Exploring technology influences between home, work, school: implications for managing ubiquitous technologies in the home

Understanding current issues and experiences with technologies in the home, and the relationships with work and school in how technologies are managed in the home, can be useful for anticipating issues with next generation technologies. This paper contributes to this understanding through in-home studies with ten UK households. Case data is presented that both reinforces current understandings about access to expertise in the workplace and school, and presents new understandings that further unpack the ways in which the technology in the home influenced by work and school. We also discuss the more subtle ways in which technologies get into the home, and how they are managed and maintained through people’s exposure to technologies, skills and expertise outside of the home. Given the increasing interest in ubiquitous technologies for the home, as played out in next generation home automation and home monitoring scenarios, we argue that such discussions are timely reminders, raising interesting questions about how these future technologies will come into the home and how people will gain the exposure and experience to help manage them.