Teaching Social Studies in Virtual Space/Cultural Anthropology/Cultural Imperialism

Unit Summary

A class of pre-service social studies educators at the University of Iowa engaged in an activity of exploratory inquiry. The topic was cultural imperialism. The students were divided into groups and were responsible for engaging in Internet research, gathering data, siting sources, and synthesizing their findings into an argument. Afterwards, the class integrated each groups work into a WikiBook page about cultural imperialism.

Unit Rationale

Social studies students engaged in collaborative learning and reflective inquiry, via the Internet, to find digital resources. They collaborate in a virtual environment and create a functional learning product to showcase their learning experience.

Student Benefit from Technological Integration

• Students gained access to a greater quantity and quality of data online
• Students learned by engaging in research vs. reading from a textbook
• Students taught and learned from each other by presenting research in virtual space
• Students collaboratively engaged in reflective inquiry as opposed to sat passively in their seats
• Students were were assessed by the product of their learning
• Students made a meaningful contribution to the online scholarly community.