7377 | 7360 | 7370 | 9467 | 7366 | 9475 | 9471 | 9440 | 7378 | 9417
9475 Diffusion of Educational Innovations
Course Description
Diffusion of Educational Innovations explored some of the factors that cause new technologies to be adopted, spread throughout an organization or ultimately rejected.
Reflections
In "Diffusion of Educational Innovations" we had the chance to explore how information, technology and new methods are passed from one person to the next. According to Everett Rogers in Diffusion of Innovations some people could be classified as innovators, people who were risk takers willing to try anything new they were often the first to own a new piece of equipment or try a new method. Some were early adopters or part of the majority, those who waited a while to see if the new innovation lived up to expectations. Then there are those who can be considered "laggards" who were almost last to adopt a new innovation and therefore usually missed out on the benefits that others enjoyed.
I learned that in order to be a successful change agent it is important to determine who the opinion leaders are in an organization and to understand the organization dynamic. Some information networks interlock where each person is more or less equal, such as in a school where faculty members all have similar educational backgrounds while other networks have a clearly defined hierarchy, such as the relationship between store directors, managers and employees. Knowing how to organization is set up will help determine who the change agent needs to "sell" the new idea to.
During this course I also began assessing the needs of the faculty members at my school. I surveyed a couple teachers about their use of In Focus machines in the classroom. One felt that they were essential, while the other agreed that it was useful and she feels it enriches her curriculum but she could still teach without it if asked. For the Concerns Based Adoption Model I explored the use and care of SMART Boards in my current school and how the situation can be improved based on the input from the teachers I spoke with. The CBAM model was particularly interesting because it began to really address the underlying problems in the school regarding limited resources and not enough training. These issues would come up again later when I began working on my next class Instructional Systems Design.