K. Avramides, B. Craft, R. Luckin London Knowledge Lab

 Raising awareness amongst teenagers abound energy consumption  Behaviour change around energy consumption  Age range:  Technology as a learning and research tool

 Very little in relation to teenagers’ conceptions, motivations and concerns about energy specifically  Energy consumption is rising  Studies with adults show widespread misunderstanding on energy intensity of behaviours (esp indirect energy) and lack of motivation to change high impact behaviours

 Learning about energy requires ◦ Adapting generic information to personal circumstances ◦ Searching for information on the energy intensity of personal energy consumption ◦ Finding alternatives  This information isn’t readily available, teenagers must construct and can share knowledge  Web technologies well suited to this kind of enquiry

 Schools: ACS international, Peacehaven community schools  Participants: years old  ACS school: 2 groups (45 students)  Peacehaven school: 2 groups (41 students)

 Understand the learner’s personal context and provide scaffolded support through technology  Ecology of Resources (EoR) design framework (Luckin, 2010): ◦ Identifies teenagers’ circumstances, including their knowledge, concerns and motivations, and models the connections between the multiple influences within teenagers’ context  3 phases: ◦ Identify world and personal resources ◦ Identify relationships between resources ◦ Develop scaffolding adjustments

World resources  What are the circumstances in which teenagers use energy?  What energy uses are most relevant to them?  What are their sources of information about energy use and energy sustainability? Filters  What are constraints on: ◦ Information available to teenagers about energy use and energy sustainability? ◦ The choices teenagers have on the energy they use? ◦ How visible is energy use to teenagers?

Personal resources  How do teenagers understand energy use and energy sustainability in their everyday life?  How aware are they of their energy use?  How much knowledge do they have about the energy intensity of their behaviour and choices?  Are teenagers concerned about energy sustainability? What are their attitudes towards energy saving? What motivates them to save energy? More able partners  Who are the potential more able partners in relation to: ◦ understanding energy use and energy sustainability? ◦ motivating to learn about energy use and energy sustainability?

 Main aim was to begin to understand how personal and world resources are connected ◦ How do/can teens actively use the resources available to them to find out about personal energy consumption?  Methods: ◦ questionnaires ◦ group activities ◦ home activity (find out about example of indirect energy use)  21 used cameras  3 used a mobile phone app ◦ design activity (design technology to support teens learn about indirect energy use)

 Very well informed about energy sources and associated issues  Variation in categorising energy use (light, electrical devices, food)  Concerned about energy issues  Teachers and Internet reported to be the main sources of information  However ◦ Difficulty transferring generic knowledge to personal circumstances ◦ Difficulty understanding indirect energy use ◦ Poor metacognitive assessment of knowledge ◦ Lack of skills in actively searching for information ◦ Lack of motivation to learn about personal energy consumption

 Teens’ ideas on how to motivate other teens learn about indirect energy use ◦ Consensus on difficulty of motivating teens unless competition with prize, vouchers, etc ◦ Packaging of the product, during advertising campaigns, and/or made available online  Teens’ ideas about when and where it would be most conducive to learning about energy consumption

 Previous research has highlighted the importance of motivation in learning, the difficulty in transferring learning from classroom to the real world, the difficulty in breaking down complex problems  Skills and motivation to create and share digital content in areas of interest to teenagers do not automatically transfer to an educational context

 Addresses the need to understand teenagers’ personal contexts in order to create learning experiences that are relevant and meaningful, which teenagers can take ownership of  Provides a framework for modelling this context, identifying who the learning partners are (whether adults, peers or technology), and building scaffolds to connect the learner with those learning partners  Is learner-centred

 Understanding of: ◦ Motivation to learn about energy consumption and how it differs from/ links with concern ◦ The resources available to teenagers about energy in order to build technology supported connections ◦ Teenagers’ existing skills in constructing knowledge about energy and where they need support ◦ What energy consumption is most relevant to teens (& how to define it) ◦ When, where and how teenagers think it most effective and conducive to learn about energy

 Further development of mobile app based on findings ◦ In particular develop ways for teenagers to share information  Further empirical work to understand conceptions and motivations

 Do we need to be more precise in our definition of what skills young people have?  How many young people are engaged in creating content?

 Any questions?