iPads, MakerEd and More in Education

When we think of Google Maps it is usually to get driving directions for a trip we need to take. However, Google Maps provides directions and other details for more than just driving a car. Specifically we can use it for riding a bike.

People have always been fascinated with investigating their home—the Earth. To understand our planet, scholars in the ancient world in Rome, Greece, India, China, and elsewhere laid the foundations for geography and geodesy over 2,500 years ago.  Today, the geographic perspective is more relevant than ever before, as issues of climate change, economic globalization, urban sprawl, biodiversity loss, sustainable agriculture, water quality and quantity, crime, cultural diversity, energy, tourism, political instability, and natural hazards grow in importance on a global scale but also increasingly affect our everyday lives.  To grapple with these issues requires a populace that has a firm foundation in geography, who can see the “big picture” but also who understands how different patterns and trends are related from a global scale down to the local community.  The geographic perspective is concerned with all of the relevant issues of our time, because all of these issues have a geographic component.

"I have Flipgrid fever and its only getting worse. I just can’t stop thinking of ways to use Flipgrid in the classroom! Here is my next installment of ideas…

Flipgrid is arguably one of the best apps of all time. It has so many layers of thinking it can uncover. At first view – it is a video response platform – but it is so much more, so layered, and so effective in helping teachers capture rich information about student learning and growth.

AND IT’S FREE for all teachers. Let’s take a look…"

If you teach social studies and you're looking for a new project to engage your students this year, I have some suggestions for you...

Below is a collection of some useful iPad apps curated specifically for middle school students. These are apps students can use to learn and enrich their knowledge about a wide variety of topics related to social studies from exploring the wonders of our planet to learning about historical events through interactive content. Links to the apps are under the visual. For social studies apps for elementary students, check out this post.

YouTube is a fantastic resource for schools to teach content and for students to learn content. For pretty much any topic you can think of, someone has made a video explaining it (which I greatly appreciate when I have had to replace parts in my clothes dryer three times in the last few years).

The same thing is true for social studies. YouTube hosts thousands of educational videos on history, politics, geography, and more. Some are created by talented teachers sharing their classroom creations with the world, while others are made by companies, museums, and more.

For many of you, the count may already be down to single digits. May and June aren’t the easiest months of the year and I know that you’re hacking your way through the next few weeks, trying to stay on top of stuff. But it doesn’t have to be painful. These resources can help.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping life and livelihoods. It’s curating every screen; making or influencing decisions about hiring, loans, and jail sentences; and aggregating wealth and opportunity at a staggering pace.

AI, particularly machine learning (ML), and related exponential technologies (ET) are quickly augmenting many tasks at home and work. They will increasingly displace jobs while creating new entrepreneurial opportunities. They will swamp communities with complex issues and a combination of predictable and unanticipated consequences.  

AI is not just a tech issue, it’s a social studies issue. Teaching youth to code may be part of the response, but even more important is asking them to consider issues of the changing civic and employment landscape.  


“The aim of social studies is the promotion of civic competence,” says the National Council for the Social Studies. Their standards are built around 10 themes that are being shaped by AI and ET.  

If you teach social studies and you're looking for a new project to engage your students this year, I have some suggestions for you...

Today we spent sometime going through TED Ed lessons library and curated for you the collection below. These are video lessons created by teachers and educators covering various topics related to social studies. We used TED Ed categorization scheme to arrange these  videos lessons  into 3 main categories: Civics, History, and Geography. As is the case with any TED Ed lesson, videos included come with a number of questions and a discussion section to engage students in meaningful discussions of the video content. The links to these video lessons are included in a table below the visual.

Here are some good educational YouTube channels curated specifically for social studies teachers. They cover a wide variety of social studies topics  which you can appropriate and integrate in your own class. We have only included what we think are some of the most popular channels out there, if you have other suggestions to add to the list, please share with us in our social media pages.

Social studies homework can be boring when it only consists of reading a textbook. It can also be boring and long when students are required to research or memorize geography. For these reasons, many students claim that they don’t enjoy the social studies. But, geography, history, civics, sociology, and political science can be very enjoyable when made interactive.

Many teachers are taking advantage of interactive assignments, activities, and documentaries in the classroom. Now, students can continue that interactive learning and studying at home while completing homework.