DART

DART: Digital Anthropology Resources for Teaching

Page contents > DART Resources | DART Contacts

The Digital Anthropology Resources for Teaching (DART) project aims to explore the potential of digital resources for the teaching of undergraduate anthropology. The project has also been investigating digital-library technologies that will allow for the flexible delivery and customized use of these resources.

Climbing for wild honey in Congo-Brazzaville

Columbia University and the London School of Economics are partners in this international project. At Columbia, DART is a collaboration between the Department of Anthropology, the Electronic Publishing Initiative at Columbia (EPIC), and Academic Information Systems (AcIS). At LSE, the Department of Anthropology and the Centre for Learning Technology will collaborate on the project. Drawing on the collective skills and existing infrastructures of these institutions and organizations, DART seeks to initiate a meaningful and sustainable transformation of undergraduate education and professional practice in the field of anthropology.

DART is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under its Digital Libraries Initiative and by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) under the Digital Libraries in the Classroom Programme. The project is starting it’s final year of funding, and seeking to disseminate its findings as well as share the resources developed (see below).

DART home page at Columbia University

DART project background information from the (JISC) web page

With the three other projects in the DLIC Programme, DART was involved in the production of a video which explains the background to the initiative and outlines some of the successes. You can view the full video or the DART segment online here:
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/programme_dlitc/projectvideos.aspx

DART Resources

The links below provide access to the digital tools that have been developed by DART at LSE and used in anthropology teaching:

What's Going On?
A video-interpretation exercise with accompanying authoring tools that allow the content to be edited. It has been used at LSE to simulate the collection and interpretation of ethnographic data, but can be used in many other contexts.

Betsileo Rice Challenge
A model to simulate the complex series of decisions made by Madagascan rice farmers and the repercussions of those decisions over time.

Kolkata Explorer
A tool that simulates an exploration of the city of Kolkata in search of ethnographic data.

Criterion
A tool to allow the detailed analysis of complex concepts (such as the innateness of human faculties) by small groups of students.

Schoolchildren in Taltala, Calcutta

Betsileo women harvesting rice

DART Contacts

Main contact at LSE

Charles Stafford
Professor of Anthropology
c.stafford@lse.ac.uk
Tel: +44 20 7955 7214

Main contact at Columbia

Kate Wittenberg
Director, Electronic Publishing Initiative at Columbia
kw49@columbia.edu
Tel: +1 212 854 0167
Fax: +1 212 854 9099

LSE Team

Charles Stafford
Professor of Anthropology
c.stafford@lse.ac.uk
Tel: +44 20 7955 7214

Chris Fuller
Professor of Anthropology
c.fuller@lse.ac.uk
Tel: +44 20 7955 7213

LSE Anthropology Department
Fax: +44 20 7955 7603

Steve Ryan
Director, Centre for Learning Technology
s.ryan@lse.ac.uk
Tel: +44 20 7955 6008

Steve Bond
Learning Technologist, Centre for Learning Technology
s.bond1@lse.ac.uk
Tel: +44 20 7107 5117

Centre for Learning Technology
Fax: +44 20 7955 6625

Also previously involved in the project:

Caroline Ingram
Project Coordinator

Henrike Donner
Lecturer in Anthropology

Luke Freeman
Postdoctoral Fellow in Anthropology

Jerome Lewis
Postdoctoral Fellow in Anthropology

Clarinda Still
LSE Fellow

Columbia Team

David Millman
Director of Research and Development,
Academic Information Systems
dsm@columbia.edu
Tel: +1 212 854 4284
Fax: +1 212 662 6442

Colmbia Anthropology Department
Fax: +1 212 854 7347

Also previously involved in the project:

Nicholas Dirks
Vice President for Arts and Sciences and
Professor of Anthropology
nbd7@columbia.edu
Tel: +1 212 854 8296
Fax: +1 212 854 5401

Gustav Peebles
Postdoctoral Fellow in Anthropology
gp2119@columbia.edu
Tel: +1 212 854 5493

Rashmi Sadana
Postdoctoral Fellow in Anthropology
rs2295@columbia.edu
Tel: +1 212 854 4752

Ann Miller
Project Manager (to 2006)
am310@columbia.edu
Tel: +1 212 854 1796
Fax: +1 212 854 9099

Gordon Dahlquist
Manager, Research and Development
Academic Information Systems
gd17@columbia.edu
Tel: +1 212 854 7421
Fax: +1 212 662 6442

DART is being provided to you for your own personal use for teaching and learning purposes. Any copying or distribution of DART materials without permission is prohibited.