Case Study: Engaging Interpretation Through Digital Technologies

This article focuses on the dynamics of interpreting oral history through digital technologies. From today's vantage point, my “high-tech” strategies are quaint and rather obsolete. Faculty have more sophisticated electronic tools at our disposal for oral history instruction, including digital transcription programs, multimedia programs that integrate voice, image, and word, and learning management systems where we can post course materials, communicate with students, organize group communication and so on. In addition to advances in teaching technologies, today's students come with higher degrees of technological literacy than a decade ago. They are equipped with computers, iPods, and cell phones, and many know how to use digital audio and video recorders. Where once we had to teach how to use specialized software programs, faculty now take for granted that students know how to make slide presentations. Some are already familiar with sound or video editing processes, and a few may even have multimedia production experience.