This project aims to use innovative ICT (information and communication technologies) with performance and project-based pedagogies to enhance shared learning in the reception of the past - syllabi in history, archaeology, art history, cultural history and cognate fields. A team of archaeologists, cultural historians, cultural resource managers, educators and ICT experts aim to help people make more of their past - from pre-college through life-long learning and professional development.

We propose that the future of cultural identity increasingly relies on the past as people seek the sources of their sense of national, ethnic, local and personal identity in history, cultural memory and the physical remains of the past. Vital relationships with the cultural past are increasingly and widely regarded as crucial components of community health in a globalist world. This field of cultural heritage unites many humanities disciplines such as history, classics and archaeology, and includes social sciences such as anthropology and sociology as well as professional fields such as cultural resource management and museum studies. It extends well beyond the academy. Enhancing cultural heritage is a major focus for government and international cultural and development policy. Cultural heritage is a mainstay of the global tourist industry.

Educational challenges in enhancing the learning of cultural heritage

Here are some of the educational challenges in enhancing what is regarded as a fundamental and important matter - people's right to a meaningful past:

• how to integrate such a broad transdisciplinary mix in classes that are necessarily focused on manageable themes
• how to avoid the restrictive pedagogical model of top-down transmission of a body of knowledge from experts to neophytes ("here is the story of how you came to be who you are")
• how to design and deliver learning experiences that address particular individual and community needs and interests.

Archaeologists, Cultural Historians and Cultural Heritage professionals explore pasts that are crucial for contemporary culture and identity. However, such pasts are often created without critical reflection and without collaboration with stakeholder community interests. We aim to address this problem of neglect.

We are also responding to conventional teaching and learning in archaeology and classical studies. Here the teaching and presentation of cultural heritage is primarily oriented around visually enhanced lectures and traditional forms of examination where the learning experience (including teacher to peer, and peer to peer interaction) is often limited to the dissemination of information in the classroom, with additional readings outside of class. Moreover, the traditional focus on text-based research papers in the evaluation of student work forecloses a range of alternative ways of engaging with archaeological and cultural materials. The dearth of pedagogical discussion and evaluation in archaeology and classical studies means traditional top-down pedagogies remain dominant, due to the ease and familiarity of convention.

Addressing the challenges with innovative ICT and situated learning

The project will assess and evaluate how collaborative and co-creative social software and dynamic 'situated learning' (performance and project-based pedagogy) can address these challenges and problems by both transforming and enhancing learning in archaeology and cultural heritage.

Specifically we aim to run experimental classes in both Stanford and Göteborg to research different mixes of innovative pedagogy designed to encourage collaborative exploration of cultural heritage. The mixes will include new information and communications technologies such as collaborative authoring software (customized wikis), gaming software, and ICTs which enable effective project-based and performance-based pedagogy.

More broadly, we aim to research how these new pedagogies may contribute to future critical and democratic directions in archaeology/cultural heritage in which communities construct their heritage in collaboration with archaeologists/heritage managers. This co-creative approach to cultural heritage is a critical aspect of this project.

We are interested in pedagogical methods that can entice, satisfy and sustain deep learning for students. We wish to contribute to the development of students’ reflexive, creative and critical potential. Thus, a main objective of the project is to investigate and test how alternative collaborative co-creative authoring and social software (wikis) and dynamic educational environments (performance and project-based learning) can change and improve learning in archaeology and cultural heritage in such a way that the students develop a stakeholder interest in the learning and construction of their past.

Hence we propose to use quantitative and qualitative data (generated by our software as the students use it and acquired through standard interviews and ethnography) to investigate whether the students make more cross-disciplinary links in their project work; whether they engage more widely and deeply across humanities disciplines into matters of cultural heritage; whether they make real and valued personal connections with their work in our classes, as a result of collaborative environments. Is the software encouraging them to edit, link and explore and so experience real collaborative insight, rather than burrow into their own separate interests? These are the kind of questions we anticipate addressing in the evaluation of the experimental classes.

Relevant background literature and work

There are few developments towards alternative pedagogical strategies and an absence of experiments that combine ICT and project-based/performance-based learning within archaeology. Indeed, there is no coherent body of research and literature in this area. Nevertheless, there is significant call for archaeologists to address stakeholder interests. The most direct expression of this is in the ethics statements of most professional associations of anthropologists, archaeologists and museologists.

At Göteborg and Stanford, in contrast to most peer institutions, these pedagogical discussions are a living part of the educational context, and they are also put to practice. Stanford Humanities Lab, Stanford Archaeology Center, Stanford Department of Classics and the Institute of Archaeology, Göteborg, have considerable experience in integrating ICT for more effective learning, and in offering innovative classes, from pre-college through undergraduate and graduate to the professional development level (with the National Heritage Board in Sweden). This project will build on this experience. Here are some details.

Göteborg

In 2000 and 2001 the Department of Archaeology at Göteborg University (chaired by Kristiansen) developed and started distance learning courses at the undergraduate level building upon innovative ICT technologies and performance/project-based pedagogy. From 2003-2006 the Department in Göteborg ran the pedagogical project "From Receiving to Performing" that researched learning in performance/project-based pedagogies. The project was financed by the Swedish Research Council for Higher Education.

Stanford

Stanford Humanities Lab (directed by Shanks) and the Metamedia Lab in Stanford's Archaeology Center (Shanks's lab) have four years experience in rich content research and learning through the use of co-creative collaborative environments (wikis) - http://shl.stanford.edu and http://metamedia.stanford.edu. Courses include Human and Machine with Michael Shanks, Henry Lowood, and Jeffrey Schnapp (part of Stanford's Introduction to the Humanities Program), Eight Great Archaeological Sites in Europe (Shanks, now in its fourth year), accredited by the Writing and Rhetoric Program, and Philosophical Stages, a class for pre-college students that explores the intersection of performance and philosophy. These courses have pioneered co-creative project (and process) based learning where constant peer to peer feedback, interaction, collaboration, and co-production fosters sustained interest, community building, and a greater sense of accomplishment.

Because much of our experience is of a practical nature, we aim to develop a wider bibliography on this research and a database of pedagogical practices for archaeology and heritage instructors. This will be one of the outcomes of the project.

Target Population

Pre-college students, undergraduates in the humanities, undergraduates and graduates in archaeology, classical studies and cognate fields, those seeking professional development in heritage management, and community audiences interested in lifelong learning within the field of cultural heritage. Our project cuts across conventional boundaries between educators and learners, placing heritage managers and academics in new enabling roles.

Work Plan

A WGLN II planning grant will be used to fund the following:

• Developing the basis for effective collaboration between archaeologists, Classicists and cultural heritage managers at Stanford and Göteborg. This will involve setting up a joint server and a shared web site as well as discussion and meetings, remote and face to face. September 2006.
• Enabling Stanford and Göteborg agree on criteria and procedures for evaluating previous experience in cocreative and collaborative pedagogical software and performance and project-based learning - involving a face-to-face meeting. September/October 2006.
• Analyzing and evaluating relevant classes in cultural heritage already offered by Stanford and Göteborg. From October 2006.
• Running two new pilot classes to generate more evidence/data pertinent to our research interests. From September 2006.

These will be

At Göteborg. AE1100 Archaeology: Introductory course. This course will start in September 2006 and will be finished in June 2007. It is a 20p Distance-course running at half speed, i.e. the students use 50% of full time to the course. The estimated number of students is between 35-40 persons.

At Stanford. Eight Great Archaeological Sites. This course will start in January 2007 and will be finished in March 2007. The first accredited class in digital authoring at Stanford University, this course is part of the Program in Writing and Rhetoric. 15 students.

• Analyzing and evaluating these pilot classes under the agreed criteria and procedures.
• Using this evidence and data from previous classes and current pilot classes to refine the project's research focus and so specify the methodology, tools and techniques to be developed in a full project. From January 2007.
• Comparing the results of our research with research in other fields and so to contribute to broader debate and address the sustainability of our research.
• Planning new classes for a full project. Beginning Summer 2007.

Outcomes of the planning year

• A joint Stanford/Göteborg web server in Cultural Heritage running as a collaborative software environment.
• Two pilot courses available on this server.
• Research into the experience of over 300 students in collaborative cocreative software and performance/project-based learning.
• Evaluations of such pedagogy.
• Refinement of understanding of the educational challenges outlined above.
• Publication of these results.
• Archives of classes as research resource.

The work plan is designed to feed directly into a WGLN II project proposal in April 2007 by generating new data by January 2007 that will enable us to refine the educational challenges and future goals of the project. After that, completion of the Planning Project will be driven at Göteborg by the necessity of coherently winding up the pilot course, and at Stanford by the need to feed the results into the planning of the 2007 iteration of Philosophical Stages, a class to which SHL is already committed.

This Planning Project addresses the WGLN goals of enabling collaboration between Sweden and Stanford, of fostering evidence-based research leading to new techniques and new technologies - customised wiki environments and performance/project-based learning.

Personnel - Collaboration

Stanford's new Archaeology Center is actively seeking partners in Europe. Göteborg is perfect for such a relationship because of its sympathetic academic program in archaeology. Stanford and Göteborg have already collaborated in field projects in Sicily and, soon, Romania. Kristiansen has spent a sabbatical term at Stanford exploring more possibilities. This WGLN proposal is one of those. Shanks also holds a Docentur at Göteborg and has contributed to several academic and outreach programs in Sweden.

PIs: Michael Shanks (Stanford) and Kristian Kristiansen (Göteborg)

Academic team: Hakan Karlsson and Anders Gustafsson (Göteborg), James Collins, Sebastian de Vivo, and Corby Kelly (Stanford).

Educational expert/advisor: Professor of Pedagogy Berner Lindström (Göteborg).

Technical support and advisors: Jeff Aldrich (Stanford), Karl-Göran Sjögren (Göteborg)

Administrative support: Laurie Richard (Stanford)

Two undergraduate students at both Stanford and Göteborg, to help with course analysis and evaluation.

Sustainability

Archaeology and cultural heritage are the kind of interdisciplinary field that cuts across the social sciences and humanities and are increasingly favored in the academy. Therefore they have great relevance to a broad range of academic, social and cultural fields. Archaeology (along with cultural heritage) is a model of a bridging profession, not just across disciplines, but also across divides between the academy, the professional realm, and society more generally. Our project will be one that unites research and pedagogy - research understood as a learning experience. This interdisciplinary research includes outreach towards pre-college students as well as major professional sectors in heritage management, communities and families. All this promises wide relevance and applicability for our research, new tools and pedagogical experience.

Furthermore, professional ethics statements from governmental organizations in Cultural Heritage Management emphasize 'community outreach'. The ICT social software implemented in this project could be extended well beyond academia to provide solutions to this priority. The concern for accountability to non-professionals has made public outreach a critical component of research in archaeology and cultural heritage. This has usually taken the form of community-based presentations. The advent of social software enables permanent open online forums where academic publication and information presentation may be combined with open commentary by interested community members. While static web sites may offer outreach in the form of disseminating archaeological findings, the social software utilized by this project will enable active dialogue and feedback between professionals and community members. This is a unique and major contribution that the WGLN project may make.