Thanks to the amazing Craig at UVic’s TIL, things are looking considerably more organised on my website. That would be because it’s a whole new site! (Which reminds me, I need to work out how to get rid of the old site.) It’s actually been up and running since the autumn, but I’m only now starting to play around with it myself. A key reason for that is that the Archaeology of Death students are blogging again. I’ve made a page to bring all their blogs together and am intending to join them on their blogging journey starting later today. If I’m asking my students to do it, I’d best be prepared to do it myself.
The students have three kinds of prompts that they can pick from or they can come up with their own. One blog prompt is a generic news prompt. Find something in the news relating to the archaeology of death. Link to it, summarise it, and talk about it. The second kind of prompt asks them to do the same basic thing with academic articles. I’m looking for critical thinking in both types of post. The third prompt type can be really fun. This one is based on personal reflections. The topics vary week to week, but it could be things like reflecting on their own burials (delightfully morbid for some) or talking about the experience of their field work assignment (called the Monument Analysis). I confess, I like the reflections best, as they often give me very interesting insights into my students’ lives.