A Short Report on the Spring School in Amsterdam
From April 1st to April 6th, the first Spring School in the project Virtual Worlds in Teaching Archaeology took place in Amsterdam, hosted by the 4D Research Lab of the University of Amsterdam (see program here).
After the arrival on Monday, the Spring School started on Tuesday morning with an introductory round where on the one hand all participants introduced themselves and on the other hand the project was presented to the group. It was followed by a “World-Café”, which consisted of an exchange on papers about the topic of virtual learning that everyone had read in advance and setting our expectations for the following days. We really enjoyed visiting the Allard Pierson Museum together in the afternoon and continuing getting to know our peers, which stretched well into the evening with a nice dinner.
A big part of imagining virtual learning scenarios was the methodology around the concept of learning design with the focus on seamless learning that we were introduced to on Wednesday morning. This was rather surprising for us, because we imagined being more involved in thinking about specific aspects of the already existing 3D models that the universities had developed. Instead, the Spring School was centered around didactic aspects, which in hindsight is more plausible, because we could give our perspective as students.
The ABC learning method’s framework gave us freedom in designing each learning scenario. We were supposed to consider that every scenario consists of “teaching and learning activities”, an “intended learning outcome” and an “assessment”, which help to transfer the seminars‘ matters to the students through the given guidelines.
At the beginning, the amount of material about seamless learning methods provided to us was a bit overwhelming, but we managed to combine our original ideas with the structure of the course storyboards on which we distributed the according learning activities. It was interesting to think about classes from the teachers’ point of view, as the aim was to support the seminars’ learning goal with VR technology and not to replace analog teaching.
From Wednesday to Friday we designed seven learning scenarios in small international groups. These different scenarios were based on current classes in archaeology, art history, ancient history and urban history that are being taught in Bonn, Oslo or Amsterdam. Some groups were able to draw on already existing virtual environments and 3D Models as foundation to be inspired by, while others made suggestions for future digital models.
Generally, working together in small groups was very fruitful. Exchanging ideas from different backgrounds and universities helped to encourage creative solutions. Every group had a unique dynamic depending on their degree of expertise and experiences with being taught academically. Apart from working intensely, we still had time for interesting conversations about our countries and languages as well as just joking around. In the evenings, we met up to explore Amsterdam together and to get some drinks, which was quite fun.
The organizers and head teachers were very interested in our opinions, were eager to help and always gave useful feedback. Our final presenta-tions were held in front of all participants, giving them the opportunity to give feedback as well. The whole event had a very constructive atmosphere.
Overall, the Spring School gave us a greater conscience for the difficulties and possibilities of knowledge transfer. We are excited to see our learning designs being adapted in future courses of our institutes.
Comments