A constructivist approach to new media: An opportunity to improve social studies didactics

This paper attempts to apply the constructivist approach to the use of new media and to analyze its impact on the instructional design in Social Studies. Our aim is to highlight the connection among the constructivist principles, the learning environment enhanced by the use of the new media and the activities specific to the social studies didactics. The article starts from nowadays social needs, identifies the main issues of the constructivist approach to the new media, presents some examples of good practice and discusses their consequences for the students’ learning as well as possible challenges for the teaching-learning process.