Dear Colleagues,
Onlaah – Online Learning on African Archaeology and Heritage will be present at the 26th Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists in Budapest, 26- 30 August 2020.

Sofia Fonseca, the platform coordinator, organizes a session entitled SENSITIZING AND ENGAGING THE PUBLIC: THE ROLE OF ONLINE LEARNING IN ARCHAEOLOGY AND HERITAGE EDUCATION.

The call for papers is now open, join us!

Submission deadline: 13 February 2020
Link to submission: https://submissions.e-a-a.org/eaa2020/
SESSION THEME Sustainable archaeology and heritage in an
unsustainable world
SESSION FORMAT Regular session
SESSION TITLE Sensitizing and engaging the public:
The role of online learning in archaeology and heritage education

SESSION TEXT
With millions of people joining online platforms all over the world, online learning has become an important educational tool. Online learning is accessible to a wide audience and is a way to engage in continuous learning regardless of age, geographic location, or prior experience. Furthermore, it democratizes education and knowledge. If one wants to learn something, there is likely an online course on it and that course may be presented by leading topic specialists who otherwise may not be accessible.
So, are archaeology and heritage education represented in the world of online learning? A quick internet survey finds archaeological and heritage themed MOOCs, classroom activities, lectures, and a variety of other resources that would indicate that indeed we are online. The presence of these resources, however, raises several issues and questions: Are MOOCs and lesson plans sufficient? Do the online resources accurately portray archaeology and heritage? Do they adequately raise awareness of heritage concerns?
Also of concern is the issue of who produces online content. Archaeologists generally are not trained in non-academic communication. Institutions like museums and research centers are investing in various online communication strategies—YouTube, virtual exhibitions, Instagram, Twitter, etc.—but engaging with the public has moved beyond the professional context. For several years, non-specialist “influencers” have been developing channels and strategies to promote historical subjects. How should archaeologists position themselves in relation to this phenomenon?
In this session we would like to discuss the role of online education in sensitizing people to archaeology and heritage and in promoting archaeological and heritage awareness. What is the responsibility and role of institutions and independent scientists in this new way of communicating science? What are the limits of such formats of communication? We invite archaeologists and heritage educators from around the world to provide examples, insights, and questions to enrich the discussion.

SESSION KEYWORDS
Online learning, Archaeology, Heritage, Sensitizing, Engaging, Public

ORGANISERS
Main organiser: Fonseca, Sofia, (Portugal)¹
Co-organisers: Basterrechea, Aurélia (Switzerland)²; Ben Thomas (Unites States of America)³

Affiliations
1. Teiduma, Consultancy on Heritage and Culture; DAI-German
Archaeological Institute
2. ArchaeoConcept
3. Archaeological Institute of America

Your contribution abstract must have between 200 and 300 words. By submitting the abstract, you become the main and corresponding author of your contribution, but you can add up to 9 co-authors. Upon submitting, you will still be able to review or change your abstract before the 13 February, 23:59 CET

In case you have any doubt, please contact:
sofiafonseca@teiduma.com

Part of our MOOC family was at the TANA meeting in Berlin: Tilman Lenssen-Erz, Sofia Fonseca, Alexa Hohn, Friederike Jesse, Michele Dinies, Johana Sigl and Jorg Linstadter.

We presented the progress made in our project since Aswan and the next steps to move us forward.

There were great presentations and discussions with our colleagues from the Entangled Africa programme.

And we had the pleasure and honour of having the DAI President Friederike Fless, with us.

Author: Sofia Fonseca

Behind the scenes on our work at the Heinrich Barth Institute, in Cologne.
Filming the last details on the Namibian case studies, on the Brandberg, with Tilman Lenssen-Erz.

Afterwards we will be heading to Hamburg to meet our colleagues from Mozambique and finishing their case studies.

Moving forward!

Author: Sofia Fonseca

Our MOOC’s team at Windhoek: Juliette and Heiko from M.oment M.al TV & Film Production, Professor Tilman Lenssen-Erz, from University of Cologne and Sofia Fonseca, the project coordinator, from Teiduma Consultancy on Heritage and Culture.

This was the last dinner before returning home with the feeling of a good job done and having moving forward in our project!

Namibia is indeed an amazing Case Study!

Author: Sofia Fonseca

We are back to Windhoek and today we are filming at the University of Namibia with Professor Goodman Gwasira, on rock art methodology and community engagement on rock art site’s management.

Author: Sofia Fonseca

In Namibia recording more videos for our MOOC on A frican archaeology and African heritage.
Namibian rock art will be one of the case studies with a special focus on heritage management by the community to the community.

Author: Sofia Fonseca

In August, we meet in Bonn, at the German Archaeological Institute, to work on editing our videos for the MOOC.

We went through all the material we already have and start editing. Not an easy task but Heiko and Juliette, from MomentMal TV, know what to do!

Our movies must have between 5 and 10 minutes so we can upload them to our online platform.

Another important aspect is the sound. You can have the most amazing footage, but if the sound is not good, the students will not be able to understand and engage with the lessons!

Moving forward!

Author: Sofia Fonseca

In June 2019 we head to Mozambique! Our team included MomentMal TV crew, Jörg Linstädter, archaeologist and scientific director of the Commission for Archaeology of Non-European Cultures of the DAI, and Décio Muianga, lecturer and research assistant at the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, at Eduardo Mondlane University, in Maputo.

Jörg and Décio will explain one of our case studies regarding Mozambique, in this case, the project they are developing in the Changalane region.

Sabrina Stempfle, from Hamburg University and Sheila Machava from Eduardo Mondlane University, also joined us on the field. They will be responsible for our MOOC lesson on archaeometry, using the pottery collected in Changalane and afterwards using geochemical analysis methods in the laboratory in Hamburg.

Sabrina and Sheila’s work is one of the many collaborations the DAI is currently developing in Mozambique, Iswatini and South Africa, bringing students from the different countries to work and learn together.

Author: Sofia Fonseca

In January 2019 we had our consortium meeting in Faro, at the University of Algarve, in Portugal. Nuno Bicho, the Director of ICArEHB and one of the consortium founders, welcome us on the beautiful Algarve for three days of hard work.

We had interesting discussions moving forward on our project. By the end of the meeting we closed the MOOC structure, defined the different modules, the lessons inside each module, the case studies to be presented and the online platform that better suits our objective and purpose.

Some filming was made by MomentMal TV, our filmmaking team, on ICArEHB and the projects being developed in Mozambique.

We also schedule our work for the year ahead and the amount of work we will have done until December 2019.

Many challenges and exciting months ahead of us!

Author: Sofia Fonseca

We are very proud to present you to our new web page!

For now, you have a landing page where you can subscribe to our mailing list to receive our future newsletter with all the information regarding the courses, the projects we present as case studies, our partners and much more!

Join our newsletter and start this journey with us!

WWW.ONLAAH.COM

Author: Sofia Fonseca