Instructional Technology

With the launch of the iTunes U here at Washington College, we thought it would be nice to begin featuring some of our talented content producers. Our first such iTunes U content producer is Michael Buckley. I asked Michael a few questions about himself and his work with iTunes U.

Q. Who are you?

A. Hi, I’m Michael Buckley, Program Manager for the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience at Washington College. I’ve been a disc jockey and radio producer for the past fifteen years on 103 WRNR Annapolis/Baltimore/DC. Before that I worked in professional theatres on both coasts, including Broadway. When I was a teenager and on into my twenties I spent eight years hitchhiking around the nation visiting all 48 continental United States. As a very young child I had two families through remarriage, including a total of six brothers and sisters. As you can imagine, all through my life I’ve had opportunities to talk to lots of people, to explore the similarities and differences between us all.

Q. Describe your project.

A. In the late 90s, I’d dabbled in Philadelphia with creating a public discussion group called The Philadelphia Town Meeting. I was working at the time with my parents on the creation of an historical theatre company called the American Historical Theatre. The mission of AHT was to create opportunities for people to listen to and interact with personalities from American history through the art of historical interpretation, combining historical knowledge and professional acting skills. For 25 years my stepfather portrayed George Washington traveling across the nation to entertain audiences from Washington, D.C., to Washington State. During this period I had the opportunity to get to know about the lives of the founding fathers. Benjamin Franklin was a favorite, always inventing things and excitedly sharing his ideas and creations with his fellow patriots through town meetings and his newspaper. I was inspired by Dr. Franklin and his “Junta,” and also by the tradition of town meetings throughout New England. The Renaissance ideal was alive and well back in those days, a time when people reveled in knowing about many things. My Philadelphia Town Meeting concept of 2000 was to bring together people from various walks of life to openly discuss issues of the day, including, at that time, the Gulf War (beginning, middle, and, thankfully, the end), and the 200th Anniversary of the Bill of Rights. While I always had a few invited experts standing by, the main purpose of these meetings was to have a candid and heart felt conversation from a variety of perspectives about how these events made us all feel. It really wasn’t about experts and facts at all. I’m a big believer in a lifestyle which embraces “lifelong learning,” and town meetings and discussion groups are a way to bring people together to share thoughts and ideas in this respect. Developing an ability to see life from a variety of perspectives is very important. I think too often we tend to look at our lives with reference to only our own limited knowledge and experiences.

In 2000, with a couple of new friends (a biologist and a geologist), we started interviewing people from around the Chesapeake Bay in an effort to create a fuller understanding of where we live – to develop a larger “sense of place” about the Chesapeake Bay region. Each week we presented an interview with an interesting person, having them tell the story of where they grew up, a bit about their family, and how they came to do the things they do and love. Some of these people were famous to the world, and others merely famous to their friends and family members. Every week the story would come from a different perspective, exposing a variety of approaches to living a full and rewarding life with the Chesapeake Bay watershed as a common reference point. My initial hope was twofold. First, I set out to pro-actively extend my own knowledge by creating opportunities to surround myself and have meaningful conversations with the most amazing people. Second, I hoped that by hearing a variety of personal stories, listeners to my radio show would be inspired to see their own lives in a much broader sense.

Sunday morning is a fine time to listen to people telling stories on the radio, and to enjoy great music. For the past fifteen years of producing the Sunday Brunch on 103 WRNR I’ve used a similar technique of exposing a wide variety of perspectives by presenting an eclectic mix of musical styles in each show. In fact, over the years I’ve played every type of music on the Sunday Brunch, from rock, blues, folk, jazz and classical to reggae and lots of other musical styles from around the world (sounds from Voyager Spacecraft, human heartbeats and the last castrati for a few examples). Hopefully, I’ve created a seamless experience which is pleasant enough that listeners aren’t jolted from one tune to the next.For the past eight years of the Voices of the Chesapeake Bay project I’ve presented over 250 interviews with people from all walks of Chesapeake Bay life. I envision the audience for my shows as diverse in their interests, hungry to better understand the world around them, and eager to travel to new places and experience a variety of moods and ideas through the life and expressions that they encounter along the way.

Q. Why have you chosen iTunes U to deliver your content?

A. When the opportunity to present some of the Voices of the Chesapeake Bay interviews on iTunes U came up I was thrilled. The possibility of making the Voices interviews accessible in a sort of archival setting offers a superb vehicle for reaching out to a broader audience, one that may or may not be familiar with my radio shows. This year I’ve also published a 464-page book featuring 53 of the Voices interviews. The book is called Voices of the Chesapeake Bay, and it’s available at the Washington College Bookstore, the Compleat Bookseller and over the net from the publisher (www.geareduppublications.com). The iTunes U site provides the space I need for building a larger audio archive, and it offers a presentational style which is widely accessible. I’m looking forward to making the full interviews available on the iTunes U site, including sections that many times don’t make it onto the radio due to time restrictions.

Q. What was the process like from conception to creation to delivery?

A. The process of creating the Voices of the Chesapeake Bay interview project was eight years long. We evolved through a wide range of technical gear, including our original voice-activated cassette decks borrowed from the USGS called “frog loggers” which are floated in buckets to record frogs. We tried out DAT recorders and then MiniDisc Recorders, which is what I use now. I like the MiniDisc because it’s very portable and, unlike the new digital chip recorders, it leaves me with a medium to save (the unedited disc of the original interview). Unfortunately, MiniDisc is a format that is fast disappearing. I also experimented with a range of microphones, including laveliers, various expensive directional microphones, and a $100 stereo microphone, which is the best of the bunch and what I currently use. I use a goose neck microphone extension and clip rather than an expensive fish pole, and a small set of basic ear buds. The idea is to go into an interview with as little tech stuff as possible so I can have a conversation, rather than mounting an intrusive staged production. It makes a difference. The Voices interviews preferably take place at the home, boat or workplace of the interviewee, rather than at the radio station. Remember, I do these interviews so that I can experience the lives of other people. I edit the interviews in post production by cutting my voice out. The time for listening is relatively brief and I feel that it is used to best advantage by hearing only the interviewee. That means I have to really pay attention to what is being said during the interview process and be mindful of what might be needed in the final edit. Which reminds me: I will be offering an ongoing interviewing techniques workshop throughout the semester to any student who is interested in attending. Call me to find out about how you can apply these interviewing techniques to your own class work and to developing your own life long learning skills. The process of interviewing and presenting interviews can be effectively used by students to further their own goals and interests. For example, I did an interview trip this summer with a student who is interested in media and politics. She and I developed an interview trip to Washington, D.C., where we spent the day visiting and interviewing at The Newseum, the International Spy Museum, and at NPR, including a personal visit with Talk of the Nation host Neil Conan. If any student has a paper or project they are working on we can work together to design an interview project which augments that work. There is also an ongoing Voices Tour of the Chesapeake Bay which is co-sponsored by the Keith Campbell Foundation for the Environment, the Chesapeake Bay Trust and the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience at Washington College. Students are invited to get involved with interviewing the people of the Chesapeake Bay region via one or two-day trips to various parts of the watershed from Cooperstown, N.Y., at the headwaters to the mouth of the Bay at Norfolk, VA. Just call me at the C.V. Starr Center and we can talk about developing an opportunity for you to interact with people who inspire you, people you admire and respect. Remember, the interviewing process helps you to open doors to otherwise hard to reach people. These opportunities also help to build bridges into communities where you might want to work and allow you to explore interests outside the walls of the college.

Q. Where do you see your relationship with iTunes U going next?

A. Once the Voices interviews are posted to the iTunes site I’ll have to do the work of linking them up with my website (www.VoicesoftheChesapeakeBay.org) and with many other sites. For instance, my interview with professional fly fisherman Lefty Kreh might be linked up with his own site and with other fly fishing sites. Each time people hear one of the Voices interviews they encounter many other opportunities to explore the Chesapeake Bay through the voices of others who have become a part of the Voices project.

Q. What other content do you recommend on iTunes U?

A. The other iTunes University sites offer endless opportunities to sit in on classes at many of the nation’s top schools. I like the MIT, Stanford and Yale sites. At the MIT site you can find lectures on the Science of Rainbows, while Stanford Lively Arts has programs with musicians Leonard Cohen and Phillip Glass or the legendary dancer Merce Cunningham. Yale has an environmental piece called It’s Not Easy Being a Frog and they are also, of course, famous for their theatre arts programs.

Contact Michael Buckley at mbuckley3@washcoll.edu or call 410-810-7156.