ISLT 9475 Diffusion of Educational Innovations
Course Description: In-depth analysis of innovation development and adoption processes in educational organizations, including schools, universities, and training centers.
Reflection: This course taught me a great deal about how networks are formed and how the "power" is distributed in a system (schools in particular for me). Creating an interview forum to ask colleagues how they go about integrating technology into their own classrooms, what their steps are and how they great changing technology was eye opening. I learned a lot about how people take change differently and just how the technology diffuses its way through a system. Obviously I knew that people react to changing technology different but I had never really thought about it. Being a new teacher (going into my third year), I always just accept change because I do not really know any different but others are more set in their old ways and it is hard to get them out of their comfort zone. Also creating a mind map of how news is spread throughout the school I was working in showed me that when everyone talks with everyone, as in my small school, people are more adaptable to change because their is a greater support system. Moving to a bigger school this coming year I will have to adjust to how change is input into the school and how people adjust to it and just what my role will be in this new setting. Having taken this course, I think it will be a lot easier to adjust because I will be able to identify roles and the diffusion networks much easier because I am aware of them.