This report gives an overview of the fundamental issues being addressed in the frame of the project REPRESENTATION, whose focus is on ICT related representations for the age cohort of 10-12 years old. These issues include the rationale and means and methods for the study of representations that the learner constructs in his/her attempt to understand knowledge in a given field. The context in which field research is to be conducted is also being addressed. Presented in the first part is a theoretical framework based on the review of literature. Discussed in it are issues concerning both cognitive and social representations. Attention is also given to software tools as cognitive instruments and to the issue of concept mapping followed by a threefold approach: concept mapping as a tool, concept mapping as a communication tool and lastly as an assessment devise. Discussed in the second part are issues of Computer Based Concept Mapping Software Tools. Considered here is first the technique and then the tool. It leads to the idea that what seems more efficient is to have children build their own concept maps with software that could be sufficiently fluid and simple. This part also includes a discussion on the assessment of commercially available concept mapping tools and network collaborative learning environments. Presented in the third part is the contextual frame in which field research is to take place in the subsequent phases of the project.