Setting Sail: A Voyage into the Unknown of History and Social Media

We have all been there before. It is the first day of class in your high school or college history course. The professor walks in and sets up everything. What will he teach like? Is her material as boring as her syllabus? Do I really need to take this class to begin my career path in *Insert "any field but History" here*?

Then it happens, your teacher begins in a slow, monotone voice: "Today we are going to talk about some of the first colonies in America. Jamestown, which was founded in..." You watch the instructor grab a piece of chalk and begin writing dates on the board while speaking to the chalkboard. You have already looked up at the clock realizing you are only five minutes into class. SIGH. Just like that, 80% of your peers (including you) realize that you are in for another long, dry, boring semester about a topic that has never seemed to interest you in the first place. 

On top of that, your teacher seems to be one of those "old school" types--no powerpoint slides, no videos, no pictures, no mention of how history relates to your 21st-century world, nothing to catch your attention. Nothing to generate passion in history. 

This is the definition of a bad history class. We have all been there before. 

As history instructors, we can do better. This blog is about exploring the ways we can connect with students on their level--via social media. It will attempt to pedagogically take history classes out of the past (no pun intended) and into the present. 

We will journey together through the next few weeks exploring how to use some of the most popular social media tools in education such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Tumblr, and many others.

We will critically examine these social media devices in the hopes of finding better ways to relate history to our students. They want to be engaged. They want to learn. They simply need instructors who know how to speak in a language they understand. Social media can (and hopefully will be) our Rosetta Stone.

Bon Voyage!