Creating a Memory Exchange: Using Digital Storytelling to Preserve Community History

I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to teach history in a way that feels… alive.

Not just something students read about, but something they participate in, hold, and help preserve.

That thinking led us to begin building what we’re calling a Memory Exchange through the African Digital Humanities Lab at Jackson State University. And honestly, it didn’t start with technology, it started with a question:

What happens when we treat storytelling as both a learning tool and a form of care?

To help answer that, we’ve been looking to the work of Scott Ford House, Inc. and the Wombs of Wisdom project as a guiding example. Their work centers Black women’s care traditions, midwifery, and intergenerational knowledge, reminding us that history doesn’t just live in archives… it lives in people.

And if we’re not intentional, those stories disappear.

What We’re Building

The Memory Exchange is an interactive storytelling experience where participants can:

• Share oral histories
• Reflect through writing
• Contribute memories
• Engage with storytelling in ways that feel accessible and meaningful

It will be featured at Out of Office Field Day, where, plot twist, my students won’t just be participating…

They’ll be running it.

They are stepping into roles as:

• Facilitators
• Listeners
• Oral historians
• Digital storytellers

Step-by-Step: How We’re Building the Memory Exchange

Step 1: Start with the Story

Before we designed anything, we had to ask:

What story are we centering? We chose to use Scott Ford House, Inc. and their current initiative, Wombs of Wisdom as our model, we grounded the project in themes of:

• Care
• Memory
• Legacy
• Community survival

This kept us from building something that looked meaningful but didn’t actually hold meaning. We train our student fellows on facilitating and conducting oral histories in preparation. We also train them on the Apple tools that will be used for the technological aspects of the project.

Step 2: Design the Oral History Booth

This is the heart of the experience.

Participants can sit, take a breath (because we’re not rushing anyone here), and respond to prompts while recording their stories using Apple tools like Voice Memos, Clips, iMovie, or GarageBand.

It’s simple, intentional, and, most importantly, private enough for people to feel comfortable sharing. Students are not just completing an assignment, they are:

• Welcoming participants
• Guiding conversations
• Recording stories
• Thinking about ethics and care in real time

They are learning how to hold space, not just gather information.

The Memory Exchange invites participants to move through interactive stations, reflect on personal and family history, and contribute stories through audio, video, writing, and visual memory-making. We are asking: What does care look like across generations? Who holds our stories? How do we preserve memory before it disappears?

Apple Tools Used

• Voice Memos — Used for capturing oral histories in the moment. Its simplicity allows participants to focus on storytelling without feeling overwhelmed by technology.
• Clips — Supports quick, engaging storytelling through short videos, captions, and visual enhancements. This is especially useful for students who want to create immediate reflections or highlight key moments.
• iMovie — Allows students to transform raw recordings into structured narratives. They learn how to sequence stories, add visuals, and edit with intention, developing both technical and storytelling skills.
• GarageBand — Used to enhance audio storytelling by adding sound, music, or layering voices. This helps students think about tone, mood, and the emotional impact of storytelling.
• Keynote — Serves as a tool for designing prompts, instructions, and visual guides for the stations. It also supports student presentations and reflections after the event.
• Pages — Used for creating reflection sheets, consent forms, and written storytelling templates, supporting participants who prefer writing over speaking.

The Memory Exchange reminds students and community members that history is not only found in textbooks or archives. It lives in kitchens, porches, family stories, birth work, grief, joy, and memory. Through this project, students are learning how to listen, document, preserve, and honor the stories that shape us.

Through this experience, students are moving beyond passive learning and into active roles as:

• Facilitators of dialogue
• Stewards of community memory
• Creators of digital narratives

In this way, the Memory Exchange becomes more than a project, it becomes a teaching framework for how we can approach digital humanities, public history, and community-engaged learning with care and purpose.