Technology & Social Studies: Using Digital Cameras to Explore Communities

     When most people hear History, they don’t think it applies to them in any way.  It’s simply a bunch of people and events that happened in the past, with no bearing on what’s happening in the here and now.  And when the words History or Social Studies (depending on the education level) homework are said, the first thing that will come to mind for many is reading a textbook or writing a paper.  One way of proving both of these beliefs wrong is to make the class and its assignments as interactive as possible, and making sure that they revolve around something that would be of interest to the student.  One possibility for this is an assignment on the history of the town in which the student lives, whatever that may be (in my case growing up, this assignment would have been done on the history of Rockaway).  Students are to use digital cameras (or cameras of any sort) to go about and document the history of the town, noting any historic buildings that may exist, discussing what may or not have existed in that location in the past, and so on.  The pictures that they attain can then be used to make a collage or binder, with written captions explaining each photograph.

     While some more work would have to be put into the exact details of an assignment such as this, I think it is something that could be very successful.  It would help the students learn about the history of their community, and will hopefully help them to see how interesting and interactive learning History can be when taught correctly.  There is a generally negative opinion of this subject by many students, and it will be up to the future teachers of this subject (myself included) to break this.