My Prime Ten Instruments for Social Research Lecturers and College students | Tech Zen

One of many challenges of giving college students main or secondary supply articles to learn on their very own is figuring out how lengthy it takes them to learn the articles and the way properly they learn them. Readlee is a service that solves that downside. With a free Readlee account, you possibly can assign articles to college students and have them learn them aloud on their computer systems. Readlee tracks the pace at which college students learn together with info on whole phrases learn and distinctive phrases learn. Here’s a video overview of Readlee.

StoryMap JS
StoryMap JS is produced by the identical individuals who make Timeline JS. StoryMap JS permits college students to inform tales by the mix of maps and timelines. In StoryMap JS, you create slides that match the places in your map. Every slide in your story can embody pictures or movies together with textual content.

Google Earth
Google Earth is on the market in two variations. The Professional model is the model you could set up in your desktop. That is the model I choose if I’ve a selection as a result of it consists of extra options than the net browser model. College students and academics can use Google Earth Professional to file narrated excursions and overlay historic pictures on prime of present map views. That is one in all my favourite Google Earth actions for center faculty and highschool. And right here is my on-line course on Google Earth and Maps.

google books
That is an usually ignored search instrument. Google Books provides college students entry to thousands and thousands of free books and periodicals. Google Books actually shines while you begin in search of works that had been revealed within the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Probably the greatest options of Google Books is the flexibility to look inside a ebook for a key phrase or phrase.

DocsTeach
DocsTeach is a free service offered by the US Nationwide Archives. By means of DocsTeach you possibly can create on-line actions based mostly on artifacts from main sources from the Nationwide Archives. Your college students can full the actions on-line. Do not be fooled by the truth that the service is offered by the Nationwide Archives into considering that it could actually solely be used for US historical past classes. You possibly can add any main supply artifacts you prefer to your DocsTeach account to develop a on-line historical past exercise. DocsTeach gives over a dozen exercise templates you could comply with to construct your classes based mostly on main sources. Watch this video to be taught extra about DocsTeach.

edpuzzle
Once I taught social research, I preferred to make use of video clips as a part of present occasions classes. I additionally preferred to make use of excerpts from documentary movies. For those who use movies in the identical method, EDpuzzle is a should strive instrument. EDpuzzle lets you add questions straight on the video timeline. Right here is my video overview of how one can use EDpuzzle.

WeVideo
If you need your college students to make quick, documentary-style movies, WeVideo is difficult to beat. It really works on Chromebooks, Home windows, Android, iOS, and Mac (though when you have a Mac, iMovie is simply pretty much as good). Those that have upgraded WeVideo accounts may even use it to make inexperienced display movies.

doodle maps

Scribble Maps is the multimedia mapping instrument I like to recommend every time somebody asks for an alternative choice to Google Earth or Google Maps for college students. Scribble Maps is a free instrument for creating customized multimedia maps on-line. Scribble Maps gives quite a lot of base layer maps the place you possibly can draw freehand, add placemarks, add picture overlays, and write on the map. Scribble Maps will work within the net browser in your laptop computer, Chromebook, iPad, or Android pill. Within the embedded video under, I present an summary of how one can use Scribble Maps.

Canvas

Canva can be utilized to make every thing from an infographic, to a presentation, to a web site, to a video, and every thing in between. Within the context of social research, I’ve used Canva to create multimedia timelines and classic journey posters based mostly on public area pictures present in these collections.