Blogging the field school: Teaching digital public archaeology

Abstract

Over the past few decades, digital and public archaeology have grown in importance in archaeology. With the advent of social media, the importance of using digital tools for public engagement has increased. However, the basic training received by archaeology students has not provided adequate instruction in the use of these tools. The archaeological field school, the traditional means of training archaeology students, provides a perfect opportunity to begin to instruct students in this area. At Michigan State University, the Campus Archaeology Program developed a public blog written by field school students, and used this platform as a successful tool for teaching students about archaeological methods, public archaeology, and the use of digital tools for public engagement.The project also became an excellent way of assessing how well students understood and incorporated basic archaeological concepts.