Phase 1 | Territory definition | 01.18.2018

Process documentation for Interaction Design Studio II, taught by Peter Scupelli at Carnegie Mellon University. Team comprises of Zach Bachiri, Devika Khowala, Hajira Qazi, and Shengzhi Wu.

Alexander the friendly robot visits the Indoor Park to interact with children by telling classic fairy tales, singing and dancing at Westfield London on August 10, 2016 in London, England. Jeff spicer- Getty images. http://time.com/5087385/why-you-shouldnt-be-afraid-of-artificial-intelligence/?utm_source=linkedin.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=bill-gates-external-swap&linkId=47097631

Territory mapping

A rigorous and thorough research process is the foundation of any novel, thought-provoking and distinctive product. And it is equally important to carefully plan the research phase. This week, we would be channeling our efforts towards developing a territory map that would aid us to explore the kind of research we will need to conduct in the next stage.

A territory map is a visual representation of the combined knowledge of what we know and understand exists already in the world. It allows us to group elements, discover patterns, identify outliers, uncover relationships, commonalities and differences that exist between various elements. It provides a means of locating gaps, defining problem areas and finding opportunities. Territory mapping is a powerful tool in the sense that it reveals both a broad and an in-depth view of the space under exploration.

So far we’ve had two collaborative sessions on defining our territory map.

Session 1

In the first meeting, we laid out all the areas and domains that we know are related to Learning and Teaching. We sorted them into three broad categories:

What: Field of learning
Who: Learner type
How: Ways of learning

We discovered that there was a common interest in exploring the area of lifelong learning and decided to explore it further.

Session 2

In continuation of the first session, we used our time to plot the various platforms, users, technologies and interaction elements associated with lifelong learning.

We segregated the learning platforms in two major groups: Structured and unstructured forms of learning with some platforms like podcasts, books etc. that coexist in both. We mapped user types and technologies involved against the the various platform of learning that we’d identified.

Although we’ve identified the various, in my opinion, we could benefit from another go at mapping elements as we learn more about these areas.

Reading Material :

Osher — Lifelong learning

Types of AI

Why You Shouldn’t Be Afraid of Artificial Intelligence

Is AI the Future of Education?

Stage 1 Deliverables :

• A presentation that details your plan for your exploratory research (with examples)
• A territory map
• Project definition that illustrates your current understanding of what you are working on.

01.22.2017 | Defining the Context

In preparation for our presentation on the 24th, we shifted our focus to defining the context we would like to explore. We brainstormed different problem spaces and aspects of learning, teaching, and education that interested each of us, and then voted on our favorites. We came up with several different interesting topic areas to explore, such as financial literacy, civic agency, small business ownership, and language learning. We also considered different stakeholders, such as incarcerated people, senior citizens, and first- and second-generation immigrants. We eventually settled on the idea of the immigrant experience, because it encompasses other areas that we were interested in, such as language learning and underserved populations.

Left: initial brainstorming session. Center: voting on our favorites. Right: fleshing out the immigrant experience.

We checked in briefly with Bruce and Peter, and will spend the rest of the next two days defining our problem space and updating our territory map in preparation for our presentation on Wednesday (1.24.18).

1.23.17 | Refining

We began our session by revisiting our territory map. We had initially mapped out platforms for lifelong learning, so had to do another map for the specific area around the immigrant experience. After discussing for some time, we came up with the idea of concentric circles to describe who the stakeholders are, what they want to learn, how they learn it, and opportunities for AI on the outer-most circle. We put all the particulars post-it notes, and then reorganized to group similar ideas. We found a distinction between different types of platforms and grouped those, and different topic areas immigrants need to learn about.

territory mapping

We then went on to the other areas of the presentation we needed to work on, namely problem framing and research questions, methods, and groups. We also considered different types of AI technology, though we did not include that in our presentation or mapping. We thought through each of these areas together on a whiteboard, then we transferred the information to a Google doc, from which we compiled our slides.

Zach and Devika worked on digitizing the final territory map. This was the final result.

Hajira and Shengzhi worked on the slides for the presentation. The presentation went well, so overall we are pleased with where we are so far. Our next steps are to narrow in on a specific immigrant group and begin exploratory research.