Course

Tools

• Blackboard

• Adobe Premiere

Realization

The course's aim was to enable the students to design their own research process and to execute this. Special attention was put on the learning of qualitative methods and techniques as well as their application through ethnographic field work. The video workshop "Stories of Uprooting" was part of the seminar "Qualitative Methods in the Social Sciences". For the execution of the video workshop Juan Sebastián Gómez, journalist at Deutsche Welle, was invited as guest lecturer. 

The six-day workshop "Stories of Uprooting" was part of the "Welcome Refugees Projects" of the Institute for Latin American Studies of the Freie Universität Berlin. Students of the LAI and refugee youths had a joint dialogue and were able to exchange ideas and thereby develop creative short films on the topics: "Migration/Flight", "Inclusion" and "Everyday life in Berlin". The participants in the workshop were master students and refugee youths from Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan that came to Germany at the end of 2015 without any family. 

The goal of the seminar was to learn, understand and apply qualitative methods in the social sciences. The seminar was divided into four parts: 

1. Steps that need to be undertaken in research projects

2. Qualitative methods in the social sciences

3. Data collection, data evaluation and data analysis

4. Practical exercises with the help of the video workshop "Stories of Uprooting" 

The students were able to gain practical experience regarding data collection within the framework of the workshop "Stories of Uprooting". This was valid for ethnographic work (field research, semi-structured interviews and participatory observations, observations in general, protocols). This material was coded, analyzed and interpreted by the students. At the end of the video workshop the students handed in an ethnographic report.   

All participants had the chance, within the framework of the video workshop, to learn about all of the work steps that take place during a film production process (theoretical and technical aspects, compiling a storyboard for a short film, the basics of video filming and editing/cutting films). The results of the video workshop that was held in the summer semester of 2016 were published on the website of the Institute for Latin American Studies in order to use these for future research projects. 

Video 1: Documentary "Narrativas del Desarraigo (original in German)"

Video 2: Four short films

Experiences made by the lecturer

• Through the mutual concept work for the short films during the video workshop, a space was created in which the students and the refugees can interact and exchange ideas within the context of an intercultural dialog. The students were able to learn every step of the research process for themselves: identifying the problem, developing a research question, selecting the fitting theories and methods, data collection, data evaluation, data analysis and the compilation of an ethnographic report at the end of the seminar.   
• The three weekends were very tight when it came to the completion of the four short films. Only one group was able to present their short film on the third weekend, the others needed at least two weeks longer. The process of editing also took a long time. Due to this the results of the project were only presented in September. Not all of the students compiled their ethnographic reports. At the end of the seminar four groups only handed in three reports. Still, the practical exercises with ethnographic tasks were a very important experience for the students in the end.
• The documentary film was, based on the time and funding question, produced only one year later. The video workshop and the four short films were financed by the Institute for Latin American Studies. The recently aired documentary film was financed by the "Welcome@FU" program. In addition, the social associations MoveGlobal and Samo.fa supported us with free catering and translation work.

Further information

• The results of the video workshop are a documentary film and four short films that have been published on the website of the Institute for Latin American Studies of the FU Berlin.
• The documentary film "Narrativas del Desarraigo/Erzählungen von Entwurzelung/Stories of Uprooting" received the Audience award at the video competition "70 Years Campus International“ of the Freien Universität Berlin.

Support offered by CeDiS

• Consulting services for the implementation of digital solutions in teaching: The Center for Digital Systems (CeDiS) has extensive experience of many years when it comes to the implementation of digital media and systems within the fields of teaching, learning and research. We offer a wide variety of consulting services on the implementation of these tools and systems within the entire academic scope and especially at Freie Universität Berlin. 
• Training courses and workshops: For lecturers at Freie Universität Berlin (professors, employees, tutors) as well as lecturers of other universities CeDiS offers training courses and workshops on the topic of teaching and learning with digital media. These course enable participants to implement online elements within their own sphere of teaching.
• The Executive Board of the Freie Universität supports e-learning initiatives: With the e-learning funding program financial resources are provided to lecturers that enrich and improve their courses quality-wise by implementing technological and media-related support. All of the academic staff teaching, the lecturers or even the institutions of the Freie Universität - without the Charité-Universitätsmedizin - can be supported within this program.