Day 6 - Class and One Interview

The blog post today was submitted by Brianna Klapperich (with input from the other WSU students that are participating in the 2010 Navajo Oral History project):

Day #6 -

Transcribe: (verb): turn spoken word into written or typed form...A.K.A the first word to be banned by students of the Oral History Project at Diné College.

The day began in the classroom. Students spent time debriefing the others in the class about the previous day's interviews. After all good, great, and unexpected experiences were shared, introductions to Audacity®, a sound editing program, and Adobe Photoshop CS4®, a photo editing program took place. This went quick because Professor Tom Grier had to depart for his seven hour drive to a conference in Tuscon, Arizona, and Ben, Altyn and Shaina had their first interview with their Navajo elder, Andy Brady, a retired coal miner and Air Force mechanic in the afternoon two hours away in a town called Shiprock, New Mexico.

(above two photos by Kelly Sharatt)

(students working in the Diné College computer lab/learning center photos by Tom Grier)

The rest of the day was dedicated to transcribing all the interviews from Thursday to word documents. Some of the students had an easier time transcribing their interviews than others.

The group that interviewed John Kinsel had a difficult time transcribing, about six minutes of interview equaled an hour of transcribing...with a three-hour interview, looks like they will have their work cut out for them the next couple of days.

(students in the residence hall hogan central area, working on transcribing their elder interviews ... photos by Michael Ruka.)

Several students attempted to pass a Frisbee around in the windy Arizona dessert and comedy sketches on the internet posed as stress relief during the lengthy but necessary process for archiving the interviews.

Several students used their free time this afternoon to take a nap to catch up on some sleep because of the last few days of hard work. Students will be getting ready to be in four states tomorrow at once!