After you have finished chuckling over this video, reflect on its teachings. It's a great visual representation of Everrett Roger's Diffusion of Innovation Theory, one of the most important theories in social sciences.
Diffusion of Innovation Theory, developed by Rogers in 1962, explains how ideas and innovations are spread. We are considering it here because it is an important concept of how we, as educators, adopt technologies and innovations to improve learning and how we might be able to understand how others experience these adoptions. In some cases, because we are often considered the “techies,” we are expected to also be cheerleaders and rally others to try new technologies in our classrooms. Understanding these adoption rates can also help us to negotiate the multitude of attitudes towards tech integration. Additionally, it is a way for us to understand our students. They tend to be on the early-adopters end of the spectrum. So knowing a bit about this mindset may help us to leverage their enthusiasm and energy and cultivate a “growth mindset” in our classrooms.
Briefly, diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated and adopted over time. Though Rogers came from the discipline of communication studies, the theory has proven useful across many sections of society. For example, marketers look to the theory to understand how a new product or service might spread and to better understand consumer behaviors. Human resources experts might look to the theory to understand how to effect change in large organizations. In education, we can look to the theory as a way to understand how new technologies and even new pedagogical strategies might be adopted by teachers, students and administrators.
Read the following materials and take notes. You will need this information to complete the Task for this module (See 1.4 for details):
Watch this brief video. Combine what you have learned from the readings and this video and assess what type of "adopter" you believe you are. Think of an example that illustrates your adopter-level. You'll need this information to complete the tasks at the end of this module.
IMPORTANT! There is no right or wrong answer! There is no one-is-better-than-the-other! The point of this exercise is to know where you are and what it means as you become a proficient users of technology for education.
After you have reviewed, read and engaged with the artifacts on this page, move onto 1.2 Growth Mindset.
When you have completed this section, move onto to Mod 1.2.