As a History major, I just had to do this web assignment from the assignment bank called “What They Might Have Done In Social Media.” Now, I was disappointed that the example was Lincoln, mostly because I know a lot about him now that I’m taking Civil War in American Memory. But oh well!

I went out of my history comfort zone for this one: I went all the way back into European history for Henry VIII. I figured he would have a VERY interesting Twitter/Facebook if he had access to it back then. He, of all people, would have cared very little about his status as a political leader and would have posted whatever he wanted–or that’s how my limited knowledge of him portrays him.

First, I created a Tweet from him.

Then I moved onto Facebook.

This one took a lot longer to finish. I did a project once on Anne Boleyn, but I don’t really remember an enormous amount about Henry VIII. So I used his Wikipedia article to find some events, especially about his marriages.

You can check out the full Facebook page here.

Teaching Tool

This is a teaching tool I’ve used before in classrooms, and I love it. It requires thought and evaluation of all the information that is out there on a particular historical figure–but it’s also a lot of fun. Most students have at least heard of Facebook and Twitter so having them utilize a tool that they know so well for something educational? Sounds like a good idea to me!