Necessity is...

 Every technology was new once.  This goes for technologies that we use every day—such as microwaves, computers, and traffic lights—to the technology that brought our society to this point—such as compasses, stirrups, and the printing press.  For each of these technological advancements, along with millions of others, there was an inventor and a small group of innovators who were willing to try their wild new invention. 

I…am not one of those types of people.

Don’t get me wrong, I love seeing and hearing about new ideas.  I cheer for others who are bravely and boldly going where no one has yet gone.  As for myself, however, I prefer to wait until there is just a shred more evidence of reliability and credibility.  In other words, I’ll stand on the shore and cheer for the small group trying out there suspicious looking wooden contraption…but I’m not going to get in it myself until I can see that it holds them up and isn’t sinking.  I'm an Early Adopter.

Image courtesy of  https://theboldbusinessexpert.com/2020/11/02/diffusion-of-innovation-getting-past-the-first-wave-of-innovators-and-early-adopters-to-reach-the-tipping-point/

As a teacher, I’ve spent many years designing lessons, activities, and assessments that I feel target my students’ learning needs while also helping them to stay engaged.  I find this challenging and motivating because it draws out my creative side (which otherwise would be left in the dark, slowly and silently crafting half-formed fantasy novel plots while I sleep).  Even though I have fun creating some things, when I employ technology, I want to rely on structure that has been designed by others—even if not many people have discovered it yet. 

One great example of this is the site Blooket.  Blooket uses the gamification learning model created by Kahoot and later enhanced by Quizizz.  However, instead of simply repeating the question-and-answer approach, Blooket employed a new strategy that challenges students to interact with fun (non-educational) mini-games in between question sets.  These mini-games keep students highly engaged and driven to demonstrate their knowledge.  I first found Blooket last year, before it had gained as much attention as it currently has, and tried it out with my students—it was an instant hit! 

I enjoy trying out and embracing new technology that supports the learning of my students, even it means I have to learn new things.  This is what separates me the most from the later stages of the curve, I believe.  Once I learn a technology, I immediately turn to ways that I can share that knowledge.  Individuals who fall in the “Early Majority” benefit from people like me who are early adopters, because they have a more clearly-defined route for how to learn and implement the technology.  Likewise, the “Late Majority” generally begin using the technology due to social or employer pressure, but have strong guides for how to smoothly integrate.  “Laggards”, I feel, always struggle because they are the ones who resist change and only adopt the technology because there were no (or few) other options.

If I transition from the role of a teacher to a learning designer, I do not feel that my place on the curve will change much.  Although I do enjoy creating, I still shy away from the idea of being the one who creates a technology or a even a system that can be considered a technological advancement. I most likely would continue to utilize newly-tested but not-widely-known technology in order to create the best product possible for my customers/clients.

References

Rogers, E. M. (2003). Diffusion of innovation. (5th ed.). Free Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jmig.2007.07.001