Sustaining engagement among elders using Conversational Agent Systems for Indigenous Knowledge transfer

Description

Indigenous knowledge is facing a perceivable threat that could ultimately result in the loss of valuable knowledge paramount for the retention of cultural heritage. Indigenous knowledge is transferred from older generations to younger generations but due to increasing urbanisation, the chain of indigenous knowledge transfer has been faced with a risk of total loss, thus, there is a need to sustain engagement among elders for the transfer of indigenous knowledge. Many elders indicated versatile use of mobile phones to perform their personalities and communication on Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp and other social networking sites.

(continued…) Meanwhile Conversational Agent as a persuasive technology has been gaining considerable momentum in the world of technology, increasing participation rate when deployed in educational setups, used as guiding system in museums and websites. This research focuses on how we can use the effective design frameworks and models of Conversational Agent systems to sustain the engagement from the older generation in indigenous knowledge transfer process. Additional to sustaining engagement among elders, we aim to utilize Conversational Agent as agents or proxies to record valuable indigenous knowledge from older generations. A working cohesion between Conversational Agent and indigenous knowledge recording could potentially serve as the foundation of any indigenous knowledge system.