The Citizen Archivist Project Curriculum

Participants in the Smallbean Citizen Archivist Project learn technology and computer skills from Smallbean computer labs while uploading, preserving, and showcasing oral history interviews, photographs, and video footage capturing stories of life in communities around the world through the eyes of local citizens. As part of the Citizen Archivist Project, Smallbean is able to provide technology infrastructure and training to developing world communities while also supplying a means for preserving and sharing the cultures most likely to be negatively impacted by globalization.

How the curriculum works

First employed by Smallbean while teaching the Citizen Archivist Project in Tanzania in February 2010, the award-winning CAP curriculum has been continually modified and improved with the help of graduate students from the Harvard School of Education and via live-teaching feedback from undergraduates at MIT. The curriculum stresses an interdisciplinary "learn by doing" approach to technology skills education and doesn't just leave our instructors in front of the classroom lecturing on boring terms like "double click" and "aperture". The CAP curriculum contains both student and teacher versions of the materials and is designed as a stand-alone teaching system that can be taught by just about anyone with a basic knowledge of computers and technology. 

The current curriculum is composed of ten teaching units and designed to be taught in approximately 20 - 30 classroom hours. First, students learn basic photography and oral history interviewing skills. Participants then hone their skills by taking pictures, recording videos, and conducting oral history interviews in their communities. Back in the technology lab, students learn Windows-based computer skills as they upload, organize, and manipulate their photos, movies, and audio interviews in the Smallbean Digital Archive. Finally, students learn the importance of showcasing and sharing the data they've collected, both with their local communities and with the world. 

The curriculum is currently available in English. We are working to translate the curriculum into Swahili, Spanish, and Creole. Please contact Smallbean for more information on the curriculum and information on how your organization can get involved with the Citizen Archivist Project.