Google Books for the History Classroom

      I think that a textbook is necessary for students to have in a Social Studies class. The textbook can give the students the big picture of historical events, important terms and definitions, and simple language that may be easier for some students to understand. If an entire middle school or high school class was taught through primary sources, the language and content may become confusing. Having a textbook as a reference is important for students that are in those kind of grade levels. This does not mean the teacher should make the textbook the only kind of reading that the students do. In a history class, it is important to get students to think critically about the content and by only reading the textbook this becomes impossible. This is why I think Google Books would be a useful tool in the Social Studies classroom because of the easy access to a variety of books for students.Students can simply type into the search box any topic that they are interested in or may be researching and many different types of books come up. For example I typed in "The Great Depression" and tons of books became available. Everything from books of essays to books of interviews with people from the Great Depression came up. This would give a student a ton of information on different perspectives of this event. Thousands of books and documents have been scanned on to Google Books for the public to view and students could access them very easily and get important information.
      I think the most important aspect of having a technology like Google Books is the variety of books that are offered and can help my students learn the information through different sorts of texts. Even though the textbook is important, reading a biography or first hand account of a war can open up a students mind to the perspectives of that time period. I also think that for research this gives students so many more opportunities to find interesting and useful information. If I were to assign a research paper or project, I would suggest for my students to use Google Books to find different kinds of sources that may not have been available in the library or on a website. Google Books is a very useful technological tool that can be easily integrated into the social studies classroom since research is such a main part of studying history.