Sunday, July 12, 2015

Innovators vs. laggards

Diffusion of innovations is a theory that seeks to explain how, why, and at what rate new ideas and technology spread through cultures. Those this theory isn't specific to education per se, it's obviously got significant relevance and implications for how things develop and occur within the educational spectrum.

Here are the breakdowns of the five categories within the diffusion of innovations theory: (read the descriptors below)

Innovators: 2.5%

Early Adopters: 13.5%

Early Majority: 34%

Late Majority: 34%

Laggards: 16%

What would happen if educators in your school and/or district were asked to pick the category that they believe best describes them?

Then, once that activity is complete, what would happen if each educator was asked to pick the category they believe best describes their colleagues?

And then, all that information was shared with the entire staff in a group setting to openly discuss perceptions and realities of colleagues...

Is that the type of activity that would address the elephant in the room and get your school and/or district in a position to start making progress?