Concept

back to list

Kids creating and preserving the stories of their lives

If you've listened to public radio in the US, you may know of StoryCorps. StoryCorps is an organization that records interviews of friends and family, providing people of all backgrounds and beliefs with the opportunity to record, share, and preserve the stories of their lives. It's a fascinating project, and benefits not only the people involved in the interviews, but the listener as well. This concept will enable Indian students to record interviews of their families and friends, and help them learn English along the way, as well as record their fast-changing culture for posterity. The idea is to have kids interview the people around them, and upload these interviews onto a Web site for their school. Interviews can be paper-based, conducted on their phones, on computers, with audio tapes, or video recorders. Whatever is available to the students can be used.


Along the way, kids learn to use the technology, they learn about their culture, they connect with students across the globe, and they learn English by translating their interviews into English. They also get to record these stories for posterity - since the culture is changing so rapidly these stories are especially worth preserving.


Students may also be able to raise funds through this process. For example, the Food Network may be interested in learning about how Indian villagers cook. They could fund a project on that topic and students could video their families cooking, and share that experience with Food Network viewers. Likewise, researchers studying various aspects of India could sponsor kids to collect information through the interview process.


For more perspective on the value of interviews, see the StoryCorps Web site at storycorps.org .

Comments