Last ITV Class - Field Work next week

Students in the 2015 Navajo Oral History Project met via Interactive Television for the fourth and final time this week on Thursday, May 21, prior to  beginning field work on the Navajo Nation next week. During this ITV class, the students worked in small groups to present research projects they put together this week.

The student research projects focused on major attributes of life and culture on the Navajo Nation, including: governance, demographics, justice, education, healthcare, tourism, economics, workforce, and Navajo customs, relationships and taboos.















Above photo of Prof. Tom Grier int he ITV Classroom by Jake Hilsabeck.

After the presentations, and at the end of the ITV class period, the students grabbed their camping gear and some luggage and helped load the van. Professor Tom Grier and program consultant Chops Hancock finished loading the gear and rearranging it in the van so they could actually see while driving, and began the long trek across the country, expecting to meet the students in Albuquerque, New Mexico, this weekend.


"Snackies" for the road trip; photo by Chops Hancock.

The van was packed almost to the ceiling.


Above two photos by Chops Hancock.

While driving across the country, Grier likes to take the backroads and take photos of county courthouses. He spends a few minutes in each county seat town, finds the courthouse, takes images from different angles, and moves on. He posts the images to Google Earth. To date, Grier has more than a thousand images on Google Earth, which have received more than 1.4 million views.
Above two photos by Chops Hancock.

ITV Class Continues

Day Three of the 2015 Navajo Oral History Project (Wednesday, May 20) included another ITV Class between Winona State University and Diné College. In this class, students reviewed some of the films from previous years of the projects and offered constructive critical analysis of the films -- with an eye toward how they will do their own projects this summer.

The class also discussed script-writing, narrative structure, and the importance of fact-checking, and re-checking for accuracy.








(above two photos by Prof. Miranda Haskie)




Several class members helped go through the equipment that will be part of this project: video cameras, digital still cameras, audio recorders, tripods, battery packs, etc. The electronic journalism kits were checked for completeness, fresh batteries, microphones, cords, and all the accessories.

In the evening, the WSU students met at Prof. Tom Grier's house for a social barbecue, hosted by Grier and his wife, Julie. Following dinner and conversation, the group watched the film "30 Days on the Navajo Reservation" featuring Morgan Spurlock. It was a moving film about what it's like to live with-- and become bonded to-- the Navajo people.
(For those interested, the film is 41 minutes long, and is available for on-line viewing here:
https://media.oregonstate.edu/media/t/0_mn129u0v.)

One more ITV class is scheduled for Thursday, May 21. Then the students will prepare for the fieldwork portion of this class, on the Navajo Nation.

The students seem engaged and excited to be part of this project, which is bigger than just a college course.

The goals of the class are:

• Foster partnerships between students

• Experience a different culture

• Develop skills and abilities

• Inform and educate the public

• Create quality portfolio pieces

• Travel, Learn, Have Fun

As visitors to this blog will soon see, the students will meet and exceed these goals.

ITV Class Day 2

Tuesday, May 19, was Day Two of the 2015 Navajo Oral History Project. Students from Diné College and Winona State University met again via ITV and discussed a number of topics: Visual Communication, Journalism, Ethnographic Research, Qualitative Research Methodology, etc. They also further discussed the journalism projects they will be working for the next several weeks and were given brief introductions of the Navajo elders that will be featured this year.



Robbie Christiano (left), Taylor Nyman and Ben Strand.


Casie Rafferty (left) and Kim Schneider.


Jake Hilsabeck (left) and Nate Nelson


Kacie Mann (left) and Reagan Johnson


Sam Stetzer (left), Jordan Gerard and Tobias Mann.




Following the organized ITV class, the WSU mass communication students got a tutorial on using the department's video cameras from fellow student Tobias Mann, who was a student employee in the MCOM department's equipment area this past year.






Jake Hilsabeck (left) and Reagan Johnson.



At the end of class, several participants took time to also get a tutorial in flying the department's Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV); what some refer to as a drone. Jake Hilsabeck led this tutorial because he's had experience with the drone in the past several weeks. Each then got some hands-on flying time with the UAV.

Pictured, left to right, are: Tobias Mann, Jordan Gerard, Kacie Mann and Jake Hilsabeck.









There are two more ITV classes planned for this week. Then the WSU group will depart to the Navajo Nation for nearly three weeks of field work there.

NOHP 2015 Begins with ITV Classes

The 2015 edition of the Navajo Oral History Project began on Monday, May 18, with an Interactive Television class connecting a classroom at Diné College in Tsaile, Arizona, on the Navajo Nation, with a classroom at Winona State University in Winona, Minnesota.

The 16 students enrolled in the class introduced themselves and talked a bit about their background and their interest in this advanced journalism class that will help to further preserve the Navajo culture.

The current students also heard from several alumni of the program from its first five years.

This year marks the sixth year of the successful collaboration between to two schools. Students in the program will do some research projects this week, focused on Navajo culture, and will learn some basic introductory concepts related to journalism, photojournalism and ethnographic research.

Next week, the Winona students will travel to the Navajo Nation and be involved in nearly three weeks of field work. While there, student teams, including students from both schools, will do a service project for a Navajo elder and then conduct several interviews with the elder to produce a documentary film about their life and stories.

Below are several photographs from the first class. This blog will be updated often including information and photos highlighting the students' activities during the class.
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The first students to arrive to the first class: Case Rafferty (left) and Kim Schneider.




Robbie Christiano (left), Teaching Assistant to the class, talks while Ben Strand, Taylor Nyman and Casie Rafferty listen.


Casie Rafferty (left), Kim Schneider, Jake Hilsabeck and Nate Nelson, in the ITV Class.


Nate Nelson (left), Kacie Mann, Reagan Johnson and Sam Stetzer, in the ITV Class.


Reagan Johnson (left), Sam Stetzer, Jordan Gerard and Tobias Mann, in the ITV Class.



Robbie Christiano helped Skylar Ogren, video consultant, introduce himself to the class via Skype session on IPad:

Tobias Mann (left) listened as Chops Hancock introduced himself to the class. Chops participated in the class during its first year in 2009, and has been a big supporter of the program through his work with the WSU Foundation. Chops is participating in the field again this year as a photographic consultant.

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The blog is kept and updated by Dr. Tom Grier, a professor of Mass Communication at Winona State University. It frequently will include student work: writing and photography. When student work appears, it will be connected to by-lines or photo credit text. Images and text not credited are by Grier.

Feel free to share this blog address with family members, friends, acquaintances, etc. -- anyone who might be interested in this unique journalism partnership.

Please use the comments section of the blog to offer suggestions or words of encouragement to the students who are spending a good part of the summer to do this important work. In the coming days, the students will all be introduced here in the pages.

Thanks of visiting the blog; Come back soon, and often.

2015 Navajo Oral History Project begins in about 30 days

Eleven students from the Mass Communication Department at Winona State University are getting close to wrapping up their spring semester and then will embark on a summer journalism effort known as the Navajo Oral History Project.

The WSU students will travel to the Navajo Nation where they will stay for three weeks. The WSU students will be put into small teams with students from Diné College of the Navajo Nation. The college student groups will provide a service project for a Navajo elder, and then will interview the elder three times. Students will research the elder, and interview them, plus audio record, video record and photograph the interviews. Then, students will transcribe the interviews, write scripts proofread, edit and produce documentary films focused on the lives of the elders.

This is the sixth year of the Navajo Oral History Project.

At the end of summer, the finished documentary films will be archived at the Navajo Nation Museum and Library, the Libraries at both Winona State University and Diné College, and, perhaps most impressively, at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian.

See the previous Blog entry (dated Feb. 27, 2015) for a list of the WSU students participating in this project.  As the class gets started in May, the rest of the class will be introduced here on the blog, along with photos.

This blog, MassCommuniMania.blogspot.com, will be updated regularly during the operation of the project, starting in Mid-May 2015. The blog will feature articles about each day's activities and will include photographs of the students doing their journalism work-- and having fun-- while on the Navajo Nation.  Often the articles and photographs will be by the student journalists involved in the project.

Feel free to share this blog address with family, friends and anyone who might be interested in following the activities of this important journalism education project.

2015 Navajo Oral History Project Begins

Eleven students and two faculty members from Winona State University (Winona, Minnesota) are getting ready for a summer documentary journalism course that takes place on the Navajo Nation, located in Arizona, Utah and New Mexico.

The WSU group met during the third week of February 2015 to begin paperwork and planning for the 2015 Navajo Oral History Project. This is the sixth year of the successful collaboration with Diné College, the tribal college of the Navajo Nation.

The WSU group will meet their Diné College counterparts via Interactive Television classes during the third week of May. Then, the WSU group travels to the Navajo Nation where they will spend three weeks learning together and working in teams with Diné College students on their documentary film projects.

Four student teams will do a service project for a Navajo elder (cleaning a garage, raking a garden, etc.) and then will interview the elder three times over two weeks. The students will photograph, video record, and audio record the interviews and will gather other video and photographs to complement their project. The teams will review all their source material and build 20-minute "Living History" films about each elder's life.

The class is designed to give students real-world experience in all facets of journalism, and help prepare them for career positions in the media after they graduate.

Each student will get copies of their completed films. Copies are also given to the elders and their families. The films will be archived at the Navajo Nation Museum and Library, and at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian.

The Winona State University students who are participating, their majors, and their hometowns, are:
- Jordan Gerard, Journalism, Spring Grove, Minnesota

- Jacob Hilsabeck, Photojournalism, Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin

- Reagan Johnson, Transmedia, Columbus, Wisconsin

- Kacie Mann, Public Relations, Maple Grove, Minnesota

- Tobias Mann, Journalism, Thief River Falls, Minnesota

- Nathaniel Nelson, Journalism, Buffalo, Minnesota

- Taylor Nyman, Photography & Digital Imaging, Monroe Center, Illinois

- Casie Rafferty, Journalism, Winona, Minnesota

- Kim Schneider, Journalism, Roseville, Minnesota

- Samantha Stetzer, Journalism, Holmen, Wisconsin

- Ben Strand, Journalism, Burnsville, Minnesota

The two WSU faculty members of this project are:
- Tom Grier, professor of mass communication
- Robbie Christiano, director of development

During the class and field-work portion of the project, this blog will serve as a daily journal highlighting the activities of the student journalists in words and pictures.  In future updates to the blog, the students an faculty from Diné College will be introduced.