Museums As Classrooms: Lessons in Applied Collaborative Digital Heritage

Summary

Tech-centred courses in archaeology are becoming evermore present in university and college training programs, as demands for digital field recording, data management and analysis, and public engagement applications increase. Traditional classrooms and labs may be conducive to methodological training, however experiencing the complicated ethics, politics and logistics of applying these methods to heritage practice is limited in these settings. This paper reflects on a collaborative project that took students from the University of Victoria off campus to the nearby Royal BC Museum (Victoria, Canada) to develop digital applications to engage visitors in a pop-up event in local archaeology. In this rapid design, development and launch process, technical outputs were as important as critical explorations of indigenous archaeology, accessibilities, impact, and message. In applying digital heritage through collaborative practice for public engagement, the museum becomes a classroom at many levels, for students, for academic and museum professionals, and for the community.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21530