This study aimed to analyse how social studies digital content currently shared online is used by teachers and what types of digital content are most commonly used. In doing so, we aimed to identify the types of digital content that teachers actually ...
This study aimed to analyse how social studies digital content currently shared online is used by teachers and what types of digital content are most commonly used. In doing so, we aimed to identify the types of digital content that teachers actually need in their social studies classes and explore directions for developing effective digital content for social studies classes. The research questions were set as follows. First, what is the current status of teachers' use of digital content in social studies classes? Second, what are teachers' perceptions of digital content in social studies? To address the research questions, a survey was conducted among in-service elementary school classroom teachers in grades 3-6. The following conclusions were drawn from the analysis of the collected data.
First, most of the teachers used digital content throughout the classroom, with Presentation and multimedia materials being the most common. This is because the nature of social studies requires the use of various audio-visual materials to help learners understand the content, and learners are familiar with digital media. Second, small classes used digital content more frequently due to the lack of time to create materials. This may be due to the relatively heavy workload of teachers in small classes. On the other hand, social studies classes were more likely to use digital content on a daily basis than larger classes.Third, teachers used a variety of sites beyond Indie School, with differences in their use depending on their teaching experience. More experienced teachers tended to use familiar sites that they have used for a long time, while less experienced teachers used a variety of social media platforms to access social studies digital content. Fourth, teachers in grades 3 and 5 were more satisfied with the digital content provided by publisher teaching and learning support sites. As third graders are introduced to social studies for the first time, they need a variety of digital content to help them understand the content, and fifth graders need digital content to understand historical facts that they have not experienced firsthand. Therefore, they are likely to be more satisfied with publishers' provision of digital content tailored to their textbooks than teachers in other grades. Fifth, trust in experts was found to influence trust in social studies digital content. The main reasons for trust were "textbook content based on verified facts" and "materials created by experts". This suggests that teachers perceive textbooks and expert materials as academically validated and trustworthy.
Therefore, recognising that the use of digital content in social studies is important and widely used in practice, publishers should provide effective digital content for social studies classes, rather than simply providing quantitative content as a means to increase textbook share. In addition, to ensure that teachers have easy access to quality content, publishers should actively seek input from in-service teachers in the design of their sites and explore ways to ensure that social studies digital content can be updated quickly and accurately.