Roots with Wings, a Floyd County Place-Based Education Project:: Intergenerational Connections

Floyd Story Center

Since 1998, a community oral history collection partnership of the Old Church Gallery, Ltd., Radford University’s Center for Social and Cultural Research, Honors Program, Scholar-Citizen Initiative, Appalachian Regional and Rural Studies Center, and Floyd County High School. Our archives now hold over 100 interviews.

In our Roots with Wings project, college mentors, high school staff, and community volunteers meet weekly during the school year to teach the discipline of oral history collection.


Students learn ethical, methodologically sound interview techniques, practice and complete several interviews, transcribe the audiotapes, create searchable content logs, archive interviewee resources and period photographs, learn the technology of audio and video recording, research historical backgrounds, acquire proficiency in iMovie and storytelling, and finally extract a theme from an hour long interview to create a seven minute movie production.

Friday, May 1, 2015

Seems like Pink Artifacts was just yesterday!

SEMESTER WRAP-UP IS UPON US! 

RU students spent their final class time at Floyd County High School this week. We focused on helping FCHS students begin editing their film.  Last week content logs with keywords from the interviews were completed.  As I've repeated, this makes retrieving footage easier during editing.  Storyboards are polished and students now have about two weeks in the editing studio to create.  We can't wait to see what they see!



Mentor Kimberly helps Noah and Daniel with iMovie editing techniques.


Let's reflect for a moment on the mission of this project:  increase resiliency and a strong inter-generational self in students, creating a "web of meaningful relationships" (Roots) using modern technology (Wings).  

I think the most important aspect for everyone involved is the interaction we have with each other: talking about film making; helping with a technology technique; managing a conflict; sharing a laugh about a funny moment; listening to stories about experiences long ago; or giving a two-handed handshake.  Technology gives our interactions a wider platform, but cannot replace real-time human connection.



Kathleen Ingoldsby assists Jason and Cody with their film introduction sequence.

Now we'd like to share recognition of some participating students.  On April 29 the RU Department of Sociology honored Roots with Wings participants who are Sociology majors.  Congratulations to Lauren B., Bianca D., Haley F., Madison H., Kurt K., Kimberly P., Blake S., and Ellisse T. upon receiving the SERVICE TO COMMUNITY award.  

At that same ceremony, Bianca D. received the MOST PROMISING THIRD YEAR SOCIOLOGY MAJOR award and Ellisse T. received the EXCELLENCE IN RESEARCH ASSISTANCE award.  On May 8, Taylor L. will be recognized as the OUTSTANDING STUDENT OF THE YEAR in Appalachian Studies during the College of Education and Human Development Awards Celebration.

 Lots of celebrating to do!  Including a celebration get-together for the premiere of FCHS students' films.  Stay tuned for an update of when/where details (sometime near the end of May).

 It has been a pleasure to share this semester's Roots with Wings journey with you.  We hope that your summer will be full of sun and stories.


Roots with Wings participants, Spring 2015
Posted by

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)