KairosWikis | CCCCReviews / CCCC Story Booth

The CCCC Story Booth
reviewed by Kathleen Mollick
kmollick@tarleton.edu

I had the pleasure of participating in the literacy booth organized by Dr. Cynthia Selfe just outside the registration desk at CCCC in San Francisco. Early in the morning of March 12, I saw a few people at the booth and read the notice that encouraged conference goers to have their literacy stories digitally archived.

I was greeted by one of the workers at the booth, who encouraged me to participate. It didn’t take much convincing for me to do it, although I was a bit worried about what I would talk about. Fortunately, I was provided a list of questions designed to make someone like me think of what to talk about. Once I had settled on one of the questions on the list, I was seated at a table in front of a tiny camera on a laptop. I was shown the button to push when I wanted to stop, and I was told I could take my time until I was ready to start. Once I had adjusted myself comfortably on the chair, I pushed the start button and the person working at the table asked me to identify myself. Once I had done that, it was time to tell my story.

The process itself did not take terribly long, and once it was finished, I could see my recording. It is a little disconcerting to see oneself in the computer screen during the taping process, but I think it worked out well in the end.

I had forms to fill out when I was finished, including an institutional review board form, but it didn’t take long and I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Selfe when I was finished. She gave me some information to bring back to my department about conducting a literacy event like the one held at the conference. The handout included a brief narrative describing the video recording process and a discussion of the archival process. At the end of the handout was the URL for the Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives (DALN) where teachers and students can archive their literacy narratives at http://daln.osu.edu/ and another URL to view the stories collected at CCCC: http://everyCCCCmember.osu.edu.