9475 - Diffusion of Educational Innovations
UMC Course Description
Change happens, but not always the way you want it to happen. This course will help you take charge of change by understanding change dynamics and using proven methods to influence change in any organization. Learn why some innovations are adopted and others are abandoned; why some people are quick to change and others need more time. Most importantly - learn how to make the changes you want to happen.
Personal Reflection
Understanding how change happens in a system enables individuals a greater chance for success when trying to accomplish their goals. As an educator, it is important to recognize the patterns of change and the agents of change in a given system. To integrate technology into a school setting, the administration needs to be comfortable with the innovation and educators need to be sensitive to this process to gain administrative support. This course did a good job of highlighting the different roles individuals play in affecting change.
The course structure was set up to build knowledge sufficient to complete a Concerns Bases Adoption Model (CBAM) project. This involved investigating how communication networks function and the differences in these networks in different systems. My examination looked at a small, rural school system and how some of the major players in that system function. The process showed some expected outcomes such as the fact that a small system has a fairly high amount of interaction between individuals. But it still did highlight a few individuals that topped the structure. These individuals were the ones that hold the decision making authority within the system and who would be needed for successfully implementing a new innovation. (Investigating Communication Networks)
The role of change agents was discussed along with the different adoption levels. The change agents are people who elicit change in a particular system and are sometimes required to be spin masters. They present information to enhance the successful integration of their desired innovation. The change agent needs to be able to do this with an effective strategy of communication and presentation. They also need to be able to identify the people in the organization or system that have the power to make change feasible.
Also, we looked at the innovation-decision process as outlined by Everett Rogers in Diffusion of Innovations. The process is summarized in five stages from gaining first "knowledge" of a new innovation, to "persuasion" about the innovation where a "decision" is formed leading to possible "implementation" and finally "confirmation" of the benefits of the innovation. Each stage of this process can be impacted by the connectivity of the system to other systems. This is often where change agents are important facilitators in the process and build the networks to inform.
An organizations success at implementing a new innovation into its system is dependent on a few major generalizations again outlined by Rogers. "Generalization 10-1 states: Larger organizations are more innovative" "Generalization 10-2 states: Each of the organizational structure variables may be related to innovation in on direction during the initiation phases of the innovation process, and in the opposite direction during the implementation phases." "Generalization 10-3 states: The presence of an innovation champion contributes to the success of an innovation in the organization." "Generalization 10-4 states: A performance gap can trigger the innovation process." "Generalization 10-5 states: Both the innovation and the organization usually change in the innovation process in an organization." (Rogers) To examine the impact of these generalizations, I compared two organizations to understand their potential adoption rate or success with new innovations. (Organization Comparison)
Ultimately, I completed an investigation of my schools organizational structure and potential for adoption of new innovations. The MLTI laptop distribution for teachers was used as the new innovation to study since it was just implemented in the high school and had not been investigated at our school. The innovation was thrust to the schools from the state level. The rapid acceptance of the innovation highlighted in the study shows the importance of the different players involved in successfully traversing the knowledge, persuasion, decision, implementation, and confirmation stages of a new innovation. (CBAM Project)
Rogers, Everett M. Diffusion of Innovations. 5th ed. New York: Free Press, 2003.
