Local News

Shelbyville resident promotes Indiana history through multimedia

Through a Ball State immersive learning course, Emma Brauer of Shelbyville, helped create a reenactment video, virtual walking tour, virtual museum, and an in-depth marketing plan to celebrate, preserve and promote Indiana history.

 

Brauer, a history major with minors in anthropology and historic preservation, worked with nine other students through this four-part course to learn new skills in multimedia history education.

 

“I learned so much in this course – from marketing, to writing, to website creation. And most importantly, I realized this is exactly what I want to do with my life: educate the public in intriguing ways,” Brauer said.

 

One component of the course culminated in a short documentary film that featured students re-enacting the distinct roles of unsung revolutionary war heroes who brought Indiana to statehood. The students partnered with the Sons of the American Revolution and Ball State’s Digital Corps to learn the story of each war hero and to produce the documentary. The video can be viewed at https://vimeo.com/album/59362.

 

Brauer leveraged the virtual landscape by helping to create a historical virtual walking tour for eight districts in Putnam County, Indiana. Each 10-12 stop multimedia tour consists of narrative audio sound bites, written description and pictures that the students mapped, wrote, recorded, and researched. The tour can be accessed through phone or computer at http://heritagepreservationsociety.org/.

 

The junior also contributed to the creation of virtual museum that showcases Indiana’s role in the civil rights movement. The 90-exhibit online space displays the influential people, places and struggles that shaped Indiana. The virtual museum can be accessed through http://digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/.

 

The final part of the course required the students to create a marketing plan for the Canal Society of Indiana, which aimed to connect the historical organization with a new demographic. Brauer is confident the series of marketing strategies will heighten the historical organization’s membership and influence in the community. 

 

“Most of the time in history classes, students write papers or take notes. In this class, however, we created products for public consumption, and worked with great clients,” Brauer said. “This was an extremely challenging course. I received such a unique hands-on experience  and feel empowered because of it. I hope my hard work makes the Muncie, Ball State, and Shelbyville communities proud.”

Search

Weather


Obits

Entertainment