Student Videos

 

Having watched a number of these student videos on topics ranging from the Cuban Revolution in the 1960s to the meeting of two worlds: the Spanish and the Aztecs I can say that I’ve learnt much from some and very little from others but more importantly I’ve learnt what makes one of these videos so engaging and informative. 
 
The videos that impressed me the most out of the ones I watched were ‘The Legacy of US Interventionism in Latin America’ by Joe, Felipe and Olga as well as ‘The Meeting of Two Worlds: Aztec Edition’ by Sophie, Michelle, Elena and Christiana. The first of the two began with a clear introduction outlining the cases that would be examined in order to illustrate the legacy of US interventionism in the region as well as stating how they would use the historical context of the intervention, the rhetoric and tactics used by the US government to justify the intervention and the political, economic and social consequences on the region to explain their view. The graphics and images shown were all highly relevant to what they were discussing which along with the slower pace at which they spoke made the video very easy to follow along. Overall I found the video very informative and easy to watch.
 
Another video that I enjoyed was ‘The Meeting of Two Worlds: Aztec Edition’ by Sophie, Michelle, Elena and Christiana. The video was filled with funny animations with annotated speech bubbles describing the content being explained in a much simpler fashion which made the video very (funny and) easy to watch and understand. Furthermore, the narration was at a good speed so you didn’t feel that you had to give it your undivided concentration or you’d miss everything. Overall it gave a very clear comparison of life before and after the Spanish Conquest and was very enjoyable to watch!
 
I also watched ‘Independence Narratives, Past and Present’ by Anna and Nisa and whilst it was very funny the loud background noise, fast pace and funny country faces did distract you from what they were actually saying and made it quite difficult to follow the content of what they were saying but it was certainly fun to watch! Finally, when watching ‘A Revolutionary Process: The Cuban Revolution in the 1960s’ by Florence, Kelsey and Laura whilst I found the text on the side very helpful and the images interesting to look at I did not feel they were all completely relevant to what was being said and a little distracting especially when the narration was so fast!
 

Overall, I enjoyed watching these videos as they have given me a brief look into what we’ll be covering in LAST 100 and I was very impressed with how much content the students managed to fit into such short videos as well as the quality of the video production!

Comments

  1. CynthiaSeptember 14, 2020 at 3:36 PM

    Hi Serena! I also enjoyed ‘The Meeting of Two Worlds: Aztec Edition’ by Sophie, Michelle, Elena and Christiana. I thought the animations and speech bubbles made it stand out from the rest. In addition, the narration was clear and well paced.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week Two: The Meeting of Two Worlds

Having grown up in Europe the image of Columbus presented to us at school was that of the accidental hero who stumbled across America whilst in search of India and returned home with mountains of gold much to the pride and delight of Spain. However, recent socio-political movements regarding the glorification of colonisation in Europe has put Columbus’ heroic status along with other key imperialist figures such as Napoleon and Rhodes into question. And so it is with these two conflicting outlooks that I began this week’s reading and lecture hoping to find a resolute answer to whether Columbus deserves the status of a hero or a villain.   As I began Columbus’ journal I was initially intrigued by his leading strategy, lying to the crew about how far they had sailed presumably in the hope of encouraging them to work harder the next day. He struck me as a respected, competent leader – however this may just be due to his own perception of himself as arguably he cannot have been that com...
Read more

Week Three: The Colonial Experience

I really enjoyed the readings this week, in particular I found Catalina de Erauso’s diary particularly engaging and surprising with it reading like a soap opera at times!  What struck me most about Catalina’s story was that she received no punishment when her identity was revealed but instead was honoured by both the Pope and the King. I found this so surprising as even in Europe today queer people are not always accepted by the Catholic Church – in Italy gay marriage is not legal due to the Catholic Church’s controversial influence over the country’s politics. The fact that she was so readily accepted would perhaps suggest that the Church and the King were not aware of her sexuality but only saw her as a woman who had dressed as a man for the sole purpose of serving her country and not as a way of expressing her own gender identity.   Furthermore, I was surprised that the highest powers at the time, the State and the Church, both recognised that a woman was capable of doing a...
Read more

Week Four: Independence Narratives, Past and Present

Having studied the French revolution and the Napoleonic empire for the last two years I was excited to find out what had happened in the Spanish and Portuguese colonies beyond my limited knowledge that they had sought independence shorty after Napoleon’s victory. However, I was sad to learn that in the case of Brazil this was done in an effort to avoid the abolition of slavery. Whilst it was not uncommon during the period for the elites to favour slavery as it benefitted them greatly, in all the revolutions I had previously studied the poor so greatly outnumbered the rich it was possible for them to overthrow the regime. Therefore, I was disheartened to learn how during a time of global revolution liberalism was crushed in Brazil in favour of the arguably dated idea of a constitutional monarchy. After reading José Martí’s “Our America” a concept that particularly stood out for me was governing specifically for the place being governed. It is the familiar idea that no one size fits all ...
Read more