3 Interview synopsis and opinion on quality of oral history.

Melody Huerta Oral History.

Melody interviewed her younger brother who currently attends an alternative high school. The technical editing at the beginning of the interview could have been more seamless by taking out the long silent pauses and use of filler words like “Um” and “And”. The most relevant piece of information garnered from this interview is the implicit implementation and casual use of technology in the classroom. It is interesting to hear about the newer generation of high school students who have technology implemented extensively throughout their general education years. This is influencing our lives as schools implicitly mandate digital literacy and the use of digital tools and features. This makes for a more naturally technology savvy group of students. However, if explicit courses with time set aside to learn new features students who do not spend their free time using digital technology extensively may fall behind in classes as they are not being taught the skills, they need to succeed in a changing school system. This is an interesting concept that could be delved deeply into. However, this interview is not a particularly good example of oral history or storytelling. The interviewer and interviewee stick to information about school and do not get into the culture or experiences one has using technology in high school. Anecdotes of individual experiences would add personal flavor to this interview.

Seth Muck

Seth interviewed his friend and fellow student Katelyn Hamilton. This interview had music at both the end and the beginning. It was a little distracting because the music was very loud but the interview itself was more moderate to quiet sounding. Seth did a pretty good job of making this interview seamless and engaging technically. He left in some funny parts and allowed for lots of technical information but also some humor to liven up the discussion. The part of the interview I found most engaging was the use of apps, websites, and communication tools in our daily lives and how necessary they have become. Seth did not focus on this but went on to focus more on how music is enjoyed and stored. I think it would have been nice if he had been able to combine these two concepts in his interview. You could tell the interview had organically gone in the direction of technology in our daily lives, but the use of music apps and how they have been evolving is a little forced. The influence of technology on music has been immense from both its storage, sharing, and creation. Seth asked his interviewee if she though technology was ruining art. This was a very interesting question as well and could have been combined with the previous themes to dissect how necessary the internet and digital technology has become, how this effects entertainment and how art and culture are changing to fit this. Overall this was a technically stimulating conversation but did not have much anecdotal or personal stories to add. This makes for a dry oral history, if useful in a technological sense.

Emily Burns

Emily interviewed her house mom who was a generation older than her. Emily had a bit of an introduction superimposed over that of the interview to give it context. In some spots the technical editing could have been smoother as it did turn choppy. However, the interview questions and themes flowed together quite well. The technology that was being focused on were telephones and their development through time. Emily interviewed her house mother as she worked for a phone company as an installer in the 1980’s. This interview was very interesting as not only the technology of phones was discussed but the culture of the time as well. The interviewee describes some of the sexism that she faced as a telephone installer and a woman with a job even. It was not expected for women to work, much less work in field that requires technical know-how and manual skills. She had to accept the fact that there was discrimination from some customers and just had to do her job the best she could. The interviewee describes her love of technology and how much the internet and advancing forms of communication broadens one’s scope of the world. This is an interesting choice from Emily as she was able to get anecdotal information and actual stories from her interviewee while also holding a conversation about technology and its possible consequences for the future. This is an excellent way to form an oral history as we get the relatable stories, information about the past, predictions for the future, descriptions of actual technology and how it affected culture then and now, and a bit of a moral about technology. The interview went on to discuss such things as what future tech will look like, like visual uses in google homes. They also discussed how society might change with the growing influence of the internet, especially in business and the economy. They were able to discuss alternatives and changes from traditional in store shopping to how it might look like with a lot more goods and services being sold online.