Digital resources for public archaeology: New directions of public outreach and education

Archaeologists increasingly recognize the need for public outreach and education, which many archaeological organizations include in principles and guidelines. First, this thesis summarizes my experience with a multicomponent internship, with Archaeology Southwest, the Learning Center of the American Southwest, and the National Park Service. During my internship I focused on providing the public with access to information about archaeological materials through the internet. Finally, this thesis explores the opportunity of providing deeper understandings, while considering potential implications, when working with the digital medium. During my time with Archaeology Southwest I produced three dimensional digital representations, virtual artifacts, of archaeological ceramic vessels. I designed the virtual artifacts for use by Archaeology Southwest's Virtual Southwest website and the Learning Center of the American Southwest (LCAS) Virtual Museum website. I contributed to the digital repositories of the websites, and subsequently reviewed and analyzed my experience to determine the best use of the virtual artifacts. During my time with the National Park Service (NPS) I helped develop lesson plans and activities of the Sinagua archaeological culture of Wupatki and Walnut Canyon National Monuments, designed primarily for third through fifth grade students visiting the monuments during school trips. Digital media provides the opportunity to preserve archaeological resources while educating the public to provide a deeper understanding of the past. I created 28 three dimensional reconstructions, virtual artifacts, of existing archaeological ceramic vessels provided by the Museum of Northern Arizona and Northern Arizona University. I designed the virtual artifacts for multiple online programs and for the lesson plans that I created for the National Park Service. I critically analyze the use of the products of my internship within the open-source movement, detail the current state of intellectual property rights for indigenous communities, and provide recommendations for my internship organizations. This information provides archaeologists with a reflexive analysis of the current use of intangible digital resources and serves as a guide for future projects