The History of Computing

ECOMP 7100: Assignment #1

More PowerPoint presentations from Nick Shuman

WebQuest: Historical Facebook

<Historical Facebook>

For my WebQuest assignment I designed an activity around having students use Facebook without actually going to Facebook. Thanks to Derrick Waddell who created the original template, the WebQuest asks students to create a standard Facebook profile. However, instead of making one for themselves they create one on behalf of a historical figure. Students must research their historical person in order to provide accurate biographical information for the profile fields. While some information is factual there are places such as the friends they would follow, the groups they would join, and their recent wall posts where students are encouraged to be creative while remaining in character. When complete students must provide references for the information they entered and justify the posts they added on behalf of their historical figure.


There are many ways that this WebQuest can be modified to fit broader or more specific activities. For example, check out the Facebook assignment entitled “Pirates need Social Networks too!” by Tara, which is designed to go along with the reading of the novel Treasure Island.

HistoryTeachers Channel

Created by two history teachers from Honolulu, Hawaii, HistoryTeachers has over 50 music videos that cover such topics as Napoleon, The French Revolution, Shakespeare, Pompeii, Vikings and more. Their YouTube channel has been going strong for almost 3 years now with new videos being uploaded about once a month. Below is their video about William the Conqueror and the Battle of Hastings. I will never forget the year 1066 again!

Thanks to ktenkely for sharing this find!