PC For Education: Teach History Better With Technology

Teaching history can be particularly challenging scientific concepts and mathematical algorithms that can be explained with the right tools, but how do you teach history in a way that is engaging and easy to grasp?

Traditionally, History has always been about memorising dates and key events, but it can be so much more. With the right tools and smart use of technology, history can easily be a fascinating subject for students capturing their imagination and engaging them in the classroom.

These are the tools and websites that can be used to teach history better.

1. Battle it out—recreating history using videos

Kids learn more by doing and seeing things than by reading from a book. In history class, instead of just reading about battles, have the students recreate them on film. The students could then add a director's commentary over the video, highlighting the different parts of the battle. The teacher could keep the DVD and show it the following year. Students could also film a new battle or historical event each year.

 2. "Friending" Gandhi

Teachers can use Facebook to create profiles of important people in history and ask students to befriend them. Kids often find historical personalities to be boring, especially when they just read about them in a textbook. However, virtually interacting with these personalities makes them feel more real, making it easier for kids to understand historical events in context.

Imagine being friends with the father of the nation!

3. Wiki Classrooms

You can get your students excited about learning history in a rather modern, easy-to-use environment. Make students create a wiki of the historical event. Individual students/ a group of students prepare a summary of one part of the event, for example, the Japanese attack on Hawaii during WWII, while another group works on another part of the event. And when you stitch the different parts together for a complete overview, you'll see that your students actually remember most of it!

4. Interactive maps by National Geographic

An interactive map is a web-based map that has clickable place markers. When clicked, these markers show an information box with text, pictures, videos as well as links to external sites that are relevant to the place. Teachers can make students create an interactive map after teaching historical events based in a specific city or country. A simple activity it would help cement their understanding of the lesson and how events transpired.

Technology offers educators effective ways to reach different types of learners and assess student understanding through multiple means. Use these methods to teach history and it might soon become their favourite subject. Tweet using #DellAarambh and tell us your experience!