iPod for Oral Histories

courant.com | Teaching With Ipods? Of Course
: "Miller is encouraging UConn's faculty to find other creative uses for podcasting. Chemistry Professor Harry Frank, for example, has begun creating podcasts of prominent scientists who come to campus.

'It's like an oral history. ... I have them sit down for five minutes and explain what they're doing,' said Frank, who is also associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences."

This is one of the great uses for podcasting: creating oral histories of things happening right now.

Anyone can start doing this, a portable recorder like an Olympus DS-2 or an iPod with an iTalk can do quite a bit.

All you are trying to do is elicit stories of what happened.

Where were you when...?
Why were you there?
What were you doing?
Who were you there to see?
How did you meet her/him?
What happened next?
How would you explain something like that to Grandma?

These are good questions to start with.
Some other places for more information can be found here:
http://genealogy.about.com/od/oral_history/
http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/oralhist.html