Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T06:47:15.326Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Teaching for Data Reuse and Working toward Digital Literacy in Archaeology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 April 2022

Kevin Garstki*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Global Religions, and Cultures, University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh, WI, USA
*
([email protected], corresponding author)

Abstract

This article outlines a model for teaching undergraduate and graduate archaeology students the skills for working with open-access archaeological data and using digital tools for analysis. Due to the often limited opportunities for students to learn methods directly for data reuse, large archaeological datasets remain stagnant and unused in digital archives. The bloat of unused data stands as a major ethical hurdle in heritage fields. This article explores an approach for addressing this issue, which is to incorporate data and digital literacy training into standard archaeological curricula. This approach consists of covering a wide range of topics that contribute to digital and data fluency that include both practical digital skills and discussions aimed at contextualizing the tools into larger, ethical, and sociopolitical frameworks. This article offers summaries of the activities and tutorials developed for this project and provides open access to all of the resources for future use.

Este artículo propone un modelo pedagógico para educar a alumnos pre- y posgrados de arqueología en el uso de tecnologías digitales para acceder a datas de acceso libre y en el uso de herramientas digitales analíticos. Debido a la escasez de oportunidades para alumnos en aprender directamente a los métodos del reúso de data, grandes colecciones de data quedan sin analizar en depósitos digitales. La cantidad de data sin uso queda como un obstáculo ético en los campos de patrimonio. Este artículo investiga a un camino en resolver a este problema. Este camino consiste en incorporar en currículos arqueológicos canónicos capacitación en el reusó de data y el alfabetismo digital. Esta estrategia incluye la amplia cobertura de diversos temas que contribuyen en la fluidez digital y fluidez con data, formas de fluidez que cuentan tanto con capacidades digitales prácticas como con debates enfocados en contextualizar a las herramientas adentro de anchos esquemas éticos y sociopolíticos. Este artículo provine resúmenes de las actividades y tutoriales desarrolladas para este proyecto y provine acceso libre a todos los recursos para uso futuro.

Type
Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Society for American Archaeology

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES CITED

Agbe-Davies, Anna S., Galle, Jillian E., Hauser, Mark W., and Neiman, Fraser D. 2014 Teaching with Digital Archaeological Data: A Research Archive in the University Classroom. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 21:837861.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beaulieu, Marie-Claire, and Bucci, Anthony 2020 Programming without Code: Teaching Classics and Computational Methods. In DATAM: Digital Approaches to Teaching the Ancient Mediterranean, edited by Heath, Sebastian, pp. 127148. The Digital Press at the University of North Dakota, Grand Forks.Google Scholar
Blakely, Sandra 2020 Playing the Argonauts: Pedagogical Pathways through Creation and Engagement in a Virtual Sea. In DATAM: Digital Approaches to Teaching the Ancient Mediterranean, edited by Heath, Sebastian, pp. 97126. The Digital Press at the University of North Dakota, Grand Forks.Google Scholar
Caraher, William 2020 Dissecting Digital Divides in Teaching. In DATAM: Digital Approaches to Teaching the Ancient Mediterranean, edited by Heath, Sebastian, pp. 7182. The Digital Press at the University of North Dakota, Grand Forks.Google Scholar
Carlson, David L. 2017 Quantitative Methods in Archaeology Using R. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cook, Katherine 2017 Teaching Open Data Repository. Electronic document, https://github.com/KatherineRCook/TeachingOpenData. DOI:10.5281/zenodo.1009169.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cook, Katherine, Çakirlar, Canan, Goddard, Timothy, DeMuth, Robert Carl, and Wells, Joshua 2018 Teaching Open Science: Published Data and Digital Literacy in Archaeology Classrooms. Advances in Archaeological Practice 6:144156.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Daems, Dries 2020 A Review and Roadmap of Online Learning Platforms and Tutorials in Digital Archaeology. Advances in Archaeological Practice 8:8792.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, Stephen R. P., Livingood, Patrick C., Ward, H. Trawick, and Steponaitis, Vincas P. 1998 Excavating Occaneechi Town: Archaeology of an Eighteenth-Century Indian Village in North Carolina. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill. CD-ROM.Google Scholar
Dibble, Harold L., McPherron, Shannon P., and Roth, Barbara J. 2000 Virtual Dig: A Simulated Archaeological Excavation of a Middle Paleolithic Site in France. Mayfield, Mountain View, California.Google Scholar
Garstki, Kevin 2019 The Social Production of Iron in First Millenium BC Ireland. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 38:443463.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garstki, Kevin 2020 Digital Innovations in European Archaeology. Cambridge Elements: The Archaeology of Europe. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Graham, Shawn 2020 An Enchantment of Digital Archaeology: Raising the Dead with Agent-Based Models, Archaeogaming and Artificial intelligence. Berghahn Books, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Graham, Shawn, Gupta, Neha, Carter, Michael, Compton, Beth, Smith, Jolene, Angourakis, Andreas, Reinhard, Andrew, et al. 2019 The Open Digital Archaeology Textbook. Electronic document, https://o-date.github.io/draft/book/, accessed January 1, 2020.Google Scholar
Hageneuer, Sebastian (editor) 2020 Communicating the Past in the Digital Age: Proceedings of the International Conference on Digital Methods in Teaching and Learning in Archaeology (12–13 October 2018). Ubiquity Press, London.Google Scholar
Heath, Sebastian (editor) 2020 DATAM: Digital Approaches to Teaching the Ancient Mediterranean. The Digital Press at the University of North Dakota, Grand Forks.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holter, Erika, and Schwesinger, Sebastian 2020 Modelling and Simulation to Teach (Classical) Archaeology: Integrating New Media into the Curriculum. In Communicating the Past in the Digital Age: Proceedings of the International Conference on Digital Methods in Teaching and Learning in Archaeology (12–13 October 2018), edited by Hageneuer, Sebastian, pp. 167178. Ubiquity Press, LondonGoogle Scholar
Huggett, Jeremy 2018 Reuse Remix Recycle: Repurposing Archaeological Digital Data. Advances in Archaeological Practice 6:93104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kansa, Sarah W. 2015 Using Linked Open Data to Improve Data Reuse in Zooarchaeology. Ethnobiology Letters 6:224231.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kansa, Sarah W., Atici, Levent, Kansa, Eric C., and Meadow, Richard H. 2020 Archaeological Analysis in the Information Age: Guidelines for Maximizing the Reach, Comprehensiveness, and Longevity of Data. Advances in Archaeological Practice 8:4045.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marwick, Ben, Wang, Li-Ying, Robinson, Ryan, and Loiselle, Hope 2020 How to Use Replication Assignments for Teaching Integrity in Empirical Archaeology. Advances in Archaeological Practice 8:7886.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mauri, Michele, Elli, Tommaso, Caviglia, Giorgio, Uboldi, Giorgio, and Azzi, Matteo 2017 RAWGraphs: A Visualisation Platform to Create Open Outputs. In Proceedings of the 12th Biannual Conference on Italian SIGCHI Chapter, pp. 28:1–28:5. ACM, New York.Google Scholar
Nelson, Nels C. 1916 Chronology of the Tano Ruins, New Mexico. American Anthropologist 18:159180.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perry, Sara 2019 The Enchantment of the Archaeological Record. European Journal of Archaeology 22:354371.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Price, T. Douglas, and Gebauer, Anne Birgette 1997 Adventures in Fugawiland: A Computer Simulation in Archaeology. 2nd ed. Mayfield, Mountain View, California.Google Scholar
Przystupa, Paulina, and Dennis, L. Meghan 2021 Cow-Culating your Data with Spreadsheets and R: A Digital Data Story. Beta 1. Open Context and the Alexandria Archive Institute. Electronic document, https://alexandriaarchive.org/2021/08/10/join-the-herd-of-beta-testers/, accessed August 13, 2021.Google Scholar
Remmy, Michael 2020 The X Marks the Spot – Using Geo-Games in Teaching Archaeology. In Communicating the Past in the Digital Age: Proceedings of the International Conference on Digital Methods in Teaching and Learning in Archaeology (12–13 October 2018), edited by Hageneuer, Sebastian, pp. 127140. Ubiquity Press, London.Google Scholar
Sobotkova, Adela 2018 Sociotechnical Obstacles to Archaeological Data Reuse. Advances in Archaeological Practice 6:117124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tuck, Anthony (editor) 2012 Murlo. Open Context. http://opencontext.org/projects/DF043419-F23B-41DA-7E4D-EE52AF22F92F, accessed April 12, 2022. DOI:10.6078/M77P8W98 ARK.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watrall, Ethan 2019 Building Scholars and Communities of Practice in Digital Heritage and Archaeology. Advances in Archaeological Practice 7:140151.CrossRefGoogle Scholar