Conversational Videos in the Classroom from Social Studies School Service on Vimeo. Access slides at bit.ly/CONVOvidSSSS.

Previously published by Social Studies School Services. https://www.socialstudies.com/blog/using-conversational-video-to-support-oral-history-project/

Before the pandemic, I thought I was a pretty good teacher. I worked hard at rotating reading, writing, speaking, and listening assignments throughout my social studies courses so that students would learn how to improve their skills and learn content simultaneously. I was very proud of the speaking assignments my students completed and pleased with the metacognition they showed when reflecting on their work. 

Then, the pandemic hit and students retreated to the anonymity of their screens. When we met back in person, I thought I could go back to business as usual and get them talking to each other about content and practicing some public speaking skills. I was wrong. They didn’t want to turn and talk. They didn’t want to socialize with each other. They didn’t want to complete any assignments that involved presenting or speaking in front of the class. To my horror, one class had eight students in a row decline to give a speech, even though most of them had written the speech and practiced it on Microsoft Flip. I was gutted. For the first time in my education career I found myself contemplating something new, perhaps in the rewarding and lucrative field of refrigeration repair.

Fortunately, I stayed in the education game, resolved that I could find new ways to effectively scaffold speaking projects to lower student apprehension and anxiety. This post will describe the importance of having secondary students engage in oral history projects and describe a new Artificial Intelligence technology StoryFile that can help students practice posing questions to pre-recorded conversational video without the heightened anxiety that comes with actually talking to a real person. 

Participating in oral histories improves engagement and increases the amount of historical empathy students develop. When conducting interviews, students generate original questions using higher-order cognitive skills that lead to deeper understanding. I helped my students to improve their interview questions by teaching them about the six levels of Bloom’s taxonomy. Similarly, ChatGPT, an open AI interface can be used as a brainstorming partner to help students access information and creative avenues that improve their writing. 

The cool thing about this conversational video technology is that it allows students to “interact” with pre-recorded testimony. The AI matches responses to individual student questions. Practice with this technology offers students practice in listening, posing questions that show off their depth of knowledge about history content, and following up when they get an unexpected answer. In short, these activities may help students perform better during job interviews. Lastly, they provide educators with opportunities to evaluate student content knowledge, academic vocabulary, listening, and SEL skills. 

After reading the historical fiction novel Charlotte about German artist Charlotte Salomon by David Foenkinos, my students worked in small groups to collaborate on twenty-four questions to pose to Holocaust survivor, Rose Schindler. Then each student chose four questions to ask the AI and recorded whether or not the response was appropriate. The machine was able to off appropriate responses to 67% of my students’ questions. Here is an example of a student asking questions and then later reflecting about this assignment with her mother. 

Conversational video can improve the speaking, listening, and question development experience for students. Developing oral history questions requires listening and SEL skills. Many students don’t get sufficient practice. StoryFile can help them build background knowledge, anticipate multiple responses, and pose meaningful questions to Holocaust survivors, Civil Rights leaders, and 9/11 first responders using Conversational AI.

During the oral history process, students practice written and oral communication, conduct primary and secondary source research, use technology to record and analyze historical testimony. The act of creating questions enhances learners’ understanding of course materials and promotes deeper learning. Asking relevant questions reflect a student’s social awareness in addition to their pedagogical content knowledge and can be used as SEL skill builders as well as formative assessments. Students can practice asking questions to Japanese internees, Holocaust survivors, Civil Rights leaders, and 9/11 first responders using the Story File website.

Participating in the questioning and response process appears to increase the amount of historical empathy students develop. Conducting oral histories in the classroom can reveal student misconceptions and help educators address comprehension problems. Using Depth of Knowledge (DOK) and/or Bloom’s Taxonomy frameworks for evaluating questions, teachers can assess the historical content in student-generated questions. Students conducting oral history interviews practice empathic listening, build confidence in public speaking and oral communication skills, improve their creative collaboration skills, and demonstrate growth in one-on-one interviews. Students build media literacy skills when sharing projects via video production and digital storytelling.

Because my students could practice their oral history interviewing techniques in small groups or as individual assignments much of their anxiety in completing this assignment was reduced. Allowing time for gallery viewing and helping students conduct peer reviews or self-assessments also lowered student anxiety levels. With increased practice, students will gain proficiency with interviewing skills and teachers will grow more confident in evaluating the quality of student questioning. 

Brainstorming skills were enhanced by repeated queries of ChatGPT to generate high-quality interview questions that reflected advanced background knowledge and cultural competency. Reflection on the learning process and practice generating specific AI disclosure statements may also allow students to avoid charges of plagiarism. Also, students who have significant practice in conducting interviews will experience less anxiety and display more confidence during actual employment interviews. Lastly, advances in Artificial Intelligence will impact all teaching and learning. This activity will help teachers and students work in harmony with AI, using it as a thought partner to bring out deeper, more iterative, and reflective learning. 

I ask my students to present one assignment from my class to their parents in a conversation using Microsoft Flip. This allows for increased equity for the students who can’t participate in back-to-school night and also gives students practice in demonstrating to an adult that they are responsible and should be given an increased allowance or even the car keys. I was surprised by how many students showed their parents the video of their conversation with Rose Schindler. 

Traditionally, higher SES schools offer more field trips and are able to bring in more guest speakers to offer eyewitness historical accounts to students. Lower SES schools struggle to offer students these enrichment opportunities. StoryFile technology could create an equitable, student-centered learning environment by allowing all students access to interactive conversational video experiences with historical figures. Integrating AI voice recognition with video testimony could level the playing field by offering unique, first-person interactions within the classroom.

In sum, even in elementary and middle school classes, there are numerous benefits to having students conduct oral histories, however, the cost and length of time involved in these processes often make them prohibitive practices in the classroom where 70-90% of learning experiences are textbook-based. Using Story File’s website is free and offers students a chance to practice interviewing skills with sixteen video-recorded subjects in one gallery and an additional eight subjects in their Black Voices collection. I hope you will consider experimenting with StoryFile and ask your students to conduct an oral history in your classroom.