Rainbow of Dreams: Memories in Black and White

Barbara B. Aitken is a public services librarian in the Douglas Library
at Queen’s University, a board certified genealogical record specialist, and a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists.

Rainbow of Dreams combines family history, education, and multimedia in
a project designed to involve students in writing, photography, computer
technologies, and family history stories as they research the family
history behind selected family photographs. The student-generated
photographs and text provide wonderful vignettes of family triumphs and
tragedies both in Montreal and in the immigrants’ homelands. The
three-year project began as a simple photography assignment in which
students brought to class rare family photographs and then proceeded to
produce enlargements of those photographs.

All three editors are major contributors to Media Files, a media
education curriculum for Quebec secondary schools. Their excellent book
will be especially useful for teachers who are looking for ways not only
to motivate students to write but also to integrate technology into
their classroom practices. Recommended for Canadiana and education
collections.