James Collins, Anders Gustafsson, Hakan Karlsson, Corby Kelly, Kristian Kristiansen, Berner Lindström, Michael Shanks

Göteborg University and Stanford University

The future of cultural identity lies in the past. Vital relationships with the cultural past are increasingly regarded as crucial components of community health in a “globalist” world. This project aims to develop and test learning tools and environments for enhancing co-creative exploration and learning in cultural heritage. The project team views this field as one that runs through many humanities disciplines. The project's particular expertise and focus is archaeology and classical studies. The research team will develop innovative pedagogy that encourages collaborative exploration of cultural heritage, including collaborative authoring software and ICTs, which enable effective project-based and performance-based learning. During this planning year, the team will evaluate current experience of such pedagogy and will present and analyze two new experimental pilot classes. These courses cover pre-college, undergraduate, postgraduate and professional students. The project aims to test the proposition that learning environments in the humanities can be markedly enhanced by innovative pedagogy that is designed to reach beyond purely academic disciplines into community heritage by addressing interests in cultural and personal identity. The research team will use qualitative analysis of student interactions (through interviews and case studies) of the experience and outcomes of the pilot classes.