STUD: Disputas - A platform for analysis and critical reflection.

Offentlig prosjektsammendrag

Disputas is a digital environment for analysis that facilitates critical thinking. Through compact formulations, intuitive examples, graphical visualizations and innovative machine learning services, we equip users with tools and analytical methods that enables everyone to understand and evaluate the thought behind text. A core function is a tool for visualizing the logical structure of text. When content is represented visually, it is easier to understand the meaning, and relations between the ideas expressed becomes clearer. Consider the way a graph represents the statistical content of a long table of numbers. When we read the numbers straight from the table it is difficult to see the relevant relations, and it takes a lot of time to get an overview. The graph summarizes the information we are interested in in a clear way that everyone can understand almost instantaneously. Visual representations of logical structure is clarifying in a comparable way. The Norwegian ministry of education has a stated goal that public educational institutions offer "simple, effective and reliable digital services". We want to help institutions achieve this goal by designing the platform to be well-suited for an educational context. However, we also aim for it to be useful outside of the classroom. Individuals interested in social issues and the arguments that bear on them can use the platform to better understand and evaluate the arguments, and actors with an agenda can use the platform to visualize their message to reach a wider audience. With funding from STUD-ENT, and academic support from universities, the platform can be developed in a way that satisfies the objectives of digital educational services. The platform will be made available free of charge on the internet, so that anyone can take advantage of it. In return, we use anonymized user-generated data to develop innovative language technology (NLP) services based on machine learning (artificial intelligence).