StoryCorps

Everyone has a story.  Sometimes, everyone has a story to tell.  The problem is that throughout history, there has never been someone or something to document people's stories so that we have a historical perspective from many people.  StoryCorps hopes to improve our ability to document peoples thoughts and lives.

The mission of StoryCorps is "to provide Americans of all backgrounds and beliefs with the opportunity to record, share, and preserve the stories of our lives."  Every story will be recorded to a CD for free.  It is also stored at the American Folk Life Center at the Library of Congress.  Recently they released an iPhone App that allows you to listen and share stories.  It only has tips for recording your own, no recording from the Phone yet.

I can see this as a great tool in education.  Especially when you have a guest speaker in class.  Record the conversation and upload it.  Interview family members before they pass away and get stories of their life so that it can be shared with future generations.  It would make a great project in Sociology.

What's Your Story?

National Geographic Image Collection and Shape Collage

I recently became aware of the National Geographic Image Collection while looking around the Internet. most of us remember growing up and looking at National Geographic Magazines in amazement of the pictures that they were able to capture. Now you can obtain many of those same photos on the web.

The pictures are broken down into the following categories: Exploration, Wildlife, People and Cultures, and Science and Climate Change.  When you scroll over the image you get a brief description of who took the picture, where the picture was taken, and what the picture is.  You can also find a history of photography, a video looking "Behind the Pictures," and an area where you can purchase the book.

The National Geographic Photo collection is in Flash, so you won't be able to right click (they do want you to buy the book), but that does not mean you can't take your other photos and turn them into a Shape Collage!  I came across Shape Collage, a free automatic photo collage maker and thought it would be a new way to share groups of photos with students.  Especially since you can create so many different collages.  Below is the image from the front page of Shape Collage as well as a short video tutorial explaining how the site works.  Take a minute and play around with the site to see what you can create.