Teaching in Yangon

Wed, 25 Mar 2015 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

On Sat 7 March I spent a full day teaching a Software Carpentry workshop at the University of Yangon with 23 archaeologists from the Department of Archaeology. The workshop is part of a training component of an archaeological research project funded by the Australian Research Council, the University of Washington and the University of Wollongong. The group included graduate students, tutors and lecturers. Archaeology in Myanmar has a strong art history flavour, partly due to its British colonial heritage (where archaeology and art history are often paired, compared to the where US archaeology is usually a sub-field of anthropology) but mostly due to the country's extreme isolation from the rest of the world, where archaeology has taken a scientific turn in recent decades. This isolation takes several forms: travel restrictions that make it difficult for locals to travel overseas, and until recently, for foreigners to visit; small library budgets that make it difficult for university libraries to keep their collections and subscriptions current; and slow and unreliable internet connectivity make browsing the web, watching videos, and downloading files a lengthy, uncertain and frustrating process. All of this meant that the group's familiarity with using computers for research was lower than what might be expected from a Western audience, and so we adapted the SWC materials to accommodate this. We knew we wouldn't get through as much as a typical workshop, but we had the advantage of everyone starting at an equivalent skill level, so the sticky notes all went up and down at much the same time and we had a pleasant and relaxed atmosphere.

Ben Marwick on The Carpentries

Teaching in Yangon