The Labor Project
Project Description:
The project in humanities we did this semester was called the Labor Project. In this project we learned about labor from a historical context first and then related that to labor issues in the country today. Starting from pre-industrial revolution moving through the actual industrial revolution, to the start of globalization, to the issues of today, we got first hand and second hand perspectives on how labor issues affect the citizens of America. Through historical documents, we heard the stories of children working in factories during the IR, and car manufacturers losing their jobs to foreign people who would work for less through globalization. This project opened up our eyes to the humanitarian crisis that is labor, and the context of how it started.
In Class Historical Timed Writing essay:
Current Labor Issues Class Presentation: Economic Inequality in America
economic inequality in amer... by on Scribd
My Reflection:
I believe that my biggest challenge during this project was being an effective communicator with my group members. Starting from the beginning of the project, I had a vision of where I wanted the project to go and how I wanted it to sound. Being a perfectionist, I did not accept ideas that were very different than mine. For example, I was so focused on the informational portion of the podcast that when one of my group members suggested we went down a story-telling path instead, I got frustrated and ended up fighting with them about the direction we were going. In the end, I told myself that the only way we were going to create a project we were all proud of was if I was open to everyone’s ideas and we incorporated everyone’s ideas. I overcame this by first realizing that and then apologizing for fighting. The final project was something that we were all proud of, and that is all that I wanted. Another time I failed to communicate was during this project, was when we split up work to complete at home. Similarly to before, I failed to communicate with all of the group members what needed to be done, and so in turn, the tasks were not finished or completed correctly by the next day. If I had been more clear about how I envisioned it looking, I think it would have been done. In the future, I know that group work needs to be a collaboration of ideas and not me telling everyone how things should be done to fit my ideas. As someone who likes to think of themselves as a leader, I definitely could have communicated better throughout this project.
If I could do this project again, I would focus on learning more about the economic inequality in Durango and adding that to our podcast. While I feel as if I gained surface knowledge of this, I do not think I really uncovered the full situation. For example, in the interviews, we got the perspectives of 3 people who had experienced moderate to severe income inequality, but we never really touched on how big the gap is between them and the wealthiest in our community. Because of this, I feel as if we did not really get the bottom of the situation in our town, and did an injustice to all the people who are suffering or the people who just want to know what goes on in their town. If I were to do this again, I would’ve gotten other perspectives and information about the whole gap, and not just the lowest end of the spectrum.
The greatest insight I gained during this project was how interconnected politics and the economy/labor is set up. Before this project, I thought that these two were separate groups that had little to no effect on one another. In this project by learning the history of labor issues and comparing to the issues of today, I got a real sense of how wrong I originally was. One thing specifically I learned was how heavily federal government policies affect income inequality in this country. For example, policies like the CA estate tax and the GI Bill put into place by the U.S. government, created economic hardships for so many of its citizens. I also learned that policies like these are greatly affected by politician's “sponsors”. What I mean by this is that the top percent of people in this country have the money to support politicians and in turn, politicians are obligated to write and pass policies in their favor. This project gave me a better perspective on the real issue that is the foundation of all other labor issues, and that is the government and the effect it has on labor.
I am most proud of the editing I personally did on the podcast. I have two specific parts that I am most proud of though: the intro with the news clips, and the editing of Sara’s interview. While it might not seem like a lot, the intro to our podcast took almost as long as editing a 30-minute interview did. The technique of using news recordings is something I have always admired in other podcasts, and I honestly thought it just sounded really cool. Almost from the day I heard that we were making podcasts, I knew I wanted to incorporate it. Although, I had no idea how long this process would take. After finding 10’s on news clips on income inequality in America, I had to edit them down, make the volumes the same, and fade them into each other. I learned so much about sound editing and also about copyright laws. For example, none of the clips I included were longer than 8 seconds, and this is because any time past that, we are subjected to copyright. This process was one of the most professional parts of our podcast, and I am so proud of myself for being the creator of it.
If I were to pick the one way I grew most as a student in this project, it would be adapting to new and exciting mediums to create in. Podcasts were something I have listened to for school, but never have I created one or anything similar. For example, I have created videos and held interviews, both of which have strong connections to the skills needed to create a podcast, but never really worked with just audio. I believe that I was able to adapt to this quickly and pick up the process of using the equipment and the editing software pretty quickly, which is something I am proud of. Creating podcasts was one of the coolest final projects I have done at Animas, and is now something I have the skills to do this in the future in school and in my life.
If I could do this project again, I would focus on learning more about the economic inequality in Durango and adding that to our podcast. While I feel as if I gained surface knowledge of this, I do not think I really uncovered the full situation. For example, in the interviews, we got the perspectives of 3 people who had experienced moderate to severe income inequality, but we never really touched on how big the gap is between them and the wealthiest in our community. Because of this, I feel as if we did not really get the bottom of the situation in our town, and did an injustice to all the people who are suffering or the people who just want to know what goes on in their town. If I were to do this again, I would’ve gotten other perspectives and information about the whole gap, and not just the lowest end of the spectrum.
The greatest insight I gained during this project was how interconnected politics and the economy/labor is set up. Before this project, I thought that these two were separate groups that had little to no effect on one another. In this project by learning the history of labor issues and comparing to the issues of today, I got a real sense of how wrong I originally was. One thing specifically I learned was how heavily federal government policies affect income inequality in this country. For example, policies like the CA estate tax and the GI Bill put into place by the U.S. government, created economic hardships for so many of its citizens. I also learned that policies like these are greatly affected by politician's “sponsors”. What I mean by this is that the top percent of people in this country have the money to support politicians and in turn, politicians are obligated to write and pass policies in their favor. This project gave me a better perspective on the real issue that is the foundation of all other labor issues, and that is the government and the effect it has on labor.
I am most proud of the editing I personally did on the podcast. I have two specific parts that I am most proud of though: the intro with the news clips, and the editing of Sara’s interview. While it might not seem like a lot, the intro to our podcast took almost as long as editing a 30-minute interview did. The technique of using news recordings is something I have always admired in other podcasts, and I honestly thought it just sounded really cool. Almost from the day I heard that we were making podcasts, I knew I wanted to incorporate it. Although, I had no idea how long this process would take. After finding 10’s on news clips on income inequality in America, I had to edit them down, make the volumes the same, and fade them into each other. I learned so much about sound editing and also about copyright laws. For example, none of the clips I included were longer than 8 seconds, and this is because any time past that, we are subjected to copyright. This process was one of the most professional parts of our podcast, and I am so proud of myself for being the creator of it.
If I were to pick the one way I grew most as a student in this project, it would be adapting to new and exciting mediums to create in. Podcasts were something I have listened to for school, but never have I created one or anything similar. For example, I have created videos and held interviews, both of which have strong connections to the skills needed to create a podcast, but never really worked with just audio. I believe that I was able to adapt to this quickly and pick up the process of using the equipment and the editing software pretty quickly, which is something I am proud of. Creating podcasts was one of the coolest final projects I have done at Animas, and is now something I have the skills to do this in the future in school and in my life.