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Prepare for a long thread about my students& #39; podcast, which is now live.
This semester, my students in HIST395 created a podcast about American explorers, which they called "Uncharted: American Expeditions." Its six episodes span the globe and even the cosmos. (1/n)
This wasn& #39;t a freeform project; the students had to write a script, find primary sources to include, and work with a composer to create music for their episode. (More on the music in a minute.) (2/n)
The move to online proved immensely challenging for us. Not only did we lose our recording space, which meant our production values went down quite a lot (something the students were extremely disappointed about), but making these collaborations work was HARD. (3/n)
That said, I still fully believe in the collaborative project as a way to teach students real-life skills. They had to work with 1-2 people closely to produce their episode, but we also had to make production decisions as a whole class. Compromise and cooperation were key. (4/n)
There were many, many moments over the last 8 weeks where I thought this was going to be an epic disaster. But it isn& #39;t. In fact, I& #39;m incredibly pleased with all of these episodes. The students made something they should be really proud of. (5/n)
One of the things I& #39;m the most proud of is our collaboration with the New Sound Collective, a student composer group directed by @accpercussion. The music really makes these episodes shine, and it binds them together thematically. (6/n)
I& #39;m also so grateful to those who volunteered to help us by doing voice acting for our primary sources. They also take these episodes to the next level. (7/n)
So here, without further yammering, are the episodes. First, Continental Exploration: The Washburn Expedition, which focuses on one of the early explorations of Yellowstone. https://www.spreaker.com/episode/27694320">https://www.spreaker.com/episode/2... (8/n)
Second, Oceanic Exploration: The Ringgold-Rodgers Expedition, which focuses on a naval expedition to chart the coastal islands of Japan and China. https://www.spreaker.com/episode/27694883">https://www.spreaker.com/episode/2... (9/n)
Third, Polar Exploration: The Jeannette Expedition, which focuses on an ill-fated disastrous failure to explore the North Pole. https://www.spreaker.com/episode/27695032">https://www.spreaker.com/episode/2... (10/n)
Fourth, African and South American Exploration: Theodore Roosevelt, which contrasts two expeditions that the former president took. https://www.spreaker.com/episode/27695102">https://www.spreaker.com/episode/2... (11/n)
Fifth, Deep-Sea Exploration: The Black Sea Expeditions, which focuses on one of the expeditions of Robert Ballard to explore shipwrecks in the Black Sea. https://www.spreaker.com/episode/27695149">https://www.spreaker.com/episode/2... (12/n)
Sixth, Space Exploration: The Voyager Mission, which focuses on the yet-ongoing mission to the outer planets which has resulted in the exploration of interstellar space. https://www.spreaker.com/episode/27695170">https://www.spreaker.com/episode/2... (13/n)
And finally, a bonus episode, The Making of Uncharted: American Expeditions, which @accpercussion and I put together as a way to commemorate the work of the semester and to say thank you to those who helped us. https://www.spreaker.com/episode/27762840">https://www.spreaker.com/episode/2... (14/n)
Thank you to @H_Doug_Garland @adgarland @natesleeter @rfelty @PMatzko @kellenfunk @D__Hutchinson for doing voice work for us; thanks to @petersagal @NPRinskeep and @RundAbdelfatah for inspiring us. (15/n)
And most of all, though I assume they& #39;re not following me, thanks to my students, who persevered. Full credits and show notes for each episode are at https://unchartedpodcast.wordpress.com/ .">https://unchartedpodcast.wordpress.com/">... If you are so inclined, give our podcast a listen and give the students some positive feedback! (16/16)
One last thing: You can access our podcast right now on Spotify; it should be up soon on Apple Podcasts (and thus then on your favorite podcast app, like @OvercastFM ). (17/16)
