Sign inOpen the app
The Python Podcast.__init__

Teaching Digital Archaeology With Jupyter Notebooks

Jan 14, 2019 · 49 min · Episode 194 · 27.7 MB
0:00-49:35

Streams straight from the publisher. podnod never proxies or re-hosts episode audio.

Open in podnodTranscript

Summary

Computers have found their way into virtually every area of human endeavor, and archaeology is no exception. To aid his students in their exploration of digital archaeology Shawn Graham helped to create an online, digital textbook with accompanying interactive notebooks. In this episode he explains how computational practices are being applied to archaeological research, how the Online Digital Archaeology Textbook was created, and how you can use it to get involved in this fascinating area of research.

Introduction

  • Hello and welcome to Podcast.__init__, the podcast about Python and the people who make it great.
  • When you’re ready to launch your next app or want to try a project you hear about on the show, you’ll need somewhere to deploy it, so take a look at our friends over at Linode. With 200 Gbit/s private networking, scalable shared block storage, node balancers, and a 40 Gbit/s public network, all controlled by a brand new API you’ve got everything you need to scale up. Go to pythonpodcast.com/linode to get a $20 credit and launch a new server in under a minute. And don’t forget to thank them for their continued support of this show!
  • And to keep track of how your team is progressing on building new features and squashing bugs, you need a project management system designed by software engineers, for software engineers. Clubhouse lets you craft a workflow that fits your style, including per-team tasks, cross-project epics, a large suite of pre-built integrations, and a simple API for crafting your own. Podcast.__init__ listeners get 2 months free on any plan by going to pythonpodcast.com/clubhouse today and signing up for a trial.
  • Visit the site to subscribe to the show, sign up for the newsletter, and read the show notes. And if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions I would love to hear them. You can reach me on Twitter at @Podcast__init__ or email hosts@podcastinit.com)
  • To help other people find the show please leave a review on iTunes, or Google Play Music, tell your friends and co-workers, and share it on social media.
  • Join the community in the new Zulip chat workspace at pythonpodcast.com/chat
  • Your host as usual is Tobias Macey and today I’m interviewing Shawn Graham about his work on the Online Digital Archaeology Textbook

Interview

  • Introductions
  • How did you get introduced to Python?
  • Can you start by explaining what digital archaeology is?
  • To facilitate your teaching you have collaborated on the O-DATE textbook and associated Jupyter notebooks. Can you describe what that resource covers and how the project got started?
  • What have you found to be the most critical lessons for your students to help them be effective archaeologists?
    • What are the most useful aspects of leveraging computational techniques in an archaeological context?


  • Can you describe some of the sources and formats of data that would commonly be encountered by digital archaeologists?

  • The notebooks that accompany the text have a mixture of R and Python code. What are your personal guidelines for when to use each language?

  • How have the skills and tools of software engineering influenced your views and approach to research and education in the realm of archaeology?

  • What are some of the most novel or engaging ways that you have seen computers applied to the field of archaeology?

  • What are your goals and aspirations for the O-DATE project?

Keep In Touch

Picks

Links

The intro and outro music is from Requiem for a Fish The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA