Understanding teenagers' personal contexts to design technology that supports learning about energy consumption

Abstract

Energy sustainability is prevalent in political and popular rhetoric and yet energy consumption is rising. Teenagers are an important category of future energy consumers, but little is known of their conceptions about energy and energy saving. We report on empirical research with two groups of teenagers. This is part of ongoing work to design learning technologies that support teenagers learn about personal energy consumption. In this paper we describe our analysis and methodology, which are shaped by the Ecology of Resources (EoR) design framework [Luckin, R. (2010). Re-designing learning contexts: Technology-rich, learner-centred ecologies. London and New York, NY: Routledge]. Our findings informed the development of an EoR model of the participants' personal context, which includes their world resources (people, tools, knowledge, skills, and environment) and their personal resources (conceptions, motivations and concerns around energy consumption). We discuss the range of methods we employed to understand learners' personal contexts. These findings contribute to our understanding of how to explore teenagers' personal contexts and have implications for the design of technology to support learning about personal energy consumption.

Keywords:

• context
• design
• informal learning
• energy
• teenagers

Acknowledgements

We thank the students and staff who have worked with us on the Taking on the Teenagers project funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council in the UK: Grant reference number EP/I000550/1.

Notes on contributors

Katerina Avramides holds a BSc in Psychology and Artificial Intelligence from the University of Nottingham (2001), an MSc in Human Centred Computer Systems (2003) and PhD in Informatics (2009) from the University of Sussex. She worked as a Research Associate in the area of cognitive science and computational modelling at Carnegie Mellon University. Since completion of her PhD, she has worked as a Research Fellow on several multi-disciplinary projects, in both psychology/education and technical development roles, at the University of Sussex and recently at the London Knowledge Lab. Current research interests include the design and development of technology-enhanced learning (TEL) experiences, particularly to support higher order thinking skills.

Brock Craft holds a BA in Photography from Columbia College (1992), an MS (with Distinction) in Human–Computer Interaction (2001) from DePaul University, and a PhD in Computer Science (2007) from University College London. He was co-director of TinkerLondon, a technology startup specialising in design consultancy on the Internet of Things (IoT) and is currently a Research Fellow at the London Knowledge Lab. He has worked on a variety of interdisciplinary research projects focused on user-centred design, involving clinical e-Science, tangibles for learning, Learning Design, and Technology-Enhanced Learning. He also lectures in Arts Computing. Current research interests are in design prototyping, sketching and design cognition, information design, and ubiquitous computing.

Rosemary Luckin holds a BA (Hons.) First Class, in Computing and Artificial Intelligence, awarded in 1993 and a PhD in Cognitive Science awarded 1998. She has previously held the following posts at the University of Sussex: Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Teaching and Learning), Director of the Human Centred Technology research group, Reader in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence. Prof. Luckin took up her current post as Professor of Learner centred design at the London Knowledge Lab, University of London in 2006. She has written over 50 peer-reviewed journal papers and book chapters, a research monograph and numerous conference papers. Her research explores how to scaffold learning across multiple technologies, locations, subjects, and times through the application of participatory methods to the development and evaluation of Technology for learning. This work is interdisciplinary and encompasses Education, Psychology, Artificial Intelligence, and HCI.