Marlin Voices Collaboration

Marlin Voices 

As we thought about how conversations in the digital humanities occur, we also thought about the distribution of pedagogical tools. As we worked with the students of Marlin ISD, we developed both traditional and non-traditional teaching tools that could be shared with other teachers. In addition to our scaled lesson plans about obtaining oral histories and working with cameras and mapping, we used our own videos to teach the students.

The first short video demonstrates both poor interviewing skills and poor use of the technology. We found this dual approach led to active class discussion and therefore active understanding of both aspects of the skill set by the students. The second video provides an alternative model. If the lab decides to focus on distributing the materials we produce as research groups, it is worth considering how using non-text-based materials affects the methods of distribution and the types of learning and what we expect teachers to take away from that distribution. It is our feeling that video can sometimes be the most effective way to share our pedagogical experiences, although certainly the loss of the flipcam from the market will impact the availability of easy filiming and sharing tools.

At the end of the semester, we worked with the Marlin Voices group to talk about the similarities and differences between the two types of work: