The use of persuasive technology to influence behavior

There are certain pre-requisites regarding what makes technology “persuasive” enough to alter behavior in school settings (Mintz & Aagaard, 2012). The first is that of motivation or intrinsic motivation in the child using the tool since the “interaction” essentially takes place between the child and the tool, in the absence of a cajoling adult.  Secondly, credibility is an important component that is to be considered such that the software encourages action and response and does not lose its validity in the eyes of the child. Thirdly, it must be supported in offline settings through human interactions with the teacher and lastly it must use the Kairos principal in that it must be opportune and rightly timed for the child to be benefited.

Another great take-away from the reading and the session was the difference between a “thick application” which accounts for a) the social context of the learner and b) “intertwines” the use of the human-technology interaction with the offline”human-human” persuasion too! This is as opposed to a thin persuasive-application that does only the technological persuasion which persuades the user to do a specified task/behavior in a specific context and setting. Secondly, these applications are mostly generic, giving very little attention to individual needs.

This gives us a good understanding of what is needed in order to develop an effective persuasive tool especially in the field of education. Hence, in developing a tool, I would now be focusing on the ability of the tool to adjust to different settings in terms of not being constrained to only one type of learning objective. I would also be paying special attention to the creating “capabilities” in the tool to adjust to the needs of a wide spectrum of users instead of a “typical” type of user.