Producing Online Heritage Projects

Appendix B

Sample Planning Research Focus Group Evaluation Recorded Responses

Twenty-two children took part in the focus group, at [School Name].

The Topics

Fifteen children have already taken the train as opposed to seven who have not. Trains brought up in the minds of the children:

• trip for 21 of them
• vacation for 13
• transport merchandise for 11
• locomotive for 7
• toy for 6
• landscape for 5
• rail for 4
• mechanical for 1

Themes that the children wanted to explore were:

• How a train works: today and in the past for 16 children
• The history of railroad construction in Canada for 14
• To find out about the people who were involved in building the railroad for 7
• Architecture of the train station and the stationmaster's house, etc. for 6
• Trades related to the train in Canada for 5;
• One of the children said: "How to drive a train"

The Games

The favourite game for 21 of the children is www.existing-game-website1.ca. They said the following:

• "For the animation and the design."
• "Because it has a lot of games and I like the colours and how the characters were done.
• And also because we can visit it."
• "Because there are more games, and it's fun because you can visit the town, and the colours."
• "Because there are more games and ping pong was fun."
• "There are more things and it's more fun. There are things we know like Astérix, Sabrina, and there are characters."
• "I liked the animation, the characters. I liked that we had two choices."
• "The colour and the pictures."
• "Because there was a lot more animation."
• "It's nice, it's fun. The pictures are neat."
• "It's really well done! The colours are perfect."
• "The colours."
• "It's really cool!"
• "Because there's a lot of stuff for teens and I like the colours."
• "Because I find it's more animated and there's more to choose from."
• "The games, the colour and the animation."
• "It was fun because the others were boring."
• "Because the pictures were really cool, so were the characters and there were a lot of neat games."
• "There were lots more animated stuff and colours."
• "Because there are lots of things to do and it's easy to understand."
• "Lively animation and colour."

The least liked game for 16 of the children is www.existing-game-website2.ca. They said the following:

• "It didn't have anything interesting."
• "Because there weren't any games and it was boring."
• "Because it didn't have as many games as the others."
• "There's just one game and it's boring."
• "There weren't any games."
• "It was the least fun and there weren't very many colours."
• "Because there wasn't as much animation."
• "Too many words but it's OK anyway. It needs more games."
• "Boring, too many words."
• "Because the games were boring."
• "There's not much there."
• "Because it's boring."
• "Because I'm not interested in stars."
• "There wasn't as much animation and there weren't a lot of games."
• "It wasn't very exciting."
• "Because we didn't have fun."

The "Look" of the Game

The favourite site 1 in terms of pictures for 13 of the children is www.existing-game-website3.ca; www.existing-game-website4.ca came in second with 7 children.

For the www.existing-game-website3.ca, what they especially liked is:

• the characters for 10 children;
• the colours for 11;
• the font for 2.

For the www.existing-game-website4.ca, what they especially liked is:

• the characters for 5 children;
• the colours for 6;
• the font for 1.

Ten children preferred the Flash version of www.existing-game-website4.ca as opposed to six who preferred the HTML version.

Six children did not answer the question.

General Information

The group was made up of 9 boys and 11 girls. Two children did not answer this question.

The children's ages were 11 (14 children) and 12 (6 children). Two children did not answer this question.

Nineteen children have a computer at home as opposed to two who do not. One child did not answer this question.

Out of those 19 children, 18 have Internet access. Fourteen have high-speed or cable access. Four answered that they did not know what type of connection they had.

The Internet is used for:

• games by 18 children
• E-mail by 18
• chat by 16
• homework for 10.

Four children mentioned something else:

• research
• science
• downloading
• assignments

Two children have seen the "Name of Museum" Web site, but 19 children are not familiar with it.

Six children said that they would be interested in returning to the "Name of Museum" Web site, as opposed to five children who indicated that this was unlikely. Eight children did not answer the question.

Favourite sites:

• bonus.com
• java.game.play
• bubble
• tumyeto
• gamies.com

Favourite CD-ROMs:

• Tony Hawk
• Age of Empire
• NHL 2000
• The Sims
• Sabrina the Teenage Witch
• Fifa Soccer
• Tag
• Commando
• Hockey
• Diablo 2 Exemption

Summary

1. Fifteen children have already taken the train as opposed to seven who have not.
   
   
2. Themes that the children wanted to explore are:
   • How a train works: today and in the past for 16 children;
   • To find out about the people who participated in building the railroad for 14.
   
   
3. The favourite game for 21 children is www.existing-game-website1.ca.
   
   
4. The least liked game for 16 children is www.existing-game-website2.ca.
   
   
5. The favourite site in terms of pictures for 13 children is www.existing-game-website3.ca.
   
   
6. The favourite version of www.existing-game-website4.ca is the Flash version.
   
   
7. Nineteen children have a computer at home, and out of these 19 children, 18 have Internet access.
   
   
8. Internet is used for:
   • games by 18 children;
   • E-mail by 18.