Ken Burns & the YouTube Generation

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Permalink Reply by Kevin H. on July 3, 2007 at 2:09pm

You know, I clipped the article, too, and see great potential on many levels.
Thanks for reminding me about it.
Kevin

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Permalink Reply by Connie Weber on July 3, 2007 at 2:12pm

Great resources, great ideas. It seems we simply MUST do this! We can be anthropologists going to some culture that's fading into the Giant Homogeneity and just before its edges are blurred, forever, try to capture whatever can be captured of the essence. Does that make sense? Our last chance of weaving together the stories from first-person perspective is upon us.

(Think about how potential-filled iMovies would be for this!)

These are very important resources you've provided, Christine, on oral histories. Thank you!

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Permalink Reply by Skip Zilla on July 3, 2007 at 5:56pm

Christine,

What better way to learn how to tell a life story than to listen to others tell their's. Besides, a senior or someone of a different gender(-orientation) or culture can shed light for students, not only on the diversity of individual humans, but also what's common about the human nature we all share. Students may come to appreciate that age, gender, and cultural differences, along with differences in historical eras, need not separate us. Also, those who may be to some degree marginalized by mainstream American society might appreciate student's attention and interest in hearing their stories--who knows what good effect it might produce, perhaps bridging divides of mutual ignorance and personal bias.

Connie Weber has developed an effective inter-generational classroom project that links her student with local seniors. You might want to contact her about what she's doing.

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Permalink Reply by Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach on July 4, 2007 at 5:40am

This is incredible. Thanks for sharing. I have so many ideas that could filter into this but so little time right now.
If any of you do have time- maybe we should talk.

Sheryl

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Permalink Reply by Andrew Pass on July 4, 2007 at 8:03am

Christine, I think this is a great idea. Steven Spielberg did something similar for Holocaust survivors and it's worked really well, I think. Can you imagine having videos of fighters from ancient wars?

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Permalink Reply by Christine Southard on July 4, 2007 at 8:32am

Irving Roth, a Holocaust survivor, visited our school this past spring. Right before he presented I made Lisa, my co-teacher, place one of our digital recorders in his front shirt pocket. Although the presentation is not edited or podcasted yet, we now have an important oral history of Irving's story.

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Permalink Reply by Sharon Betts on July 4, 2007 at 3:26pm

I like this one. It is stashed away for next years plans. We are promoting digital stories and this really hits the mark.
Thank you

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Permalink Reply by Brant on January 14, 2008 at 2:48pm

I'm always looking for ways to use YouTube for scholarly efforts. This sounds like a great way to complete a traditional activity for a social studies class.

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Permalink Reply by Erika Johansson on February 12, 2009 at 11:59am

Once your students record these videos, they can upload them to www.RemixAmerica.org

We're a constantly evolving user-generated archive of American history and we'd love, more than anything, to have these stories hosted on our site!

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Permalink Reply by Mark on February 13, 2009 at 1:34am

This idea has great potential. It's now on my to-do-list. Thanks for posting this Christine.

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Permalink Reply by Z. Stewart MacLean on February 14, 2009 at 10:51am

How neat!
Thanks for sharing :)

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