Cartography mediated by digital technologies: new perspectives for ethnographic research

Abstract

This paper presents some approaches to the establishment of research and new procedures involving the use of applications (App) and mobile devices (netbooks, tablets and smartphones) for ethnographic research. It is situated in the context of ongoing research "Augmented School: digital cartography and mobility for learning and citizenship" (supported by CNPq/CAPES and FAPERGS), which aims to develop a work with students and teachers at a school that received netbooks for educational use on a "One-to-One" initiative. With the development of mobile technologies, geolocation (GPS, locative media) and distributed databases online (cloud computing) arise new possibilities for the production of records and interactions in the field of ethnographic research. At the same time the diversity of the type of digital records (text, photo, audio and video) allied to mechanisms for indexing and markup (tags, hashtags, geotags, etc.) open new possibilities of research, it also requires from participants understanding of syntax and new technological procedures for the production, recording and sharing of information. Some applications for mobile and desktop computer programs (such as NVivo and Evernote) can facilitate this process, while that may contribute to the planning and organization of this production. Parallel to the discussion of these new technological possibilities and knowledge necessary for researchers, we are interested in the establishment of participatory research methodologies capable of engaging researchers and subjects in the production and analysis of data. We think that the current technological context may be able to consolidate a new scenario in the field of research, in which researchers and subjects to act as co-producers of knowledge. In this sense, the cartography mediated by digital technologies emerges as extremely rich methodological possibility as it implies the inclusion of social actors in the context of engagement with local issues and problems. Such engagement would be a necessary condition for the production of meaning through the shared and mediated use of digital technologies in the process of knowledge construction. We believe that this scenario can reconfigure both the research itself and the contract between researchers and subjects, as the action and participation become instances of authorship from which all speak and produce.