ArchaeoPills - Face to face with practical archaeological training in higher education

Programma di finanziamento: ERASMUS+ KA220-HED 2023

Ente finanziatore: Commissione Europea

Responsabile scientifico: Giulia Baratta

Ruolo UniMC: partner

Durata: 24 mesi

This proposal aims at the development of the educational platform ArchaeoPills, which will allow university lecturers to carry out actions aimed at explaining practical content for subjects with archaeological contents in the fields of Art and Humanities in the EHEA. These subjects are very difficult to explain in the classroom without the help of external support. With the platform we aim at developing, we will be able to display explanatory videos of approximately 10 minutes' on different archaeological topics (archaeological method, types of archaeological sites, research techniques, recording techniques, laboratory practices, land management techniques, conservation and restoration procedures, analysis of archaeological material, etc.) and with the help of virtual reconstructions (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR). Its approach as a classroom project constitutes a transversal educational activity between technological sciences and historical sciences.

Digital reconstructions and recreations of archaeological sites and their use in fixed and/or mobile devices have become consolidated as heritage interpretation tools for didactic use. Therefore, this is not a new topic; the innovation of our proposal is to present a new mode of virtual learning based on practical tasks for archaeological content integrated in Higher Education. The learning tool will be realized with an LMS platform. With external support for technical issues, archaeological documentation and creation of materials, high quality results can be achieved. Unlike traditional platforms, which are limited to a content repository, our proposal is conceived as a tool for collaborative work and active participation. This means that the environment to be developed will present new elements and functionalities.

This project unveils a key issue in the teaching-learning process: the creation of technology-based education programmes. Learning is more effective if it is integrated in active methodology projects. With the design of this platform, we will cover the objective of promoting networking and alliances between EHEA education centres. It is a tool designed to be freely accessible and free of charge, which will allow interactive consultation of didactic content and the establishment of online debates and forums between members of the EHEA academic community. We will also cover the objective of improving the digital competence of teachers and creating materials for emerging activities enriched with ICT, which can be shared openly, and will allow an active role of students.