Open Learning Network

Twitter initially started as a micro-blogging service, but quickly developed into a social messaging tool used effectively to quickly communicate messages to a group or several different groups of people. It has been used as a tool to communicate political messages during the 2008 US presidential campaign, as a news reporting service during the Mumbai attacks, as a rallying and protesting medium during the Iranian presidential election, as a medium of communicating with the outside world during the recent Haiti earthquake reporting on survivors and providing information, as a survey tool by the market research companies, to provide updates of H1N1 virus cases to health departments, used by Oprah Winfrey, Stephen Fry and others to keep in touch with their fans and even by NASA's space station crew to provide real-time updates and answer questions from the general public during their missions in space. 

Since its launch in 2006, Twitter has been the medium through which people from all over the world have tweeted and re-tweeted some of the most important social, economic, political and scientific events of the past four years. Tweeting and re-tweeting our history.

Imagine if we could go back in time and experience major historical events in the voice of important historical figures. What would, for instance, Abraham Lincoln have tweeted to his army during the Battle of Gettysburg? Or what would Winston Churchill have tweeted during World War II? Or Franklin Roosevelt during the Great Depression? Or what would Alan Turing have tweeted about his code-breaking methods at Bletchley Park?

It seems that Marion Jensen and Tom Caswell from Utah State University have figured out a way to tell the story of our past with the help of Twitter. Tom and Marion are founders of TwHistory.org, a website for observing historical re-enactments via Twitter. They pick historical figures and events, especially those that are well-documented, and tweet the experiences these important historical figures went through, providing their followers on Twitter with a feeling of the events that took place many years ago. They have already tweeted the Battle of Gettysburg and the Cuban Missile Crisis by assigning each historical figure a Twitter account in the re-enactment, trying to portray the historical figures actions with accuracy using high-quality content. They are using these re-enactments as learning exercises for students. Students are given an assignment to select a historical figure, create a Twitter account, research historical archives about him or her and then tweet his or her thoughts and actions.

OLnet is teaming up with TwHistory to explore opportunities that allow learners to experience history in a meaningful, effective and engaging way, not only as re-enactment observers, but more importantly as a participants. Find out more about our work with TwHistory here. If you want to follow or join the historical characters of the Battle of Gettysburg, the Cuban Missile Crisis and more, please visit TwHistory.org.