This graduation thesis report describes the research activities investigating the education on filter bubbles in Dutch secondary schools towards teenagers between 14-16 years old, and the design to improve this through including critical thinking techniques.
During this research the context and two main target groups were explored through literature research, observations, generative sessions and interviews. Insights from this research led to the design brief containing the design goal, interaction vision, design criteria, and learning objectives.
The design brief was formulated after exploring the context, media literacy, and stakeholders and target group. From this research, it was found that Dutch secondary schools are still at the beginning stages of implementing media literacy in itself in their curriculums, which means that filter bubbles are even less discussed in schools. Teenagers are confident about their media literacy and often confuse this with tech-savviness. This results in that they often think they learn more through Social Media. But even though teenagers nowadays in 2021 are raised alongside Social Media, teenagers are not necessarily media literate. Especially when it comes to critical thinking about the media consumed. To stimulate critical thinking in education, pupils have to be encouraged to come up with their own ideas and opinions and be able to discuss the different ideas with other people. Pupils also have to be able to connect subjects to their daily lives. For this to happen, a safe space needs to be created for pupils to be able to share perspectives with each other.
Following these insights, the design goal was to design an intervention that can be used as an addition to the “social studies” course in secondary schools in The Netherlands. This intervention should teach teenagers to critically think about the content they consume within their filter bubbles, through meaningful conversations with other teenagers about the content.
Ideation involved creative sessions and individual brainstorming and soon went into testing and iterating concepts. The final concept was evaluated with Social Studies teachers and teenagers. In conclusion, the Pop your Bubble: Lesson plan has created an opportunity in class for pupils to explore their own filter bubbles and discuss them with each other. Though further testing in context and research on the long-term effects of this lesson plan is required, teachers and participants agreed that this is a useful way to teach pupils that filter bubbles can have an influence on opinions and that it helps teenagers discuss them.