Making a place for technology in teacher education with Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education [Online serial], 1(4) 483-500. Available: http://www.citejournal.org/vol1/iss4/currentissues/socialstudie

Education ' course for pre and inservice teachers was introduced at North Carolina State University (NCSU). Participants mastered a complex technology and overcame barriers as they collaborated with university faculty to coconstruct the course through reflective discussions and e-mail. Mostly social studies educators, the students chose final projects that applied GIS to analyze social problems spanning scales of local community history to international migration patterns. In New York in the Spring semester 2000, components of GIS were added to an existing methods course for students pursuing secondary social studies certification through the education program at Hartwick College. As part of a 2000-2001 college/community partnership for learning, Hartwick social studies students collaborated with social studies classroom teachers at Oneonta Middle School to design ways to align GIS with existing units of instruction in the middle school social studies curriculum. As a technology for conducting social studies, GIS offers new ways of viewing, representing and analyzing information for transformative learning and teaching. The two models presented in this article offer ideas for changing the role of technology use in social studies teacher education. This approach of 'conducting social studies ' (Alibrandi, Beal, Wilson, & Thompson, 2000) is one that engages students, promotes learning of authentic social studies skills through problem-based research and community collaboration