Mobile Apps in the Social Studies Classroom 2013

BY THE STUDENTS IN DR. DIRKINS EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY COURSE AT CENTRAL MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY. IMAGE SOURCE: NASA

Copyright

Central Michigan University

All rights reserved.

Authors Page
G ALLERY Book Title.1 Central Michigan University Students in Dr. Dirkins EDU 290: Educational Technology Spring 2013 course created all of the content for each of the sections in this book. Authors: Samantha Lynn Bobrowski, KC (Claudine) Canseco Brana, Mandy (Amanda) Bryant, Colleen Burkhardt, Mary Conklin, Richard Eversole, Terra FeysVolmering, Kaitlyn Gibson, James Austin, Brooke Keller, Desirae Lamoreaux, Andie (Andrea)Lott, Lianna Malicowski, Mariah Manchester, Kristen Massey, Sharon McCall, David Meyer, Emilee Monville, Jenna Orr, Ashley Peacock,Riley, Mo (Maureen) Riley, Amber Shepard, Kyle Smith, Brianne Terwilliger, Melanie Trudeau, Christina Walsh, JamesWebb.

Photo by Justin Fluharty

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Special Acknowledgements

This project was created and directed by Dr. Kathryn Dirkin, faculty instructor for Central Michigan Universitys Educational Technology Course. The main authors of this book, of course, are the students of that course. If you have any questions about the project you can email Dr. Dirkin at dirki1kh@cmich.edu. There are a lot of people that made this project possible. We would like to thank our partners in Jennifer Quicks Social Studies Methods course. Many of her students provided the original selections for the social studies apps. The students listed below from Ms. Quicks course also provided feedback on the articles, and shared their expertise in the area of teaching and learning in the social studies classroom. The participating students from EDU 343 included: Sarah Anderson, Sara Swenson, Arial Henderson, Hillary DiMaggio, Stephanie Demerly, Chelsey Haske, Megan Lucas, Laura Hall, Maria Jakimcius, Ashley Jarrett, and Allison McKenzie. We would also like to thank Mike Reuter, Dan Bracken, Deb Vanliew and Greg Hanley. Rob Alford helped us assemble the project. We could not have completed this project without the support of the Chair of the Teacher Education and Professional Development Department, Dr. Larry Corbett and the Dean of the College of Education and Human Services, Dr. Dale-Elizabeth Pehrsson.

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C HAPTER 1

Productivity & Creativity

This chapter focuses on applications that can be used throughout the curriculum to support communication, productivity, and creativity.

S ECTION 1

Evernote

tains many tutorials and tips on using the app, including remembering your favorite things, syncing your electronics, saving webpages and planning trips. For educational productivity, you can research better and work with colleagues and friends. You can use Evernote interchangeably with all of your devices, and sync them together. For example, if you were to save something to Evernote on your computer, it would automatically be saved to your phone as well by syncing the devices

USING THE APPLICATION ABOUT THE AUTHORS

My name is Sharon McCall, I am a sophomore at Central Michigan University. My majors are English and Secondary Special Education: Cognitive Impairments. I hope to teach students with cognitive impairments in a high school setting. My name is Richard Eversole, I am a freshman at Central Michigan University. I plan on majoring in Biology and minor in History. I am a military child and have lived overseas my whole life. I plan on teaching in DODEA for a high school in Japan. Part 1 is a video that describes and instructs how to use the Evernote application on the Iphone and/or Ipod Touch. Part 2 is a video that describes the basic functions of the Evernote web page. Part 2 also explains some similarities and differences between the app on the Ipod and web browser version of Evernote.

M OVIE 1.1 How to use Evernote Part 1: Iphone/Ipod App

INTRODUCTION
Evernote is an application geared toward organization. According to evernote.com, Evernote makes it easy to remember things big and small from your everyday life using your computer, phone, tablet and the web. The evernote website con5

M OVIE 1.2 How to use Evernote Part 2: PC/Mac

A tip for using this app is to make sure that the software on your device is updated in order to avoid any chance of glitches. Evernote can be used as an organization tool for students when conducting research for a project, such as in this lesson plan: Lesson Plan

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Lesson Plan Evernote Tutorial Evernote Website Help page

CLASSROOM USES
A general benefit of using Evernote in a Social Studies classroom is staying organized and being able to collaborate with classmates and the teacher. Another benefit that the app can provide is information for the parents on what the student is studying in class and what they have for homework by a link that can be created by using Evernote on the web.

S ECTION 2

USING THE APPLICATION

Here is a video demonstrating how to use the features of

Mindmeister

M OVIE 1.3 Navigating Mindmeister

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Emilee Monville is a student at Central Michigan University. She is studying elementary education. She is majoring in early childhood development and learning with a minor in language arts and plans on completing the education program at CMU. She hope to teach pre-K through 3rd grade elementary students, specializing in language arts.

INTRODUCTION
Mindmeister is a digital mapping application that allows one to create webs of information on their computer or mobile device. It shows on the home screen as a pink icon with layered white hoops. Once the app is opened there are various options to create a concept map through idea bubbles and line segments to help understand and illustrate concepts. The maps can be shared with others through exporting it by email or sending it to a printer. Pictures can be imported into the premium app and used to illustrate the idea bubbles. Mindmeister is compatible with iPod, iPad, Pc and Mac devices.

mindmeister and create your own Mind Map. Mindmeister can be very useful in a social studies classroom. Concept maps are often used to organize information and make meaningful connections between ideas. Mindmeister has all the benefits of concept mapping and more. Students are able to connect events, people, and time periods in
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history by laying them out in the maps and creating a visual for themselves. This app allows for students to collaborate on projects like these and build team working skills. Students have the options to export their projects to share with the rest of the class and the rest of the world! Mindmeister opens up many chances for creativity and discovery. If students are having trouble opening up the app in the classroom when multiple people are trying to access it at once, it helps to have a few students log onto the online version of mindmeister. The online version offers the same features as the iPod and iPad versions. When moving the idea bubbles about the screen, it helps to have them positioned to your liking before you add on sibling ideas because, once the stems have been added, it becomes difficult to move the whole idea stem about the canvas without separating sibling ideas from their parent idea and having to reconnect them.

makes cats vs. dogs good pets and any other characteristics about the animals they may have noted during the lesson. The students will then use their maps to formulate evidence-based opinions on which animal would be the best pet and write an essay using this information. The mind map works better than the T-chart at organizing this information because students have the opportunity to divide their facts into even more specific categories with the limitless idea stems as opposed to the two sections of a T-chart. As a result, their essays will be easier to write because they have their facts organized and distributed in a way that makes developing paragraphs much more clear.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Mindmeister website History of Cats Lesson Plan

CLASSROOM USES
Mindmeister can be incorporated into lesson plans to enhance the assignment. In the lesson plan, Forming an Opinion with Organizational Elements - Cats, Yesterday and Today a mind map can be used in place of a T-chart to illustrate the importance of cats throughout history. Students are instructed to organize facts about cats and dogs into their Mind Maps after watching a short video segment about the topic. They are then asked to create idea bubbles detailing what
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S ECTION 3

Skitch
INTRODUCTIONS
Skitch has many options and accessible tools to design and create. On this users it gives one the option to add arrows, shapes, and text to an image. Skitch also allows users to create a new drawing, edit images, share to other websites, and present information. Skitch is easy to use and has great ratings. This app is simple for students and teachers to use in a classroom setting because they are able to interact with the images and save them directly into a group account. Skitch also allows users to upload photos to Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites. Skitch is compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPod touch (3rd generation), iPod touch (4th generation), iPod touch (5th generation) and iPad. A way to set up a great presentation for younger children using Skitch is to use images that grab the audiences attention. By using Skitch to edit and adjust images, adding arrows, colors, and text to help set up a presentation. This gives young viewers an easy way to gather information and makes a presentation interesting. Skitch is also affiliated with the app called, Evernote. Being able to access Evernote with Skitch, allows users to save their photos and stay organized. Evernote also allows users to view other users photos and stay updated on the latest fashion. Having free access to Skitch lets users be creative and expressive.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Colleen Burkhardt is a freshman at Central Michigan University. She is working toward a major in special education with a minor in language arts. She hopes to be able to work at an elementary school, to be able to work with special needs students, and to be able to teach a general education class. The App she is working with is Skitch and this app is used in several different ways and is great for all ages. Brooke Keller attends Central Michigan University to receive a diploma in Early Childhood Development and Learning. Shes currently is a freshman who has a passion for working with kids and seeing them grow. Her ideal grade levels to teach are kindergarten up to third grade. Technology is developing rapidly and has been searching through an app called, Skitch. Christina Walsh is currently a junior at Central Michigan University majoring in Music and minoring in Middle Level Education. She hopes to work with sixth through eighth grade students. She has been researching the app Skitch and how to incorporate it into the classroom.

USING THE APPLICATION

This video will show the basic functions of Skitch.

tal on the map and his or her states capital. This app would work for a fourth grade classroom learning about the United States. Another benefit using the Draw on Map setting is showing routes that some people may have taken in the Underground Railroad if the class is working on a slavery segment. This would make students interact with history instead of just reading it out of a text book. Skitch is a user friendly app, but a tip for using this app is there is a new setting for a blurred tool. If the teacher does not have permission to show the student's face the blur tool is helpful to keep the students safe. Taking a historic image and pointing out important information within that photo. Adding text to images to describe what is happening during this time. Skitch helps students to fully understand history by being able to interact and change images helping to study and remember each event. This app allows students to find a point of interest on the map by using the Draw on Map tool a student can find the point of interest and then circle it using the toolbox.

M OVIE 1.4 How to use Skitch

CLASSROOM USES
A general benefit when using Skitch in a social studies classroom is a student can find places on the Draw on Map setting. A student would be able to point out the nations capi-

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES Evernote Edsitement- History and Social Studies

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S ECTION 4

Dropbox

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Brianne Terwilliger is a contributing author of this book. She is currently a sophomore at Central Michigan University, studying Elementary Education. Brianne is majoring in Integrated Science and Minoring in Reading. She is very excited to have her own classroom and be able to apply what she has learned about technology into her lessons. Melanie Trudeau is also a contributing author. She is studying Secondary Education as a sophomore at Central Michigan University. Melanie is double-majoring in History and Social Studies. Her goal is to teach her own class and be able to incorporate the most up to date technology into her lessons.

Dropbox is an application where you can upload and save pictures, docs, or videos. It automatically saves to all your computers, mobile devices, and even on the website. This way you can start a project at home and finish it at school, or vice versa. None of your stuff will ever be lost or deleted. You can have 2G for free, 100G for $9.99/month, or 200G for $19.99/month. This type of tool is like a storage space. You can upload any content to it and store it as long as you want, until you need to use it again. It also allows you to share with others, whether youre a professional or not. The functions of this application are to upload and save content until it is needed elsewhere. Dropbox makes sharing really easy, too. You can send family members, teammates, or business partners, links to your specific folders on Dropbox. This makes feeling connected more convenient and simple. Even if your computer breaks down or you accidentally delete a file, everything is still saved on the app. Even deleted information can still be recovered. This application is compatible with the iPod touch, iPhone, iPad, Macs, as well as PCs.

INTRODUCTION

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USING THE APPLICATION

back to them whenever you need to for review. In a classroom setting, students can work on group projects with their peers and share folders with each other and the teacher. We have a few tips on how to use this application. In order to share files, you would have to do so via the website, as opposed to the app on a mobile device. Another tip is that in order to upload information in a computer lab or iPad lab, you have to have an iCloud account. To set up an individual account, the student and/or teacher must have an email account. In a classroom, a teacher could use this application, by creating a PowerPoint or presentation. They could upload it to Dropbox along with an attached assignment, with follow up questions from the presentation. Students could work on this at home as a homework assignment and then submit their responses under their shared folder with the teacher. An example of a lesson to teach for this assignment would be teaching History through pictures. The folders would have to be individually shared with the teacher only, instead of a classroom folder. Otherwise, all the students would be able to see their classmates homework as soon as someone uploaded it to the folder, which could then allow cheating.

In this video, you will learn how to use the application Dropbox.

HOW TO APPLY DROPBOX IN THE CLASSROOM

General benefits of Dropbox include the ability to upload presentations and PowerPoints to a file and share with others. The documents can be found on any device, so you can look

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Dropbox Website History Lesson Plan
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C HAPTER 2

Geography

This chapter focuses on applications that can be used to study geography. IMAGE SOURCE: LOC

S ECTION 1

Geo Walk

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

My name is Terra Volmering; I am a sophomore at Central Michigan University. I am going into the Education program. I am majoring in English and minoring in English as a Second Language. With my degree I would like to teach K-12. I want to take my teaching to another country. Since I will be minoring in ESL, I want to travel and teach foreigners how to speak better English. I am already TEFL certified and I already teach students from Taiwan and Moscow, so I would like to continue doing the same type of teaching.

bottom of the screen there are four options. When you push the first option you can pick what you want to search for, the second option is a list of everything they have for their app. The third option is probably the most important. By pushing the third option you then can choose to stay with the earth, or take a mini quizzes to learn new fun interesting facts or learn random facts from all over the world. The third option is the most interactive option. The last option is all for News, you push the fourth picture and you learn about the most famous and most interesting news from all around the world. The best thing about this app is the pictures. Everything you push comes with a clear colorful picture so you can have a better sense of what they are telling you. This app is great for learning fun little facts and the history of the world. The pictures are all vibrant and fun to look at. This app is compatible with any apple product.

INTRODUCTION
Geo walk in an app for learning about pretty much everything all around the world. You have your options of learning about animals, people, events, places, plants, etc. When you first open the app you see a beautiful, realistic 3D picture of Earth. You can use your finger to move it any way you want to. At the
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USING THE APPLICATION M OVIE 2.1 How to use Geo Walk

click on a picture, above a social media bar pops up. It has twitter, Facebook, wiki, etc. You can share the information with your friends. I chose this lesson, Aztecs Find a Home: The Eagle Has Landed, to use Geo Walk with. This lessons calls for Map Skills, Visual Analysis and Gathering, classifying and interpreting written, oral and visual information. All of those things Geo Walk can help with. The magnifying option lets you specifically search for Aztec information. It will show all the places, and events that happened. Instead of searching to find the information, it gives the information to you. This lesson will be perfect for letting the students explore the app also. You can use every option for this lesson, so the student will also become more familiar with this app. One thing this app doesnt so is compare information. It cannot take two countries and compare them. That would be the downside, but this app isnt really for that. This app gives you different information on everything you search. You may search two countries, and learn different facts about each one. This App is very handy when searching for specific content.

Geo Walk - Start Exploring

CLASSROOM USES
Geo Walk is an app for all ages. Its easy design lets it be used in any type of classroom. It was smooth and all interactive. You are always touching something, looking at remarkable pictures or reading fun facts. It is a hands-on app. Like I said before, this app is easy to use, almost self-explanatory. It only takes a couple minutes of exploring to understand all the different options and modes. There arent any tricks to this app. One thing I did notice was the social media bar. Once you

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Lesson Plan - Aztecs find a Home: The Eagle Has Landed
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Star Walk - Another App by the makers of Geo Walk

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S ECTION 2

Google Earth

gle Lit trips. Here we will begin to explore fully the Google Earth application as used for the Social Studies classroom.

INTRODUCTION
Google Earth is primarily made for a Social Studies setting. There are many ways that Google Earth could be used in a Social Studies classroom. Google Earth has more detailed graphic and much more specific layers of information. Google Earth is a virtual globe. The application has the ability to search for cities, places, and businesses. Google Earth also has the ability to zoom in to the street that a location is on. There is also the ability to see live earthquakes, plane flights, and more in the Google Earth gallery. The most fascinating part of Google Earth is that there is a three-dimensional option so that the students would be able to experience cities and different locations as if they were actually there. This application is compatible with the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad as long as the software is updated to iOS 4.3 or later. Google Earth is capable of many things. For this project it is best to use the full downloadable version on a desktop computer. The software needed is free. There are two types of files. The first file type is a KML file. This file should be used when first setting your placemarks in a Google Lit Trip. The second type of file is a KMZ file. This file is similar to a zip folder, because it condenses large amounts of information so it can be downloaded faster. It makes uploading to emails possible. Google Lit Trips apply Google Earths satellite imagery to literacy journeys led by the teacher. It is a way to en17

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Mariah Manchester is currently a sophomore at Central Michigan University. She is currently studying secondary education and plan to major in health education. In todays world, technology is a huge part in the education field. It is best that teachers utilize whatever technology they can. Although health education does not involve much Social Study interactions, the mobile Apple application Google Earth could come into use. Mary Conklin is currently a senior at Central Michigan University. She is currently pursuing a Bachelors degree in K-12 Visual Arts Education. In todays world many children are choosing to take art classes online. Technology is best taught with the hands-on approach. When studying Art History lessons, the Google Earth application would come in use with its Goo-

gage the students interactively to discover new information. Let us call it 3-dimensional learning. When students open a KMZ file, they will find the globe spinning. The adventure begins as it zooms in. The viewer is taken to the placemark and anyone can do it. Google Earth has access to Google Information Highway as well. The Google Earth Lit Trip application can be fully utilized in a Social Studies classroom. It engages students in learning through a complex multi-media environment. The teacher can geographically show the students where the lesson is taking place. The teacher can also layer the information being taught with actual photographs of the present and past. The teacher can make paths between each of the placemarks that they have pre-set for the students to journey through. The teacher can use the polygon button to draw the students attention to a focal area. The teacher can put the KML files into a KMZ folder to enable it to download onto student iPods, iPads or iPhones. Students learn well when information is in the palm of their hands. The students can view, read, think and discuss ideas. They can move beyond dry facts of a textbook and into a world of discovery. Students can interactively set additional placemarks if it aides in their personal understanding. It encourages the development of higher-order thinking skills. Its a virtual adventure tour with grounded facts and hyperlinks added for the ever curious mind.

An issue one may face is a green or black screen. If youre using Google Earth on a Mac and find a green or black screen, your Mac browser may be blocking cookies. You will need to allow cookies in your browser. To resolve this problem in any browser please refer to your browsers help center.

USING THE APPLICATION

The videos below walk through the steps needed to use the Google Earth application and Google Lit Trips.

M OVIE 2.2 Using the Google Earth Application

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M OVIE 2.3 Using Google Earth Lit Trips

The teacher can use Google Earth Lit Trips to lead the class on a virtual tour of the construction of the Allegheny Portage Railroad for Westward Expansion in Early Colonial America. Google Earth has a variety of search tools. This is handy for developing the layers of information attached to each placemark. The students will enjoy it as an interactive virtual adventure. It gives the students a chance to explore present and past terrains, even with actual photo shots. They can explore America in the past and the present. Students could re-create alternate railway routes for the class to discuss how this would affect the future. The application allows zooming in to see facts. The teacher can set the scene easily with access to the Google information highway! They could bring the class to an exact geographic location. Teachers could show a Pre- terrain and a Post- terrain of the mountain pass. They could talk about the way of life they had before the railway was built, and how the railway influenced the future of America. It really will bring the lesson to life. Another lesson plan that a teacher could use Google Earth with is Anishinabe/Ojibwe/Chippewa: Culture of an Indian Nation. Lesson link: Anishinabe/Ojibwe/Chippewa: Culture of an Indian Nation

CLASSROOM USES
One may ask, How can I use this application when talking about American History?. Lesson link: Allegheny Portage Railroad: Developing Transportation Technology

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This lesson plan works well with Google Earth. One way that a teacher could incorporate Google Earth with this lesson plan is to show the location of the tribes. This is helpful to the students because it gives them more of a visual learning experience rather than the typical reading out of the book style. Another way that this lesson plan can be used with Google Earth is to navigate the students through the migration and growth of the tribe. The teacher can pinpoint certain locations to show where the indian tribes were settled in the past and where they are currently settled now. A teacher could incorporate Google Earth this into daily lesson plans by always showing the students the correct historical information and geographic location each lesson discusses. Overall, this application is a great way to include the students in a virtual way of learning.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Google Earth Resources (Tutorial)

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S ECTION 3

Learn The World

and a text quiz. In the map quiz, students are to guess where a certain country is. In the fly quiz, students are to fly from one country to another by guessing where the country is. In the text quiz, students are asked where the capital of a certain country. They are either given the name of the capital or the country where the capital is located. As the student is testing their knowledge, when they get so many correct answers in a row, the student earns a flag. In each of the quizzes, students can pick what continent they would like to take the quiz in.

USING THE APPLICATION ABOUT THE AUTHOR

My name is Andrea (Andie) Lott. Im a student at Central Michigan University. Im majoring in special education cognitive impairment with a minor in sign language. I would like to teach elementary special education students. I would like to teach out of state and be able to teach what I have been taught at Central Michigan University. This is a video about how to use the Learn The World app. It will explain how you can use the app.

M OVIE 2.4 How To Use Learn The World App

INTRODUCTION
The Learn the World app is an application for the Ipad only that allows students to discover the world. Students can test their knowledge about the world. Students can learn about the currencies of the different countries, the capital of each country, and the flag of each country. This application speaks to the student in which allows the student to know the correct way to say the country. It also has three different ways students can test their knowledge. There is a map quiz, a fly quiz
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CLASSROOM USES
The benefits of using learn the world app in the classroom is that students can learn about the world at their own pace. Students can compete with each other to find who can get the most correct. This app can help students understand more of the world without just teaching them with a globe. With using the app in the classroom, a lesson plan about the world would make great use of the app. Students can use the app to figure out how the continent became and where the countries are on the map. In the mapping the past lesson plan, students can use the app to compare what the map of the world looked like in the past to what it looks like now. They can also use the app to compare the changes in a countrys flag. The lesson plan and the app can also help students test their knowledge about the world now so they can compare the past and present world maps. In which this app contains both learning and gaming aspect for students. I believe that students in middle elementary would benefit from this app

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Mapping the Past

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S ECTION 4

M Y W ORLD A TLAS -L ITE

Some of the utilities: Currency converter, country comparison tool, world weather, time zones, and an atlas glossary. This application works on iPod touches, iPads, and iPhones. This application is very interesting because of the fact that it allows users to move around maps with ease, learning about the various places in the world from wherever they are using their device. The app is very easily navigable, and allows users to explore a variety of different geographic features of the world, both political and physical, along with some economic and meteorological features. This app is not difficult to figure out as all of its main components are links set out on the home page.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

My name is Austin James and I am currently a student at Central Michigan University studying social studies with a geography concentration, history, and training to become a secondary education teacher. I would like to teach ninth graders after I graduate because I think that the ninth grade is such an important year in a students academic career. I enjoy geography very much, and have always found maps to be exciting windows that show a very big world. This is what led me to do the app My World Atlas-Lite.

USING THE APPLICATION

The following video will instruct users on how to operate the application My World Atlas-Lite. Please stop and pause the video from time to time to look back on what you have learned.

M OVIE 2.5 How to operate My World

Atlas-Lite

INTRODUCTION
My World Atlas-Lite is an application that allows users to view various maps of the world. The app offers political, physical, and topographical maps of the world along with pages describing world countries, pages showing the various flags of the world, and also many different helpful utilities.
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CLASSROOM USES
My World Atlas-Lite is a tool specifically designed to be helpful in a geography class. Its unique functions work to enhance the learning abilities of students and aid teachers in their quest to educate students on the many aspects of world geography. The application itself is very user friendly. The social studies classroom in K-8th grades is a many-headed beast. Teachers at these levels are expected to cover a variety of the social studies and find interesting ways to connect them. My World Atlas-Lite offers a variety of tools and utilities that make this kind of connectivity possible. The utilities link allows students to explore and compare world currencies (which could supplement an economics lesson), a compare countries link that would definitely be applicable in a geopolitics lesson, and of course, the world weather and time zone links provide great additions to any physical geography lesson. The absolute best part of this app is that it is so easy to use. Teachers need only give students the basest of instruction on how to use it and students will find it very easy to navigate from there. The only glitch of the application is that when one is looking at the world countries link and wishes to enlarge a map of a certain country, there is no way to navigate back to said countrys page without returning to the home screen and losing ones place. That is a minor inconvenience and can be avoided if one just remembers to return to the larger map (located under the top link on the home screen) and view that country there.

This lesson plan could easily incorporate the app My World Atlas-Lite. Students could use the app as a supplement as they learn about the individual countries in the map. There are three different types of maps in My World Atlas-Lite and one of the guiding questions in this lesson plan is "what is the purpose of having different kinds of maps?" Students could look at each of the different types of maps in the app and then in groups come up with different ideas to show why each type of map is important and how they are different. One of the learning goals of the lesson plan is to be able to see maps at different scales and still recognize the different places from different scales. Students can use the zoom in and out feature of My World Atlas-Lite to look at the maps at different scales and compare and contrast. An important question that social studies teachers may pose is what benefits to world learning will this application offer? The answer is simple: This application is one entirely dedicated to simply educating students on the location of countries and also educating them about these countries that they are locating. It is simply not possible for every student to walk out of their front door and travel to every country in the world that they find themselves interested in. This app allows them to easily immerse themselves in maps and country bios, all from the comfort of their desk (or couch) and truly learn something about the world.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
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 The link below shows specifics regarding this lesson plan: http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/mapping-our-world s The link below will take users to a website with reviews about the application: http://appcrawlr.com/ipad/my-world-atlas-lite

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S ECTION 5

INTRODUCTION
The app that I have been studying is called NASA. It is a free educational application available for IPods IPads and IPhones that have access to WIFI. This app allows you to explore missions, view over 156,000 images, watch videos and get the latest news updates in the palm of your hand. The NASA apps goal is to deliver mission information, detailed images, videos and news updates in the best way for todays digital age. An incredible amount of effort was put into this app to educate our society in a creative yet effective way that adults and students can interact with in their daily lives.

NASA

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

My name is Ashley Peacock and I am a sophomore here at Central Michigan University. I came here wanting to pursue a degree in Business Administration. While taking some basic business classes in addition to some UP requirements, I realized this area of study was not the direction that I want to be headed. Shortly after exploring the wide variety of majors/ minors here at CMU, I fell in love with the thought of teaching. I have a passion for children and I enjoy seeing how they interact. Initially I thought of teaching secondary students but looking back on my prior history with working in daycares, my church nursery and babysitting; I leaned towards elementary education focused on Language Arts. Currently, I am headed on the right path to [hopefully] teach grade levels 5 and below. I cant wait to see what the future holds for me and the rest of my days here at Central Michigan.

USING THE APPLICATION

This is a video to describe how to use and maneuver the application from your iphone or ipod touch.

M OVIE 2.6 How to Use NASA

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CLASSROOM USES
When using the NASA app, many feel as though it is an app that is directed more towards a science class versus history. What many dont know is how this information can be used in a social studies classroom. NASAs app can be used in a variety of ways; it can show the history of each and every launch that was ever performed, the history of astronauts, shuttles, and landmarks. This application was created to make viewing history in an easy, manageable way. Navigation among the app is quite simple and easily accessible. One great feature of this app is how much information is available to view. NASAs app is undoubtedly helpful when it comes to lesson plans and teaching in a social studies classroom. For example, teachers can use this app to help their students with research papers and PowerPoint presentations. Various lessons can come from this free educational app such as the various activities from http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/eyewitness-history#s ect-activities. This site provides great ideas of activities to engage and interact with the students. After looking at this website, there was a specific lesson plan that I found interesting! Tell students that in this lesson they will be working as historians to gather evidence about several important events from the past. Provide them with a set of the images shown below, which come from the National Archives and NASA, and ask if they can identify any of these events. Explain that all of these events occurred long before they were born, but that members of their families -- parents, grandparents, and other older rela-

tives -- will probably remember them. It will be the students' job to find out what is happening in these pictures from family members who lived through one or more of these events (EDSITEment). I found this particularly informative and a great way for students to search and provide events from the past with NASA. Lastly, this app can be beneficial in elementary, middle-level, and high school level classrooms. The NASA app is approaching 5 stars and is great for individual or group use and can be used for various assignments and proje

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
NASA Lesson Plan EDSITEment

27

S ECTION 6

TapQuiz Maps

This app is designed to quiz the user in the countries of the world and contains many different maps. TapQuiz is compatible with the iPod touch, iPhone, and iPad and requires iOS 4.0 or later.

USING THE APPLICATION

This video will explain how to use the app. It will also explain a tip for using the app and an example of using the app in a classroom.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

My name is Lianna Malicowski and I am currently a freshman at Central Michigan University. I am studying Early Child Development and Learning with a math major. I am training to become an elementary teacher and hoping to teach concentrating in preschool through 1st grades. I love working with younger children. At this age, they are still excited about learning and are so fun to watch learn new things. Working with kids is the best possible job I could ever ask for.

M OVIE 2.7 How to Use TapQuiz Maps

INTRODUCTION
The app TapQuiz Maps is a free way to practice geography skills and learn the countries throughout the world. The app includes seven different regions that can be studied and practiced by the user. The app will give you the name of a country and the user simply taps on the correct country. The user receives a score based upon a combination of the percentage of correct answers and the speed in which it was completed.
28

CLASSROOM USES
This app is very beneficial in a social studies classroom. The app can be used to teach where all the different countries are. It is very helpful in aiding with the memorization of countries. It is a quick and easy way for students to learn the locations of all the countries around the world. It also includes the United States where you can choose to study the location of the states in the U.S. A tip for using this app is the zoom in feature. Some of the countries are very small and hard to tap. You may notice that youre tapping the right one, but still getting points off. If this is happening, it is because with how small the country is, you may be accidentally tapping a country next to it. In order to zoom in on the country to ensure you tap the correct one, you simply tap and hold down. Line up the crosshairs that appear within the country you would like to select and then let go. This will ensure that you tap the correct one you are going for and help to not get points taken off your score. There are many social studies lessons that this app could be used in. One in particular is called Mapping Asia and Making Connections. Some objectives of this lesson are for the students to learn the names and locations of Asian and Pacific island countries and to practice mapping skills. TapQuiz maps can be used in this lesson to reinforce the locations of the countries. After the students fill out the locations of the countries on a blank map, they can spend some time memorizing where the countries are by using the app. Once they have the

locations generally memorized, the teacher can use the app as daily practice to ensure that they remember the countries. The app could also be used to quiz the students to make sure they are practicing like they are supposed to. This app could be used as a testing tool. The teacher could assign a region to the students and have them go through the round. At the end, they could screenshot their scores and show it to the teacher. This would be the grade they received on the quiz/test.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Lesson Plan TapQuiz Maps Webpage

29

S ECTION 7

INTRODUCTION
The States is an application only available for the IPad, featuring functions for learning. The main purpose of this app is for students to learn about the United States. This app includes information about the presidents from all times and about the states becoming a part of the country. Within these functions, learners have the ability to choose what year to learn from, with 4 year increments. Each year selected, gives information of presidential campaign and some goes more into depth by providing facts about territories of the country, (video, 0:17). Details of individual states are also provided just by clicking on these individual states, (video, 1:22). Overall this app provides students the ability to learn about America. Socialstudiesforkids.com is a site that I found that compliments the states app. This site is an easy to use, interactive way to get familiar with different states and facts about each one. This site has very little ads or distractions taking away from it. The site is very eye catching and is beneficial in the social studies classroom in many ways.

The States

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Claudine (KC) Braa, a freshman who is attending Central Michigan University, is one of the contributing authors of this book. She is majoring in mathematics and planning to teach secondary education in the future. Math became very intriguing to her in her Junior year of high school. Her math teacher at that time recognized how talented she was with solving equations and understanding the material quickly to help the other students. That teacher gave KC the idea to become a high school teacher herself. She is looking forward to apply new knowledge of technology into her very own classrooms. Amanda Bryant is a contributing author of this book. She is currently a freshman at Central Michigan University, studying Elementary Education. Amanda is majoring in language arts and minoring in leadership. She is excited to get in the teaching field and start making a difference in childrens lives.

USING THE APPLICATION

In the first video, you will learn how to use The States app. You will be able to learn the different functions of the app. In the second video, you will learn how to use the complimentary site for the app, The States. This video includes instructions on how to navigate this site.
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M OVIE 2.9 How to use The States app

CLASSROOM USES M OVIE 2.8

Great purposes of this app in any social studies classroom would be to learn about the states and presidents. The information provided by this app can help students learn about the different elections and the creation of the United States. Students can sit together with an iPad and scroll through different years provided. They have the option to choose a year, read about territories, states, and elections. In a classroom, a teacher could use this app by quizzing students on their knowledge of presidents from different years. By selecting a year, a teacher can ask students which president was elected in that year. Along with a classroom, this app can also help in an online lesson. For example there is a site, http://www.quia.com/rd/6905.html that quizzes students on the population of different states. With the app The States, students can press on each state to learn about the capital and population of that state. This site includes an interactive map of the united states. To use this site, you can click on any of the 50 states, and it will take you to a web page that tells you different facts about that state such as the bird, flower, animal, etc. This page will also show you a picture of the state flag and when it became a state. One thing that this site does not include is information about the presidents. The States app includes information on each president such as when they came into office, how long they served for, and how many electoral votes they had.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
31

Social Studies For Kids Classroom Activity Lesson Plan

32

C HAPTER 3

History

This chapter focuses on applications that contain historical content for the social studies classroom. IMAGE SOURCE: LOC

S ECTION 1

Constitution

batim copy of the Constitution of the United States of America one can conveniently carry in an easily navigable digital format. The application includes not only all articles and amendments of the Constitution, but also biographical information of the signers of the document. Supplementing the written information is a painting of the assembly who drafted the Constitution with a numbered guide for identifying the men pictured. The application was created by Clint Bagwell Consulting and is compatible with iPhone, iPod Touch 3rd generation or later, and iPad.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

The authors future plans for education consist of first obtaining degrees in history, english, and secondary education at Central Michigan University and afterward teaching American history at a high school level. The author has always had an interest for history because it is a fascinating and perpetual subject. It is his philosophy that one cannot effectively prepare for the future without first studying the past to learn which practices led to success or failure in the spheres of politics, economics, diplomatic relations, etc. He also believes it is the duty of current generations to remember the actions, good or bad, of their forefathers, so as to educate future generations.

USING THE APPLICATION

This is a video which provides a basic tutorial for using the Constitution application.

M OVIE 3.1 Constitution Application

INTRODUCTIONS
The application chosen for analysis is the Constitution App. The Constitution App is what it sounds like: a consultable, ver34

CLASSROOM USES
This application is beneficial to the social studies classroom, especially when American history is being studied. The ability for students to have copies of the entire United States Constitution is advantageous when learning about the creation of the American political entity, as the Constitution is the blueprint for all of Americas political functions. Furthermore, later amendments to the Constitution can be analyzed and compared to the historical context of the time (comparing the 18th Amendment to post World War One, etc.). The lesson at this hyperlink would allow for effective application incorporation: Separation of PowersThis lesson consists of analyzing the separation of powers in the United States government and how the judiciary branch in particular has changed over time. The Constitution Application would prove useful in the sense that the article pertaining to the judiciary branch of the government could be read in its original context and then compared and contrasted to legal decisions regarding the judiciary branch in the future. In response to a query from an EDU 343 student, the Constitution application can be used for the creation of Jeopardy-style review games. Due to the excellent categorization in the application, categories like Amendments, Articles, Biographies, Whos Who (in reference to the painting), and more could be easily created for review purposes. If students were allowed to use the application during the review game, they could just

as easily find the answers, as the application has a simple interface.

Additional Resources Other resources which may prove useful for use with the application: United States Articles of Confederation 1776 Pennsylvania State Constitution 1776 Virginia State Constitution These documents are similar to and predate the U.S. Constitution. The study of the Articles and state constitutions provides insight as to where the key concepts of the Federal Constitution originated.

35

S ECTION 2

Line Time: Presidents

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

My name is Jim Webb, I am 32 years old and have an associates degree in Architectural drafting and working on a bachelors of secondary education with a major in mathematics and a minor in physics. I have been married for 12 years and have three wonderful children, whose ages range from my youngest who is five to my oldest who will be 13 this year. I served in our nations armed forces and served in Iraq. I reside with my family in the little town of Sanford which is located northwest of Midland. I am hoping to teach either Juniors or Seniors, and looking forward to a full and rewarding career as an educator.

under 9MB in size and is compatible with the iPad, iPod touch and the iPhone. This application has every president from George Washington who was elected in 1788 through to Barack Obama who was elected in 2008. It has the two finger pinch to zoom feature as well as the swipe to scroll as well. As you scroll through and find a president to learn more about you tap on their picture and a description of their administration pops up on the screen. Those descriptions also contain hyper-linked words that will take you to further pages to learn more about that subject related to that president. For instance with President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in his administrations description is a hyper-link to the NEW DEAL that came about as a solution to the economic crisis of the great depression. When you are done reading about that or of the president in the upper left corner is a done button that you click on to go to the main screen. There is also a search tool that looks like a magnifying glass that will allow you to search for things such as Fidel Castro in which it will take you to the earliest mention of that in this case that is with President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

INTRODUCTION
The application that I have chosen for this assignment is entitled LineTime: Presidents. This application was created by John Goering and was released on March 9th 2012. It is just
36

USING THE APPLICATION

Here is a quick look and tutorial video of this application. In it some points on the features are addressed and a sneak-peek

M OVIE 3.2 HOW TO USE LINE TIME :PRESIDENT APP

of the inside of the application.

CLASSROOM USES
This would be a great tool in an American History or American Government class for the research of Presidential history.

All of the information that made up the administration to little trivia facts about each one are in this app. It would be a great addition into either of those classes as well as the integration of it into middle level social studies or civics classes. One possible use of this tool would be to come up with a trivia quiz to test the students ability to research and find information. Such a quiz could be drawn up to questions like who had the shortest term as President? Who was the first president to be assassinated in office? The possibilities of this tool in the classroom really are only limited to the imagination of the teacher. This application would have a great benefit in the classroom because it would allow the students the opportunity to view every administration of every president. This application only covers the administration of the presidents only and does not divulge into neither the private lives nor early life of the presidents. It covers the major events that the administration had to deal with during that time frame. The great benefit is that the students do not have to have tomes upon tomes to dig through. There have been 44 administrations and that is a lot of information this application includes a search tool that helps look up key items. There is a globe button in the lower right hand corner that takes you to another application that is a world time line that you must purchase separately. There is nothing about this application that is tricky but the search feature takes you to the earliest mention of the key word that you searched for. For example the name Fidel Castro does not go back to President John F. Kennedy but to President Dwight D. Eisenhower. For some ideas of uses in the classes take a look

37

at this one on President Lincoln or this one on Presidential letters.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Here at apple is some more resources for this application.

38

S ECTION 3

Riding with Rosa Parks

rights time period. Also, a teacher could have her students read the book and discuss the questions at the end of the app in groups. The Riding with Rosa Parks app is available for iPhones, iPads and iPod touches.

USING THE APPLICATION

In this video, I will go through the Riding with Rosa Parks app and explain how to use it. This app is very user friendly; the app user simply needs a basic understanding of how to work an iPhone or iPad. However, if there are technical issues they have a support team that you may email at support@readsmart.com.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

My name is Jenna Orr. I was raised in Chesterfield, Michigan by two loving parents. I am currently a freshman at Central Michigan University; after graduation I will be an elementary teacher. As of right now I am thinking about majoring in language arts and minoring in technology. I would love to teach third grade. Teaching is my passion and I plan on touching the lives of many.

M OVIE 3.3 Riding with Rosa Parks App Tutorial

INTRODUCTION
The iPhone app, Riding with Rosa Parks, is a fifteen page book written by Ellen Forrest. This app is meant for early readers (kindergarten to first grade) but can be used to help other students who struggle with reading. The book is factual and even has a historical picture and map; the app also gives a bit of information regarding civil rights. A child could independently work this app and learn about Rosa Parks and the civil
39

CLASSROOM USES
On the Teachers Domain website I have found a social studies lesson plan that will go along with the Riding with Rosa Parks app. This lesson plan provides a background essay about Rosa Parks and the Civil Rights Time period, discussion questions and a video of an interview with Rosa Parks. After reading the Riding with Rosa Parks book app this video is great to show students of any age. It will help the students really see that this was a true historical event instead of some book they read on their iPad or iPhone. After watching the Rosa Parks interview, the discussion questions that are given in the lesson plan relate to the video and even the Riding with Rosa Parks app. It is an excellent tool to really bring your Rosa Parks/Civil Rights lesson plan together.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Rosa Parks Lesson Plan (Teachers Domain) Teachers Domain

40

INTRODUCTION S ECTION 4

S MITHSONIAN C HANNEL

The Smithsonian Channel App is a complete historical database of videos and information set up like an interactive museum for the user to navigate through while learning about history and present day life. This app is an educational tool that covers information from the beginning of our universe to the demise of civilizations and everyday news topics.

USING THE APPLICATION ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Maureen Riley is a contributing author of this book. She is currently a sophomore studying Special Education at Central Michigan University. Maureen hopes to one day teach pre-k and elementary cognitively impaired students. She is also studying to get her minor in reading so she can specialize in students with reading impairments. Her ideal classroom would be with ten to fifteen students in the elementary level in an inclusive classroom with students with varied types of abilities. Desirae Lamoreaux is also a contributing author for this book. She is currently a Freshman at Central Michigan University, who is hoping to eventually become a Special Education teacher for Elementary Cognitively Impaired students. The following video is a tutorial on the Smithsonian Channel Application with step-by-step directions on how to navigate it.
41

M OVIE 3.4 How to use the Smithsonian Channel Application

The Smithsonian app contains videos, documentaries, and fun facts pertaining to history. This app is compatible with an ipad, ipod, and iphone. The web version of the Smithsonian Channel is a much more involved in the wealth of information provided. There are more links pertaining to the actual T.V channel, and the schedule for what will be played on it. Also, there is a search bar allowing for the user to look up anything they want on the website, rather than just being able to see what is featured for the month like on the app. The website and the app are both organized by easy to find categories; for example, air and space, science and nature, culture, history and kids. There are more options for the user to find more specific information.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Smithsonian Channel Website Resource The Library of Congress Lesson Plan Resource

CLASSROOM USES
To use this app in a history lesson, the video 9/11 the day that changed the world and this photo found on The Library of Congress website, which can be used by having the students watch the video and then analyze the photo. After they will be prompted to tell what they see. The purpose is to understand how it applies to history. This app would be great for a social studies class because, it would allow the teacher to have a large selection of videos to choose from when teaching to reinforce the lessons that are being taught, and to give visual representations of what is being discussed.In the videos the user can skip to different parts of the video so that the user is able to pick what parts of the video to show to the class, or fast forward to important parts that will complement lessons.
42

S ECTION 5

Today in History

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kaitlyn Gibson is 21 years old and currently attends Central Michigan University, pursuing a degree in Elementary Education. She is focusing on language arts and mathematics. Once she is finished with her education, she hopes to teach any children from kindergarten through eighth grade. She is very excited to have her own classroom and start teaching.

tory typically only had 2-5 events and the details were sparse. Not only are there a lot of events, but the user can then touch the event to learn more information. When the user touches the event, it takes him or her to a page for the event. On that page, there is the event description followed by external links for the event or topics closely related to the event. When the user touches one of the external links, it takes the user to the Wikipedia page for the event or topic. Therefore, the user can get more information on the event or closely related topics. There are other options besides events; the user can also access births, deaths, or holidays on the bottom navigation bar. The user can touch one of these to receive more information about (in)famous people who were born or died on that day or holidays and observances for that day. Another feature of this application is the Set Date feature. At the top right of the screen, there is a button that displays the current date. If the user touches that button, the application gives the user the option to choose what date they want. The user can pick any date to see the events, births, deaths, and holidays. At the top left of the screen, there are two arrows. If the user touches the left arrow, it will go to the page for the previous day. If the user touches the right arrow, it will go to the page for the next day. This is another way that the user can choose which date he or she wants to view. Finally, in the bottom navigation bar, there is a More button. That button takes the user to the More menu, which includes Favorites, Search, Account, People, My Events, Settings, and About. Favorites saves all of the events, people, or
43

INTRODUCTION
Today in History is the app that I have found the best for giving accurate, interesting, and abundant information on what happened in history on a particular day. When opened, this application displays the current day, and the events that have happened in the past on that day. There are usually 15 or more events, so it gives a great variety of everything that happened in history on that day. Many of the days even have events that took place before 1000 AD. Other apps for This Day in His-

holidays that a user adds to his or her favorites. Search allows the user to search for an event, person or holiday. Account is where users set up an account. People shows other users who have accounts and who submit events or people, which the creator reviews. My Events allows the user to add his or her own private events, or to submit an event, person, or holiday that is not already in the app. That submission is then reviewed and either accepted or rejected. Settings lets the user pick a theme, log into twitter or Facebook, and go online or offline. The About section gives the user information on the application and contact information. This app is available for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad and requires version iOS 4.0 or newer. It received a 4.5 star rating from over 400 people, which is the best rating out of any This Day in History application. I am not sure about the iPod touch and the iPad, but the iPhone has a free version and a $1.99 version. The free version, Today in History Lite, has an advertisement banner at the top of the screen that can be annoying and sometimes advertises inappropriate games. Other than the advertisement banner, it is the same as the $1.99 version, which is just Today in History. For use in the classroom, the $1.99 version would probably be the best and most appropriate choice.

USING THE APPLICATION

This video explains, with screenshots, how to use the Today in History App.

M OVIE 3.5 How to Use Today in History

CLASSROOM USES
The app Today in History would be a useful tool in middle and high school history classrooms. Users can obtain a large amount of information on what happened each day in the worlds history. This app would be helpful in a classroom because it gives students or teachers an easy way to find and re44

search many events, people, and holidays and they will not need to have access to a computer to find out that information all they will have to do is open the app and find out what happened in history. Teachers can use Today in History as a tool for nearly any history lesson. Teachers and students can utilize the app to receive general information about most events and people that they are teaching or learning about in class. A specific example is for the lesson Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962: The Missiles of October from the website Edsitement!. Today in History would be a great supplement to this lesson plan. Mainly, it includes many answering questions and making decisions involving the Cuban Missile Crisis. Students can search "Cuban Missile Crisis" in the Today in History app, and all of the events surrounding the Cuban Missile Crisis pop up. The students can then click on these events to access the event page, which gives external links to the event's Wikipedia page. Therefore, students can get a hold of facts about the Cuban Missile Crisis and answer the questions or make decisions based on what they found with the Today in History app. The app would be very helpful for students if they have to answer questions about an event or person. Teachers can also use Today in History for a project in a history class. One idea is that each student could find and choose an event that occurred or a person who was born or died on his or her birthday. The student would begin his or her research using the apps external links that would take him or her to the Wikipedia page for the event or person. Then, once

the student finds out more about the event or person through the app, they can research further, using books, articles or reliable websites. The students can then create a project about their event or person. Examples could include a PowerPoint, poster, short play, or video that they could present to the class. Overall, the Today in History app could be a supplement to nearly any history lesson. Whenever a teacher or student needs to know more about something that happened in history, he or she can begin his or her research using this app. By having access to the Today in History app, abundant historical information is right in the users hand.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Teaching History Library of Congress

45

S ECTION 6

INTRODUCTIONS
The app United States Factbook shows facts about all 50 of the states as well as basic facts about the USA. Besides talking about the states, USA Factbook has some of the most common documents that have been passed, such as the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the United States Constitution. This app can also play the National Anthem, shows the American Flag and also has facts about the National Anthem. USA Factbook has all of the presidents thus far and when you click on a president it shows facts about them. At the bottom of the app is a quiz that anyone can be quizzed on states capitals and/or to identify which state is being highlighted. This app can be used on an iPod or an iPad so depending on which technology device you have, you can always use it in the classroom. CIA Factbook is an app focuses on almost the same thing as US Factbook, but it involves the entire world. There are four different pages to choose from. The first page has a list of all of the countries in the world and basic facts about them. The second page has a list of all of the world organizations and groups. The third page has a list of the different world regions and maps of them all. Lastly, the final page talks of the countries different world ranks in geography, population and etc. This app can be used to introduce younger or middle level students to the different countries around the globe. Students may or may not know of these countries making it a good lesson starting point. This app is iPod touch, iPhone or iPad accessible.
46

USA/CIA factbooks

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Hello, my name is Samantha Bobrowski and I am starting my second semester of my freshman year at Central Michigan University. I am planning on doing a double major in Special Education and Elementary Education. I would like to have my focus for Special Education in Cognitive Impairment and to teach either elementary age or high school age students with cognitive impairments. For regular education, I would ideally like to teach first through third graders but I would be happy with any grade. Hello, my name is Kristen Massey and I am a first year student at Central Michigan University. I intend to study Elementary Education and majoring in Mathematics and minoring in Science. I am excited to introduce you to CIA Factbook application.

CLASSROOM USES USING THE APPLICATIONS

These two videos demonstrate how to use the apps.
How to Use USA factbook

The benefits of using this app in the classroom is that you could hook it up to a projector/apple TV and go through the app with the entire class. You could take the quizzes as a class for a review session of the states and capitols as well as listen to the national anthem. Another benefit is that you can read to the students about the Presidents, major cities, and documents while they can read along with you and be able to see pictures. The only problem with the app that I have encountered is that you need to have wifi or 3G to listen to the National Anthem since it plays off of YouTube and for the maps section you are unable to scroll into the maps to see what they are really trying to show. Using the app CIA Factbook in the classroom is an efficient tool because it can be used as an introduction to a new lesson. The app is resourceful for looking up facts about any country. Basically, any information that is needed about a country is at the viewers fingertips. There are no specific tips that are needed but it is useful to know that there is no app home page. The lesson is called Where I Come From. The purpose of this lesson is to help students learn about their heritage and information about foreign countries. Students will be told to come to class knowing what their family heritage is. The students will be assigned to look up information on the country and to answer specific questions assigned by the teacher. To make it more interesting, students must state two new interesting facts that they learned about their country. An EDU 343 student asked: How might this be more appealing to
47

How to Use CIA factbook

students than a textbook? I believe that the app is much more interactive. It is visual and allows students to learn out of something other than a textbook. It can be accessed on either ipods or ipads, which will make students excited that they get to use a cool instrument in the classroom.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Like Father, Like Son: Presidential Families Where I Come From

48

S ECTION 7

PBS NewsHour

M OVIE 3.6 How to Use the PBS NewsHour application

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Amber Shepard is a returning student to CMU after already completing her B.S., with a major in sociology and minor in Spanish. She is now pursuing a degree in teacher education to become a physical education teacher and minor in English as a Second Language. She would like to teach grades K-6 in her hometown in Ludington Michigan.

USING THE APPLICATION

PBS Newshour is a user friendly application that allows for easy access to accurate and current news stories and videos.

INTRODUCTION
According to PBS, the application provides a customizable interface so that users can sort our coverage of politics, the economy, science, art and the world. The app is IOS4 compatible and supports multitasking. It is user friendly and easy to navigate. The buttons in the headline bar located at the bottom of the screen are clearly labeled for what they will help the user do. The function of the application is to keep the user informed on current news in an easy to use format.

CLASSROOM USES
PBS NewsHour can easily be used in the social studies classroom. With the ability to search news up to two weeks old, it would fit right into a current events assignment. The student can search the following categories: Economy, Art Beat, Podcasts, Making Sense, Science and Tech, Social Issues and
49

World. An assignment to find a story about a social issue could be used. Then the students could share what they found interesting and the students would teach each other in a very simple way by summarizing their story in small groups of three or four.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
PBS The Learning Network

50

S ECTION 8

Civil War: Americas Epic Struggle

This video demonstrates how to use the app, Civil War: Americas Epic Struggle with the use of a short powerpoint presentation.

M OVIE 3.7 This video demonstrates how to use Civil War:

Americas Epic Struggle

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

My name is Kyle Smith and I am an Integrated Science Major for Secondary Education. This will allow me to teach all sciences in the Middle School and High School setting.

INTRODUCTION
This application is quite interesting and has a lot of useful content. Included content includes detailed maps of all battles, weaponry during the period, statistics for each side, biographies of numerous head figures of the war, pictures of key generals, description of Navy movements throughout the war, as well as music from the time period. This application is available for the iPod and iPad, as well as the iPhone.

CLASSROOM USES
While navigating around the application it has become apparent that this can easily be used for a wide range of age groups. The pictures and music appeal to younger students and the in depth biographies and detailed maps are beneficial for older students. While using this application in the class51

USING THE APPLICATION

room many methods can be used depending on the group of students being taught. Timelines are available to set a course on when and what occurred and how these events affected future battles. Maps are available for every major battle as well as detailed movements of soldiers throughout the war. For group projects this application can be used to describe each side of the war, including accounts for the Confederates and Union soldiers, or other topics such as weapons or uniforms. The detailed information allows for many projects to be assigned and will help aid in unknown accounts or information that is limited to the common student. Two lesson plans are listed that could potentially be used along with the features of this application to create a higher order thinking process. With the use of the app as well as other materials provided by the teacher the students are able to depict key battles and map them out to discover where and how the Civil War was won. Also with the use of this app students will be able to compare and contrast differences between the North and South to determine how and why the Civil War occurred. However, while navigating around the app a few problem areas that may result in trouble for students as well as instructors. One of these is the inability to continue through certain areas such as folders to view all contents; instead you must work back to open new areas. This is very strenuous and cost a lot of time to do, the application would be better if you were able to slide through documents like photos on an iPhone. Another problem I encountered was the quality of narration in multimedia presentations over important concepts. In numer-

ous areas the voice is hardly recognizable and is almost annoying to continue listening. The best way to use this app is to read all of the important documents and then reiterate the key concepts with the use of the multimedia presentations. Unfortunately, the recordings do become somewhat irritating so students might be drawn away from them. For younger students the vast array of pictures helps to cement ideas and concepts and can be incorporated into lesson plans.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Verge of War Mapping Battles Mapmakers

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