Technology-enabled feedback on domestic energy consumption can promote awareness and lead to energy savings. The authors articulate a set of design concerns that frame and focus ongoing research into user experience and more effective feedback display designs. E nvironmental sustainability begins at home with our everyday choices: the appliances we buy, the utilities we choose, and how we use them. As in many developed economies, the UK's domestic energy consumption continues to rise, accounting for roughly one-third of the nation's total energy usage (http://stats. berr.gov.uk/energystats/dukes07.pdf). Domestic energy consumption remains largely invisible and intangible to consumers. Corinna Fischer argues that "it is not perceived as a coherent field of action. Rather it involves activities." 1 Peter Crabb similarly points out that "people do not use energy, they use devices and products." 2 For this reason, several approaches to encouraging more sustainable energy consumption provide some form of feedback to try to create more consumer awareness of how activities and products relate to use. To date, feedback has been in the form of more informative billing statements or direct feedback at the time of use. We're interested in the latter, particularly technology-enabled feedback of usage via digital displays in the home. Current displays fall into two categories: smart metering systems that are linked to a utility provider or off-the-shelf devices installed by the consumer, most commonly to monitor electricity use.Two substantial metareviews of domestic energy consumption feedback studies found that feedback, especially technology-enabled feedback, can result in energy savings of roughly three to 15 percent. Sarah Darby's review focuses on the effectiveness of feedback on behavior changes, concluding that "clear feedback is a necessary element in learning how to control fuel use more effectively over a long period of time." 3 Fischer's review suggests that feedback is most successful when it's "given frequently and over a long time, provides an appliancespecific breakdown, is presented in a clear and appealing way and uses computerized and interactive tools." 1 What isn't clear from either of these metareviews, or from the studies they draw on, is what constitutes good design for user-centric feedback displays. For example, what kind of data should be presented and how, and what form should the device take? Most studies have used a single display device without considering a solid rationale for device choice or design. 1 Studies that have compared different displays have only measured the usefulness of paper-based billing information. 38 P ER VA SI V E computing www.computer.org/pervasive EnvironmEntal SuStainabilityIn this article, we outline a usercentered research and design agenda on real-time, domestic energy displays, hoping it will encourage a more systematic analysis of the underlying design principles for what makes for a good energy-usage display. By good, we mean displays that will not only provide us...

Although identified as a critical component of proficient reading in the primary grades, reading fluency (word recognition accuracy, automaticity, and prosody) is often viewed as less important beyond the early stages of reading acquisition. In the present study, 108 ninth-grade students were assessed to explore the relationships among word recognition accuracy, automaticity, prosody, and vocabulary with silent reading comprehension. Results found large correlations among the variables while regression analysis revealed that accuracy, prosody, and vocabulary explained from 50.1% to 52.7% of the variance in silent reading comprehension. Of note were the findings that word recognition automaticity did not contribute to silent reading comprehension although prosody was found to act as a partial mediator between automaticity and comprehension. Accuracy, automaticity, and prosody were found to form a highly reliable scale reflecting oral reading fluency. These findings contribute to the growing body of evidence suggesting that secondary students exhibiting appropriate prosody experience advantages in comprehension processing. The tandem theory of reading is introduced to explain the relationship between automaticity and comprehension.

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High rates of customer default on utility bills present a barrier to the expansion of electricity access in the developing world. Pre-paid electricity metering offers a technological solution to ensuring timely payment. Using an eleven-year panel of pre-paid electricity customers in Cape Town, South Africa, we describe patterns of purchase behavior across property values, our measure of socioeconomic status. Poorer households buy electricity more often, in smaller increments, and are most likely to buy on payday. These patterns suggest difficulties smoothing income, and reveal a preference for small, frequent purchases that is incompatible with a standard monthly electricity billing cycle.

This study reports the results of a three-year capacity building effort to improve core reading knowledge and practice in 165 third-grade teachers working in 63 urban schools and its effects on student reading outcomes. Teachers volunteered to participate in one or two years of professional development lasting from 90 to 180 hours. Core reading knowledge among teachers resulted in statically significant growth with generally large effect sizes. Three cohorts of third-grade students taught by participating teachers were assessed on multiple measures of reading at the beginning and end of each school year. Results for within-year improvement showed large effects on all student outcomes. Analysis of the magnitude of student gains between the three years found that for two of the four measures gains in year one were exceeded in years two and three. Implications for professional training to facilitate improved reading outcomes are discussed.