The Web site www.digitalheritage.org, including text, audio and video files produced by WCU students and faculty, officially went online Monday, June 2, said Scott Philyaw, director of the Mountain Heritage Center.

The Digital Heritage Project began as an initiative of WCU’s Institute for the Economy and the Future about three years ago, and in December 2006 the project was transferred to the center, Philyaw said.

A primary feature of the Web site are “Digital Heritage Moments,” 60-second audio files that focus on various aspects of WNC history and culture. The heritage moments are a collaborative effort of faculty in the departments of communication, history and music. About 100 heritage moments are available to the public through the Web site, Philyaw said.

“Digital Heritage Moments” also are being broadcast on radio across a 50-county area that includes WNC and portions of surrounding states. Officials representing the national radio syndicate Clear Channel Communications Inc. agreed to air the segments on four of its stations – WKSF, WWNC, WMXF and WPEK.

Clear Channel is seeking sponsors for the air time, which is being provided free to WCU, Philyaw said. Clear Channel expressed interest in airing the heritage moments as part of an overall effort to increase educational programming in the region, Philyaw said.

Associated with the “Digital Heritage Moments” on the project Web site are more than 40 essays that explore the same topics in greater detail. Written by history graduate student Tim Osment, the essays include illustrations obtained from WCU’s Special Collections office at Hunter Library and other sources.

Also, some of the audio “Digital Heritage Moments” and accompanying essays have associated videos that were shot by students studying with Arledge Armenaki, visiting associate professor of cinematography.

Last fall, four of Armenaki’s students went on location to shoot video to accompany a heritage moment audio file and essay that focus on the Shelton Laurel Massacre, a skirmish that took place in Madison County during the Civil War. The students – Evan Heimgartner, Patrick Kennedy, Danielle Callahan and John P. Good – brought in members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans organization and their families from McDowell County to play the parts.

Heimgartner, a junior from Whittier, filled the director’s role during the filming, which took place just outside the town of Marshall. The students also shot interview footage with Ron Rash, WCU’s Parris Distinguished Professor of Appalachian Culture, who incorporated the Shelton Laurel Massacre into one of his fiction books, “The World Made Straight.”

As the Web site is developed further, it will include other student contributions such as a Web page about the Jackson County community of Glenville, created by graphic design students, and information about outdoor recreation opportunities developed by students from the department of health and human performance, said Christie Fulcher, a history graduate student who is working on the project as a graduate assistant.

“This is a chance for students to apply what they learn in class toward a project for the general public,” Fulcher said.

Other components of the Web site will include resources for K-12 educators who are involved in the Adventure of the American Mind project; local history spotlights about areas such as Swain County’s Hazel Creek, and Allen’s Creek and Cataloochee in Haywood County; and lectures, presentations and demonstrations of Mountain Heritage Center events.

As a whole, the Digital Heritage Project fits in neatly with the “synthesis” of educational experience for students called for in WCU’s Quality Enhancement Plan, and with provisions of the University of North Carolina-Tomorrow report and the missions of WCU and the Mountain Heritage Center, Philyaw said.

“The Digital Heritage Project represents an exciting opportunity for WCU faculty and students to create something for the region,” Philyaw said. “It’s also an excellent opportunity for WCU students to collaborate with area residents – just as Evan Heimgartner did with the video on Shelton Laurel.”

For more information or to offer ideas for Web site content, contact Philyaw or Fulcher at (828) 227-7129.

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Last modified: Friday, June 6, 2008