Technology to support parental engagement in elementary education: Lessons learned from the UK

This paper compares and contrasts two projects in order to better understand the complex issues surrounding the use of technology to support parental involvement with schools and their children’s learning. The Becta-funded ICT Test Bed evaluation (2002–2006) had the intention of saturating schools (in three areas of social deprivation) with a range of technologies, including 23 elementary schools. The ESRC/EPSRC/DTI-funded Homework project (2003–2006) used participatory design methods to develop and evaluate technology to link home and school in a elementary school in the South East. Both projects shared a common theoretical foundation, that of socio-cultural theory. The theory influenced the evaluation methodology employed in both projects and in the Homework project it additionally influenced the design of the technology intervention. Findings suggest that technologies with readily accessible and interactive resources that are flexible can help develop parental engagement. However, simpler and less resource hungry solutions such as the use of websites and email can provide opportunities for quick wins. In relation to transporting technology between home and school, there are issues for both staff and parents. Without purposeful use, these challenges act as a barrier once they outweigh the novelty effect. We conclude that parental needs are complex and that engagement needs to be sensitively scaffolded rather than focussing on the technology. Participatory design offers an effective means of addressing this and should be the starting point. The technology should facilitate independence and mediate access to a shared space for collaborative activity. The content and guidance needs to be purposeful and relevant, offering a means to integrate learning across the learner’s broader context, including school and home seamlessly.     

Representing older people: towards meaningful images of the user in design scenarios

Designing for older people requires the consideration of a range of design problems, which may be related to difficult and sometimes highly personal matters. Issues such as fear, loneliness, dependency, and physical decline may be hard to observe or discuss in interviews. Pastiche scenarios and pastiche personae are techniques that employ characters to create a space for the discussion of new technological developments and user experience. This paper argues that the use of fictional characters can help to overcome restrictive notions of older people by disrupting designers’ prior assumptions. In this paper, we reflect on our experiences using pastiche techniques in two separate technology design projects that sought to address the needs of older people. In the first pastiche scenarios were developed by the designers of the system and used as discussion documents with users. In the second pastiche personae were used by groups of users themselves to generate scenarios which were scribed for later use by the design team. We explore how the use of fictional characters and settings can generate new ideas and undercut the potential in scenarios, for weak characterisation of “the user” to permit scenario writers to fit characters to technology rather than vice versa. To assist in future development of pastiche techniques in designing for older people, we provide an array of fictional older characters drawn from literary and popular culture.     

Designing technology with older people

Designing applications to support older people in their own homes is increasing in popularity and necessity. The increase in supporting older people in the community means that cash-strapped resources are required to be utilised in the most effective manner, which often lends itself to technology deployment, rather than human deployment as the former is perceived as more cost effective. Therefore, the concern arises as to how technology can be designed inclusively and acceptably to the people who are to receive it. This paper discusses the issue of design, and how these concerns have been addressed in a series of projects targeted towards directly supporting people in the community.     

Practice makes perfect: The longitudinal effect of adolescents’ instant messaging on their ability to initiate offline friendships

The first aim of this study was to investigate whether instant messaging (IM) influences adolescents’ ability to initiate offline friendships. The second aim was to study the validity of two underlying mechanisms that may account for this relationship: (a) the opportunities offered by IM to communicate with a variety of people, and (b) to disclose intimate information. A three-wave longitudinal study was conducted among 690 Dutch adolescents (10–17 years old). Results show that adolescents’ IM use increased their ability to initiate offline friendships over time. Furthermore, IM use indirectly increased adolescents’ ability to initiate offline friendships through the diversity of their online communication partners. These findings suggest that adolescents can practice social skills online and learn to relate to a variety of people, which, over time, may increase their ability to initiate offline friendships.     

Proficiency and attitudes toward information technologies’ use in psychology undergraduates

In this study we had two aims: first, to evaluate the self-reported proficient use of data analysis and information technologies in psychology undergraduates. Second, to investigate the relationship between their proficiency level and attitude toward the technology’s use for academic, social and personal activities. Two hundred students were asked to answer two short Likert scales which shown a high internal consistency (proficiency α = 0.93; attitudes α = 0.88) and a coherent factorial structure. They also were required to answer a semantic differential scale (α = 86) of whose bipolar adjectives evaluated the technologies’ use in their learning–teaching process. A regression analysis showed that an efficient e-information searching and e-downloading strategies as well as considering the active vs passive use of the technology can together predict (R² = .754) the usage of complex technology and abilities.     

Little brother: could and should wearable computing technologies be applied to reducing older people’s fear of crime?

This paper considers whether emerging wearable computing technologies could and should be applied to reducing older people’s fear of crime. The paper begins by exploring the sociological and criminological literature, which debates why older people are most likely to fear crime, even though they are least likely to be victims. It goes on to report findings from ethnographic studies of key care and social service professionals in an English city. This field work reflects the ways in which assistive technologies for older people can function as signs of vulnerability, and also reports the uses of relatively simple information and communication technologies in providing critical backup and reassurance for elderly users. The fear of crime is then considered as an information problem centring on three questions: what’s going on, what can I do about it and can I get help? Possible applications of emerging wearable surveillance technologies are then explored through a design concept called the Cambadge. This is a wearable, wireless webcam for older people to broadcast video and audio data to police or community Web sites. This concept is situated with reference to a company developing a similar technology and to related fields. It is argued that the design problems of such surveillance technology are inherently political. The case is made with reference to the history and philosophy of surveillance and the massive demographic shifts of the ageing population. It is argued that utopian visions of the uses of such technology under-theorise power and accountability. The paper concludes that technological innovations will not adequately address older people’s fear of crime without accompanying social and cultural change.     

Youth and the Internet: Uses and practices in the home

The aim of the present research was to examine the relationship between Greek young people aged 12–18 and the Internet through their patterns of Internet use in the home. A particular objective of the study was the investigation of the possible effects of social stratification, gender and age on their domestic Internet use. A sample of 418 high school students selected from 17 schools in four Greek cities completed a structured self-reported questionnaire primarily concerned with Internet use (frequency, purpose and behaviour patterns) at home and the types of the parental supervision. The research was carried out during the period 2004–2005. The main findings of the study were the following: (a) Internet access remains at a very low level and is insufficiently used for school purposes, (b) younger students (aged 12–15 years) use it more frequently than older ones for information seeking concerning school work, (c) the Internet is an indicator of social and economic stratification since most young people with access to it come from family environments with a higher educational and socioeconomic background and live in urban and semi urban areas, (d) boys make up the majority of systematic users, mainly for entertainment purposes, (e) the Internet is a place and space safeguarding the “privacy” of young people with the majority of them preferring to surf alone, (f) parental supervision and monitoring seems to be absent largely from the relationship between youth and the Internet, and (g) in general, the frequency and type of Internet use are not significantly affected by students’ places of residence or the educational level and profession of their parents.     

Age differences in online social networking – A study of user profiles and the social capital divide among teenagers and older users in MySpace

The aim of this research was to investigate age differences and similarities in the use of the social networking website MySpace, to explore potential differences in social capital among older people (users over 60 years of age) compared to teenagers (users between 13 and 19 years of age). We used locally developed web crawlers to collect data from MySpace’s user profile pages, and to quantify any differences that exist in the networks of friends of older people and teenagers. Content analysis was applied to investigate differences in social activities between the two age groups on MySpace, and the way they represent themselves on their profile pages. Our findings show a social capital divide: teenagers have larger networks of friends compared to older users of MySpace. On the other hand, we found that the majority of teenage users’ friends are in their own age range (age ± 2 years), whilst older people’s networks of friends tend to have a more diverse age distribution. In addition, our results show that teenagers tend to make more use of different media (e.g. video, music) within MySpace and use more self-references and negative emotions when describing themselves on their profile compared to older people.     

Understanding social network site users’ privacy tool use

Every day hundreds of millions of people log into social network sites and deposit terabytes of data as they share status updates, photographs, and more. This article explores how background factors, motivations, and social network site experiences relate to people’s use of social network site technology to protect their privacy. The findings indicate that during technology-mediated communication on social network sites, not only do traditional privacy factors relate to the technological boundaries people enact, but people’s experiences with the mediating technology itself do, too. The results also identify privacy inequalities, in which certain groups are more likely to take advantage of the technology to protect their privacy—suggesting that some individuals’ information and reputations may be more at risk than others’.     

Everyday use of computer-mediated communication tools and its evolution over time: An ethnographical study with older people

Based on a 3-year ethnographical study, this paper discusses the prolonged use of computer-mediated communication (CMC) tools by approximately 400 older people in an adult education centre in Barcelona (Spain). Contrary to oversimplified views of older people as ICT users, this paper shows that they make a very rich use of CMC tools. Relevant elements of this use are their permanent desire to feel and be included, social, independent and competent ICT users. Despite the numerous interaction issues they face when using ICT, some are constant across different tools. Difficulties due to cognition limit their interactions more severely than those problems due to perceiving visual information or using the mouse. By examining the longitudinal aspect of the study, this paper addresses the evolution of technology use and whether the interaction issues that most of the current older people exhibit will be relevant when today’s more ICT literate young adults grow older. Interaction issues due to cognition are time-persistent, and independent of both experience and practice with ICT. Difficulties reading from the screen or using input devices are overcome with ICT experience. The strategies adopted by older people for coping with all these interaction issues are always targeted at feeling and being included, social, independent and competent ICT users. The results deepen current understanding of tools use in connecting older people with their social circles and the interaction issues most of them encounter when using ICT. The results also suggest that cognitive-related problems will be the most important ones in our work with the next generation of older people.     

Embracing ambiguity in the design of non-stigmatizing digital technology for social interaction among senior citizens

In this paper we report our early experience with the design of technology for senior citizens. We take as our point of departure a pre-study of the ways in which older adult living occurs at three different senior housing facilities in southern Sweden. We contribute to the current debate concerning the ways in which digital technology can be designed to enable new types of living arrangements for the ever growing population of older people. We focus on technology designed to support the social rather than physical challenges of growing older. In particular we discuss how designing for social interaction can circumvent the stigma associated with being lonely in light of diminishing social networks, changed patterns of interactions with family, moving to a new neighbourhood, and the loss of a spouse. We will suggest that designers, in the design of digital technology for social interaction, deliberately leave room for ambiguity to make it possible for people to leave their intentions of use unarticulated. Furthermore, recognizing that many everyday activities already act as enablers for social interaction, we suggest utilizing such activities as an approach for design. We will support our suggestions by introducing three perspectives: a perspective emphasizing that the population of older adults is one of resourceful individuals; a perspective on social interaction emphasizing its circumstantial nature as an inherent part of everyday activities; and a perspective on the role of digital technology emphasizing its role as merely one of many resources present for human action. Finally, we will present an example concept showing how an enhanced TV remote control may be designed to enable social interactions without inflicting too much on the original experience of watching TV and most importantly, without stigmatizing the people using the remote control as lonely individuals craving the company of others.     

E-Homebook System: A web-based interactive education interface

Children’s academic performance and social competence in school is positively associated with parent involvement. However, the researches about educational learning models often ignore the parent part. Moreover, Internet forms a new paradigm, education and communication approach is more complicated than ever. In this paper, we would like to introduce an Education Wheel model (EWM) which includes students, teachers and parents in the education environment. Under EWM framework, we design an E-Homebook System (EHS) with agents which provide a teacher–parent–student communication interface through Internet. The EHS comprises intelligent agents: interaction agent, instruction agent, information agent, evaluation agent and log agent. The agents manage a learning portfolio conception, observe and record students’ e-learning behavior through the web log, and provide teachers a reference of portfolio information. The agents adopt a trigger function to analyze the students’ learning behavior from Internet as well as from classroom, evaluate overall performance, then send an e-mail message automatically to the teachers and parents to guide and assist the students who need to revise their learning attitude. Similarly, the agents will record parents’ participation portfolio, then teachers may draft better communication strategy. The EHS provides a better communication role between students–parents–teachers, implements an integrated performance measurement method, and conducts a better teaching strategy support interface for elementary education.     

The firekeepers: aging considered as a resource

Technology can improve the quality of life for elderly persons by supporting and facilitating the unique leadership roles that elderly play in groups, communities, and other organizations. Elderly people are often organizational firekeepers. They maintain community memory, pass on organizational practices, and ensure social continuity. This paper reports studies of several essential community roles played by elderly community members—including the role of volunteer community webmaster—and describes two positive design projects that investigated how technology can support new kinds of social endeavors and contributions to society by elderly citizens. Finally, the paper speculates on the utility of intergenerational teams in strengthening society’s workforce.     

A literature survey on older adults' use of social network services and social applications

With aging, adults which once worked and were active become isolated from the world because with retirement comes a whole range of problems which span from the physical to the social scope. One of the most concerning is social isolation, which can only be fought by satisfying social needs. In terms of technology, the challenges are in designing social technologies that encourage older people to actively engage with each other and with the people around them. This paper presents a survey reviewing research surrounding the emergent field of Social Network Services (SNSs), along with other meaningful social applications, and its use by the older segment of the population. A total of thirteen domains are identified related with how these services can be improved to consider older adults characteristics: from the most important related with the family role and privacy control, to issues related with the design of the user interface, the importance of multimodal interaction and adaptive solutions to compensate age-related declines, to several other focusing on the importance of groups, photos, cultural and health information. Main contributions to the field of SNS and older adults are given in a set of recommendations which result from discussions on each domain and which aim at the design of a more inclusive SNS solution.     

How demanding is social media: Understanding social media diets as a function of perceived costs and benefits – A rational actor perspective

Using the rational actor perspective as a guiding frame, this exploratory study examined individuals’ social media diet (i.e., amount, frequency, and duration of use) as a function of task load and expected goal attainment. Surveys were distributed (N = 337) focusing on Twitter and Facebook usage for informational and relational purposes, respectfully. Increased task load – conceptualized as a cognitive cost – directly negatively influenced Twitter use but only indirectly influenced Facebook use as a function of perceived benefits. Across conditions, perceived self-efficacy was negatively associated with perceived task load and positively associated with goal attainment, and goal attainment was a significant correlate of increased social media usage. Interpreted, we see that a transparent technology such as Facebook has no cognitive costs associated with its use, while an opaque technology such as Twitter seems to have a salient cognitive cost element. Further, we found that older users of Facebook were more likely to judge the channel as more cognitively demanding and themselves as having lower self-efficacy in using it. Finally, results indicated that for both Facebook and Twitter, males perceived both channels as more cognitively demanding than females. Theoretical and practical explanations and applications for these findings are presented.     

Does Internet use reflect your personality? Relationship between Eysenck’s personality dimensions and Internet use

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between three Eysenckian personality dimensions – psychoticism, extroversion and neuroticism – and the Internet use. A sample of 427 Turkish university students completed the Eysenck’s Personality Questionnaire, an Internet survey which contained questions about interpersonal motives for Internet use and a scale for measuring the tendency for expressing one’s “true” self on the Internet. The results indicated that psychoticism was the only personality dimension related to establishing new relationships and having “Internet only” friends; and extroversion was the only personality dimension that is related to maintaining long-distance relationships, and supporting daily face-to-face relationships. The results supported the idea that for some individuals, Internet can be used as social substitute for face-to-face social interactions while for some others it can be used as a tool of social extension, depending on the user’s personality characteristics. Also, psychoticism and neuroticism were found to be positively associated with the expressing “true self” on the Internet, and it was shown that the relationship between psychoticism and Internet uses as social substitute is mediated by the tendency to express one’s true self on the Internet.     

“Everyone Has to Do It:” A joint action approach to managing social inattention

In an always-connected world, managing social inattention – that is, explaining the inability to interact at a particular time – can be as important as coordinating mutual availability. Inattention, particularly if repeated, can have significant relational consequences as it may be considered rude and can lead to painful social outcomes. Prior research has examined the butler lie, one strategy commonly used to manage social inattention while preserving relationships. This paper builds on that via an interview study of 47 participants that qualitatively examines perceptions of butler lies from both the senders’ and receivers’ perspectives. Participants see butler lies as a common and useful inattention management strategy, but these messages can have a negative effect receivers do not perceive the senders’ intentions to be positive. Factors affecting the perception of intent include relationship strength and history, the stakes of the situation, and past behavior. The paper argues that inattention management should be considered a joint coordination problem characterized by a willingness to accept the pragmatic relational meaning of messages, which may differ from their literal semantic meaning. This hints at a collaborative view of deception, in which some interlocutors are aware they are being deceived and willing to accept deception.