Children transcribe ancient texts in citizen
science project
Dr. Dirk
Obbink, director of the Ancient Lives Project at Oxford University, decided
that he needed help with the transcription of 2000-year-old documents.
Pensioners, schoolchildren and office-workers help the scholars with ancient
Egypt papyri that archaeologists dug up in the 1980s. The scholars have thousands
of people register online in rapid speed. The so called ‘citizen science’
resulted in an astounding amount of transcriptions in short time and more texts
than the scholars have managed in a hundred years. It is a new and effective
way and it involves numerous of viewpoints that scholars don’t have.
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words
My opinion
I love
this initiative by the Oxford University. I agree with them that ‘citizen
science’ is the new future and everyone can benefit from it. The volunteers
feel important because they help scholars transcribe the ancient papers. Many
users use a keyboard with the alphabet and the only thing they have to do is recognize
the symbols. In the end they can see what they have transcribed and understand
what they have found out. There are some that work hours and hours on a piece
and there are some who do this between chores. It’s amazing!
98 words
Newton.
(2013, May 17). Children transcribe
ancient texts in citizen science project – video.
This is an outstanding way to get children involved in science. It also shows them that there are other things which can be enjoyable then just playing video games on being on a tablet or smartphone. What I also like is that they can see what they did in the end.
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