E-Learning
Themes
CAA - 'E-Learning in Archaeology' Session
On February the 6th and 7th 2009 the 'Computer Application in Archaeology' conference was held at the University of Liverpool. During this event the Subject Centre ran an 'E-Learning in Archaeology' session. The abstracts and information presented at this session, along with podcasts of the presentations, can be found below.
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Helping students engage with multiple interpretations in a VLE - Evaluating Multiple Interpretations (eMI): The Altar of Pergamum
Speaker: Eleanor OKell (CSC - classics in the HCA Subject Centre)
Many of us have students who start out looking for THE right answer, and part of becoming an archaeologist is realising that there are a range of right answers, constantly being revised in light of the evidence and development of new techniques. If students fail to realise these then they cannot progress and retention itself becomes an issue. This paper will present a fully editable e-Learning tool that has been developed (by HCA and RLO-CETL) to enable practitioners to expose their students to multiple views of single artefacts within a 'safe but challenging' learning environment and assist them to acquire this threshold concept.
eMI's purpose is to familiarise students with a range of interpretations, test their understanding of details, similarities and differences, and assist them to form their own critical interpretation. In doing so, the tool creates an on-line tutorial populated with the practitioners' own chosen materials and focused on their course content. All that is required is the ability to upload .jpg, .txt and .mp3 files, although the tool is being developed to support a range of file types and permit more sophisticated manipulation of the materials held within it (e.g. zoomable and rotatable images).
The eMI: Altar of Pergamum online tutorial will be demonstrated, the underlying pedagogy explained and the location of the free GLO-Maker tool identified.
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GLOs and Enquiry Based Learning
Speaker: Janet Tatlock (Director of Combined Studies, University of Manchester)
A project that has been in part funded by the Centre for Excellence in Enquiry Based Learning (EBL) and supported by staff at the Reusable Learning Object Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) at London Metropolitan University has tested or developed a series of GLO templates to maximise the impact of both to produce three workshops around the issues of values and worth; the workshops can be delivered in real or virtual worlds. The project has also explored issues of digital capture of objects and the impact this has on learning. The intention is to produce materials that introduce minority disciplines to pupils in schools and prepare them for University teaching methods. The materials can be used by staff in Universities and Collections but can also be accessed by Schools as a series of virtual workshops and a template for the construction of their own collections.
History in your Hands - Using Mobile Devices in Heritage Interpretation
Speaker: Angharad Williams (Education Officer, Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales)
For the last three years the Royal Commission has been developing the use of mobile devices to attract both new and well-established audiences to enjoy and learn about the diversity of the Welsh historic environment. These applications allow the delivery of information and audio-visual resources outside traditional environments such as museums or heritage sites, and help bring new meaning to buildings and landscapes.
As part of the Royal Commission's education programme, the use of Personal Digital Assistants has improved the learning experience of young people in Wales. The presentation will include information about a pioneering educational project with young people in Ruthin and the latest e-trail at Blaenavon.
The Ruthin e-trail project shows how collaboration between a number of organisations can work to the benefit of all involved. Through this partnership it has been possible to develop new and innovative ways of delivering heritage information to a wider audience, whilst local students have developed measurable Key Skills which count towards their attainment of the Welsh Baccalaureate.
At Blaenavon IT students working towards their Welsh Baccalaureate are learning about the fundamentals of GIS, GPS and mobile technology and investigating their local heritage. By encouraging these young people to investigate the heritage resources available to them, it is hoped they will develop an appreciation of the historic environment that surrounds them.
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iSupervisor: using mobile devices in undergraduate fieldwork training
Speakers: Bob Johnston (Department of Archaeology, University of Sheffield) and Graham McElearney (Learning and Teaching Services, University of Sheffield)
We will report on a project that is developing learning resources for mobile devices accessible to undergraduate students ‘in the field'. The project responds to two problems: (1) there are restricted opportunities for students to learn and practice field skills independently from direct supervision; (2) printed text and images are poor at representing practical processes. Six multi-media tutorials (including video and audio content) are currently being developed for use on mobile devices. Each tutorial concentrates on a core skill in archaeological excavation, and provides students with the means to undertake tasks independently or with limited supervision. We will present examples of two tutorials (‘photography' and ‘taking levels') and discuss initial evaluations of their effectiveness. The project is part of a broader initiative at the University of Sheffield to develop the use of mobile devices in both undergraduate and postgraduate teaching and learning in archaeology.
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Using Second Life to Teach Spatial Theory in Archaeology
Speaker: Ruth Young (Director of Distance Learning and Lecturer, University of Leicester)
Authors: Palitha Edirisingha, Ming Nie, Mark Pluciennik, Matthew Wheeler and Ruth Young
In 2008 a pilot study aimed at exploring the pedagogical potential of Second Life (a three-dimensional multi-user virtual environment) for teaching spatial theory in archaeology was carried out at the University of Leicester. Students who were enrolled on the Distance Learning ‘Archaeological Theory' module (level 2) took part in a series of Second Life sessions over six weeks, along with two lecturers and a Second Life expert. These sessions were linked to the module section dealing with spatial theory, and were intended to allow students to explore issues of things such as access and restriction within a virtual environment. The student experience of Second Life was studied through interviews, observations and records of chat-logs, and the students offered an assessment of the usefulness of Second Life and the exercises at the end of the sessions. This paper explains the process and content of the study, and summarises the student responses.
The study is part of a bigger one year research and development project entitled "Modelling of Secondlife Environments" (MOOSE, http://www.le.ac.uk/beyonddistance/moose/) run by the Beyond Distance Research Alliance, University of Leicester, and funded by the UK Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC).
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Use of multi-media in virtual, problem-based field trips: a pilot study
Speaker: Andrew Folkard, Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University LA1 4YQ
Field trips serve a range of different educational purposes across many disciplines in HE. Whilst they may be used simply to give students first-hand experience of specific sites, they may also act as the basis for the development of practical skills or for exercises in interpretation or modelling. In the latter case, the experience and/or data gained on the field trip is typically combined with information collected and analysed from non-field sources in order to complete the exercise. Access to the field site may also be limited for some students due to health issues or limitations to funds for transportation. Both of these factors suggest that providing virtual alternatives to field trips is possible and desirable. In these, the observation and measurement undertaken on the field trip is replaced by videos of field trip activity, and may be put together into a multi-media package combining GIS and underpinning theoretical and historical information. In this presentation, a pilot study investigating the feasibility of such an approach for a physical geography field trip will be described, and comparison to archaeological field trip exercises discussed.
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Archaeology and Podcasts
Speaker: Alan Greaves (Lecturer in Archaeology, University of Liverpool)
Podcasts can take a number of forms: audio-only, enhanced audio (i.e. sound with stills images), or video. Increasingly accessible user-friendly software packages and affordable hardware make the production of such digital resources easier than ever before. When combined with the increasing use of MLE resources in the wireless campus environment and students' own portable communications and entertainment devices (e.g. mobile phones and iPods) podcasts have the potential to become powerful tools for M-Learning.
This paper will examine a number of case studies for the use of podcasts to support learning and teaching in different aspects of archaeology. Piloted at The University of Liverpool, these case studies give us an insight into the way in which podcasts can enhance the learning experience of students studying archaeology, and their limitations. These case studies include:
* Voice recordings of lectures (audio-only)
* Audio-only podcasts for use on fieldtrips
* Enhanced-audio skills podcasts
* Interactive Quicktime VR and audio soundtrack (the CONTACT Project)
From Disability to Inclusion: The Inclusive, Accessible, Archaeology Project
Speaker: Tim Phillips (University of Reading)
This talk looks at the inclusion of disabled students in archaeological fieldwork training by asking the basic question - how can archaeological fieldwork teaching be made inclusive? It requires a change of emphasis from ‘disability' to ability. Rather than excluding or categorising individuals, students can actively evaluate their own skills. The development of a self-evaluation tool kit with which all students can identify and track the development of their professional and transferable skills is described. It is argued that, because of its dynamic nature, an archaeological excavation provides the opportunity to take a flexible and individual approach to providing inclusion.
The self-evaluation tool kit is a freely available web-based resource that is available at: http://www.britarch.ac.uk/accessible/
Guide to good practice: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/hca/archaeology/features_resources/guides
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