each student group conduct? Will the whole class focus on a specific theme or will groups be allowed to choose their own area to focus on? Will the students only present the interviews or will they integrate what they have found with other sources? The students might find that their interviewees have other interesting things to talk about, but it would be good to start with one area to focus on and a clear idea of the scope of the project.
As the oral history approach has been used for a long time, there are a lot of supporting materials describing the whole process of conduction oral history interviews. The following website describes this process: dohistory.org/on_your_own/toolkit/oralHistory.html
A detailed downloadable guide is also available from the Smithsonian Institute (this is very useful and it provides samples of release forms and other kinds of documentation like personal information forms): http://www.folklife.si.edu/resources/pdf/interviewingguide.pdf
The following PowerPoint presentation (in video form) video clip gives a detailed overview of the whole process:
This clip, from the University of Leicester, focuses on the technical aspects of the interview (e.g., seating positions, audio recording techniques, cameras angles, lighting, and getting the interview started etc.) and gives examples of good and bad interview techniques:
For both types of projects, students should formally gain the consent of the interviewees by having them sign release forms (an example is here: www.smccd.edu/accounts/brenner/lsci110/OralHistoryReleaseForm.html) and personal information forms.
If your students do work on a 50 People 1 Question video or oral history project, let me know. I’d love to see their work.
~by Stephen Richards (longzijun)
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