Chapter 9: Promise and Practice Of Computer Technologies in the Social Studies: A Critical Analysis

Significant expectations have evolved from the development of the personal computer in the 1970s and the appearance of the World Wide Web in the early 1990s. The hyperbole connected to educational applications emerging from the personal computer and World Wide Web has been consistent. Advocates have promoted technological applications as beneficial for a host of educational circumstances. Despite assurances of substantial progress from supporters of technology, some critics claim that social studies instruction has not appreciably changed in the last twenty years (Mar- torella, 1997; White, 1997). With social studies educators continuing to promote technology, a critical review of technology's effect on social studies is in order. This assessment critically addresses the development of educational technology related to social studies.