While instructional videos will hopefully change math and science teaching and learning for the better, the Social Sciences have been utilizing such videos much longer. There is no Linear Algebra channel or Integral Differentiation channel on cable. Khan Academy is a perfect forum for such specialized topics. But the Social Sciences just isn't as specialized. We have the History Channel, the Discovery Channel, the Travel Channel. We have CNBC and C-SPAN to study economics and politics.
The problem that Social Science teachers have is that we have too much video to pull from. This makes many teachers overly reliant on videos to do the teaching rather than the teacher doing the teaching, or even better, guiding the students as they teach themselves.
How does students' access to technology change my role as a teacher?
When someone had a question before the technology revolution, he or she would first ask a teacher or someone else in a posistion of authority. Now, when students have questions, they can easily find answers with a quick Google search or look it up on Wikipedia.
Unfortunately, what they find on the internet is not always accurate. I don't always have accurate information, but I will tell the student that I am not completely right. Moreover, I know where to get the correct information. If the student has a question, I want to know what it is and help him or her find the right answers. I hope that the student trusts me enough to bring questions and answers to me to verify and process it rather than simply trust what he or she finds online.
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