Natalie Carter: A Technical Jump Start for 21st Century Social Studies Education
For as long as she can remember, Natalie Carter – a senior social studies education major – has been travelling around the globe. Natalie spent the majority of her childhood on various military bases throughout Europe and studied abroad in Australia during her junior year at the College. For her senior project, Natalie chose to combine her interest in history and geography with technology to address an identified deficiency in the social studies education field.
Through her research, Natalie learned that social studies is unquestionably a field that needs a technical jump start into the 21st century. Surprisingly, she also found an abundance of available educational technology, which demonstrated varying levels of success in improving student achievement and interest in the field of social studies.
Natalie is ecstatic to be entering her field of interest with a large amount of technical knowledge and hopes that her classroom will embody a classroom of the future. “I hope to inspire my students to take an interest in our changing world. History, as well as social studies, is often a field thought doomed to the dusty tomes,” she reflects. “I hope to encourage my students to realize that history, government, and geography classes are not simply schedule fillers, but rather a chance for them to find their place as an international citizen in a global world.”
Project Title: "Education Technology – This Century's Miracle or Takeover"
Date: Scholarship and Creative Arts Day 2008 – Tuesday, April 22
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Carroll Tyminski
Natalie is one of several student scholars from Elizabethtown’s Department of Education who will present during Scholarship and Creative Arts Day 2008. A full schedule of this and other events featuring the creativity and scholarship of Elizabethtown students is now available on the Scholarship and Creative Arts Day webpage.
