important features to a democratic society (Foa & Mounk, 2016). When asked in a 2011 World Values Survey whether a democratic government is a good or bad way to run a country, about 17 percent said bad or very bad- about a quarter of 16 to 24 said bad or very bad. Today’s hyper partisanship, broken politics, poor civic discourse, and growing civic apathy have only been fueled by significant cuts to the subject in U.S. schools most predicated on advancing the nation’s civic readiness and interests, namely, the social studies.

I believe we are entering a great civic education awakening, or, our nation’s social studies sputnik moment, where lawmakers and educators with clear eyes understand the value of jump starting social studies teaching and learning in classrooms and communities. Much like the NDEA which supported STEM education in 1958, today’s times demand greater state and national investments in social studies. A strong social studies prepares young people to be reflective citizens that value liberty, democracy, free and fair elections, the separation of powers, a free press, diversity, and to understand the rights and obligations afforded to them under the U.S. and Ohio constitutions.

In social studies, students gain experiences that help them recognize the true genius of a representative democracy: One where people are free to dissent, to criticize, to protest and publish, to join together and assemble in common cause, to hold their elected officials accountable, all features that exemplify democracy’s magnificent capacity for self-correction. Today’s times necessitate the passage of legislation, policies, and programs that curtail devastating cuts made to social studies education, and immediately moves to invest critical resources in the teaching and learning of social studies to better prepare young people to protect and strengthen this nation’s fragile democracy. Our nation and state’s future depends on it.

Thank you for all that you do to bring social studies to life for Ohio’s students, and always know you have a trusted partner in the Ohio Council for the Social Studies. On behalf of the OCSS Executive Board, I am wishing you a wonderful annual conference.

Moving Away from Silver Bullets and Towards Continuums in Global Education

11-11-2015, @ Annual Conference of CUFA

New Orleans, LA

As I begin these comments, I’d like you to keep two images in your mind: 1.) a silver bullet and 2.) a scenic, continuous path. These images hopefully make sense to you as I move through my comments.

These papers I’ve been asked to discuss, document greatly needed research effort to advance global learning.  Although they each address different dimensions of the programs and practices associated with global education and teacher education, taken together, these papers address programs and practices as a continuum of the development of global educators. This continuum spans university course-taking, pre-service social studies instruction, K-12 social studies education, and onward into teacher professional development. 

Global learning must not be confined to one course, one teacher, or course of study. Instead, it must be continuously cultivated. Doing so provides what Hillary Parkhouse described as “the amalgamation of disorienting experiences and pathways into global education at all levels.”

The collection of papers for this symposium, and the recently released book it’s based upon (The State of Global Education:Learning with the World and its People), come at a critical point in time for the future of schools and in particular for global educators.

The field we love faces serious challenges.

Educators and policy makers are wrestling with what the future of our schools should look like. Joel Westhimer, in his latest book, “What Kind of Citizen”, puts this question front and center. “What kind of schools are best suited in educating our children for the common good?” Let’s be clear, wars are being wagged and battles are being fought worldwide over the future landscape of schooling- let alone, schooling in an increasingly global and multicultural age.  As these battles and conversations occur, it’s imperative there’s a coalition of global educators, committed to the field’s founding principles and advocating for the importance of students learning about the world, its people, and issues.

Research is desperately needed to inform our work as we seek out answers to perennial questions on the type of global education best suited to meet the challenges of today.  Fourteen years removed from the horrors of 9/11, nations are increasingly reverting back to “nation building” and more isolationist domestic policies.  Comments such as “we need to stop spending all that money on other countries”, “that’s their problem”, and “keep those foreigners out” have become common place in classrooms and in the media. In fact, Ron Leiber (2015) in the NYTimes reports overall U.S. charitable giving is surpassing pre-recession peaks, yet, giving to international causes and organization continues to decline, and makes up less than 4% of all yearly donations.

While technologies provide new opportunities in both reach and impact for immediate global communication and collaboration, tensions continue to mount across several nations and regions as they work to close their borders and cut themselves off from the world.  As one 10^th grader recently told me when discussing the flow of undocumented workers to the U.S., “we need to build higher and stronger walls” … and no, this tenth grader was not Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

My fear is that we’re entering a “retreatist” age in global education, one centered on building walls versus bridges. These walls prioritize national allegiances at the cost of global affiliations and obligations. Nationalists must be reminded that there is no retreating from those issues, threats, forces, and values that bind humanity. No nation working alone can fight the threat of man-made climate change, avoid the reach of radical extremism and terrorism, or benefit from the development and innovation that occurs through global collaboration and scientific exploration.

It must be noted that work done in the name of promoting global education can actually work against some of the commitments described by our authors today.  A new wave of global education, coined Global Education Inc. by Stephen Ball (2012), is infecting curriculum and instruction in schools around the world. Global education incorporated is tightly packaged as school reform on a global scale, and advances neoliberal policies and scripted best practices. Its curricular tenants center on the need to learn about the world and its people in order to dominate global markets, control access to capital and resources, and to spread the gospel of free market capitalism. These pre-packaged policies and resources are bundled, exported, and sold as market based solutions in the name of “advancing global learning”. Under this framework global education has become a commodity entrenched in corporate profits and worldwide markets, for sale to the highest bidder.  Global learning is branded, mechanized, benchmarked, and connected to corporate education reform that values high-stakes exams over authentic student global experiential learning opportunities. These 10 step plans are scripted, hot off the assembly line, and often for-sale at your local Walmart.

As these ideological battles occur, it’s imperative there’s a coalition of global educators advocating for the importance of students and their teachers learning about the world, its people, and issues in a meaningful way. This makes me genuinely appreciate even more the papers included for review and discussion in this symposium, which we will now discuss:

Hillary, Ariel, Jessie, and Jocelyn’s paper, “You Don’t Have to Travel the World”: Accumulating Experiences Toward Globally Competent Teaching” provides greatly needed research on the significance of multiple pathways into being a global educator. Their finding is simple yet profound: The future of global education is a journey and path, not some pre-conceived destination. In this paper, the authors, identified the various means by which teachers develop their own pathways to global competence. Participants noted it wasn’t one international travel experience, one book, or even one professional development that accounted for their self-identification as global educators. Instead, participants felt it was an accumulation of life experiences, or disorienting experiences and their reflection on them, that prompted them to incorporate global perspectives. My advice to the authors would be to better unpack what constitutes a “disorienting experience”, and how this disequilibrium can be integrated and leveraged to advance global learning in teacher preparation and teacher professional development.

Sarah Matthews and Hillary Landorf paper, “Discussions within Online Learning Formats: Are Meaningful Encounters With Difference Possible?” pushes us to consider the opportunities and challenges associated with using online learning tools (namely MOOCs) in order to  promote global learning. The core of their argument encompasses that “meaningful encounters with difference” matter, and the need to determine if online learning tools (in all their hype and popularity) allowed for meaningful affordances in global learning. Their reviews of using MOOCs to advance global learning are mixed: Students gain through their access to multiple perspectives (cognitive domain) and the opportunity to reflect on their own identity formation (intrapersonal domain). However, transactional distance creates a barrier that prevents meaningful social interaction or social responsibility- which proves to be a barrier to global learning. Interestingly enough, at the end of the paper, the authors note that due to outside pressures, they created and aligned a fully online global learning course into their Master’s program. This course was built with these newly found learnings in mind in order to protect the integrity of global learning. I encourage the authors to disclose this “research into practice” method earlier in their paper, and work to empirically validate the disclosed online instructional design for global learning courses.

Timothy Patterson’s paper, “On the Modern Silk Road: A Case Study of the Limits and Promise of International In-service Teacher Professional Development,” considers the challenges and affordances of in-service teacher professional development through international experiential learning (global study tours). The author debunks the notion that international experiences are inherently transformative for teachers.

Like the first two papers, Tim refuses to “buy into the silver bullet” associated with global study tours and global learning. Here he challenges the dominant discourse on this topic and calls for investment and preparation time for reflection (before, during, and after the tour) and the importance of genuine and quality cross-cultural interactions. He suggests this is one area where the potential to develop truly global educators may be blunted if international experiential learning opportunities are not properly planned and executed.  While these findings evolved out of an externally sponsored global study tour, it would be interesting and insightful if Tim drew from the experience of Sarah and Hillary (to put this research into practice) via leading his own study tour. In particular, the field could greatly benefit from insights into computer mediated (before, during, and after) reflection that advance global learning.

Bill Russell and Cynthia Poole’s paper, “Globalization of Elementary Teacher Preparation in The United States: A National Snapshot,” presents findings from a nationwide study on the extent to which global education university coursework and cross-cultural/co-curricular activities have been incorporated into American elementary teacher preparation programs before and after the year 2000 and the effects of this incorporation on the global perspectives of current elementary school teachers. Like Sarah and Hillary, Bill and Cynthia employed the Global Perspectives Inventory (GPI) to assess participants global perspectives. Their findings indicate that while universities and teacher education programs have promoted global education (the rhetoric), and global education courses have increased in elementary teacher preparation in recent years, there has been no significant increase in the global perspectives of the teachers graduating from those programs (reality). Again, we see an example of a “silver bullet” (number of global content courses) falling short of expectations. In fact, this study concludes that today’s teacher candidates are worse-off in regards to their global learning than their predecessors- despite having completed more global content courses. I’m reminded of Hillary Parkhouse’s claim a strong global education is a professional journey and not a final destination. Bill and Cynthia suggest global content courses offered by American schools of education may not be meeting global education goals. I can’t help but wonder for my own selfish curiosity if global education courses, housed in a College or Department of Education, would do a better job?

Guichun Zong’s paper, “Globalization and Teacher Education: Teaching about Globalization through Community-Based Inquiry,” notes how globalization remains an underexplored yet significant topic for teacher education scholars. Her paper provides a thorough account of how globalization in teacher education is often framed as an uncritical acceptance of the taken-for-granted context. This is quite fitting, based upon the four papers previously reviewed. Despite their hype and popularity there exists no silver bullet that can save us (i.e. global content courses, MOOCs, global study tours, etc.). Guichun explores approaches to integrating the concept of globalization into teacher education curricula. Using “Atlanta in the World” as a case study, she presents how local communities can be used as resources by teacher educators to help university students demystify globalization and develop rich historical understandings of global and local connections. This approach joins the others presented, on how educators need not physically leave the country in order to learn about the world, its people, or issues. Guichun has established a significant scholarly footprint in the area of global education, and I would encourage my accomplished colleague to continue her greatly needed exploration of interdisciplinary, community-based, experiential, global learning opportunities in teacher education and challenge her to take up this idea of “paths and a continuum” in her own work. That is how does this fantastic course fit into the continuum of coursework, readings, and field experiences that her students are experiencing.

I’m proud of the contributions of this coalition of global educators (in the papers and as published in our book), and instead of seeking out the “silver bullet” in global education, let us encourage scholars to seek out and investigate the continuum and pathways into global learning.

Thank you.

*Note: Dr. Maguth was asked to review papers included for presentation in the 2015 CUFA conference titled, “Global ed in teacher ed: Programs and practices”. Discussant: Brad Maguth, University of Akron Global Ed In Teacher Ed: Programs And PracticesJeremy Hilburn, UNC-Wilmington; Sarah Mathews, Florida International University; Hilary Landorf, Florida International University; Hillary Parkhouse, UNC Chapel Hill; Timothy Patterson, Temple University; Cynthia Poole, University of Central Florida; William Russell, University of Central Florida; Guichun Zong, Kennesaw State University

Using Our Communities as Learning Laboratories in Social Studies

One of the greatest features of attending The Annual Conference of the National Council for the Social Studies is having the ability to talk with other social studies teachers from around the United States and world. As I sit here in the massive Georgia World Conference Center in Atlanta, Georgia, I find myself reflecting on a conversation I recently had with a high school social studies teacher in Atlanta. This was one of those conversations that really got me thinking about actual teacher practice and student learning. The high school social studies teacher from Atlanta informed me of a recent movement in his district to implement ‘pre-packaged’ social studies curricula. All teachers have been instructed to use a curriculum guide, which is supposedly aligned to the state standards. This guide is filled with worksheets, lecture notes, and a thorough pacing guide to accompany the district mandated social studies textbook. When asked about how his students feel about this ‘pre-packaged’ curriculum, the social studies teacher in Atlanta told me they often find the lessons and activities dry and boring. He went on to inform me of how the curriculum encourages low level memorization and employs more of a traditional framework whereby students work independently to complete assignments. Administrators should be able to stop into any American History classroom in the district and all teachers should be covering the same material. Despite the obvious concern of not all students learning at similar rates and in like styles, I was even more troubled at the implications of this sort of ‘pre-packaging’ and abuse of lecture/ the textbook on student learning.

This was the very point I emphasized in my presentation at the NCSS Annual Conference (see attached Power Point below). The abuse of lecture, worksheets, and textbooks fails to connect students to their community and world (Loewen, 2009). In fact, this type of social studies curriculum is often perceived by students as boring and irrelevant (Schug, Todd, & Berry, 1984; Shaughnessy & Haladyana, 1985). Having had the opportunity to visit and learn about the wonders of this historically rich city (Atlanta), I was a bit perplexed at how teachers are often left incapacitated and ignorant on ways of using their community to teach students important concepts and skills in the social studies. For instance, students in Atlanta are often left to learn about the Civil Rights Movement through boring, outdated, and politically charged textbooks. Yes, in one of this nation’s most historically significant areas in regards to civil rights, students are left to learn these concepts through a textbook. It was in an upstairs bedroom of 501 Auburn Avenue in Atlanta, Georgia whereby one of this nation’s greatest Civil Rights leaders was born. From his pulpit at Ebenezer Baptist Church, it was this king who inspired us to serve a great cause and be a “Drum Major for Justice.” This rich Atlanta, national, and world history is lost in a dependence upon textbooks (most of which are published in New York, Texas, and California).


In the social studies we have to rethink the ways in which we go about connecting future citizens to their community. Pre-packaged curriculums that treat the art of teaching like a science or the abuse of textbooks often discourage student interest in their community. Social studies teachers have an obligation to get students excited about participating in the social, economic, political, and environmental institutions in their community to make it a better place. With so much history, resources, and opportunities, teachers must begin to use the students’ local community as a learning laboratory. Through place-based education, teachers afford students authentic opportunities to serve, participate in, and engage their local community. For instance, in a study of globalization, students could examine the economic impact of the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. Students could interview city residents and business owners. In fact, students could even develop a walking tour of Olympic Park to see firsthand how their city is connected to the rest of the world. Students around the nation should be asked to explore and investigate their own communities. Teachers should ask students to study local politics, economics, geography, socio-cultural forces, and environmental issues.

Having taught high school social studies in rural Ohio, I can’t help but to think about ways in which I brought community leaders and activists into the classroom to discuss important local issues with students. This ranged from in class political debates with members of city council to students learning about ways to organize comunity projects from a experienced leader of a local nonprofit. In one activity, students interviewed local farmers on the influences of globalization. The students were amazed to learn how local farmers were very attuned to and dependent upon the global marketplace. These students began to think about the social studies in a whole new light. Instead of seeing history, economics, or government as a series of disconnected facts, names, and dates in a textbook, students were beginning to understand how concepts in the social studies influenced their everyday life. In fact, the social studies was being used to get students invested in and passionate about their community.




Place based education is one way in which students can learn concepts in the social studies through real life exploration in their community. This sort of learning is often authentic and meaningful to students. Students are usually excited about having these learning opportunities and are therefore more engaged (Promise of Place, 2009). Instead of fostering rote memorization from boring textbooks, place based education provides students with the opportunity to build connections between students and their community and from citizen to citizen. As social studies teachers, we need to take advantage of the learning opportunities afforded to us by our local communities. Ranging from returning war veterans, local business owners, neighboring organizations and institutions, to seniors that have watched their community grow, there’s so much promise in using 'place' and its people. This promise is predicated on social studies teachers using their community to foster those skills vital to informed, active, and responsible citizenship.

Presentation at the Annual Conference for the Social Studies: Place Based Education

The State of the Social Studies: Rhetoric and Reality

Recently, I have been visiting social studies classrooms all across Northeast Ohio. These visits range from interviewing teachers, students, and principals about their views towards the social studies to actually observing social studies teachers. I must say that the greatest part of my job as Assistant Professor of Education is that I have the opportunity to make such visits and have these substantive conversations. All too often the theories we advocate for in teacher education are seen as disconnected and irrelevant to the ‘realities’ of the needs of today’s schools and students.

I’m reminded of an interaction I had with a pre-service social studies student at the conclusion of a college course. He asked me if I really believed that it was possible to “…hold all students to high expectations”, and to “… use the social studies to foster informed and active democratic citizens despite the challenges families, schools, and the field face.” My answer was short and to the point, “… I do believe we as teachers can never give up on any student… I believe a strong education to be the last best hope for a better and brighter future.” This sort of questioning the value and relevance of educational theory is all too common amongst both pre-service education students and actual social studies teachers. This really bothers me as it is my passion and profession to help prepare the knowledgeable, caring, and devoted social studies teachers; the kind we need to fulfill the goals enlisted by the social studies.

Harry and Rosemary Wong, in The First Days of School: How to Be an Effective Teacher (2009), describes how teacher education programs often fail to teach pre-service teachers what they really need to know in order to become good teachers. Being bothered and agitated by what is seen as the irrelevance of traditional teacher education programs, I have opted to spend as much time as possible during the past 4 months ‘living in the realities of social studies teachers and students.’ My goal was to better understand teacher practice, and student engagement in the social studies. Also, to better understand how schools, teachers, and students have changed since I last taught five years ago as a high school social studies teacher. I was amazed at what I found, especially, in regards to the value of a good social studies education.

The first question I asked myself as I conducted my observation was “Based upon students’ experiences in the social studies, what’s its relationship to their learning the skills, understanding, and attitudes necessary for democratic citizenship? What I found was that the majority of students either had their heads buried in social studies textbooks (being asked to jot down every important ‘fact’ on a worksheet) or they were bored out of their minds taking notes from uneventful lectures. I must say that at times I found it difficult to stay attentive. I can’t even tell how many times I heard the teacher disciplining students as they drifted off-task to remind them, “You’re going to need to know this for college.” Like it or not, students in the social studies are predominantly being asked to learn from textbooks and lecture. There was nothing social about these social studies classes. Students were being inundated with what textbooks and their teachers perceived as facts and universal truths. In these classrooms, the social studies was being used to teach a disdain for all things social. Students learned the importance of obedience, obeying authority, and writing down what others told them (i.e. textbook or teacher) without thinking critically about it. I now ask, given the rhetoric of the social studies (“fostering informed and active democratic citizens”), how close are we to fulfilling that purpose in America’s schools?

On the brighter side, I found many instances where students were actually being taught essential skills for good citizenship. What’s interesting is that many of these instances occurred OUTISDE of social studies instruction. One such instance included a group of students standing up against a bully. Before entering their social studies classroom, a group of students were waiting for their teacher to open the door. Upon waiting to enter, one of the male students in the class began to make fun of and ridicule a special needs student for her physical appearance. Which I thought was horrible on many levels, ESPCIALLY, since all the students just completed a section in their social studies text on discrimination and the Holocaust. Just as I was walking over to confront the student on his comments, I witnessed something amazing. Two girls at their locker close to the incident, who were non-participants in the class, confronted the bully. The two girls told the male student that words hurt, and they found his comments to be completely inappropriate. While their initiative to confront this bullying was inspiring, I found that the many students that witnessed this incident learning from the courage of these ladies. These bystanders had learned something very valuable about good citizenship from these two girls, something missing in many traditional social studies classrooms. These students, through their experience, came to understand how being a good citizen often means making the right and sometimes difficult decision.

As we consider the future of the social studies, we have to contemplate the type of future we say we want versus the one we’re actually creating. The rhetoric of using the social studies to inspire, to engage, and to better our Planet is quite strong. However, we should always measure this against reality (teacher practice). With growing teacher, student, and school accountability for increases in standardized tests scores, and with a growing gap between the schools that have and the have nots, we have to reflect upon how these challenges influence our overall mission. We as a profession have to demand more out of ourselves and one another. We have to understand, much like those students that witnessed the courageous civic acts by those female students, we all have to be the change we wish to see in this world. The time is now for the social studies and its teachers to reach for praxis and a higher ground. This includes embracing methods and approaches that align to our stated civic purpose.

Social Networking & The Social Studies For Citizenship Education

Young people today have grown accustomed to living portions of their life online, shopping , socializing, and learning. According to a 2005 survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, over 87% of those between the ages of 12 and 17 are online. As youth increasingly access and use the Internet, this creates an ideal opportunity for civic educators to help students use the tools they are most familiar with to learn about and advocate for certain causes. Traditionalists have often questioned and brushed off youth civic efforts in cyberspace (Putnam, 2002). This includes discounting youth researching, organization, collaborating, and even protesting issues online. In fact, as Earl and Schusssman assert, “One must question whether existing (traditional) notions of what encompasses civic engagement tend to ignore, devalue, and otherwise marginalize ways in which young people are connecting with one another to collectively make a difference in their worlds.” The fact remains, youth are using the devices they are familiar with, namely the Internet and other electronic technologies, to learn about and advocate for certain civic causes (Maguth, 2009; Bennett, 2008).

The field predicated on citizenship education, the social studies (NCSS, 2009), must reexamine the ways in which it aims to prepare citizens in the wake of massive technological gains. For instance, the White House, CNN, and many local governments and police departments are becoming even more dependent upon social networking tools to inform and learn from citizens (Charitier, 2008). As protests erupted after the 2009 Iranian Presidential elections, and mainstream international journalists were banned from the streets, citizens of the world became increasingly dependent upon digital savvy citizens inside Iran using their cell phones and laptops to upload information to social networking sites, and to inform outsiders about any governmental instability and human rights violations. In fact, U.S. officials even claimed that the Internet, namely social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter, provided the United States government with critical information (Labott, 2009). As digital natives uploaded pictures of peaceful protesters being abused and murdered by Iranian authorities (i.e. ‘Nada’), the world watch as these brave enraged Iranian citizens spoke of their quest for fair and free elections.

Even the White House has turned to social networking technologies to open up the lines of governmental transparency and to inform citizens. One of the first Executive Orders of President Obama was for the federal government to “establish a system of transparency, public participation and collaboration.” Citizens can now participate in discussions with governmental agencies and officials about particular issues through Facebook and MySpace. Besides reading about and commenting on civic issues through social networking sites, the Obama Administration has asked citizens to help submit their insights via the Internet to improve the efficiency of government. On May 1, 2009, the Obama Administration sent out its first tweet warning American citizens about the H1N1 flue (a.k.a. ‘Swine Flue’). Routine tweets from the White House have also informed citizens about other domestic and foreign issues. In fact, twenty-five federal agencies now have YouTube Channels (Scherer, 2009).

As the federal government has turned to the Internet to educate citizens, one would assume the field predicated on citizenship education, the social studies, would do so as well. However, as indicated by the latest research (VanFossen, 2008; Berson, 2002), teachers’ and students’ use of technology in the social studies for civic education has been ‘lackluster’ at best. The field is still heavily dependent upon textbooks, lecture, and rote memorization. Despite the Internet allowing for greater access in learning about and communicating with others on current civic issues, the social studies has opted to maintain its traditional course. Future citizens are not learning in the social studies how to use those tools they are most familiar with to contribution to their community and world. However, as evident by the large gains made by today’s youth in cyberspace, the real gains in civic education come outside the social studies. In order for the social studies to stay relevant in a digital and global age, a deeper examination of the ways in which it goes about educating future citizens in necessary.

Audience Response Systems in the Social Studies

Students are increasingly turning to the use of technology to access information, communicate and to create digital artifacts (Bennett, 2007). As society’s demand for technologically literate citizens grows, schools must contemplate the degree to which they empower future citizens with these necessary 21st century skills. As a social studies researcher and doctoral student, I must side with those researchers conclude there's often a lackluster use of technology for civic purposes in many of America’s classrooms. With a lack of resources and training, teacher education programs and professional developments must aim to help teachers use those technologies they do have access to more meaningfully.

In order to illustrate my point, I wish to describe the all too common use of the never-ending PowerPoint presentation. Students are often forced to listen to and record insurmountable groupings of text and facts. They are often then asked to memorize these facts for passage on a standardized test. This usually involves students being forced to stay quite, and nearly half of them falling asleep! Even though research points to the necessity of higher-level thinking and participation in meaningful learning (see Benjamin Bloom), many teachers inappropriately use this technology to encourage rote memorization and lower-level thinking. With PowerPoint being as popular a tool as it is, teacher educators must ask themselves ‘how can we help teachers better use the tools they do have access to in promoting higher-level thinking?” Thus, what can teachers due to make a common technology like PowerPoint more relevant and engaging for students?

While there are a lot of ways to entice student learning with PowerPoint (limiting text, asking frequent questions, the infusion of visuals and sounds, and making these presentations participatory), I wish to identify and explain another piece of technology that holds promise towards engaging student learners. Polleverywhere.com is a devise that allows teachers to instantaneously poll students on their views and opinions. Students can respond to important questions posed by the teacher by using their cell phone or the Internet. Imagine, students actually using their cell phones to text their votes and opinions into a PowerPoint presentation. With the number of students owning cell phone increasing, teachers are frequently telling students to put away their cell phones away in class. But, what if cell phones could actually contribute to class discussions? What I like best about polleverwhere.com is that it’s easy to use and has a FREE plan that works well for teachers. The free plan requires that visitors sign-up for an account (they ask for the usual information: name, e-mail address). The free plan is also limited in that only 30 votes can be recorded per poll (so if you have a class of under 30 students each student could vote once and you would be ok).

After signing up for an account, the teacher has a choice of what type of poll they want to create and infuse into a PowerPoint presentation. They can include a fixed response poll whereby students selected from possible choices (much like when the audience is asked to text their responses to American Idol). Another type of poll offered is opened responses. After the teacher poses a question to students (such as ‘What are your feelings on global warming?’), students can use their cell phones to text their response into the presentation. As student respond, their answers are automatically uploaded in real time into a PowerPoint presentation. This devise holds promise in making PowerPoint presentations more interactive and student-centered. Student response could serve as a catalyst into a richer classroom discussion.



While this possible tool holds promise, teachers must understand that well constructed and engaging PowerPoint presentations does not mean throwing one slide or question from pollingeverwhere.com into a presentation. This tool is simply one additional way to make the presentation more student-friendly and interactive. It also provides teachers with a way to document and check for student understanding/ perspectives. If the presentation is systematically flawed with overabundant text, disengaging content, and sour presentation, this audience response device will do little to promote learning. However, if used in the right way, this audience response devise holds great promise in making PowerPoint presentations more interactive and engaging. Furthermore, it seizes those digital tools a growing amount of students use to access information, communicate, and construct digital artifacts with.

For more information, see the following websites:
1. Polleverywhere
2. Polleverywhere inserted into PowerPoint 2003
3. Youtube video on ways to use Pollingeverwhere for academia

Video Games for Citizenship Education in a Digital Era

A growing number of today’s students are turning towards digital media to participate socially, economically and politically. W. Lance Bennett, in a study commissioned by the MacArthur Foundation on digital media and learning, entitled Changing Citizenship in the Digital Age (2008), describes how digital natives are using new technologies to impact their world. Using the Internet to access information, communicate, and organize, today’s youth have demonstrated the power of electronic technologies in making a difference. As evident in the 1999 protest of the WTO in Seattle, young activists are seizing these lines of communicate to arouse bottom-up civic participation. Bennett (2008) describes how many students disengage in traditional top-down politics. Moreover, these same students often find bottom-up politics more relevant and authentic (As evident in increased levels of student participation in volunteering, study abroad and community commitments). Favoring loose networks of community action, these students frequently turn towards electronic technologies like social networking sites to access and discuss economic, social and political issues.

Today’s digital natives are frequently turning towards electronic communications to learn about and discuss important issues. However, the infusion of these technologies inside the classroom has been lackluster at best. Particular, the area predicated on fostering strong and active democratic citizens, the social studies, has failed to make effective use of electronic technologies (Diem, 2004; Berson, 2005; VanFossen, 2008). There seems to be a mounting divide in the realities of how digital natives are using technology for informed and active democratic citizenship inside versus outside of the social studies classroom (See Maguth, 2008). Thus, the use of outdated mediums for civic education in the social studies results in young people finding them irrelevant and unauthentic. This reinforces a greater divide in teaching and learning. My dissertation research begins to examine this issue more in-depth.

With over 90% of students in a recent survey indicating they frequently play video games (Friedman, 2008), advocacy groups have been moving fast to construct video games for educative purposes. This has led to the creation of ‘serious games’. Serious games aim to teach students by realistically simulating some aspect of a given situation. Some examples include: business training games, flight or driving simulators, games that help patients understand how their bodies work, and games the allow players to navigate through and make decisions on a contemporary global issue. Serious games hold great promise in education because they allow users to test and experiment with systems, and develop a better understanding on relationships embedded in the system (See www.seriousgames.org )

Examples of Serious Games:
1. Stop Disasters Game

-(Middle to High School) This is a free online single player game developed by the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction. Students navigate around a Sim like environment to make important decisions that involve saving lives and reducing the impacts of hazards resulting from natural disasters. Students are given a set amount of time (usually 10-15 minutes) to ready their city to confront five possible scenarios (Tsunami, Earthquake, Wildfire, Hurricane, and Flood). When students are done preparing their city, a news report breaks describing the aftermath.


2. Darfur is Dying
-Developed through a partnership with Reebok Human Rights Foundation and the International Crisis Group, mtvU sponsored an unprecedented competition bringing together student technology and activism to stop the genocide in Darfur. The winning design produced Darfur is Dying. The game is a narrative-based simulation where the user, from the perspective of a displaced Darfurian, negotiates forces that threaten the survival of his or her refugee camp. It offers a glimpse into the horrors faced by more than 2.5 million internally displaced people by the crisis in Sudan.

4. Play Against All Odds
-Developed by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, players take on the role of a citizen that is detained and forced to flee a repressive country. Set up in different acts, students must work to escape the country, try to establish refugee status in a host country, and strive to adjust to life in a new country. More of a documentary with interactive elements then a full blow interactive game, the game still provides wonderful visuals and context for the experiences of many displaced refugees.

5. The Arcade Wire: Airport Security

- The first in a series of newsgames called The Arcade Wire, Airport Security offers a satirical critique of airport security practices circa early fall 2006, when security agencies in the US and abroad changed their policies to prohibit common items like toothpaste and hair gel. Getting the user to think through such questions as do knee-jerk reactions that limit our freedom of expression and travel make us safer? In The Arcade Wire: Airport Security you inspect each passenger and his luggage and remove the forbidden items before allowing the passenger to go through -- but the list of forbidden items changes on a moment-to-moment basis. Prohibited items may include pants, mouthwash, and hummus.

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11. September 11th: Newsgaming
-More controversial due to its having users fire at possible terrorist targets, the simulation can be used to prompt a broad discussion on terrorism post 9/11. As students fire at potential terrorist threats, they’ll notice that the number of terrorists increase. This could prompt a further discussion into how violence perpetuates more violence, and the best means to win a war on terror.

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Democracy and Citizenship

Having just returned from my studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science, I must say that I have developed a new outlook on both democracy and citizenship. Benjamin Barber, in Strong Democracy (1984), describes the challenges of forging a participatory politics in a consumer driven and technological sophisticated new age. With over one-third of internet traffic driven by access to inappropriate sexual content, Barber outlines a position that technology is driven by capitalistic impulses and runs quite contrary to a democratic mission. Seeing the internet as another potent technology to get people to consume, the author's words encourages one to re-examine the possibilities of using new technologies for democratic discourse.

When people access the internet do they do so to expand their political and cultural horizons or to narrow them? For instance, do citizens only turn to one conservative blogg or news source (much like my grandfather that loves to watch TV but never strays from the History Channel and Fox News). Even though these technologies hold the potential to expand minds and promote a new form of participatory politic, are they transformative? Postman and Barber both would urge us to look at the agendas and interests affixed to new technologies before we advocate their uncritical usage to students.

One final story from my summer in London. Having had the opportunity to interact with an MP at a local cafe in London, I was drawn to the difference in constituent accountability between the states and the UK. Everyday to and from work, MP's (Members of Parliament) ride bikes, walk, and take the Underground (subway) to and from Westminster. This means that everyday these government officials must interact with and listen to the views of the people. This MP was quick to describe an interaction with a grieving mother that had lost a son in the UK assisted war in Iraq. After listing to this MP’s story, I was a bit disillusioned at the fact that most U.S. Congressional members fail to have this 'in-your face' type of public interaction.

With chauffeurs, interns that field e-mails and phone calls, suburban houses, and security that limit the degree of public interaction, maybe this is a problem in getting Congress to open their eyes and ears to the American people. In fact, it seems like the only time one gets to interact with their elected officials on a face-face level is around election time. Just a point to consider: Should we begin to mandate Congressional members walk, ride their bike, or take public transportation to work? If this argument doesn't suffice, just think how great it would look as part of an eco-friendly campaign platform!

Citizenship Education and Websites

Knowing that new technologies can often mediate, and yes, even complicate, teachers' efforts of helping their students become more informed and active, I wish to include a few helpful websites that could be of great use in the civic mission of the social studies. Knowing that the social studies can play such an important part in getting students involved in bettering their communities and world, hopefully, teachers seize the educative tools around them to develop future citizens capable and willing to address current and future challenges. Please, feel free to share other websites and resources with social studies educators by replying to this tread.

1. Soldiers Angles & Grace is Gone (for a review)

-After viewing the movie Grace is Gone, PG (2007), which describes the hardships of a father in telling his two little girls that their mother, a soldier serving in Iraq, has passed away in battle, my students were overcome with emotion in trying to help those families affected by the horror of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. While is true that the movie tugs at one's emotions (thus recommended for emotionally ready high school audiences), it does a great job in articulating the hardships families encounter when a member is sent overseas. As a result of the movies' ability to serve as a discussion piece, students sought a way to make a difference in the lives of soldiers and their families.

This strong desire to make a difference led my students to the Soldiers Angeles website (see above). This website allows students and citizens the opportunity to adopt soldiers, send care packages, letters, blankets, make donations, and even phone cards to displaced U.S. soldiers. Providing both financial and emotional support to U.S. soldiers and their families, students really seized the educative potential of this website in becoming active and caring in their community.

2. Free Rice
-This website is a wonderful way to both build students' vocabulary and allow them the opportunity to make a difference. When students visit the site the first thing they see is a word with four possible definitions. If students chose the correct definition from the possible choices, the foundation donates 20 grains of rice to the UN World Food Program. While many students are frustrated because they lack the financial resources to make a difference, this website goes a long way in suggesting just one of many other ways students can help those in need. With over 36 billion grains donated as of June, 2008, the funds come from advertisers whose names are listed on the bottom of the screen. As students answer words correctly, the words will get progressively hardly. When students answer incorrectly, the difficulty resets itself. I am a frequent visitor to this website and I can only hope that both my vocabulary and civic spirits have grown as a result!

3. World News
-Advocating the need for teachers to infuse a global perspective in their teaching, I have found the website World News helpful. With articles and headlines from newspapers from around the world, including such news organizations as BBC, CNN, Reuters, Washington Post, Al-Jazeera, The Times of India, The Independent, The Peoples Daily, The New York Times, International Herald Tribune, New Zealand Herald, Khaleej Times, and The Guardian. The website does a good job of offering regional and global, political, economic, entertainment, scientific, and business news. It MUST be said that in no mean is this website a substitute for reading the country of interests' local newspaper. However, it does a good job of compiling a diverse array of news from around the world utilizing global sources (even though, as expected, there's a detected Western bias is the sites' presentation). The pictures from around the world section could be a useful educative tool in debunking and clarifying stereotypes. Also, the site provides the opportunity for students to utilize their foreign language skills in news from around the world. There is also a section where students can locate headlines and news from major international cities.

4. One Campaign
- A foundation that has set out to 'make global poverty history'. Besides raising awareness and contributions to help accomplish this mission, the website does a wonderful job of describing the many ways students can get involved (see http://www.one.org/takeaction/ )

5. Bullying and Lawrence King

- After coming across an article on the brutal and senseless death of a 15 year transgender student, I found myself looking for sources to talk to students about bullying and difference. While gay rights (i.e. marriage and civil unions) are often controversial topics in the curriculum, no one can dismiss the topic of defending and protecting human rights. Shouldn't the social studies have an obligation to encourage critical discourse? After having students read an article on the tragic killing of Lawrence King by a classmate, students began to make larger connections to issues of bullying and discrimination. In fact, many students advocated a desire to speak out against and halt bullying in all its many forms. To get more ideas in developing an awareness campaign to speak out against bullying, students turned to the website Stop Bullying Now: Information, Prevention Tip, and Games. This website is a product of the U.S. Health and Human Services: Health Resources and Services Administration, and is geared for a variety of grade levels. With advice for those being bullies, bullies, and those that witness bullying, the website serves as an effective information and discussion tool. If you would like to review more websites on bullying, feel free to review teaching tolerance

6. Play the News Game

-Ever wish you could make current events more interactive and engaging. Impact Games may be able to assist in this quest. As report after report critisize the degree of U.S. citizens' knowledge about the rest of the world (i.e. as in 1 in 7 U.S. citizens being able to identify Iraq on a map), the social studies must take bold measures to teach students about our planet and diffent global perspectives. One way of doing that is through the use of current events. This website allows students the opportunity to learn about important events from newsheadlines from around the world. After chosing what story most interests them, students are then able to play an interactive game based on the features of their chosen story. In June, the games included Oil Prices Soar (where students could learn about, forecast and even side with different parties involved in higher engergy costs), No Confidence in Lee (which took students inside of the Korean Beef Protests), and The Olympics as a Global Stage (depicts the contraversy of the 2008 Beijing Olympics). The strategy of the game is to educate students on the situation, and then, to get students to chose a role, take action, and predict the future. Another great feature of the website is the discussioin threads for each current event. Students can post their views and even respond to the views of others that have played the game. One of my favorite discussion was on Iran Security Talks. However, teachers should also be aware that funding and support comes from advertisers.

7. Zinned Project-For those of you familiar with Howard Zinn's important work A People's History of the United States, Bill Bigelow from Rethinking Schools alongside Zinn have developed a teacher's guide for the text. I am a BIG fan of many of the activities/lessons included in this free download. Ranging from stealing a student's purse to prompt a discussion on Columbus' 'discovery of America' to a U.S. Mexico War Tea Party, this resource provides numerous role plays and questions that encourage students to rethink who writes history and why.

While the teaching packet includes the lesson plans and activities, you will probably want to purchase/borrow a copy of his People's History text and a copy of his documentary Howard Zinn: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train Click Here for a preview.

To download the free lesson plans and activities click here

For those of you attending the 2008 Annual Conference of NCSS in Houston, they will be distributing the complete teaching packet (including DVD and text)to some participants.

8. iCue-Ever wish you could use news videos to supplement a current events or social studies lesson? Providing current and historic footage on important economic, political and social conditions, this website does a great job of organizing mined NBC news reports and mini-documentaries.

Federalism, merchantilism, and even a video file on the use of 2008 presidential political campaign commercials placed in video games to reach young voters (YES! It's true), this website correlates to many topics in the social studies. Furthermore, the websites states that all footage and documents have been 'vetted by seasoned teachers'. Besides providing both primary and secondary sources, the website encourages students to participating in monitored forums, special activities and featured learning games. Best of all, there is NO advertising placements.

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