A Grade 10 history class is learning about our past in real-time through a social media campaign that speaks out against the treatment of aboriginal people.

It's Thursday morning and the second-floor room at Woodlands Secondary School is kinetic, as Cheryl Payne's students work up a flurry of tweets and blog posts.

"This is what brings history alive," said Payne, noting the high engagement level of her students.

Like the technology used in 21st-century learning, their goals have quickly evolved. Initially, the class was focusing on the #NotYourMascot campaign that has made headlines this week in advance of Friday's opening American League Championship Series matchup between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Cleveland Indians, whose logo is a grinning red-faced man with a feather in his hair known as "Chief Wahoo."

Upset about the cultural appropriation of indigenous names and imagery, Payne's class wants the attention on the series to be used as a platform to make statement about racism in an era of reconciliation.

"We (would) love for the Blue Jays to recognize the traditional territory that Rogers Centre stands on before the national anthems are played," she said, hoping other schools get behind their cause with the hashtag #recognizetheland.

The playoff series comes to Rogers Centre on Monday.

Peel District School Board trustees recently voted in favour of schools acknowledging that they're on the traditional territory of the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation before morning announcements, sparking the students interest in indigenous culture.

Discussing aboriginal history and how Cleveland's team name and logo could affect indigenous people, Payne said her students felt compelled to act.

"They were shocked to learn that cultural genocide was being perpetrated against indigenous peoples, and yet here we are in 2016 and we still have these racist names," she said.