Student Learning through Virtual Archaeology: the "Like a Fishhook" Native American Village Site

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Anthropology (81)Archaeology is the discipline that provides humans with a conduit of sorts to the past: it is our way to travel through time. Although archaeologists can only dream of time travel as an ultimate check on their reasoning and interpretations, modern technology can make virtual time travel possible in virtual reality. In this project, by combining immersive role-based technology with the principles and data of archaeology, ethnography, and history, we are developing an environment for teaching generations of students about all of these disciplines. The project is creating a virtual archaeology site based on a real Indian village with a somewhat unusual history. "Like-a-Fishhook" was first established in the 1830s following a smallpox epidemic in the Dakota Territory which so depleted native Americans that the survivors of three tribes banded together to establish this village. The project is creating a virtual village as it existed in 1854 and then 100 years later in 1954, following an extensive archeological dig and documentation of this village. Immediately after this exploration, this the area was flooded following the construction of a dam. Evidence from research on earlier projects indicates that there are potential learning advantages to the approach developing and using synthetic environments in an active learning context. We believe that student learning of scientific knowledge and problem-solving skills in our virtual environment matches student learning from participation in a real archeological "dig." The objective of this project is to produce an educational software product for national distribution. The prospects for the success of this effort are being strengthened by evaluation research that we expect will support our belief that this instructional approach both enhances student learning of traditional curriculum and expands the scope of student learning through other curricular connections. This project is being undertaken through collaboration between the Department of Computer Science and the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at North Dakota State University, in cooperation with teachers at Minnesota State University - Moorhead (MSUM) and Jamestown College, a private four-year liberal arts college.