5 th International Symposium on Virtual Reality, Archaeology and Cultural Heritage (2004) Short Presentations K. Cain, Y. Chrysanthou, F. Niccolucci, N. Silberman (Editors) Submitted to 5 th International Symposium on Virtual Reality, Archaeology and Cultural Heritage (2004) Beyond Trowels and Pickaxes: Intergenerational Teaching and Stewardship in the Digital Age Michael Ashley Department of Anthropology, The University of California, Berkeley, USA Abstract An intergenerational, mobius-strip model for teaching state-of-the-art digital documentation strategies to undergraduate students is introduced in this paper. Working in partnership with faculty and cultural heritage projects worldwide, we provide students the opportunity to develop exceptional levels of expertise in such techniques as 3D laser scanning, GIS, databases, photogrammetry, video recording, high resolution photography and spherical vr. Students work with primary research data to learn both practical skills as well as the theoretical, historical and political frameworks that situate the heritage sites. Through field schools, the students are given the opportunity to participate in real world documentation projects, producing new sets of primary data for the next generation of students to explore. Their field efforts form the basis of their own research questions, leading to undergraduate and graduate theses and dissertations while providing the research projects with remarkable, living digital archives. Perhaps most importantly, the students themselves become digitally literate stewards and trainers in their own right. Keywords: Archaeology, digital documentation, training, pedagogy, cultural heritage, education. 1. Introduction A 19 year old sophomore takes an introduction to archaeology course and comes to realize that behind the Hollywood version of archaeology where Indiana Jones or Lara Croft use good looks and weapons to save the world from evildoers, there are regular people using trowels and pickaxes to dig into the past centimetre by centimetre. Not discouraged by the mundane reality of modern discipline, the student continues taking courses in Anthropology and archaeology, perhaps a course or two on field methodology or artifact analysis and eventually signs up for a field school, paid for out of pocket or through internship. Here, their hopes and aspirations of doing actual archaeological fieldwork are realized and the student returns from the field with a newfound love for hoeing, sifting, shovelling and sieving. The diehards among them might actually pursue a career in archaeology, recognizing that there is more to the practice than moving piles of soil from one location to another and that once dues are properly paid and skills are developed, they may prove to be more useful to a field project in more substantive ways than pot washing or dry sieving. Most, however, will be discouraged and disillusioned after their field experiences and will turn their energies to other research interests where their participation is more engaging and their efforts more appreciated. Archaeological field training is plagued by a chicken and egg problem. We want to provide opportunities for newbie students to learn the craft of archaeology, but research projects have aims and deadlines, we are limited in our capacities and patience due to constraints of time and budget. We feel our ethical responsibility to do the best archaeological research we can do in the field, for our discipline is inherently destructive and we will not be able to go back and undo mistakes made by apprentices. Thus, students who participate in fieldschools find themselves cutting their teeth on the least glamorous of jobs, such as topsoil clearing, sorting and sieving, artifact washing. These are all important jobs and someone needs to do them, but are we doing the students and the discipline a disservice by relegating exuberant students to the most menial aspects of our practice? Moreover, archaeology in the digital age is becoming more multi-disciplinary than ever, employing technologies from computer science, survey, information technology, architecture, ecology, environmental science and beyond. As we redefine the boundaries of our field, the opportunities for exciting visualization methods that transcend traditional archaeological documentation has never been greater. We struggle to keep up with the latest technological advances and how to integrate them in our field