Alexander ReederA still photo from a video of a QR code on a Tokyo building, part of the “Talk to Me” exhibition at MoMA. Go to related article »We invited staffers at Primary Source to do a guest-blog version of a presentation we saw them make at the International Society for Technology in Education conference last summer.
Because the organization specializes in helping educators use primary sources, like newspapers, to teach about world histories and cultures, its writers chose three well-known tech tools — Google Docs, QR codes and LiveBinders — and showed how they might be matched creatively with Times articles and other resources to teach three topics that draw on both current and historical Times reporting.
What tech tools do you use to teach with primary resources? We’d love to hear more ideas, especially if, like these tools, they’re free.
— Katherine Schulten
The Common Core State Standards for writing, reading and social studies ask students not only to do “deeper reading” of texts and images, but also to synthesize and distribute their knowledge using collaborative online technologies.
Here are just a few Web 2.0 tools matched to current events topics to show how you might experiment with teaching Common Core standards and tech skills at the same time.
1. Using QR codes to teach about the Arab Spring
A Times video from December 2011 that takes a look back at the year of change in the Middle East with the Beirut bureau chief, Anthony Shadid.
A QR, or Quick Response, code is a bar code that can contain information like links to Web sites or short text messages. A free QR code can be generated and added to a PowerPoint presentation, placed on a handout or posted in a classroom as a quick, convenient way to direct students to related resources or to collect information from a variety of sources. The QR code can then be read with a QR code reader like this one, an app downloaded to tablets or mobile devices.
For example, students might analyze (perhaps with a tool like this one) aphotograph of recent protests in Cairo, noting what they see and any questions they have about the source. Then, use QR codes, either on a printed copy of the source or on a projector screen, to send students to a timeline of the Arab Spring, an article about recent opposition in Egypt and articles about Egypt after the 2011 revolution.
Drawing on evidence from these sources, students could write a blog post about their understanding of current events in Egypt. Or you could invite them to create their own QR-coded collections of resources that provide various types of information about the roots of the Arab Spring.
Using a variety of media and sources, this activity addresses standards like comparing and contrasting the treatment of the same topic in primary and secondary sources, integrating information from diverse sources into a coherent understanding of an idea or event, and drawing evidence from informational texts to support analysis, reflection and research.
2. Collaborating in Google Docs to learn about North Korea
Many teachers already use Google Docs, which is part of Google Drive, a cloud-based collaborative productivity environment. This tool allows users to write, brainstorm, edit and create collaboratively, so students can take quizzes, complete surveys and generate presentations and shared documents. It’s an easy way for them to analyze a variety of resources and share their findings.
For example, if you are teaching about North Korea in the wake of that country’s strong rhetoric and recent nullification of the 1953 Korean War truce, students might use Google Docs to read and comment on a Times articlefrom the day the truce was signed.
They could then learn about the history of political and cultural tensions between North and South Korea and how life has evolved in different parts of the peninsula by reading articles from the Times Topics page on the Korean War or from the Learning Network’s collection of related lesson plans. Or they could see a recent chronology on the Times Topics page for North Korea and view slide shows, graphs or images from the public domain.
After analyzing these sources, students could use Google Docs to write essays collaboratively based on their research — arguing, for example, either for or against the reunification of North and South Korea. After peer editing in Google Docs, each group could create a shared presentation to show to their teacher and classmates.
These activities would help students read critically, analyze thoughtfully and write persuasively, all while learning about historical connections to current events. They would also give students an opportunity to gain tech and research skills while directly addressing Common Core standards like using technology to collaborate with others, drawing evidence from informational texts and integrating information from diverse sources.
3. Studying the hunger crisis in the United States with help from LiveBinders
Peter DaSilva for The New York TimesAmy Orlandi, a coordinator for the San Francisco and Marin Food Banks, leading local parents in an increasingly common offering: a cooking class. Go to related article »LiveBinders allow students to curate online resources and organize them into a digital binder. Users can upload and embed links, images, text and videos. This tool makes it easy for students to link to other sites and documents as they collect information, then helps them synthesize learning from primary and secondary sources, contextualize and interpret sources, and share their learning in a fun and interactive way.
One effective way to use LiveBinders is to have students analyze a set of primary sources and create a LiveBinder providing contextual information for the sources.
For example, if students were studying a topic like the hunger crisis in the United States, they might compare two Times Opinion pieces — one from 1988 and one from 2012 — about the role of food assistance programs in the United States.
They might then analyze this chart of participation in the National School Lunch Program from 1969 to 2013 and view a slide show from the Witnesses to Hunger program, which gives low-income mothers a camera and an opportunity to share pictures of their daily lives.
Students could create a LiveBinder featuring these and other sources and provide analysis and contextual information for better understanding of hunger issues in America. This activity meets Common Core standards like making strategic use of digital media and visual displays, analyzing how two or more texts address similar topics or themes, and comparing and contrasting treatments of the same topic in visual and textual resources.
