180 Terabytes of Visual History: Incorporating Survivors of the Shoah Archives into the Curriculum

1. 180 Terabytes of Visual History: Incorporating Survivors of the Shoah Archives into the Curriculum Charles Henry Andrea Martin Diane Butler http://shoah.rice.edu

2. Shoah Visual History Foundation Established in 1994 by Steven Spielberg to collect the testimonies of survivors and other eyewitnesses to the Holocaust Mission statement: To overcome prejudice, intolerance, and bigotry - and the suffering they cause - through the educational use of the Foundation’s visual history testimonies. http://www.vhf.org

3. The Shoah Archive • 52,000 testimonies from Jewish survivors, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Roma and Sinti, homosexuals, political prisoners, rescuers, and liberators of concentration camps • 32 languages including English, Russian, Hebrew, French, German, Dutch, Hungarian, Italian • 1-18 hours in length, average 2.5 hours • 117,000 hours of video

4. Technology • 180 terabyte archive located at the Shoah Foundation • Robot to load the tapes • Requires Internet 2 connection • Requires 1 terabyte of local cache

5. System Architecture

6. Mellon Grant - Participating Schools(Rice, USC, Yale)

7. The Rice Research Team • Charles Henry - Vice Provost & University Librarian • Geneva Henry - Executive Director, Digital Library Initiative • Lisa Spiro - Director, Electronic Resources Center, ETRAC • Andrea Martin - Director, Enterprise Systems & Applications • Diane Butler - Manager, Enterprise Systems & Applications • Chris Pound - Faculty Support, Educational Technology • Janice Bordeaux - Research Scientist/Licensed Psychologist, George R. Brown School of Engineering • Jeff Koffler - Faculty Support, Enterprise Systems & Applications • Paul Cruz - Graduate Student, Department of Psychology

8. Research Agenda • Technology Platform • Does the technology work? • What investment needs to be made in hardware, software, and staff support? • Integration of Resources • What does it take to integrate into existing curriculum?

9. Research Agenda • Usability • How will faculty manage instructional strategies with digital video? • Instructional Toolkit • What tools need to be offered to faculty and students in order to ensure integration and usability?

10. Research Agenda • Intellectual Property • What impact are privacy and security concerns likely to have on the way in which these interviews are used in college classrooms? • Impact on Support • What structures need to be in place to maximize the impact of these materials on teaching and learning? • These materials rely on technology to be effective in classrooms and offices, how will it be managed?

11. Research Agenda • Impact on Pedagogy • To what extent, does the use of digital video alter teaching strategies and class assignments? • How does the deeply emotional and sensitive nature of this collection affect student learning? • What kinds of intellectual problems can be addressed using the testimonies in the archive that could not be addressed with other kinds of materials?

12. Assessment • Faculty interviews • Pedagogic vision • Use of the archive • Student Survey • Satisfaction with quality and challenge of Shoah coursework • Emotional engagement and impact on students • Intellectual engagement and impact on learning • Satisfaction with archive technology support and expertise

13. Fall 03 Courses • Anthropology 328 - Violence, Terror, and Social Trauma – student project • German 125 – Between Resistance and Collaboration – 3 student projects • Religious Studies 209 – Introduction to Judaism – mandatory group projects

14. Spring 04 Courses • Anth 321 - Classical Studies 311 – Text as Property – full class case study on intellectual property • Anth 327 – Gender and Symbolism – student project (Anth perspectives on rape) • Anth 419 – Law and Society – student project • Anth 412/612 – Rhetoric – class, conference papers at AAA • History 254 – Culture and Society Post-1945 Germany – student project • German 329 – Literature of the Holocaust & Exile • Visual Arts 327 – Documentary Production – 2 student projects

15. Anthropology 328 - Violence, Terror, and Social Trauma Julie Taylor, Ph.D. Addressing the central place of violence in our society and its relations with social and political terror in other cultures 16 students – advanced undergraduates in anthropology and humanities Goal: Teach students to recognize cultural models that explain and justify violence.

16. Anthropology 328 • Used by one student to study the effects of survivors’ religiosity • did they become more or less religious after the war? • “The Shoah archive was a wonderful way to move beyond statistics and into the individual experiences of the people involved in the Holocaust.”

17. German 125 - Between Resistance and Collaboration Maria-Regina Kecht, Ph.D. Focus on individuals’ behavior in Nazi Germany/Austria. 13 students – freshman seminar Goals: Examine a wide spectrum of participant roles – victims, rescuers, collaborators, and perpetrators. Students will learn from the choices of others and strengthen their personal resolve to help others regardless of the common opinion.

18. German 125 • Used by 3 student projects as a source for multimedia projects: • Month by month timeline for Progressive Intensification of Nazi Racial Policy • Medical Experiments in Nazi Germany • Kindertransport, 1938-1939 • Reactions: Surprise among students regarding details of everyday life such as how the Shoah affected routine cultural production, disrupting lives of popular artists, actors, and musicians.

19. Religious Studies 209 - Introduction to Judaism Gregory Kaplan, Ph.D. Survey course on all aspects of the Jewish religion 15 students – undergraduates Goals: Support lectures on Jewish life in Europe and assign students to view video and group presentations on how the Shoah affected a survivor’s Jewish identity.

20. Religious Studies 209 • Survey results: • Interest in the archive appears very strong • Students exceptionally satisfied with intellectual quality and challenge of archive-based coursework • Group presentations required 1.5 hours of individual browsing, 2 hours of work on the assignment per student. • Work had a strong emotional impact on most students. After first clip, room was completely still and silent.

21. Project Results So Far • Support for faculty and students • Laptops for faculty • Campus computers configured to ensure the video plays • Train staff in the use of the archive for multimedia projects • Make sure the technology doesn’t get in the way of using the archive

22. Technology Challenges • Work in Progress • Not all videos are digitized • Searching is based on their keywords • Windows vs Mac • Business vs 24x7 academia • Scalability Issues • Tape robot • Local cache holds 300 testimonies

23. Changing the Values of a Generation Religious Studies 209 Students: • “I was touched by the deeply emotional nature of the testimonies” • “The more I saw, the more I felt like I know the people, and I became emotionally attached. I laughed with them and cried with them.” • “They made me sad, angry, happy, and amazed by people’s strength all at the same time” • “More realness to the Holocaust. Not just seen as a historical event or movie. Brought to life”