Trust, privacy and relationships in 'pervasive education': Families' views on homework and technologies

Abstract

Extensive educational research discusses the potential for information and communication technologies in supporting homework, but most has focused on providing content. The research in this paper focuses instead on the issues around managing homework and balancing home and school through the capabilities of ubiquitous technologies. As part of our requirements capture we presented three families with demonstrators of ubiquitous computing systems. Our technologies provoked reactions to situated and embedded information capture and access, and locational information capture through mobile devices. The subüety and complexity of roles and relationships of different family members raised issues around trust and privacy in relation to children's homework practices. We consider how these drove acceptance of the technologies, and how the contrasts between family and educational relationships produced different requirements for technologies managing information transfer inside and outside the home. Overall, we highlight how respect for these concerns can inform the design of pervasive technologies, particularly within the domestic and educational contexts bridged. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.