Social networking service in oral history research and education project

Abstract

This article describes the experience of supplementing conventional Learning Management Systems (LMS) with Social Networking Service (SNS) aiming at analysis of historical memory of the Soviet past using the method of Oral History by Paul Thompson (1935). Opportunities of the Russian social network, VKontakte, were used for execution of research and education project: Family Memory of the Soviet Past (2014-2020) for students specializing in Culturology at Russian State Social University on the basis of Memory Studies and Oral History theories. This article presents the main educational and scientific results of the project. Using the SNS, the practical component of humanitarian education was implemented; the VKontakte project activity allowed involving student groups in researching; transcripts and photos were collected in digital archive, analysis and discussion were performed. The VKontakte network group demonstrated opportunities of international student research in post-Soviet countries, allowed students to master practical skills of acquisition and analysis of empirical data, as well as became an identification factor of a student group as a part of scientific community.

Keywords

• research and education project
• vkontakte social network
• memory studies
• oral history