Kickstarter campaign launched for an App for the Veteran’s History Project
Every little bit counts. Please consider donating to this kickstarter campaign that helps students participate in the Veteran’s History Project
The Veteran’s History Project (VHP) was created in 2000 through the Library of Congress (LC) with the goal of collecting oral history interviews, memories, letters, photographs, and other original materials from US veterans. All of the videos are archived in the Library of Congress and available to the public and researchers through a searchable, online database. Through this project, mostly adult volunteer interviewers have spoken and collected videos and audiotapes with over 75,000 veterans of World War I through current conflicts.
A few years ago, a group of Newton North High School students, working with with Iraq vet, Lt. Travis Bickford, created the VHP-Student Edition (VHP-SE) to try to make this project more accessible to the millions of students who can and should participate in this national program honoring and preserving the experiences of our nation’s vets. We helped to design and create a more student-freindly website. The VHP-SE has helped enabled great student work (see this short video about the VHP-SE in Chicago), but without an App, the project remains user-friendly than it should be. Although a small number of teachers have encouraged students’ to participate, most are unaware of the project and, it remains too complicated for many students to do it on their own.
This VHP App will be a game changer. We have worked with a very talented and experienced App developer to design what we all think will be a very user friendly VHP App. It addresses all of the difficulties that keep youth from engaging in this treasure of a program. Now all we need is the funds to support this project.
Here’s why the App will be a game changer:
VHP App-Using a smart phone, students can do the VHP video while the prompts appear on the screen. They check boxes to decide which questions they want in their script and can add their own.
VHP App-Students will be able to tap the screen when they hear something they want to tag. The App notes the time and takes students directly back to those sections to create an online log.
VHP App–All forms will appear directly on the smart phone. The vet can touch sign them on the phone and the student can directly upload them.
VHP App–Within the App, the student can take pictures of original material and email it directly to the vet.
VHP App–Students will be able to automatically upload the videos and all materials to a server from which they can then download to a thumb drive.
We know that these features will make a huge difference. Most students we tell about the VHP want to do the interviews but the current VHP website and protocol make it very difficult. We believe that with this App, many more students will be able to participate, learn about vets’ service and sacrifice firsthand, and contribute to our nation’s archives. Finally, the Library of Congress is onboard and will consider recommending the Library of Congress app if we develop it.
