The Diffusion of Innovation in Education: Insights From a Digital Intervention in California High Schools

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 3
  In Roundtable Session: Technology, Instruction, Cognition and Learning SIG: Teachers' Perspectives Related to Technology

Abstract

This study’s researchers developed an online, role-playing game entitled Mission: Admission that mirrors the college application process. As the game was introduced to 52 California high schools, qualitative data indicated emergent themes pertaining to the game’s institutional adoption and implementation. The primary research question interrogates the factors that either positively or negatively impacted the adoption and implementation of Mission: Admission within each school. A conceptual framework based on “diffusion of innovations” theory was deemed useful for contextualizing the interview answers provided by participants. Findings indicate that four elements are key to the successful - or unsuccessful - diffusion of any innovation: 1) the adopters of the innovation; 2) communication; 3) time; and 4) the social system.

Authors

• Michael Lanford, University of North Georgia

• Zoe Corwin, University of Southern California