Staying current with last week’s theme of digital storytelling, I wanted to share with you another example of the importance of recording our history. As part of a class assignment, one of my students, Jalen Schmitz, chose to learn how to use Soundtrap to record an interview with his grandfather about his time as a farmer in Lancaster in Southwest Wisconsin. It’s such a nice example of how we can leverage technology to facilitate conversation and capture a piece of our rural heritage. I’m hoping you’ll feel inspired by Jalen’s work and interview someone who has a story to tell.

Google Meet allows you to record conversations when you can’t meet in person. In a nutshell, you’ll start your own meeting and click “add people.” From there you can add by email or by phone number, as Jalen did. Just warn your guest that their caller id will say “Google Meet” and not your name. 🙂 After they’ve joined the call, click the three dots in the bottom right corner and click record. Once you’re done, stop the recording and hangup. The file will arrive in your Google Drive account and you’ll be notified via email.

Soundtrap allows you to edit the recorded conversation. For example, if there was downtime or disruptions, you can clip all of those out. You can also add in background music or sound effects.