Teaching History in the 21st century

Bringing History to Life in a Technological World 

“History is boring.”  Every teacher that has ever taught history can attest that this is a common phrase with students. It is rare to find history among students’ favorite subjects. And it makes sense. History, if taught the wrong way, can be very boring; nothing but names, dates, and rote memorization. History captivated me from an early age and I embraced that love and ran with it throughout my education, and eventually became a history professor. As a college history professor at the community college level, I made it my mission to make history un-boring. One way that I needed to do this was to find a way to make it appealing to young adults in a modern, technological world. I had to find a way for students to care about the Kings of England in a world where “Get Ready with Me” videos and TikTok dance trends reigned king. I found that in the rise of social media. 

Social Media Sparking Curiosity  

Social media has changed society. Whether that change is for the better or the worse is debatable, but in any case, it is a fixture in how we communicate and interact with others. Social media has become a useful tool for instructors and teachers to create lessons that are easily digestible for today’s youth. “We can sometimes look at social media as the enemy, but maybe it can be our ally guiding the way for inquiry, research, questioning, and a critical eye on the world around us.” (Taylor, 2022) One way that social media can change how students view history is that it opens discussion on the matter. Social media and different accounts are often very subjective. Using this subjectiveness can open dialogue to historical topics well beyond dates and names.  

Take John Greene on YouTube. He hosts a series of videos called “Crash Course World History.” In the video below, he discusses the French Revolution. Within the first minute of the video, he states that he is going to “argue” that the French Revolution was much more important than the American Revolution. That argument is subjective and something that would not be found in a basic academic textbook meant to teach the facts. His videos are not only entertaining but open discussion for students that would invite critical thinking skills and enhance student interaction.  

This subjectiveness in something like John Greene’s videos will help spark curiosity in students, one of the principles of learner engagement. Many students have heard of the French Revolution in context. They may not know who Robespierre is or what The Third Estate meant but once a student reaches a high school or college level, it would be safe to assume they have heard of the event. As a teacher, it is important to foster that knowledge in a way that would make a student curious to know more. You would hope to spark epistemic curiosity and understand the why of the issue. (Keller & Deimann, 2018, p. 80) Why is learning the French Revolution over two centuries later important? Discussion on the topic and the ability to allow for subjective analysis helps foster that curiosity as it poses questions that force the student to think and come to their own conclusions. Taylor’s study concluded that “students love to discuss as opposed to being taught.” (Taylor, 2022) Videos such as John Greene’s add a stimulating element to instruction that can help eliminate boredom and spark curiosity on topics that traditionally were thought of as boring.  

Making It Relevant 

Another aspect that social media brings to the instruction of history is helping make it relevant. In my own teaching background, that was one of the most difficult parts of teaching history. How do you make something that happened hundreds of years ago relevant to a student’s life? There needs to be some interest in the subject for the learner to engage. (Keller & Deimann, 2018, p. 81) One way to do that is to put history in terms that the learner understands.  

Let’s continue with our example of the French Revolution. For young adults in 21st century America, concepts of 18th century France are not always easy to understand. Monarchy and division of class within three estates are not relevant or relatable but social media is. Take Lauren Cella. She has over 150 thousand followers on TikTok for her “GenZ history” videos. She takes historical events and time periods and parodies them in terms that the average teenager or twenty-something year old would understand by using language and euphemisms that are relatable to young adults.  

This video is a Youtube of her TikTok video:

“Tiktok encourage students to learn more deeply about learning through voice messages, pictures, and motion. Students can easily remember what they have learnt through the use of tiktok.” (Pasaribu & Naibaho, 2021) Tools like TikTok are commonplace among young adults in their everyday life. TikTok, and other social media sites, can be a very useful tool when used in the classroom because it engages students using media that they already engage with daily.  

Succeeding with Social Media 

“Social media has the potential to create learner-centered learning environments by empowering learners to become knowledge creators and producers and providing opportunities for interaction and collaboration” (An, 2021) 

One thing I always heard from students was that they did not like history classes because of the writing. Many did not feel confident in their writing abilities and were nervous about being asked to write a research paper. While writing papers was standard in my history education before social media, the emergence of social media provides a great tool to not only engage students, but to also give them the sense that they can succeed. Many young adults in the 21st century feel in control of social media which would then lead to having confidence in the assignment or task given. (Keller & Deimann, 2018, p. 81) Incorporating social media as an option for a project in a history class would help more students build confidence in the class.  

One project I have seen utilizes Twitter (now X). Students live tweet historical events as if they were happening in real time. Twitter is a huge resource in news, politics, and world events in 21st century America, so we would implement how it is used today to share information but apply it to historical events. Below is a real time example of how the project would look using our example of the French Revolution.  

https://www.fcusd.org/cms/lib03/CA01001934/Centricity/Domain/884/johnstter/tweet_fr.html 

Implementing different activities and assignments using social media would help young adults in this modern world gain confidence in their field while also making the information relevant to them and spark curiosity in the subject matter. Social media, when applied to history instruction, can be a great tool to make history “un-boring” and teach such an important subject.  

References  

An, Y. (2021) A History of Instructional Media, Instructional Design, and Theories. International Journal of Technology in Education, 4(1), 1-21. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1286444 

Keller, J.M and Deimann, M. (2018). Motivation, Volition, and Performance. In R. A. Reiser & J. V. Dempsey (Eds.), Trends and issues in instructional design and technology (4th ed.) (pp. 78-84). New York, NY: Pearson. 

Pasaribu, A. G., & Naibaho, F. R. (2021). Teachers’ Perceptions of Using Tiktok in Students’ interest during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Turkish Online Journal of Qualitative Inquiry, 12(9), 6028–6035.https://web-p-ebscohost-com.oclc.fullsail.edu/ehost/detail/detail?vid=6&sid=2e0ec6e7-11a8-4499-851a-e04c5b94a40c%40redis&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=160604935&db=ehh 

Taylor, K. (2022). How Students Use Social Media When Learning About History. Agora, 57(3), 61–64. https://web-p-ebscohost-com.oclc.fullsail.edu/ehost/detail/detail?vid=8&sid=e07f97dd-ed0f-499a-8a8c-baeccc343651@redis&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ==#AN=159746349&db=ehh