7.1 Online Interaction in Social Studies

Review foundational knowledge about Online Interactions in K-12 Blended Teaching (Volume 1).

Social studies classrooms thrive on interactions with and between students. Both in-person and online interactions provide students with ways to share and support their positions, give and receive feedback, and present both written and spoken opinions and positions with both civility and evidence. Online interactions also allow social studies students to interact with community members and organizations well beyond the classroom. Studies suggest that these interactions often result in internal interactions as students think about their personal beliefs and knowledge in the context of sharing them with others.  As students engage with others and with social studies content, their understanding of concepts, lived experiences, and contemporary issues will also be impacted.  Opportunities to process and reflect upon changes to their world view are best done through intentionally designed interactions. In this chapter we will explore strategies and tools for facilitating students' online interactions with their content, teacher, peers, and community. 

7.2 Student-to-Student Interactions

Reading, asking questions, researching, writing, discussing, sharing, and applying knowledge and skills are at the heart of social studies courses. Designing learning activities that ask students to discuss social studies content supports students' development of their skills and dispositions.  Furthermore, students can collaborate on tasks with other students to practice critical thinking skills, express themselves, and listen and respond with civility.  Discussion and collaboration therefore empower students to revise their opinions, develop writing and speaking techniques, and construct their understanding with peers.

7.2.1 Technologies for Student-to-Student Interaction and Collaboration

There are many technologies (digital tools) that support online discussions and collaboration. Here are a few of them and how they can be used in social studies. You might want to become proficient with one technology then branch out to another one. Technologies are like a box of chocolates—best not to try too many at once!

It's not all that difficult to find online communication tools. The challenge comes in pairing the technology with the discussion activity. Doing this intentionally helps students learn to dialogue respectfully and thoughtfully, while developing and maintaining relationships. In the following video Ashley shares some of the tools that she is using to engage her students in discussions. She shares examples of the discussion activities that she tends to use with each tool. This is a nice segue to the next section that will focus on discussion strategies and activities.

Teachers Talk: Technology Exploration (5:34) 

Reflection Question: What tools might work well in your classroom? How can you teach digital citizenship in a way that helps students when they speak in person as well as online?

7.2.2 Online and Blended Student-to-Student Interaction Strategies and Activities

Technologies are important, but in the end what really matters are the outcomes that the technologies enable. There are  endless ways that students can engage with each other online. Just like in-person discussions and interactions, online interactions can become stale if they do not include variety and choice, which invite students to think deeply and creatively. The following table and Teacher Talk boxes present some ideas that are relevant to a social studies classroom.

Table 1

Online Discussion Ideas  

A good online discussion requires good preparation. Here Mark Stevens shares with us several ideas for facilitating online interactions as well as benefits he sees in his classroom.

Teachers Talk: Online Interaction (3:53)

Watch on YouTube https://edtechbooks.org/-gSc

Reflection Questions: What are the greatest benefits Mark sees from having his students interact online? What benefits might you see in your classroom?

The Big List of Class Discussion Strategies, compiled by Jennifer Gonzalez, is a longer list of ideas that could be done online, include Socratic seminars, gallery walks, affinity mapping, etc. Use your creativity to modify them for use in both the online and in-person space.

An online discussion is most effective when the instructions are clear.  For a review of how to create an effective discussion board post, see 5.2.2 in  Building Community and Setting Expectations K-12 Blended Teaching (Volume 1).

In addition to discussions, you can engage students in collaborative activities. Often these collaborations will occur in class using technology, but online technologies also afford students the opportunity to continue their collaborative work from home.

Teachers Talk: Collaborating to Rewrite the Constitution (1:41)

Watch on YouTube

 Reflection Questions: How did Merinda Davis use blended learning to make difficult content more accessible to her students? For what content could you do something similar?

Not all online interaction has to take place in a discussion. In the video below Ashley discusses some of the tools and methods she uses to help students interact in other online spaces.

Teachers Talk: Online Interaction--Practice (5:38)

Reflection Question: How you could use one of these tools to help students meet a learning objective?

Online interaction can build relationships among students as they reach out to each other and help one another. Online technology can provide students with a platform that facilitates those types of interactions. Mark Stevens describes how he sees this happening in his classroom.

Teachers Talk: Students Supporting Each Other (3:41)

Watch on YouTube https://edtechbooks.org/-ADV

Reflection Question: In what ways did students in Mark's class support each other using online affordances?

7.3 Student-to-Community Interactions

Blended teaching allows student to student interactions to expand beyond the classroom to the school, other schools, and even to the world. For example, Merinda Davis has facilitated several virtual exchanges where students can connect using video conferencing tools. In the following she describes a recent exchange:

Teachers Talk: Sharing Current Events with Pakistani Students

Merinda Davis

One year we were able to share current events with students in a school in Pakistan. Each week students would look up a current issue or current event and share it with their peers in Pakistan. The students in Pakistan did the same. They talked about the event and reflected on it. But the interesting thing is what it did to our in-person class. Students were coming up to me in the hallways, so excited and telling me about these different current events and current stories that they had learned. Their activitiy in the online space increased the engagement and excitements of our inperson activities and interactions. 

In the next two videos, Merinda Davis shares the excitement and insight her students experienced her students as they interacted with students from other cultures.  

Teachers Talk: Sharing Current Events (2:13)

Watch on YouTube https://edtechbooks.org/-ErKb

Reflection Questions: Why were these students so excited to share current events with other students in another country? How can you incorporate something similar in your classroom?

Teachers Talk: International and Other Exchanges (4:16)

Watch on YouTube https://edtechbooks.org/-QPET

Reflection Question: How can you facilitate interactions between other classrooms in your school, your state, the nation, and the world?

International exchanges can be a wonderful experience for students, but you can also facilitate exchanges closer to home. For instance, Janet Babic and Patrick O’Brien taught the same course in the same school district but in different schools. During a unit on immigration, Janet and Patrick teamed up and had their students collaboratively create a website to share digital stories of immigrants. Using Google Documents, students collaborated to create interview questions as well as tips for conducting interviews and editing the video recordings. Once the videos were edited, they placed them on a Google Map using placemarkers showing the countries of origin. 

In another example, two social studies teachers, Ahlam Yassin in New Jersey and Jessica Culver in Arkansas, used a shared Padlet to engage their students in a conversation on how Covid-19 had impacted their lives. However, their conversations soon turned to other topics, including politics and free time activities. Interestingly, each group believed that their daily lives were uninteresting but enjoyed learning about other group's lives. The activity went so well that following this exchange, Ahlam facilitated new exchanges with other teachers around the world. 

Teachers Talk: Collaborating to Create a 1920s Radio Show

Mark Stevens

For a number of years now, I have collaborated with another professor at my undergraduate alma mater. Her students mentor my students, and there's a constant back and forth, exchanging advice and ideas. The students don't know each other, but they do get some good support. To study the 1920s, one project they worked on together was preparing a two-minute radio script for a 1920s radio show. They wrote the show and included an ad. They did a lot of online research and also received coaching from these university students. This year a bunch of them decided to take the project a step further and actually record it. They already had the content, but they loved taking it to the next level. And they were so engaged. It was fun to see.

Not only can students interact with other students outside their class, blended teachers can use online technology to facilitate interactions with guest speakers. Guest speakers can have a powerful impact on students. However, they can be difficult to arrange. Live video communication tools allow you to broaden your search to those who live outside of your area. However, coordinating schedules can still be difficult, especially if you have multiple classes. One solution is for students to interact with others asynchronously using a tool such as VoiceThread. In this example, Halerin Ferrier's 4th grade students wrote letters as if they were living in a Japanese internment camp. They then recorded their letters on VoiceThread. Finally, actual Japanese internment camp survivors responded to some of their letters. 

Teacher Talk: Virtual Guests Using VoiceThread (1:27)

Watch on YouTube https://edtechbooks.org/-iv

Don't know how to get started with an exchange? Check out the following resources: 

Keep your eyes and ears open. Develop a network of teachers. Use social media (Instagram, twitter) to connect with other teachers. Even communicating with other social science students in another part of your own country can be very instructive for your students. 

7.4 Teacher-to-Student Interactions

Teachers Talk: Quick Feedback

LeNina Wimmer

I feel like I give a ton more feedback now than I used to, because it’s just so much faster and easier. I can easily type feedback, or I can give them a red, yellow, or green checkpoint. Before I blended my classroom, all they saw was a checkmark, which showed that I had read it. But now they’re getting a “Yep, you're good.” Or, “Hey, this is something you want to look at.” Even if I'm being lazy in my feedback, it's still more feedback than I would have given before. And I can very quickly give really in depth feedback if I want to.

What are some ways teachers can foster these interactions?

Interactions between students and teachers are also important in a social studies course. Teachers often report that their interactions with students online have strengthened relationships and contributed to student growth.

Teachers Talk: Good Morning Videos and Recorded Instructions (2:59)

Watch on YouTube https://edtechbooks.org/-SHRC

Reflection Question: How can you use the online space to foster relationships with your students?

• Share who you are outside the classroom: Students learn from teachers they like and know. If you want students to share who they are, it is essential that teachers model this activity.  Inject images and stories about you, your family, your hobbies, travels, pets, etc.  These additions will have large benefits. 
• Participate in online discussions. You don’t have to chime in and respond to everyone’s posts. Instead your role in a discussion board is to guide and facilitate the discussion. You can monitor what is said for civility as well as content. If a discussion is going in a nonproductive direction, you can gently guide it back. You can respond honestly to good ideas and interesting insights. You can suggest further resources. 
• Provide feedback. Students appreciate and need feedback. Teachers find that giving some types of feedback online is much easier than feedback with traditional paper and pen.
• Give feedback on assignments through the LMS you use. Check out the ways your LMS allows you to communicate with students about their assignments. If you are using rubrics for grading, you can give very specific feedback then allow your students to improve the assignment. Your LMS may have additional ways to contact students.
• Use written, audio, or video feedback. Some students prefer written feedback because they can access it easily; others prefer audio or visual because it’s easier for them to understand and feels more personable. There are also times when it's easier to provide audio or video feedback compared to typing out feedback comments. For instance, Mote is a Chrome extension that allows teachers to quickly add audio recordings to Google Document and Google Classroom gradebook. There are also several free screen-recording tools that allow you to create quick video recordings and then share them with students using an unlisted link. There are times when text, audio, and video feedback are the most effective, and you can use all three during the year.
• When students are online working during class, walk around the classroom, answering questions and giving verbal feedback as needed.
• Schedule one-on-one meetings with students to discuss their progress and provide feedback. 
• Alternatively, if students are writing online on a Google Doc, for example, you can pull up as many documents as your computer will allow and give real-time feedback as they are writing. Students are more likely to rewrite when they receive feedback during the process of composing writing.
• In your feedback, share personal anecdotes that their writing brings to your mind. Let them get to know you. 
• Explain to students your process for receiving emails from class members. Encourage them to email you with questions, explain when you will be available to look at emails, and answer them as promptly as possible. 
• Email students who are not in class, letting them know that they were missed. 

LeNina Wimmer and Mary Catherine Keating both found that online communications helped them build relationships with their students and improve learning outcomes. 

Teachers Talk: Interacting with the Middle Kids

LeNina Wimmer

Being able to interact online has allowed me to interact more with kids that are seen as just the average kind of kid. You have some kids that are super smart and are going to always ask questions in class. So, they're always going to get my attention. And then you have the kids who are going to goof off in class. So, they already have my attention, too. And then there's that middle group of kids. They’re just going to do whatever they're told to do, but they're never going to raise their hand and let the class know that they didn't understand something

Now those kids have a forum where they can interact with me. I often tell them when they submit something, if there's something they want me to look at, let me know. “I might be just looking at the argumentative claim here, but if you want me to look at something else, let me know.” They’ll email me and say, “I didn't really understand how to do this. Will you please take a look at it for me?” Or “Will you please look at the rest of my paragraph, because I went ahead?” Those middle students get a lot more instruction and interaction with me because they can do it online.

Teachers Talk: Immediate, Formative Feedback

Mary Catherine Keating

When I first started teaching, I never knew what the kids didn't get until they handed in their final work. But in blended teaching, I can monitor and guide the students in the process. I can see the way they are thinking about concepts. I can give immediate and formative feedback. I can open up their documents or assignments while they are still working on them and leave comments for them: “Hey, you need to address this” or “You missed this.” “What about these generals?” Even something as simple as vocabulary I can address early on. Then when the kids go back to their work, the first thing they see is my feedback and they can make corrections or rethink their approach while they still have time to work on it. I love looking at their papers and seeing that they totally got that Charles the Second was the best thing ever. When I see a misunderstanding or gap in their learning, I can address it as a whole class or in groups. I'm able to direct them because I can see what they're doing.  I don't have to wait until they turn the paper in. I'm there every step of the way.

The online space significantly increases opportunities for interaction between students and content, students and other students, and students and teachers. Students who never or rarely speak in class may find themselves suddenly communicating on a regular basis. The results of learning through a combination of content, interactions, instruction, and feedback can improve student outcomes, investment, and engagement with the subject matter. You don't have to start all at once. Just choose one interaction that looks promising to you--and begin. 

Teachers Talk: Another Way to Build Relationships

Brooke Davies

Online interactions provide another opportunity for my students to interact. Students have strengths and weaknesses, and they may be more willing to speak in one class or situation than in another. So I like to vary what I do. In the in-person space I don’t just use one method. I don’t just use cold call or raising hands. I mix it up. I might have them share peer-to-peer or participate in a small group or large group discussion. Online discussion is another format and opportunity for students to communicate with each other and share their thoughts. It’s also a unique way to build relationships in your class. I know, even in some of the classes I’ve taken, I get to know people I wouldn’t have interacted with otherwise because we communicate in the online space.

 

Mark Stevens

One of my students was literally non-verbal. She would not talk in class. When I started to make online questions and online work documents and stuff like that available, she started communicating. The online space gives students like that the chance to participate. I understand that shyness aspect, and being able to give this girl a voice was really great.

7.5 Student-to-Content Interactions

Digital history projects can be defined as "an approach to examining and representing the past that works with the new communication technologies of the computer, the internet network, and software systems” (Source). Furthermore, they draw "on essential features of the digital realm, such as databases, hypertextualization, and networks, to create and share historical knowledge” (Source). In short, we live in an era where students and teachers can learn from and interact with digital content.  Moreover, this content exists in a range of formats including: 

• Archive: a site that provides a body of primary sources. Could also include collections of documents or databases of materials.
• Essay, Exhibit, Digital Narrative: something created or written specifically for the Web or with digital methods, that serves as a secondary source for interpreting the past by offering a historical narrative or argument. This category can also include maps, network visualizations, or other ways of representing historical data.
• Teaching Resource: a site that provides online assignments, syllabi, other resources specifically geared toward using the Web, or digital apps for teaching, including educational history content for children or adults, pedagogical training tools, and outreach to the education community.
• Gateway/Clearinghouse: a site that provides access to other websites or Internet-based resources.
• Podcasts: video and audio podcasts that engage audiences on historical topics and themes.
• Games: challenging interactive activities that educate through competition or role playing, and finding evidence defined by rules and linked to a specific outcome. Games can be online, peer-to- peer, or mobile.

The list below is only a few of the digital projects that exist.  We encourage you to use these in your class and to continue your search for more.  Like any content, the most important aspect to their value is the teaching and learning experiences you design for your students.