The Tech Edvocate

Top Menu

  • Advertisement
  • Apps
  • Home Page
  • Home Page Five (No Sidebar)
  • Home Page Four
  • Home Page Three
  • Home Page Two
  • Home Tech2
  • Icons [No Sidebar]
  • Left Sidbear Page
  • Lynch Educational Consulting
  • My Account
  • My Speaking Page
  • Newsletter Sign Up Confirmation
  • Newsletter Unsubscription
  • Our Brands
  • Page Example
  • Privacy Policy
  • Protected Content
  • Register
  • Request a Product Review
  • Shop
  • Shortcodes Examples
  • Signup
  • Start Here
    • Governance
    • Careers
    • Contact Us
  • Terms and Conditions
  • The Edvocate
  • The Tech Edvocate Product Guide
  • Topics
  • Write For Us
  • Advertise

Main Menu

  • Start Here
    • Our Brands
    • Governance
      • Lynch Educational Consulting
      • Dr. Lynch’s Personal Website
      • Careers
    • Write For Us
    • The Tech Edvocate Product Guide
    • Contact Us
    • Books
    • Edupedia
    • Post a Job
    • The Edvocate Podcast
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
  • Topics
    • Assistive Technology
    • Child Development Tech
    • Early Childhood & K-12 EdTech
    • EdTech Futures
    • EdTech News
    • EdTech Policy & Reform
    • EdTech Startups & Businesses
    • Higher Education EdTech
    • Online Learning & eLearning
    • Parent & Family Tech
    • Personalized Learning
    • Product Reviews
  • Advertise
  • Tech Edvocate Awards
  • The Edvocate
  • Pedagogue
  • School Ratings

logo

The Tech Edvocate

  • Start Here
    • Our Brands
    • Governance
      • Lynch Educational Consulting
      • Dr. Lynch’s Personal Website
        • My Speaking Page
      • Careers
    • Write For Us
    • The Tech Edvocate Product Guide
    • Contact Us
    • Books
    • Edupedia
    • Post a Job
    • The Edvocate Podcast
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
  • Topics
    • Assistive Technology
    • Child Development Tech
    • Early Childhood & K-12 EdTech
    • EdTech Futures
    • EdTech News
    • EdTech Policy & Reform
    • EdTech Startups & Businesses
    • Higher Education EdTech
    • Online Learning & eLearning
    • Parent & Family Tech
    • Personalized Learning
    • Product Reviews
  • Advertise
  • Tech Edvocate Awards
  • The Edvocate
  • Pedagogue
  • School Ratings
  • 4 Ways To Build Classroom Community During Distance Learning

  • Combating Reading Issues In Children: Everything You Need to Know

  • Myths About the SAT and ACT

  • How AI Helps Student Outcomes

  • Choosing A Reading Program: Everything You Need to Know

  • Reading Intervention Strategies That Work

  • Calculating Reading Comprehension Scores: Everything You Need to Know

  • How Big Data Is Changing Education Forever

  • Teacher’s Aides Deserve Our Appreciation

  • The Cycle Of Learning To Read: Everything You Need to Know

Product Reviews
Home›Product Reviews›Product Review of Smithsonian’s History Explorer

Product Review of Smithsonian’s History Explorer

By Matthew Lynch
September 8, 2022
0
Spread the love

Smithsonian’s History Explorer is a website developed by the National Museum of American History that offers online resources for teaching and learning American history. There’s no login option or way to save data, but you can browse all that the site has to offer and use the content you find in the classroom. The homepage includes a Featured Artifact, Featured Resources, the museum’s Twitter feed, and a rotating board of highlighted material. You can filter search results by grade, resource type, historical era, and cross-curricular connection. Resource types span from Artifacts (selected from the museum’s millions of objects) to Lessons & Activities to Interactives & Media, and the 10 eras include Beginnings to 1620 and 1968 to the Present.

Once you’ve chosen your filters, you’ll receive a list of resources, such as “All Aboard the Train,” a lesson plan about American train travel. Click through, and the national standards it meets appear below a brief description; click Get Resource and the content is yours. It may take you to another Smithsonian site, or sometimes a third-party site. You’ll also see a list of recommended books that fit the search criteria, which can be filtered by reading level, genre, and more. Alternatively, you can browse resources by major theme, or check out the Web Links section for external websites that have been vetted for content and relevance.

This site is jam-packed with ready-to-teach lessons. Everything is standards-based and labeled as such, which gives you more time to pick the most appropriate lessons for your learners. Learners can also explore the site on their own, but that’ll work best for older, self-directed learners. However, it can be an ideal source for research report material or an in-class presentation since it aggregates tons of primary sources.

No matter what you or your learners are after, prepare to do some digging, and be aware that there are broken links as well as links out to all kinds of different sites. This can be a little disorienting. Thankfully, filtering works well and is well-focused. The books search in particular has a “bilingual” filter, which helps surface content for ELLs. For the tech savvy, featured resources and users’ search results can be saved as an RSS feed to make checking for updates easier.

To orient yourself, check out the How to Use This Site page for descriptions and brief tutorial videos. The Teacher Resources section also includes blog posts, tips, guides to teaching with primary sources, and many 30-minute webinars that highlight key materials.

With the help of Smithsonian’s History Explorer, learners can dig deeper into specific moments in history, or they can get a broad overview of an era. Everything they do will be anchored in primary source study. Some artifacts are classics, such as Dorothea Lange’s iconic Depression-era photograph Migrant Mother, but learners can also take a look at the history behind lesser-known artifacts and aspects of American culture, like the history of Paint By Number kits during the 1950s. This mixture of the famous and the mundane offers excellent opportunities for inquiry. While the pages for artifacts can be quite clinical, the content still can intrigue learners with the help of teacher-created guiding questions and tasks.

The Themes section covers major events and movements, such as Black History Month, Women’s Suffrage, Protest and Civic Action, Westward Expansion, and The Great War, making it easy for learners to immerse themselves in a topic, or for educators to locate material to include in lessons or units. The curated list of books, covering the history of the United States region from before the 1600s to the present, is especially useful for finding stories that connect to class content no matter the grade. Staff picks and quick links for award-winning books, such as Newbery Medal winners, make discovering quality books easy.

Website: https://historyexplorer.si.edu/

Overall User Consensus About the App

Student Engagement

Clean, function-over-form design. While each lesson has its own style, the Smithsonian’s quality is apparent. Learners can find fun via the interactives and book recommendations, but teacher support will go a long way.

Curriculum and Instruction

The potential for deep, lasting learning is big; thoughtfully planned lessons provide an incredible array of content to explore. Learners interact with objects, be it a buffalo hide painting or the flag that inspired the National Anthem.

Customer Support

There are countless extensions and ways to further learning. Teacher resources, outside links, and webinars are helpful. Some orientation to key types of resources would be nice.

0
Reader Rating: (0 Rates)
0
Previous Article

Product Review of Tract

Next Article

What Your Child Should Know By the ...

Matthew Lynch

Related articles More from author

  • Product Reviews

    Product Review of Quist – Today in LGBTQ History

    October 21, 2022
    By Matthew Lynch
  • Product Reviews

    Product Review of Vidcode

    September 3, 2022
    By Matthew Lynch
  • Product Reviews

    Product Review of Mathwords

    October 27, 2022
    By Matthew Lynch
  • Product Reviews

    Product Review of Vocabla

    October 6, 2022
    By Matthew Lynch
  • Early ChildhoodProduct Reviews

    Product Review of Elemental Path

    June 9, 2022
    By Matthew Lynch
  • Online Learning & eLearningProduct Reviews

    Product Review of Reading Kingdom

    June 27, 2022
    By Matthew Lynch

Search

Login & Registration

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Newsletter

Signup for The Tech Edvocate Newsletter and have the latest in EdTech news and opinion delivered to your email address!

  • Recent

  • Popular

  • Comments

  • 4 Ways To Build Classroom Community During Distance Learning

    By Matthew Lynch
    February 6, 2023
  • Combating Reading Issues In Children: Everything You Need to Know

    By Matthew Lynch
    February 6, 2023
  • Myths About the SAT and ACT

    By Matthew Lynch
    February 6, 2023
  • How AI Helps Student Outcomes

    By Matthew Lynch
    February 5, 2023
  • Choosing A Reading Program: Everything You Need to Know

    By Matthew Lynch
    February 5, 2023
  • 7 Ways Technology Is Impacting Modern Education

    By Matthew Lynch
    March 4, 2017
  • 20 Top Virtual Reality Apps that are Changing Education

    By Matthew Lynch
    March 11, 2017
  • Why Mobile Technology Enhances Instruction

    By Matthew Lynch
    December 14, 2016
  • 7 Roles for Artificial Intelligence in Education

    By Matthew Lynch
    May 5, 2018
  • Digital Literacy is the Most Important Lifelong Learning Tool

    By Matthew Lynch
    December 30, 2017
  • Where to Find Dyslexia Support for Adults - Case Training Services | Registered Charity #1051587
    on
    August 2, 2022

    11 Must-Have Apps and Tools for Dyslexic Students

    […] recorders Electronic flashcards ...
  • What Types Of Posts Can You Make In Google Classroom? - The Tech Edvocate - Gossip ...
    on
    July 31, 2022

    How to Integrate Google Classroom with the Power of YouTube

    […] of your posts. ...
  • Answers to Frequently Asked Questions About Google Classroom - The Tech Edvocate - Gossip Buz
    on
    July 31, 2022

    Answers to Frequently Asked Questions About Google Classroom

    […] Answers to Frequently ...
  • 10 Important YouTube Channels For Teachers - Kiiky Wealth
    on
    July 29, 2022

    10 Incredibly Useful YouTube Channels for Teachers

    […] Thetechedvocate.org – 10 Incredibly ...
  • Teaching Learners Digital Content Curation Skills - Fab Lab Connect
    on
    June 30, 2022

    Teaching Learners Digital Content Creation Skills

    […] Read More… […]

EdTech Policy & Reform

  • Curriculum & InstructionEdTech Policy & ReformEducation Leadership

    Why We Should Leave Behind the Cookie-cutter Education

    Spread the loveChange appears to be the only “constant” factor in the educational field. However, what happens when a more significant shift becomes necessary? To provide students with the best ...
  • Adaptive LearningCurriculum & InstructionDigital & Mobile TechnologyDigital Age TeachersEarly Childhood & K-12 EdTechEdTech & InnovationEdTech Policy & ReformInstructional Technology

    Exploring New Ideas: Student-Driven Remote Learning

    Spread the loveRemote learning is taking its toll on our students. They miss the social side of school. Not seeing their classmates or teachers is leading to nervousness, anxiety, and ...
  • Digital & Mobile TechnologyEdTech & InnovationEdTech Policy & Reform

    Implementing Education Technology by Pursuing Technology Education

    Spread the loveTechnology is used for many great things in our world. It’s a powerful tool when used correctly. As such, this powerful tool can be used to transform learning.  ...
  • EdTech Policy & Reform

    How Much Bias Is Okay in Your School?

    Spread the loveThe algorithm has proven itself to be a handy tool when it comes to solving education problems. It’s also not without bias.  You may be wondering how some ...
  • EdTech Policy & ReformFeaturedFresh

    Edtech Should Complement Good Pedagogy, Not Attempt to Replace It

    Spread the loveThe newest generation of edtech is downright amazing; it’s no wonder that various education stakeholders might be a little excited about its potential to transform education. However, edtech ...

EdTech Startups & Businesses

  • EdTech Startups & Businesses

    Trends That Will Help Your EdTech Startup Succeed

    Spread the loveIf you want to thrive in the destiny of learning and self, shorten, tailor, and gamify. The bulk of EdTech businesses believes that digitizing conventional learning methods and ...
  • EdTech Startups & Businesses

    How to Sell Your Edtech Product

    Spread the loveDevelop a profile of the perfect consumer, target clients that meet that description, and plan on a long sales cycle. Selling to schools takes a different sales process ...
  • EdTech Startups & Businesses

    Edtech Companies Can Learn What Not to Do From Delta Airlines

    Spread the loveIt seems that edtech companies still have a lot to learn about their business models and practices. With that being said, there is a lot they can learn ...
  • Digital LeadershipEdTech Startups & BusinessesProduct Reviews

    Product Review of Collegix

    Spread the love This is a comprehensive ERP solution for colleges and universities that provides modular, totally integrated learners services, finance, HR, and advancement. Collegix provides online and offline workarounds ...
  • Early Childhood & K-12 EdTechEdTech Startups & BusinessesProduct Reviews

    Product Review of Discovery Education

    Spread the love Discovery Education is a big player in EdTech. The company has established itself as the leading provider of digital curriculum resources, digital content, and professional development for ...

Digital Equity

  • Digital Equity

    How to Create an Equitable Digital Culture in K–12

    Spread the loveDigital equity is vital in our schools. After all, it can help close the achievement gap. However, there is one prevalent problem concerning digital equity. That is the problem ...
  • Digital & Mobile TechnologyDigital EquityDigital Literacy

    Teaching Learners Digital Content Creation Skills

    Spread the loveContent curation is nothing new and has always been a coveted skill. It has been this way for hundreds of years — think of art galleries, museums, or ...
  • Digital & Mobile TechnologyDigital EquityEdTech & Innovation

    Promoting Online Access With Hotspots, Laptops, and Planning

    Spread the loveWhen becoming a leader in the field of education, it is important to consider equity. Some students may not have access to devices or the internet from their ...
  • Digital EquityDigital Leadership

    How Can You Assess the Tech Needs of Your Students Outside of School?

    Spread the loveToday, I received an email from the middle school principal in Los Angeles. She explained to me that the school that she ran was in one of the ...
  • Digital Equity

    It Is Time for the Edtech Industry to Stop Denying Its Equity and Race Problem

    Spread the loveThe EdTech industry is dominated by white employees, white leaders, and white entrepreneurs. If you doubt this statement, just attend an Edtech conference. Admittedly, educators and others don’t ...

EdTech Futures

  • EdTech Futures

    The IT Investments Securing the Future of Higher Education

    Spread the loveThe future of higher education still seems uncertain after the massive disruptions of the last two years. Universities and colleges are struggling with budget difficulties amid cybersecurity threats. ...
  • Adaptive LearningAssistive TechnologyEdTech FuturesInstructional TechnologyTeachers

    Will AI Replace Teachers?

    Spread the loveThrough the years, robots have taken over many jobs. First, they replaced horses and wagons and horses and plows, then they started to replace people. A few examples ...
  • EdTech FuturesHigher EducationHigher Education EdTechUncategorized

    The Future of Higher Education Must Avoid Returning to the Past

    Spread the loveColleges and universities can make higher education safer, smarter, and more accessible through automation and collaboration technologies – if they commit to it. Author: John Hulen, Director of ...
  • EdTech FuturesOnline Learning & eLearning

    IT Trends To Watch As Higher Education Moves Into a New Decade

    Spread the loveEdtech couldn’t have hoped for a better launch into the new decade than the push the industry received from COVID-19. Even the most tech-resistant institutions and individuals have ...
  • EdTech Futures

    4 Emerging EdTech Trends in 2022

    Spread the loveCovid-19 has not only changed education as we know it, but it has forced education technology (EdTech) to up its game. EdTech has been crucial since the start of this ...

About Us

Since technology is not going anywhere and does more good than harm, adapting is the best course of action. That is where The Tech Edvocate comes in. We plan to cover the PreK-12 and Higher Education EdTech sectors and provide our readers with the latest news and opinion on the subject. From time to time, I will invite other voices to weigh in on important issues in EdTech. We hope to provide a well-rounded, multi-faceted look at the past, present, the future of EdTech in the US and internationally.

We started this journey back in June 2016, and we plan to continue it for many more years to come. I hope that you will join us in this discussion of the past, present and future of EdTech and lend your own insight to the issues that are discussed.

Newsletter

Signup for The Tech Edvocate Newsletter and have the latest in EdTech news and opinion delivered to your email address!

Contact Us

The Tech Edvocate
5322 Markel Road, Suite 104
Richmond, VA 23230
(601) 630-5238
[email protected]

Follow us

Copyright © 2023 Matthew Lynch. All rights reserved.