Monday, September 9, 2013



With over 300 million users today, Facebook is regarded as a social marketing juggernaut. Ever since the day Mark Zuckerburg made the service available to the general public instead of just students enrolled in universities, the site has become host to hundreds of pages devoted to a myriad of different things, from vegetables to bands. Also included in this list are famous historical figures who "relive" their famous accomplishments from life, such as marriages, the birth of offspring, or written works they are noted for. Created by some of the most brilliant users on Facebook, a majority of these historical figures are also able to manifest "friendships" with other historical figures and engage in humorous banter with them. While the idea to use Facebook in this way is pure genius, notably absent from the site are things such as wars and the important battles or invasions that were spawned by them. Which leads me to wonder...what might those pages look like if they existed? Fortunately, Facebook can handle something like this. Any battle from any war can be contained as a role play within the confines of this social media site, from the Battle of Thermopylae between the Greek King Leonidas and the Persian Emperor Xerxes to the Battle of Agincourt between Henry V and the French to the Battle for Berlin during World War II. There is no limit to how this can be done in a classroom during a history lesson. After profiles have been created by students for famous generals or kings who fought in these battles, and a group has been created for the activity as well, the class can  recreate the battle in real-time through the use of historical evidence, to make it as realistic as possible. This gives the person reading it the opportunity to imagine what it would be like if these battles had a news feed which the public could view at any time.

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