A splash of sunshine in some strange new worlds helped the Data Literacy Program (DLP) satisfy our missions for the third quarter of 2023. We’ve been all over the globe, so let’s see where in the world the DLP Duo disembarked.
Well…we’re both home now. But for chunks of the third quarter we weren’t! During this period, our goals were to attend the Networking Archaeological Data and Communities (NADAC) meeting at the University of California, Berkeley; publish the Creative Series Data Stories, evaluate Of Mycenaean Men: Public Archaeology Book Club (OMM)‘s first theme, and present Interactive Series Data Stories at the Florida Public Archaeology Network (FPAN) hosted First Conference on Public Archaeology (COPA). And with a bit of jet setting, we completed all of these, even while running to catch some flights!
Or NADAC this is a sister program under The Alexandria Archive Institute
Our first stop was preparing for the NADAC in-person workshop. Besides saying it was a great time, we’ll let Melissa’s rebaking…recounting…of the event give you a taste of the experiences. AKA check out Icing on the Cake: Lessons from the 2023 NADAC Summer Workshop. It was a delightful layover and we’re honored to spend time with those amazing archaeologists and archaeology-adjacent professionals.
While sharing our thoughts on the cake (which was not a lie), we also published two Creative Series Data Stories. Both are free and available for use on the Data Stories page. As a reminder they are: 30 Days to an Article: Archaeological Inspiration for Your Writing and It’s All in the Wrist (Bones): Archaeological Data as Artistic Inspiration. We’re sharing the prompts from It’s All in the Wrist (Bones) on social media (so like or follow the Alexandria Archive Institute) as part of National Arts and Humanities Month.
We’ll opened Of Mycenaean Men for feedback at the end of June!
For our next goal, we flew home to wrap up our OMM evaluation. In Act 10: A Series of Stories, we mentioned opening OMM for evaluation after having June dedicated to sharing the book blurb videos. While we got some views on YouTube, we didn’t receive feedback on the survey. Because of this, we’ll try another style of review for the Data Story before finalizing it. So look out for our next videos to can catch the DLP duo in the full Data Story!
Our last stop included presenting our two Interactive Series Data Story prototypes at the first Conference on Public Archaeology (COPA), this year hosted by FPAN. We temporarily relocated to Pensacola, Florida and soaked in the humidity and heat. At the conference, we debuted FAIR Finds (by Meghan, over Zoom) and A Glorious Mystery: Rosaries and Robberies (by Paulina, in person). We used these to highlight the value of interactive storytelling through games to teach archaeological data literacy.
Some folks joined us at the First Conference on Public Archaeology
FAIR Finds allowed players to learn about Findable Accessible Interoperable and Reusable data in the setting of Cultural Resource Management. Aimed primarily at archaeology professionals, it walks through some peanut butter cracker rivalries. Oh and explores the ramifications of certain kinds of Creative Commons Licenses. You can take a look for yourself here.
In A Glorious Mystery, the brave souls who attended in-person played through a fictitious archaeological artifact abduction. The game had players chat with each other and use their observational skills to collect data and evidence about who they thought took the artifact. The group had a lot of fun and we’re so excited to use their feedback to improve the Data Story. That way anyone can solve this mystery!
We spent a lot of time traveling and there’s a lot to be proud about from this quarter. We’ll close out 2023 as a resounding success although we’ve got some big changes happening at the end of the year.. So watch those arrival and departure monitors to see what we’re sharing next.
