A better understanding of diffusion learning process

Seven Principles During the last four decades, scientists have engaged in research that has increased our understanding of human cognition, providing greater insight into how knowledge is organized, how experience shapes understanding, how people monitor their own understanding, how learners differ from one another, and how people acquire expertise. From this emerging body of research, scientists and others have been able to synthesize a number of underlying principles of human learning. This growing understanding of how people learn has the potential to influence significantly the nature of education and its outcomes. Our appraisal also takes into account a growing understanding of how people develop expertise in a subject area see, for example, Chi, Feltovich, and Glaser, ; NRC, b.

DIFFUSION THEORY AND INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY

Collective Innovation-Decision made collectively by all participants. Authority Innovation-Decision made for the entire social system by individuals in positions of influence or power. Rate of adoption[ edit ] The rate of adoption is defined as the relative speed at which participants adopt an innovation.

Rate is usually measured by the length of time required for a certain percentage of the members of a social system to adopt an innovation.

In general, individuals who first adopt an innovation require a shorter adoption period adoption process when compared to late adopters. Within the adoption curve at some point the innovation reaches critical mass.

This is when the number of individual adopters ensures that the innovation is self-sustaining. Adoption strategies[ edit ] Rogers outlines several strategies in order to help an innovation reach this stage, including when an innovation adopted by a highly respected individual within a social network and creating an instinctive desire for a specific innovation.

Another strategy includes injecting an innovation into a group of individuals who would readily use said technology, as well as providing positive reactions and benefits for early adopters.

Diffusion vs adoption[ edit ] Adoption is an individual process detailing the series of stages one undergoes from first hearing about a product to finally adopting it.

Diffusion signifies a group phenomenon, which suggests how an innovation spreads. Adopter categories[ edit ] Rogers defines an adopter category as a classification of individuals within a social system on the basis of innovativeness.

In the book Diffusion of Innovations, Rogers suggests a total of five categories of adopters in order to standardize the usage of adopter categories in diffusion research.

The adoption of an innovation follows an S curve when plotted over a length of time. Change agents bring innovations to new communities— first through the gatekeepers, then through the opinion leaders, and so on through the community.

Adopter category Definition Innovators Innovators are willing to take risks, have the highest social status, have financial liquidity, are social and have closest contact to scientific sources and interaction with other innovators. Their risk tolerance allows them to adopt technologies that may ultimately fail.

Financial resources help absorb these failures. Early adopters have a higher social status, financial liquidity, advanced education and are more socially forward than late adopters.

They are more discreet in adoption choices than innovators. They use judicious choice of adoption to help them maintain a central communication position.

Early Majority have above average social status, contact with early adopters and seldom hold positions of opinion leadership in a system Rogersp. These individuals approach an innovation with a high degree of skepticism and after the majority of society has adopted the innovation.

Late Majority are typically skeptical about an innovation, have below average social status, little financial liquidity, in contact with others in late majority and early majority and little opinion leadership.

Laggards They are the last to adopt an innovation.

Unlike some of the previous categories, individuals in this category show little to no opinion leadership. These individuals typically have an aversion to change-agents.

Laggards typically tend to be focused on "traditions", lowest social status, lowest financial liquidity, oldest among adopters, and in contact with only family and close friends. Failed diffusion[ edit ] Failed diffusion does not mean that the technology was adopted by no one.

From a social networks perspective, a failed diffusion might be widely adopted within certain clusters but fail to make an impact on more distantly related people. Networks that are over-connected might suffer from a rigidity that prevents the changes an innovation might bring, as well.

For example, Rogers discussed a situation in Peru involving the implementation of boiling drinking water to improve health and wellness levels in the village of Los Molinas. The residents had no knowledge of the link between sanitation and illness. The campaign worked with the villagers to try to teach them to boil water, burn their garbage, install latrines and report cases of illness to local health agencies.

In Los Molinas, a stigma was linked to boiled water as something that only the "unwell" consumed, and thus, the idea of healthy residents boiling water prior to consumption was frowned upon.

The two-year educational campaign was considered to be largely unsuccessful. This failure exemplified the importance of the roles of the communication channels that are involved in such a campaign for social change. An examination of diffusion in El Salvador determined that there can be more than one social network at play as innovations are communicated.

One network carries information and the other carries influence. Using their definition, Rogers defines homophily as "the degree to which pairs of individuals who interact are similar in certain attributes, such as beliefs, education, social status, and the like".

Homophilous individuals engage in more effective communication because their similarities lead to greater knowledge gain as well as attitude or behavior change. As a result, homophilous people tend to promote diffusion among each other.

Therefore, an ideal situation would involve potential adopters who are homophilous in every way, except in knowledge of the innovation. People tend to be close to others of similar health status.better understanding of research utilisation and evidence-based policy and practice (EBPP) implementation.

The analytical review of the literature is organised around Conceptual Synthesis 1: Learning from the Diffusion of Innovations Introduction In explaining the diffusion process, research. On a practical level, understanding how atoms move through a metal enables an understanding of how to select and control manufacturing process conditions.

This lesson explains how atoms diffuse through a metal and the variables that influence the speed of atom motion and the metallurgical changes that occur due to diffusion. innovations: first, when they are clearly better than what went before, new ideas of how to do it is also an intrinsic part of the innovation process, as learning, imitation, and understanding the diffusion process is the key to understanding how conscious innovative activities conducted by firms and governmental institutions.

By better understanding the multitude of factors that influence adoption of innovations, instructional technologist will be better able to explain, predict and account for the factors that impede or facilitate the diffusion of their products.

It was designed as a tool for WIC staff to better understand health behavior, adult learning, and program planning. This document does not judge which theory, application or process is the best or identify any one that. By better understanding the multitude of factors that influence adoption of innovations, instructional technologist will be better able to explain, predict and account for the factors that impede or facilitate the diffusion of their products.