The Diffusion Simulation Game

The most important step in the diffusion simulation game is to gather personal information and choose the right persons to get started. I tried to start with teachers and the principal and found out it was hard to connect with principals as the secretary would be an obstacle; besides, those teachers’ influences on other teachers were limited. Instead, if I selected the principal, secretary, and chairpersons, I would have a good start.

Based on the technology acceptance model (TAM) by Davis (1989), the key elements are perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. In the game, the necessary steps should be applied to trigger their curiosity. Talk to them, distribute flyers, or use local media are good strategies to achieve the goal. Clear adopter types could be identified during the diffusion. Different people accept the new technology at a different pace, usually related to their personality, working experience, and educational background. Most teachers in the game might be placed in the late majority adopter (Nielson, 2016) because they tend to wait until other teachers have tried it and received a satisfactory result.

If I need to get school teachers to adopt technology, I will first evaluate the technological knowledge of the target group and observe if there are apparent issues that could be solved by integrating the technology. In this way, they would tend to communicate within the same pages. Moreover, the existing issues could lead them to know more information. An essential part is to present the benefits of using technology in a formal or informal situation. As long as the technology could make their teaching more effective or make their work easier, they would be interested in trying it.

What are your best strategies to convince others to adopt new technology?

References

Davis, F. D. (1989). Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user acceptance of information technology. MIS Quarterly, 13 (3), 319-340. https://doi.org/10.2307/249008

Diffusion of innovation theory. (n.d.). https://sphweb.bumc.bu.edu/otlt/mph-modules/sb/behavioralchangetheories/behavioralchangetheories4.html