Greetings from Michigan where we're digging out from eight inches of snow!
(Actually the 40 degree temp. today has done a lot to help those of us who
are slow at getting out the shovel!)
I'm in need of some advice and am turning to you for help. But first a bit
of background. This year I've had my students (honors level sophomores and
juniors) work on three separate LOC based projects. They used the Civil
War Photographs as an introduction to the American Memory Collections and
as a way to learn about history by doing true historical analysis. They
researched turn of the century America and reported out their findings via
electronic presentations. And they used multiple American Memory
Collections (and other web sites) to research the 1920's. By now they're
comfortable with the web and have had a variety of experiences using it.
Doing this last assignment they discovered and became interested in 1920's
sites put together by other students -- at the university and high school
levels. Some were very helpful and professionally done; others were so
flawed that their content was all but useless.
These sites interested me and got me thinking. Traditionally, I have my
students do an oral history project focusing on Midland, our hometown,
during the 1930's and 40's. We study how to do oral history, they go out
and interview people with various experiences, and they write up their
reports. If possible we also bring in some of the people and have a
classrom roundtable which is always fun. This assignment has been sucessful
but, in the end, they write for my eyes only. This is unfortunate because
most students do interesting and valuable research which deserves a larger
audience. I began to wonder if it would be possible for my honors class to
use their research as the basis for their own site which would be connected
to our school's home page. So I began to ask questions....
It seems that our District has never had a student group construct and
maintain a page and I was asking questions never asked before. (Oh
no....change! Usually this is a kiss of death for new ideas!) To make this
long story short though, we did receive permission from our District's
Technology Gods to investigate putting together a page.
So here's where I need help. I know some (many?) of you have experience
putting together a variety of types of pages. What advice would you give a
technological novice (with help from a loyal media specialist and my Fellow
partner, Tim Hall) who wants his kids to produce and publish history at
their own site? We want to put real primary research based findings on
line -- interviews, photographs, etc. relating to Midland in the 30's and
40's. Have any of you done this? Have much attention did you pay to
releases from your subjects? What should I be sure to do or not to do?
This week we're doing a warm up exercise on oral history and the Depression
Era using the LOC FSA related collections and the new one on the Dust Bowl.
By next week I need for take the next step and formalize the assignment
and seek final approval for the page. Any advice you could give me will be
appreciated.
Thanks for your help!
Mike Federspiel
Midland, MI
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