Bland County History Archives Project, created by the students of Rocky Gap High School, Rocky Gap, Virginia. Oral histories and their transcipts, cemetery record databases, images, life narratives, special exhibits and more.
"The Rocky Gap High School Oral History and Technology Project is place based education. It is grounded past, present, and future in this place, Bland County, Virginia. The history, the culture, the technology, the writing skills, and the organizational and managerial lessons are all rooted in this place, in these mountains.
The project is a unique blend of tradition and technology. Technology is the lure to bring students to their community history through the stories of its citizens. However it is these stories that give content for the technology to organize, manipulate, and publish. The process gives a student sense of place and thus of himself.
The purpose of this part of the Archives is to help teachers or community members initiate similar projects. The links to the right will show how this was done. It will also explain much of the philosophy and thought behind the project.
Rocky Gap students also travel and conduct oral history workshops. A multimedia presentation is available that explains the project.
We plan to have a cd and a short video to share by the end of this school year. "
