Teaching Civil War History Lesson Plans With Technology

In this technology-driven age, it's becoming harder and harder to keep our students' attention. This generation presents a unique set of challenges for educators. Whereas youth are captivated by high-definition television, Blu-ray media, computers, iPods, cell phones and video games, they are not always enthralled by plain text on the pages of seemingly obsolete school books.


When provided merely a textbook as a supplemental learning tool, test results reveal that most students fail to identify the significance of historical individuals and events, and even fewer are able to analyze and substantiate primary sources.


As history has consistently shown, new times bring new realities. The teaching of history is no exception. The question is no longer whether to use technology in everyday education. Now, the question is which technologies are most suitable for the range of topics taught in social studies, U.S. history, and world history classrooms. Luckily, technology has provided us with new ways to present information, be it from our Civil War lesson plans or our Cold War lesson plans. There is no subject that can't be taught in a format that students will enjoy.


Combining the study of history with innovative media helps target and engage the learners of this generation. PowerPoint® presentations, in particular, add a new dimension to education by allowing teachers to explain abstract concepts while accommodating different learning styles. Historical multimedia including an array of photos, prints, maps, audio clips, video clips and primary documents help to make the learning process fun and interactive. Providing learning materials in these enticing formats helps technology-driven students of various learning styles retain important historical information, preparing them for standardized history tests.


No matter what subjects you're covering in your classes--from American Revolution lesson plans to World War II lesson plans--PowerPoint® study units are available in formats to suit the needs of both you and your students. Multimedia teaching tools like PowerPoint® presentations have generated positive results--scaffolding the framework of lectures and talks with captivating visual, auditory and written content that helps students recall names, dates and causal relationships in history.

Written by Kacy Suther. MultiMedia Learning LLC provides civil war lesson plans, american revolutionary war lesson plans, world war ii lesson plans, cold war through their unique PowerPoint® Presentation software. Students learn history through classroom social studies games and engaging technology. Learn more at http://www.multimedialearning.org .