Chapter 16: Get Cooking with Multimedia Social Studies and the Common Core

Today’s youth are immersed in, inundated by, and impressed by the media. Their I-phones and I-pads are part and parcel their whole way of life. There are apps for everything. Wiis, wikis, and wi-fi reception surround them. All of this begs the question what role should technology, specifically multimedia technologies, play in the social studies classroom? A corollary question is what role does the social studies coupled with multimedia have in meeting the goals of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS)?

In this chapter, the author will examine several ways that multimedia can be used to meet some of the goals of CCSS. First, the author will provide an overview of multimedia presentations. He will then connect multimedia presentations in the social studies to the CCSS. A set of multimedia guidelines is then presented. The author will then present three activities in which multimedia are used.