A Short Story Map
A Story Map is an internet platform created by Knight lab, which is an educational I.T. community at Northwestern University. This platform allows anyone to tell a story by connecting information and images through time and space.
While some stories are located in a single place and time, others span centuries and miles. In these stories, the Story Map platform can help demonstrate how far-flung locations are connected and by placing them graphically. The order of the slides can show chronological connections as well. Time lines can be embedded into the story map to help explore temporal connections further.
The Story Map Below presents a brief discussion of African Music in the New World. It shows images of instruments, as well as audio and video clips of African and New World musical styles pinned to specific places on a map. Because these images are tied to specific locations, this Story Map can help explain the strong connections between music in two such far flung places through a history of more than three hundred years.
Click on the arrows below to learn how traditional music in Africa centuries ago compares to African music today, and why American music relies so heavily on its African Roots.
At the same time, think about the format and function of this type of Academic product — The Story Map — and how it might be used as a platform for distributing knowledge, especially knowledge that connects different cultures and musical styles through time and space.
