Despite faults, technology can enliven archaeology, Rick says

BY LISA TREI

For a "dead" subject such as archaeology, digital technology does more than bring the field to life by recreating visual images of the past. "You can show how you think on a computer, rather than just show on a computer," said John Rick, associate professor of anthropological sciences. "That's the real frontier."

An avid supporter of using computer resources in the classroom, Rick talked about the pros and cons of teaching in a digital age during a Feb. 12 lunchtime talk in the series "Award-Winning Teachers on Teaching."

According to Rick, technology helps students "see through" visualization as well as convey arguments and ideas linked to what might have existed in the past.

Computer-aided design, for example, can be used to create models that allow viewers to fly through a virtual site. Such technology helps students understand: "'I see what you're saying and why you're saying it,'" Rick said. "We really need to push that."

But modern technology also brings headaches, the professor said. "Digital technology is obviously bigger than all of us combined," he said. "We don't determine where it goes, what programs stay on the market. The academic community is a tiny one, relatively speaking, and it's not unified." Most tools are developed for the business world, he added: "A lot of them I don't like at all; I think they really handcuff us."

During the talk, Rick highlighted some of the costs, benefits and dangers of digital technology:

Costs: It takes time and money to convert slides into digital images, he said. With the rapid advancement of technology, teachers need new laptop computers every two to three years, he added. Furthermore, some teaching programs can be used only on old systems that are hampered by lack of technical support.

Benefits: Rick said it used to take him a couple of hours to sort images manually from his massive slide collection to use in a lecture. Storing images and lectures in a computer saves time and allows greater portability, he said.

Dangers: Computers can fail, Rick said, and lecturers need to be prepared to teach without them. To minimize this possibility, Rick warned against using web connections to give lectures or relying on someone else's laptop. "Have a dedicated laptop for teaching," he said. "The last thing I would ever do is take my teaching laptop and connect it to the web."

Despite such drawbacks, Rick argued that digital technology allows him to reach more students. During the talk, Rick showed images of ancient pot shards discovered at a site in the Peruvian Andes. In a series of reconstructed images, Rick showed how the pottery might have once looked. In another example, Rick used a digital program to create a fictive prehistoric landscape in the Andes depicting a settlement with houses scattered across a hillside. Rick then showed a second image, based on recently discovered information, which depicted the houses in the same settlement grouped closely together. Such dueling interpretations of the past are easier to understand when conveyed visually, Rick said.

In conclusion, the professor told a story about a former student who appeared to be "a real goof-off" in class. The student approached Rick to say he wanted to make a rap song about a CD of virtual images the professor had shown in class that depicted an ancient site in the Andes. "It didn't make any sense to me, but I nodded and went on," Rick said. At the end of the course, the student handed his professor a cassette as his final project. Rick, who was not amused, gave it to a teaching assistant. "The TA came in about a half-hour later and said, 'I think you better listen to this,'" Rick recalled. "So I did and I was blown away."

As images of the virtual site unfolded, Rick played the last part of the rap song and explained that it incorporated an "amazing amount" of elements he had tried to convey in the class. "You get a sense that here was a student who was not otherwise very engaged," he said. "That digital resource allowed [the student] to go to a place that I would probably not have gotten him to otherwise. I argue that without that resource, it never would have happened."