Research Protocol

From MediaFranca

Contents 1 Hunt Statement 2 Research Tools 3 Defining the Inquiry 3.1 Questions for myself

Hunt Statement

I want to study perceptions, patterns and behaviors around knowledge representation in Adolescents in order to identify design opportunities for the development of visual tools for the Semantic Web.

Research Tools

• Observation
• Camera Diaries
• Interviews
• Participatory Design Session(s)
• Concept Validation Session(s)
• Product Testing

Defining the Inquiry

This project is focused in developing visual tools for teenagers. One of the problems of visualizing Semantic Web environments is the existence of multiple leves of artifacts, such as:

1. the object level, or physical resources of the world (replication of the world)
2. classes of objects, representing the basic knowledge of relationships between these generic objects (i.e. "you can find water in the pool")
3. complex objects that have different levels within itselves and also semantic aseptions (i.e. AIM, university, friend, etc.)
4. more abstract knowledge embodied in concepts or meta-concepts (i.e. punk, motherhood, poetry, etc.)
5. controversial and undefineable concepts (i.e love, beauty, perfection, etc.)

(I would like to focus on the last 3 ones)

Questions for myself

• Are teenagers currently representing their knowledge (beliefs, ideals)?
• If not, is there a need for this? why?
  • depends on the nature of benefit they can get from it
• Are they currently dealing with representations or models as a metacognitive tools? Am I scoping the right age range for this issue?
• Is it possible to frame this outside the school/educational environment?