Diffusion of Educational Innovation

Course Description

In-depth analysis of innovation development and adoption processes in educational organizations, including schools, universities, and training centers.

Reflection

I never really thought about how technology and innovation diffuse through a school. I conduct most of the work in my classroom in isolation and did not concern myself with whether others adopted any innovations that I was implementing in my class. This class changed that. Instead of just assuming that anyone that did not do as I thought best was a Luddite, I started to consider how to change my behavior to encourage change. It helped that his class also came at a time that my district failed in the roll out of a learning management system (LMS).

This was the subject of the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) that I developed. I had been actively rebelling against the LMS and was concerned about my own acceptance of technology. Had I become old and set in my ways? Was I angry because I had lost much of the work I had done independently on the schools website? Why did I not want to use what was being touted has an innovative way of teaching? I created a scoring guide for implementation of the LMS and asked several of my co-workers to rate their degree of implementation. I was pleased to find that I was not the only one to have issues. In fact, a year later as the school was winding down the staff received an email stating that the LMS is being eliminated. There were several problems with the LMS, but the primary issue was that it was not addressing any real need. Google Classroom was adequate, and the amount of work to switch to the new LMS was not worth it.

This last year I have been using what I have learned in this class to convince students to use new technology. I have paired reticent students with technology and opinion leaders. If I can convince those individuals that there is a benefit to do the work using digital tools, then the rest of the students will follow.

CBAM