September 1997 — Features

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The Boulder Valley Internet Project: Lessons Learned

Thirty-five years ago, Everett M. Rogers developed a theoretical framework, based on research evidence, that described the adoption and the diffusion of innovations throughout organizations and social systems. To Rogers, there were five steps in the adoption process. An individual, a department, an organization, or any other type of decision-making unit passes "from first knowledge of an innovation to forming an attitude toward the innovation, to a decision to adopt or reject, to implementation of the new idea, and to confirmation of this decision."[1]

Rogers, like his colleagues in the realm of diffusion scholarship, primarily envisioned an organization as a structured social entity in which power and control in the system was concentrated in the hands of relatively few individuals. In such a system, innovations originate from a centralized source and then diffuse to users.

However, this model is neither appropriate for, nor d'es it capture the complexity of, relatively decentralized systems in which innovations originate from the ground up. In a decentralized system characterized by a site-based decision-making structure, such as the Boulder Valley School District, innovations spread by horizontal communication networks among peer teachers in a relatively spontaneous fashion. A high degree of modification occurs as an innovation is "re-invented" by users to fit their particular conditions.

Innovation

What sort of innovation are we dealing with here? Throughout the projectís five years, Boulder Valley Internet Project leaders introduced the use of telecommunications in the classroom to the Boulder Valley School District by training. First an initial cohort of 26 teachers were taught how to use the Internet, the local area network, and the World Wide Web for research and professional communication. The initial cohort then returned to their schools and proceeded to share their newfound knowledge and skills with their colleagues, in a "trainer of trainers" process similar to that used successfully in Canada.[2]

Another aspect of the project was development of an online foundation for curriculum-related resources to be made available to all teachers in the district. Though the training program was successful, the impact on curriculum and instruction was less so. To understand the reasons for this, we must delve more deeply into the Rogers' model of diffusion of innovations.

Diffusion of Innovations

In a decentralized system, innovations tend to fit more closely with individual usersí needs and problems. Users seek information through personal networks of colleagues, participate in making decisions about what sort of training and support they would like to see as they learn more about the innovation, and then tailor it to their own specific needs as they begin to develop the expertise, knowledge, and skills to use it effectively.