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Ten Ways to Use Multimedia To Tell Your Life Story and Family History

There are a variety of ways you can use multimedia to tell your life story. These days you can be very creative with multimedia and choices include some of the following.

1. CAMCORDER. Use a camcorder to record a video of some aspects of your life story, or all of it. If you are new to using video software try an easier program such as windows movie maker, since it comes with your computer.

2. SCAN PHOTOS. Scan childhood and family photos into the computer and add them to the storyboard in the video software.

3. SUBTITLES. Add subtitles to the photos and video clips. If you are new to making videos this might sound complicated but it's just more click and choose types of steps.

4. RECORD. Make a vocal recording of a reading of parts of your life story, that plays while showing photos or video clips.

5. VIDEO CLIPS. Visit your childhood home or other important places from your life and make video clips showing them today. Research on the internet to find vintage photos of places or things from different historical eras in your life. For instance, if you grew up in the 1940's you might want to have photos of automobiles from that time.

6. INTERVIEWS. Make lists of questions and interview your family members about shared memories, perhaps of holiday times or other events.

7. HISTORY. Add historical material to give additional interest and perspective to your life story. For instance, if you were a teen-ager during the 1960's describe the national or world events that were taking place. What were you doing on the night the astronauts landed on the moon?

8. TAPE RECORD. Tape or use a digital recorder to record your memories when something triggers them. Try telling your story to a recorder and then transcribe it for a more spontaneous flow.

9. COMBINE. Combine video, music from eras of your life, photos scanned into the computer, subtitles, and more in a series of life stories from different parts of your life.

10. GRAPHICS. Add a graphic of your family tree to the video, and/or photos and videos of the family members.

Dividing Your Life Story Into Stages

Starting a life story can be a little like opening a closet you haven't looked at for awhile, and having everything fall out in a heap. Taking all those experiences and organizing them helps separate them into smaller, easier to handle chunks.

There are many different ways to divide the life story experiences into groups. One way I found recently used "The Eight Life Stages." Seeing how one stage, and it's experiences, led to the next stage, helps make the story meaningful. I learned some new things about myself by looking at my life story this way.

You can also visit the webpage for the Cuesta Community College Adult Emeritus class I take on Your Life Story for tips from instructor/facilitator Myla Collier.

A theory of Developmental Stages of Life, by the reknowned Dr. Eric Erikson, have long been accepted worldwide and taught in college classes. A glance at these stages can also help clarify your life story as you strive to put all those details into a timeline or groups of short stories.