Should We Be Teaching This in "Social Studies?"

(I�m still not feeling like I have much to add to the conversation at the moment, so instead I�ll just share some half-baked musings - yes, even more half-baked than usual. I write this even though I understand that many schools already have too much they are supposed to "cover" in Social Studies, and with full knowledge that my own school had budget cuts that impacted the number of teachers we have teaching Social Studies. I still think these are important questions to ask.)

For some reason I got to thinking about the term "Social Studies" the other day. Like many high schools, my school doesn�t have a History Department anymore, it has a Social Studies Department. We still teach a full complement of history courses, but we also teach Psychology, Sociology, Government, Cultural Geography, Economics, Law and other courses. So as I was thinking about this I decided that perhaps I should put my broadband connection to work and look up the definition of �social studies.� Here are three that are similar, yet still offer some interesting takes on the matter (in each case, emphasis added by me so that I can talk more about it below):

1. Social Studies: A group of instructional programs that describes the substantive portions of behavior, past and present activities, interactions, and organizations of people associated together for religious, benevolent, cultural, scientific, political, patriotic, or other purposes.
   � National Center for Education Statistics
   
2. Social studies is a term used to describe the broad study of the various fields which involve past and current human behavior and interactions. Rather than focus on any one topic in depth, social studies provides a broad overview of human society past and present.
   -Wikipedia
   
3. Social studies is the integrated study of the social sciences and humanities to promote civic competence . . . The primary purpose of social studies is to help young people develop the ability to make informed and reasoned decisions for the public good as citizens of a culturally diverse, democratic society in an interdependent world.
   - National Council for the Social Studies

Past and present activities.

Organizations of people associated together for [various] purposes.

Human society past and present.

Informed and reasoned decisions for the public good . . . in an interdependent world.

And then I wondered, how many "Social" Studies Departments in high schools around the world are teaching a course on the socially revolutionary and transformative age that we find ourselves in? (Or even at least discussing it in an existing course.) As Clay Shirky talks about in Here Comes Everybody, group forming is ridiculously easy and we are still in the very early stages of a change that rivals the development of the �Print Culture� that arose in the centuries following the invention of the printing press. Aren�t the societal changes we�re seeing as the result of technology and the Internet specifically, as well as other flat-world factors, the essence of what "social studies" is about?

Now, I�m not suggesting that they shouldn�t teach history or all those other courses � there�s tremendous value in those as well. But does it strike anyone else as odd that my school � and I imagine most schools � aren�t teaching this stuff? Can�t the case be made that these changes are at least as important for our students to learn about, immerse themselves in, understand and begin to figure out the impact of as it is to learn about other great themes in history? Isn�t today�s "networked society" one of the greatest transformations ever in how we define and understand "social" and "society?" If so, then shouldn�t Social Studies Departments everywhere be scrambling to include this in their curriculum?

Three to Think About

Sometimes I run across things one after another that seem connected to me but I�m not always sure about the connection. So, I�m not going to try to connect the dots this time, but just share and let you make any connections you see.

Amazon announced/released their Kindle e-book reader:

"Books have stubbornly resisted digitization," he elaborated. "I think there's a very good reason for that, and that is, the book is so highly evolved and so suited to its task that it's very hard to displace."

. . . Kindle tips the scales at a total 10.3 ounces--"That's less than a paperback book," Bezos said--and uses an "electronic ink" technology to mimic paper, not a computer screen.

. . . The battery life, company representatives said, will last several days to a week. A charger can juice up the battery in a matter of two hours.

Notably, Kindle does not require a PC for synchronization or any software to be installed. "Instead of shopping from your PC, you shop directly from the device. The store is on the device, and then the content is wirelessly and seamlessly delivered to the device," Bezos explained.

. . . Bezos also announced that dozens of newspapers, from The New York Times to France's Le Monde, would also be available for the device, as well as magazines and 300 of the most popular blogs, such as BoingBoing and Slashdot. "On Kindle, newspapers are delivered while you sleep, automatically," he said. The publications will receive a cut of the subscription fee revenue, as no advertising will be displayed on them.

Additionally, Kindle comes with an electronic dictionary and access to Wikipedia. Each device, as News.com reported, also provides the user with a personal Kindle e-mail address so that word-processing files such as Microsoft Word documents, as well as image files, could be sent to the e-book reader.

Livescribe (via Jeff Whipple, and you really need to watch the three demo animations to get the feel for it):

The Livescribe paper-based computing platform � a smartpen, paper, software applications, and development tools � will be available online beginning in Q1 2008. The smartpen will be less than $200. Additional dot paper will be available at prices comparable to standard paper products.

• Listen to your class lecture by just tapping on your handwritten notes.


• View & listen to your notes on your PC and search by keyword.


• Email your written & audio notes to your classmates or study group.


• Translate a word or phrase by simply writing it on paper.


• Download one or more languages to your pen computer.


• Practice your pronunciation by tapping on a word and listening


• Write & send a message directly from your notebook.


• Create & send an animated voice message from your paper.


• Post a message, drawing or animation (with voice) to your blog or Facebook profile.

Google-backed Genetic Testing Launches (and more):

Google Inc-funded 23andMe launched on Monday and began offering a DNA saliva test for $999 per person, which would help users of the online site learn about their genes, inherited traits, family trees, and participate in research.

"The mission of 23andMe is to take the genetic revolution to a new level by offering a secure, Web-based service where individuals can explore, share and better understand their own genetic information," said Linda Avey, who co-founded 23andMe with Anne Wojcicki.

I think the first two obviously have more in common with each other than the third one, but the phrase �individuals can explore, share and better understand� seemed to sum things up nicely for me.

Any thoughts?

Three Ordinary Articles

There were three separate and seemingly unrelated stories in today�s Denver Post that I found interesting, although I�m still not sure why.

First up, We are our friends: Our friends are us:

The dizzying pace of the digital revolution often leaves us yearning for simplicity, but it's probably safe to say there are two kinds of people in this world: those who have disappeared into the time-sucking maelstrom of social networking websites, and loners.

That might have sounded like an overstatement a few years ago, when MySpace and Facebook were just beginning to wobble toward cultural relevance, but the reality in 2007 is much different.

Social networking sites are our new watercoolers, photo albums and bulletin boards. By mimicking, then deconstructing, the tangled web of relationships in the real world, they have proved themselves useful in ways scarcely imagined a half-decade ago.

And they're not just for dating or gossip. A surprising amount and diversity of people - representing nearly every age and interest - use the sites, and accidental entrepreneurs are taking the MySpace model in bold new directions.

That site's success practically begs for it. News Corp.-owned MySpace, which boasts more than 200 million worldwide users, will reap about $1 billion in ad revenue this year.

Next, Virtual worlds can help users recover from health woes:

Brown, Salvatierra and Dawley are just a few examples of an increasing number of sick, disabled and troubled people who say virtual worlds are helping them fight their diseases, live with their disabilities and sometimes even begin to recover. Researchers say they are only starting to appreciate the impact of this phenomenon.

"We're at a major technical and social transition with this technology. It has very recently started to become a very big deal, and we haven't by any means digested what the implications are," said William Sims Bainbridge of the National Science Foundation.

In addition to helping individual patients, virtual worlds are being used for other health-related purposes: Medical schools are using them to train doctors. Health departments are using them to test first responders. Researchers are using them to gain insights into how epidemics spread.

Finally, Churches� �Halo� gets tarnished:

First the percussive sounds of sniper fire, then the thrill of the kill.

Then the gospel of peace.

Across the country, hundreds of ministers and pastors desperate to reach young congregants have drawn concern and criticism through their use of an unusual recruiting tool: the immersive and violent video game "Halo."

Now, none of these articles were particularly outstanding or created any epiphanies for me, but it was the �ordinariness� of them that struck me. Two articles in the �News� section, one in the �Arts & Entertainment� section � three articles on topics that are apparently mainstream and therefore worthy of writing (and reading) about, and not particularly unusual because they were just like any other story in the paper.

What does it all mean? I�m tempted to say �shift happens,� but I really don�t know. I�m not sure it means anything at all, but it just struck me as unusual because of the very fact that apparently it�s not unusual. Perhaps that does mean some shifts are occurring . . .