Diffusion of Innovation
Posted by Youngju Lee on December 1st, 2007
Dr. Ferster presented a predicative model of the diffusion of technology into the K-12 classroom. A better understanding of the diffusion factors would be beneficial for technology developers to assess the potential success of future products in their design phase. The following is the discussion question for you.
- Why is it important for instructional technologists (us) to understand diffusion of innovation? What is our role to improve diffusions of innovation?
- There are still many teachers in schools using old school techniques. Teachers are comfortable with the way they get used to and often resist change. How can we reach those people and help them understand diffusion of innovation?
Instructional technologists must understand diffusion of innovations for a few reasons. First, many people in our field work for school districts and help teachers integrate technology into their teaching. Many teachers don’t see the benefit of using technology and don’t plan to use it in their classroom. In some cases, those teachers have an interest in technology but bad experiences, either by them or others in their building, have made them skeptical of using it with their students. One of the principles of effective diffusion is to make the benefits of adopting that innovation visible for others to see. Instructional technologists must work with those teachers who want to use technology in their classrooms so they are successful and others can see the benefits. Another diffusion principle is that the technology must fit in with a person’s current values in order to be adopted. There are many instances of researchers and instructional technologists trying to get teachers to adopt technology integration practices in ways that don’t align with their current methods of instruction. In many cases, this has led to teachers not wanting to use technology anymore.
In general, we IT folks must be in tune with the conditions under which people, teachers or otherwise, are most likely to adopt innovations into their lives and introduce those innovations with those principles in mind.
As Dr. Bull stated in the colloquium this past Thursday, “Everyone in the Colloquium course is attempting to improve education in one way or another.” Hopefully this is true for all instructional technology students or professionals who work in the field of education. It is critical for IT developers to understand diffusion principles so that we can learn from learn from the past. If previous innovations are not studied and analyzed, then there would be no way to observe the technologies that achieved sustainable success and those failed. Knowing and understanding the major principles discussed by Dr. Ferster will allow IT developers and teachers to make better predictions and decisions about the future course of technology innovations in the classroom.
I agree with Curby that the technologies must align with current methods of instruction. It is unlikely that a majority of teachers would adopt a radical technology innovation that would supplant the older, more conservative instructional strategies. I also believe that it is absolutely critical for technology developers and researchers to constantly collaborate with, and listen to constructive feedback from classroom teachers. Providing teachers with a voice in the development and integration process increases the likelihood that they will be comfortable with the technology innovation whenever it is implemented into the classroom.
It’s important for us to understand the diffusion of innovations because our survivability depends upon it. If we create IT without paying attention to the factors that would enable it to be adopted, then our efforts will be in vain, and nobody will want us to use our creations in the future (thereby leading to our occupational demises). Our role in working to improve the diffusion of innovations is to create IT with the factors/attributes in mind. It is hoped (although not guaranteed) that if we do so, that our products stand a much better chance of being adopted, thus leading to our own viability in the marketplace (whether commercial or intellectual).
The way to combat the inertia in schools’ adoption of IT is to aim for evolutionary rather than revolutionary changes (and evolutionary in baby steps at that). People are more willing to accept changes when they don’t realize that this new thing is something different, or that maybe [instead] that it’s very similar to something they are already doing (but yet better). This gets into the Compatibility attribute that Rogers defined (one of the five). If an innovation is so radically different, then it is less compatible with the environment into which it is entering. This idea is also related to the notion that the National Research Council (Bransford) champions: that all learning involves transfer. When teachers are trying to learn to use new IT, they need to have a high degree of transfer from previous knowledge/learning in order to achieve maximum returns (Observability of Relative Advantage — two other attributes identified by Rogers mashed together). This also has a tie-in with TPCK, where teachers need to know how to use the innovation to teach — which is dependent on their ability to learn the technology — which is dependent on their level of transfer — which is dependent on the level of compatibility of the innovation with its target environment. It’s all interrelated.
-Eddie
Personally, diffusion of innovations is integral in my goals. I’d like to create a database of resources for technology integration instructors. I can create as amazing a database as there ever was…but if i’m the only one looking at it, it’ll be pretty useless.
How do i let other people know about it? how do i get them to actually go look at it? how do i get them to use it again? How do i get them to tell more people about it? These are diffusion questions that i need to answer simply to be effective. Implementing solid diffusion/Addressing diffusion issues simply allows whatever the technology is to be judged on its merits rather than on other issues.
j
I am working on my dissertation. I have been wondering why developmental college math classes are not taught with the graphing calculator which has been shown by research to help students understand algebra at the developmental level. I am just now looking into the diffusion theory and I wonder if anyone has seen research based on diffusion innovation that specifically related to graphing calculators.
Any information would be greatly appreciated. Hobartkhk@aol.com
e Occupational and Industrial Medic
[…] then our efforts will be in vain, and nobody will want us to use our creations in the future (thereby leading to our occupational demises). Our role in working to improve the diffusion of innovations is to create IT with the […]