Call for Short Paper (Round Table)

Hendrik ROHLAND (1) | Marco BLOCK-BERLITZ (1) | Benjamin DUCKE (2)
((1) HTW Dresden, Germany | (2) Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Germany)

Keywords: education, digital technologies, digital humanities, professional skills

Call: Digital technologies like databases, GIS, 3D-scanning and reconstruction, statistical modeling and deep learning amongst others have increasingly made their way into the mainstream of archaeological practice. Archaeologists in all fields are confronted with a growing amount of digital data and technologies, be it for the purposes of documentation, data-storage and retrieval, research and analysis or medial presentation of heritage objects and research results. These tendencies fundamentally change the way archaeology is done. Archaeologists working in diverse fields increasingly need technological competences to conduct their projects, to critically assess the value and implications of technical appliances in their field and to communicate with digital experts at eye level.
The recent decade has seen a huge increase of educational resources for computer applications in the humanities and also archaeology. Next to regular university curricula in the field of digital humanities, excavation technologies/field archaeology and computational archaeology, self-teaching seems to play an important role. There is a lively community of researchers and experts dedicated to open science and knowledge dissemination providing tutorials, courses and other resources for self-education in the field of digital technologies for the humanities. The available resources are numerous and diverse, often focusing on special topics or technologies and address different audiences, ranging from interested beginners to technical experts. What does this mean for the education of future archeologists? In the proposed round table we want to discuss, how and which digital technologies are to be integrated in archeological curricula. We want to learn about the demand for technological expertise, that the different employers in the field of archaeology and cultural heritage see on a mid- to long-term perspective and how this demand can be satisfied by educational institutions. Furthermore, we want to exchange experiences in teaching digital archaeology, be it in universities, professional communities or the wider public.

Submission (open April 15, 2020)
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