Three websites comparison and analysis

Social Science Edu

Research Resources for the Social Sciences:

Teachers who want to design their own lesson plans need look no further than the excellent and thorough compilation of resources that has been compiled by publisher McGraw-Hill Ryerson (McGraw-Hill, 1997). The website covers most areas of social science including economics, sociology, psychology, geography, and women's studies. Although the website is not much to look at, and has an interface as primitive as its date stamp suggests, McGraw-Hill Ryerson does offer a wealth of hyperlinks and most of them are still live. This is not a website for teachers seeking pre-fabricated lesson plans, or students who need their hands held. Both teachers and students need to be independent thinkers with a thirst for knowledge when accessing the McGraw-Hill Ryerson website on the social sciences.

Indeed, one of the weaknesses of the McGraw-Hill Ryerson website as an instructional guide or teaching resource is that it is not necessarily designed as such. The website is basically a list of web links in their corresponding subject areas. There is no annotation listed for any of the resources, placing the onus on the reader to filter through all the listed sites. Without annotations, the McGraw-Hill Ryerson list of links becomes daunting and even overwhelming to look at, and teachers without a lot of time on their hands might want to look elsewhere when designing a straightforward lesson. Teachers with plenty of time can construct unique lessons that might not be possible using any other social science resources. For example, the website lists links to Philippine legal codes.

On the other hand, the McGraw-Hill Ryerson website can be valuable for researchers, including older students entrusted with the responsibility of independent research. Each list of links is extensive enough to offer the opportunity to explore a subject from many different facets. The McGraw-Hill website is not groundbreaking, or fascinating, but it is useful. Teachers will find herein a list of links in nearly all the domains of the social sciences. These links can inspire ideas for classroom instruction or units. Teachers can also point students to the website, as a way to encourage media literacy and avoid the problem of students citing academically invalid sources such as Wikipedia or About.com.

PBS Teachers Social Studies

The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) offers educators a wealth of credible resources for classroom instruction. Within the social sciences, PBS includes comprehensive and creative lesson plans at all grade levels, from pre-K to 12. The caliber of the lesson plans and their detail of instruction are impressive. The PBS website includes some PDF documents that offer overviews of several branches of the social sciences including government, politics, history, and global studies. There are also social science "study packs" in subjects including American identity, indigenous cultures, Asian-Americans, Pacific Islanders, patriotism, politics and art, China, criminal justice, religious diversity, and more. The subject areas are not as comprehensive as they could be, given the emphasis on politics and government, and parts of the website are clunky. For example, the "activity packs" are designed for social media integration. In general the PBS website is one of the web's most valuable and useful for teachers. The social media integration for the activity packs might actually come in handy for teachers seeking to encourage a more educational function for social media platforms, and could be a useful teaching strategy.

As a teacher of social studies and social science fields like sociology, I will use the PBS website. The lesson plans are excellent, and are in subject areas that I never would have considered myself. This allows me to think outside the box when working with my students. The multimedia emphasis on the PBS website lesson plans and activity packs will also be helpful for teachers that need a boost in their inclusion of new media to instructional design.

Byrne, R. (2010) "12 Resources All Social Studies Teachers Should Try."

This page by social sciences educator Byrne (2010) does not include any lesson plans and is surprisingly broad in scope. However, educators must never take for granted the most basic web resources that can aid instruction or inspire learning. Buyrne (2010) does not assume anything, and lists resources that many teachers will already be aware of like Google Earth. However, many teachers like myself might never have considered using Google Earth as a springboard for academic learning or instructional strategy. There are other similarly common resources many teachers might overlook given the plethora of fancier ones available through proprietary technologies or prefabricated lesson plans that preclude the instructor from having to engage critically with the material. Byrne (2010) asks social sciences instructors to think more openly about their subjects by encouraging an investigation of resources on the Internet ranging from Google Scholar to Playing History.