Our latest endeavour in Humanities was all around WWII and what its legacy is today. The big end goal of this unit was to create a 5-7 minute podcast answering our driving question “What is the legacy of WWII today?”.
Podcasting is something I never really thought I would do especially within my high school career. I’ve never really been a huge fan of podcasts except for one; a CBC podcast called Under the Influence. I’ve listened to it since I was a small child. I bring this up because having a podcast that I had previously listened to and liked actually helped me create and make my own. I figured out that I enjoyed when the podcast is very descriptive and almost like a documentary (narrative on interviews and content). Once I had figured this out I was able to integrate this into my very own podcast.
Before we made our own podcasts we did a lot of learning and research about WWII, we watched parts from WWII in colour which was pretty amazing to say the least. We did a lot of talking about big events and turning points such as the Invasion of Poland, Operation Barbarossa and D’Day.
For the making of the podcast with the goal of answering the driving question (What is the legacy of WWII?) we really wanted to get some interviews, so we contacted the Memory Project in regards to see if they could put us into contact with either veterans from the War or people effected by it. They were kind enough to put us in contact with a bunch of people who we then asked them if we could come interview them about WWII and for our podcasts. My group Luca, Emily and myself got the wonderful opportunity to interview and talk with Svend Hansen who worked as a coder in the royal canadian navy during WWII. We created a series of questions to ask him during the interview.
Once we had the audio from the interview it was time to create the podcasts! My group and I each took on different parts and topics. I chose to focus mine around the role of the Canadian navy then, and how it compares to it’s role today as well as how and why Svend values Remembrance Day.
The legacy of WWII today I believe is younger generations because we are the ones who have to prevent another event like this from happening. We have to take what we know from the past and apply it to now and the future ahead of us. We have to take charge with our future and shape it how we want it.
To actually put together and edit all of the audio clips into a podcast we used GarageBand. I had a lot of trouble at first figuring out how to actually get the interview into GarageBand and I also had a lot of technical difficulties with our intro music as well so I didn’t start off great. So I sat down one afternoon and just went for it and at that point I actually understood and knew how to do everything I needed to do for the editing portion. 
Once I was done editing we then had to upload our podcasts to soundcloud and at first we had a lot of issues with this, but within a day or so we were able to make them work.
With this unit and project I do feel like I’ve gained a lot of knowledge, especially with audio texts and how to interpret them and edit them. I do also feel like I have a much better understanding of WWII and how it effected the world and its legacy today. I do also feel very proud of the work I did and I’m very happy with how it turned out. Overall I have to say that this was a very successful project for me as I’m happy with my creation and all the knowledge I’ve gained over the last month or so.
If you would like to listen to our PLP podcast series about the legacy of WWII today click here
