Tapping into the "Online": Making the Internet Work Historically

World History is not new.  However, for a college freshman taking a world history course is new.  The question is how to make the course to freshmen engaging and analytical.  How does a professor employ creative methods in the classroom to induce critical thinking?  These questions have bogged professors for ages and it is imperative that we keep evolving as teachers. 

I plan to discuss how I use the Internet to engage the student.  Online services have become the fabric of our lives and I tap into this medium in my World Civilization courses.  The students are employing multiple methods of research, reading, and analytical thinking.  Second, I will reveal how I use creativity to encourage critical thinking in their writing pieces.  Often as professors, we are given certain texts—sometimes we have a choice on what they read, sometimes we don’t.  What I do is use the primary sources we have and encourage the students to “think outside the box” and engage in research and creative inquiry to produce an admirable piece of literature.