Digital
Memoirs
Online Course
10 video lessons lasting 90 minutes
Learn how to start creating Digital Memoirs of your own right away!
1. Dream it
It all begins with a dream. You want to gather all your photos, videos, and stories in one place and be able to show them anytime, anywhere, to anyone. This is the way to tell the story of your life in a Digital Memoir with Google Sites.
2. Fresh Start
Clear your mind. I suggest to start fresh with a new Google account. Google accounts are free. A Google account includes: Gmail, Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Sites, a Youtube Channel and more. Whether you have 1 Google account or 10, you will need a new one for this important Digital Memoirs project.
3. Treasury Site
You will start by creating what I call a “Treasury” Google Site. This means it will be the one main website where all your other sites connect to. Since I have so many photos and videos, I make a different Google Site for each year, then I connect all my years up to my Treasury Site. You can create many Google Sites just like you make many Google Docs. Your Treasury Site will be your main website so you only have to give one link to your loved ones.
4. Organization
Organization is the key to the whole process. I will help you figure out the best organization scheme and what not to waste your time on. Organization can be tedious, but there are ways to make it more enjoyable. Something I learned from Marie Kondo is to focus on what Sparks Joy!
5. Storage
You will want to make sure you are choosing the right kind of storage to keep your digital media safe and accessible.
6. Old Media
If you have physical photos or video tapes, I will discuss how to convert all those into digital formats. It is easier than you think!
7. Video Editing
This is my favorite part of the journey because you get to re-live all those wonderful video moments! Video editing can be easy if all you do is cut down long videos and put together short ones.
8. YouTube
After you edit your videos, you upload them to your YouTube channel. When you set them to “unlisted,” only the people you want will be able to see them. So really, you are only using YouTube as a place to store your videos.
9. Story Writing
After you have gone through all your photos and videos, you are ready to write the stories of your life. This is a chance for you to look back and reconsider how you felt about yourself and maybe even rewrite the narrative to suit your current frame of mind. This can be surprisingly healing.
10. Putting it All Together
By creating your Digital Memoirs with Google Sites, you will become the memoirian of your family (like the librarian only with memories ;) and everyone will rely on you for all their memories. This has been the most rewarding work I have ever done in my life! Life is precious, treasure it!