The University of Illinois has recently developed a game-based virtual archaeology field school that students can use to fulfill their field school requirement. In this virtual field school, students can excavate a cave site that was modelled after a real archaeological site excavated in the 1930s. Students must learn how to operate various tools within the game, as well as perform excavations, catalogue materials, and even perform laboratory analyses. There are also actual risks when digging in-game, if the students are not careful while excavating the walls of their unit can collapse. They designed this virtual field school with accessibility in mind, as many students often have to take time out of their summer to participate in field schools, often forgoing summer jobs. This can be a financial burden, as traditional field schools can be quite pricey as well. The virtual field school is much more inclusive for students who have physical disabilities which can prevent them from participating in traditional field schools.
Technological advancements, such as this, are certainly great methods of increasing the accessibility of archaeology. These types of virtual programs are no doubt of significant importance in this time of Covid as well. There are aspects of this program, such as the lab analysis, which are not always present in traditional field schools and can add to the student's understanding of the full process of archaeology. This program will likely be fine-tuned as it is taught to more students, and they submit their end-of-term course reviews detailing what can be improved. How will this program change over the years? As VR technology continues to advance, perhaps the realism of this field school will advance with it. Will we begin to see programs like this being adopted by other universities? Does a program like this really prepare students for the reality of archaeological fieldwork? Are there aspects of a real-world excavation, such as the physicality of it, that students will be left unprepared for? They state that this is not a replacement for field school but if students can fulfill their field school requirement with this course is it not acting as a replacement? It is interesting to think about applications for this outside of academia as well. Maybe we will begin to see this being used in CRM companies as a training tool for new employees. Another possibility is that it could be added to a gaming platform like Steam as an archaeology simulator. Overall, we should expect to see quite a few developments in this area in the next few years.
References
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/01/200129123353.htm
Shackelford, L., David Huang, W., Craig, A., Merrill, C., & Chen, D. (2019). Relationships between motivational support and game features in a game-based virtual reality learning environment for teaching introductory archaeology. Educational Media International, 56(3), 183-200.
-Kaylee Woldum
2 comments:
Hi Kaylee!
This is really interesting. I've never thought about the possibility of a digital field school. I think this is because, in my mind, a digital field school would not be sufficient training for archaeological field work. I definitely think that this would leave students unprepared for the reality of archaeological fieldwork, not just the more intensive physical aspects such as working outside in the sun all day, but the nuanced aspects too. How would this prepare you on how to keep your walls straight or how to best excavate something delicate with your trowel?
I think the pandemic has allowed a lot of us to realize that many of the things we did prior, can be easily replicated or facilitated online instead. I think that once we're in a post-pandemic world, some of those things will remain digital. However, it's my hope that digital field schools, at least in the context of training future archaeologists, do not become the new norm.
Hi Kaylee, it is nice to see your post on digital field school as I just did a presentation on this topic. I am intrigued by the question you asked that if the digital school is not a replacement for the real one, how could we account for the fact that completing the virtual course would get the certification? I believe the certification part can also be a stimulating factor in attracting students to archeology. This is because, thinking from a student perspective, taking virtual archeology courses is more like an exploration of my interest in the field, and getting the certification at the end would obtain a sense of accomplishment, which is likely to further advance my interest in attending a real field school and get hands-on skills. I think this is the key role virtual field school can play, which is to increase accessibility and cultivate interest in archeology. Also, I feel the virtual school can accommodate more pedagogical elements such as teaching environmental ethics, fostering environmental consciousness, etc., since the virtual one does not confine to an actual schedule of activities. In addition, the best “graduate” of the virtual archeological courses could be awarded scholarship/funding to attend the real field school. Thinking along the diverse ways to broaden new/existing student engagements in the field of archeology, digital technology such as VR could be an instrumental aid to real archeological education. -Xu Qin
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