Information on the original call for participation below.
Student access to tailored collections of material culture can be a problem at both undergraduate and graduate level. The ideal of intensive one-to-one instruction can only rarely be provisioned, and may not be appropriate for general classes. Not everyone has access to good university collections of material, and web searches produce masses of unstructured data.
The CONTACT project was designed to fill this gap in provision. We’ve studied what you want in the class and we’ve built our own technology to provide it. Teachers tell us that they want structured collections of material tailored for their own curricula, and that’s what we’ve provided. Over the past three years we’ve worked with Classics and Archaeology projects in different institutions with different needs. We’ve built a system flexible enough to deliver the material and teaching content you need in your own format, and we’ve created a growing network of students, teachers, programmes and material.
How it works
Each CONTACT project involves real teaching in class backed up by an online database of the material used in the class and an online assessed workbook. In a typical project a partner identifies a teaching resource, which may be sourced in-house, involve a link-up with a partner institution, or the reuse of existing CONTACT or external data. The exact specification of each project will be tailored for your own curriculum needs. The end result for your students is a reference collection of exemplar objects, an assemblage or collection of objects which they are set to study, and an online workbook. This leads them through the processes of examining and understanding material, and recording their work for assessment.
The interface is process-centered: CONTACT aims to teach students how to approach material, as well as the essential characteristics of the collection under study. Questions can be defined at the item level to prompt investigation, and students can sort material into groups of their own devising. We use ultra-high resolution pictures as well as 3D images to model the object as closely as possible, and movies and audio files can be added to enhance the learning experience. CONTACT projects can involve any archaeological material—for example, one project already online focuses on teaching ceramic petrography.
Use CONTACT in your teaching
CONTACT is looking for new project partners to expand the range of our coverage. For an informal discussion of how CONTACT could fit into your curriculum - contact the project manager.
Original call for applications (Spring 2007):.
Click here to read about successful projects.
Click here if you'd like to read the original announcement and supporting documents. |
