Twitter is a celebrated way of micro-blogging, life streaming or sending status updates to a group of friends or circle of influence. Anyone can do this, but to get an idea of how it is used, check out some celebrity twitters such as Barack Obama, Karl Rove or CNN’s Political Ticker.

These could be used to track the activities of White House staffers, Congresspersons, or any other figures students are studying in class, helping shorten the distance between abstract ideas and real, live people and events.

What happens if you ask students to:
- find your rep (from house.gov)
- summarize census data on your congressional district (from census.gov)
- highlight campaign contributions to your rep (from opensecrets.org)
- list the key issues presented by your rep (house.gov)
- list the bills sponsored by your rep (thomas.loc.gov)

The professors I’ve spoken to who have done this say it’s truly enlightening for most people. And some come away with an investigative journalism buzz. What’s been  your experience?

I Have A Dream is likely the most often shown speech in American colleges. But as more media comes online, students can be given access to multi-media from the context around the speech.

For example, this episode of  Meet the Press from the Sunday before the march offers students an often shocking glipse into the environment in which Dr. King was speaking. Google has posted the book Bearing the Cross which includes Dr. King’s first hand accounts of that day looking back. What else have you found useful in teaching students about the legacy of Dr. King?

Our inauguration assignment asks students to review the Constitution, a photo essay, 44’s address, and NPR’s wrap up of the day in an effort to see the many roles of this day and to suggest the many roles of the presidency.