Mosi Google Hangout

 
This video is a small preview of that the video chat was like. During this clip Jamie, the museum worker, talks about orphan Laborers.

Before the video chat we did some background research so we would be prepared for the Google hangout. First, we searched websites to find information on some machines used back in the 1800s. I learned that a Hooper feeder and Scutcher is used to break up cotton bales into loose clumps of fiber, which is then processed later. We watched a video from Jamie which gave us about nine key words. After we drafted questions that were later asked during the chat. This was helpful because i knew the functions of the machines; instead of taking notes on how the machine worked i could pay close attention to see Jamie demonstrate on it.

    The industrial revolution greatly impacted the families in both positive and negative ways. Before factories families would have spinning wheels in their own house, and work as a family to produce cloth. They would work together in the attics so they could get the most daylight possible to work as long as they could. This was hard living because it took a lot of effort. Once the technology started to improve,  the machines were put into factories and mills because they were big for houses. This is when families started to spend less and less time together. During this time mills used to search for girls around age fourteen and ask for them to leave their families and work in the mills. Personally, i think what happened inside the mills affected families the most. The mills had no safety regulations and were very unsanitary. Many people became disabled and even died form these dangerous machines. Families still sent other members and even themselves, despite the horrible conditions just to get some pay back home.

     I though having an expert teach us the machinery via Skype was much more interesting than reading about it on a website. It was nice because we could get all angles of the machines, and he demonstrated how some of them worked. On a website or book usually there is only pictures so its harder to get a visual. Plus watching Jamie was more intriguing because it was like talking to an actual person because you could ask questions. The only drawbacks to video chat was the connection was rough at times; it got frustrating when we could here his voice but it was stuck on his face. Also, the museum was loud making it hard to hear.  I would definitely like to do this again with other experts, but do more background research because taking notes while he was talking made me feel like i was missing a lot of information.

This is a picture of Jamie telling our class about how he became a curator