“The Ceren Web Resource: Enabling Students to Become Anthropologists In A Virtual Site” by Lewin, Ehrhardt and Gross

Using content from the University of Colorado Anthropology Department and our own knowledge of multimedia system development at the College of Architecture and Planning, we are developing interesting, informative, and interactive Web learning resources. Our topic: an anthropology site called Ceren, an ancient agricultural village in western El Salvador buried by volcanic ash over 1,400 years ago. Our goal: to create a virtual anthropology site on the Web, with interactive QuickTime VR, interactive database search tools, image applets, and detailed computer renderings of what the site may have once looked like. Currently in use by anthropology classes at the University of Colorado, the Ceren Web Resource incorporates an array of Web multimedia technology to link visual images with original excavation text, notes, and discoveries. The Ceren Web resource has attempted to lead the way in exploring the use of hypermedia tools in education. We aim to go beyond a tour of ancient buildings and enable students to begin to think and act like anthropologists. Using the Ceren site, students can participate in the excavation process as on-location anthropologists, putting together the puzzling pieces of what ancient household life in Meso-America was truly like.