Philosophy, Current Status, Short and Long term Development

1. Philosophy, Current Status, Short and Long term Development Jacco Dieleman Willeke Wendrich

5. UEE Services • Open Version • Full Version • Data Access Level

6. http://repositories.cdlib.org/escholarship/

7. http://repositories.cdlib.org/nelc/uee/ UEE Open Version eScholarship: California Digital Library Repository for PDF versions of all encyclopedia entries:

8. UEE Services • Open Version eScholarship • Full Version • Data Access Level

12. UEE Full Version www.uee.ucla.edu

13. Open Version Full Version Data Access Level eScholarship Article text Advanced searches Map searches Repository of photographs Links to other initiatives AEB

17. Data Access Level Committee (in development) Zahi Hawass (SCA, Cairo, Egypt) David Jeffreys (University College London, UK) Kasia Szpakowska (University of Wales, Swansea, UK)

18. Open Version Full Version Data Access Level PDFs Article text Advanced searches Map searches Repository of photographs Links to other initiatives Original, USER-CREATED data: Primary excavation data Text editions Searchable databases And more??? Digital Media…

19. Number of Entries: First phase (July 2008): 550 entries Second phase (2010): 2000 entries Third phase (2013): 4000 entries

20. Advantage over Printed Reference Works Writing phase Publication phase Use phase Update phase Long term Peer review Automated editorial system No need to finish “A” before proceeding to “B” Quote as regular publication Searches made easy Clickable links Multimedia Update what is needed Version control Digital Preservation History of Egyptological thought

21. Academic Editorial Board Editors: Willeke Wendrich Jacco Dieleman John Baines Elizabeth Frood Dorothea Arnold (Metropolitan Museum, New York) Joris Borghouts (Leiden University, Netherlands) Fayza Haikal (American University Cairo, Egypt) Janet Johnson (Oriental Institute, Univ. Chicago) Antonio Loprieno (Basel University, Switzerland) Stephan Seidlmayer (Berlin University, Germany) Alain Zivie (CNRS Egyptology, Paris, France)

22. Thanks to: James Allen, Chris Eyre (endorsement IAE) David Silverman, Josef Wegner Stephen Quirke, John Gee Anthony Spalinger, Willem Hovestreydt National Endowment of the Humanities

23. The U in UEE Department of NELC Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Academic Technology Services (ATS) Center for Digital Humanities (CDH) UCLA Digital Humanities Incubator Group (UDHIG) Institute for Digital Research and Education (IDRE) Digital Library (DL) California Digital Library (CDL) International Institute Office of Instructional Development (OID) Office of the Vice Chancellor of Research

24. Humanities research Scientific research Work of an individual resulting in the publication of a book Work of a group resulting in a theoretical frame work (basic) or a practical function (applied) Work of a group resulting in ??? Digital Humanities research

25. Part Two: Educational Games Problems in creating a game about history: • How do you create a game that teaches students a process, rather than a simple answer? • Names and dates are essentially trivia, rote memorization. We need to come up with a model that illustrates historial processes, as well.

26. Educational Games Problems in creating a game about history: • How do we create a game that is specific enough that the information it teaches is more than just random trivia, but of enough general appeal that it is cost-effective? • Games like Carmen San Diego essentially teach random trivia, being (arguably) too general; games like Oregon Trail are so specific as to be of very limited use, so there isn’t a huge market for them. Is there a middle ground, or another way around the problem?

27. Educational Games Problems in creating a game about history: • How do we create a game in which the process of playing it actually teaches/reinforces history, as opposed to emphasizing a separate set of skills? • In order to win at Math Blasters, you have to solve a math problem in your head: that IS the game mechanic, and it teaches math by forcing the student to do it. Carmen San Diego teaches geography by forcing students to find places on maps/look up info in encyclopedias, etc.: learning social studies IS the game mechanic. • 3D simulations of ancient history usually DON’T teach history via the game mechanics. Mace Mentch (http://blog.case.edu/mwm13/) made the point in Cleveland, and I paraphrase: “All I’ve learned from 1st-person shooters is how to strafe and to get the shotgun as early as possible.” How does moving a character around, even in an incredibly detailed simulation of the ancient world, teach/reinforce history? The student learns the most by DOING, so the game must DO history.

28. A Possible Solution? • How about a game that models the process of historical research, specifically archaeology? The students’ job, like the archaeologists, is to use the clues in the soil and good archaeological theory to learn as much as possible about the history of the archaeological site. • The game rewards players who look for context (that is, excavating horizontally in addition to vertically, as archaeologists do) by increasing the number of “points” that they receive for any given area when the entire horizontal area, as opposed to only part of it, is exposed. • As a “level” in the site is cleared, the students see a short summary, perhaps an animated video, illustrating that phase in the site’s history. When they complete the entire site, they can see an entire summary (again, both text and an animated video) for the site. In this way, they learn about the process of history in the same way that professional archaeologists do: By investigation and analysis.

29. A Possible Solution? • By keeping the technology simple (tile-based), it will be possible to create a simple level-editor that can be used to create new content at a very low “cost.” • Each level can be designed around a real archaeological site and can focus on one particular historical process that the student is learning about in class. • The game doesn’t replace the teacher, it reinforces the material being gathered from oral (teacher) and visual (textbook) sources, and is potentially more appealing to certain learners.

30. A Possible Solution? • The game rewards players who take their time and think about their next move; instead of having a timer, they instead have a limited number of moves. • Different versions can include a classroom version with an unlimited number of moves but a “par” for the level, so that students can explore particular processes at the teacher’s direction; a “campaign”-style game for private play, which follows the story of a character or characters much like the learners as they travel from archaeological site to archaeological site while investigating a larger mystery; a collaborative mode in which players need the data gathered at OTHER archaeological sites in order to complete their own timelines, again just like real archaeologists. • The level editor allows developers to add jpeg images and audio to any in-game object/area, so that functioning archaeological digs can model all or part of their site, using real data, and make those levels available via the internet for students to explore.

31. A Possible Solution? • http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/itc/johnitc/excavation/Game_Play.html • http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/itc/johnitc/excavation/Game_Editor.html • Please remember, this is only a beta. Future plans include exchanging the timer function for a limited number of moves, as described previously, developing a much simpler set of instructions, activating the ability to link jpegs to in-game objects, etc. The last three slides describe the total vision, while this is only part-way there. • Feel free to show this beta to your colleagues, and to email me with questions at jlynch@humnet.ucla.edu. I will be pursuing this project in the coming months, including looking for funding to create a completed release version, so any comments, criticism or suggestions that will help create a stronger, more useful tool will be much appreciated.