Family and Community Oral History WorkshopS (October 2023)
Description
Unearth the untold stories in your family and community with this engaging workshop series, hosted as part of “Family History Month” in October 2023. This experience, led by Charlotte middle school teacher Wesley Fryer, is designed to stoke your inspiration and equip you with practical tools for initiating or enriching your own oral history projects.
Throughout both workshops, we'll delve into a multitude of real-world examples shared on the Storychasers website, maintained by Wesley. (www.storychasers.org/examples) You'll discover effective interview techniques, smart strategies for recording audio with a free smartphone app, and get the low-down on efficient (and free) audio editing software to polish your project. Moreover, we'll also guide you through the myriad of options for online publishing and sharing of your oral histories.
Our workshop is open to teenagers through adults of all experience levels, making it a perfect fit for anyone with an interest in storytelling — from educators interested in facilitating a student oral history project, to individuals passionate about preserving their unique family and community narratives.
Registration
These are resources for the "Family and Community Oral History Workshop Series" led by Wes Fryer on Saturday, October 14 and Saturday, October 21, 2023, for the Union County Public Library in Monroe, North Carolina. (3 hours: 9am to Noon.) FREE registration is available for:
Sat, Oct 14th Part 1 Session (9am to Noon) - Smartphone Audio Interviews
Sat, Oct 21st Part 2 Session (9am to Noon) - Oral History Audio Editing
Participants should bookmark / save this page for future reference.
Optional preparation: Watch Wes Fryer's 2013 TEDxOU presentation, "Becoming Your Family's Digital Witness." (19 minutes)
Date: Saturday, October 14, 2023
Time: 9am to Noon
Location: Union West Regional Library (123 Unionville Indian Trail Road, Indian Trail, NC, 28079)
In this 3 hour workshop participants will:
Listen to, watch, discuss and analyze several different examples of oral history projects.
Discuss and practice techniques for conducting effective oral history interviews.
Learn to use free smartphone applications “Storycorps” and/or “Spotify for Podcasters” to record and share audio interviews online.
Date: Saturday, October 21, 2023
Time: 9am to Noon
Location: Union West Regional Library (123 Unionville Indian Trail Road, Indian Trail, NC, 28079)
In this 3 hour workshop participants will:
Learn the basics of editing an oral history audio recording using the smartphone app “Spotify for Podcasters”
Learn and practice how to perform basic audio editing tasks using free “Audacity” software including splitting audio, deleting audio, combining audio tracks, adjusting audio volume levels, adding copyright-friendly music, and blending / fading audio tracks.
Discuss options for exporting and sharing completed audio oral history interview projects online with family, friends, and the public.
Technical Requirements
These are BYOT (Bring Your Own Technology) workshops, and will feature a variety of free smartphone apps as well as software programs compatible with Android as well as Apple / iOS smartphones, and with MacOS as well as WindowsOS computers. No prior experience with oral history or digital storytelling apps / software programs is required. Participants are encouraged to bring their own smartphone as well as laptop computer. The following free smartphone apps and software programs are recommended for participants to download and install PRIOR to the workshop.
Workshop 1: The Storycorps app and/or Spotify for Podcasters (iOS or Android)
Workshop 2: Audacity Software https://www.audacityteam.org
1. examples and Steps
More Project Ideas and Examples
If you are:
in Scouting or just interested in a wonderful community service project, check out Alex Fryer's Eagle Project from October 2015.
a teacher, check out Wes' "Family Oral History Project" lesson series.
involved in church ministry, check out the chapter on "Audio Recording" from Wes' book, "Pocket Share Jesus: Become a Digital Witness for Christ."
2. Audio Stories
An "audio story" is a recorded audio interview, which may or may not be accompanied by a photo / image. Audio stories can be edited or unedited, and may be normalized.
Script example (from "Family Oral History" unit)
Recommended Recording Apps:
Voice Memos (iOS - built-in)
Voice Record Pro (iOS)
Vocaroo or Twisted Wave Online (be sure to DOWNLOAD and SAVE elsewhere!)
Audacity (download / install required)
More "Audio Story" examples are available on the main Storychasers.org "Examples page" and in this YouTube playlist.
3. Sharing Options
A variety of different options are available for SHARING your audio interviews.
Free and Easier
Use Google Drive (8 min video tutorial)
YouTube (export Voice Record Pro as a video - 11 min tutorial)
Other Cloud hosting like DropBox
More Techy
Amazon S3 (where Wes archives all his podcasts & @edtechSR podcasts)
Self-hosting (with a company like Liquid Web)
4. Audio Editing Options
A variety of apps and software programs are available to EDIT audio you record for an oral history interview. These include:
Twisted Wave Online (free, web-based, reference manual available)
Spotify for Podcasters (formerly "Anchor" - web-based and app-based for iOS / Android)
Audacity (free / open source - Requires laptop/desktop computer)