I need to know what you don’t know

Just read a post by Britt Watwood where he reflects on the mood post NECC 2008. Apparently some of leading lights in the education technology field felt less than enthusiastic afterwards. I’m sure though, that many people would have enjoyed the conference and come away inspired and champing at the bit to try out new things.

Anyway, Britt’s post was reflecting on Everett’s, Diffusion of Innovations theory with the innovators, early adopters etc. It reminded me of Geoffrey Moore’s book Cross the Chasm, and while he’s on about marketing, I see his idea as useful for us who are encouraging change in education. How do we innovators and early adopters get the early and late majority across the chasm? Moore suggests that we need to know the market, understand the product, position the product, have a marketing strategy, determine a distribution channel and the price. It’s fairly easy to adopt this to education and I think there’s a range of ways we can apply it (but that’s for another post). In the past a colleague and I determined that an integrated learning environment could actually become a professional development vehicle for staff to use to help cross the chasm.

But, then I came across an article by Alex Iskold who suggests that maybe early adopters are currently being diverted by so many new technologies that they can’t keep up, and they keep abandoning good technology to try something new. Thought provoking stuff. Sometimes I think that maybe this is why I feel a little frustrated and just overwhelmed with all that’s out there.

For me it’s a about helping people come to know what they don’t know. They don’t know what questions to ask, or how a new technology might be useful for them. I need to get alongside them and we both have to invest time in talking about what’s possible, working out what they do know, so I can help fill in the blanks/unkown to help them cross the chasm.

Anyway, I feel good about being able to write about this, having access to what other people are saying and realising that they may also be struggling with the same challenges and issues. I believe we do need to maintain the passion and look for ways were we can keep energised and learning ourselves (those “Ah, ha!” moments) and that’s where our social networks are so valuable.

So, to all of you, thanks for sharing – I appreciate and enjoy the encouragement.

3 Responses to “I need to know what you don’t know”

  1. I like what you say, Colin, about helping people with the right questions. I am reminded of one of my favorite TED Talks by Malcolm Gladwell, in which he talks about how no one knew they wanted thick and chunky spaghetti sauce until one researcher discovered the diverse tastes of consumers. It is worth the watch (http://tinyurl.com/475qzx), and has led us here to frequently remind each other that faculty don’t know they want thick and chunky in their Web 2.0 applications!

  2. Colin says:

    Thanks Britt, yes, I’d forgotten about the ‘spaghetti sauce’ story (it is very good – a TED talk every week is part of my brain-food diet). It’s great how there’s so much (common sense, wisdom, parallel) in these types of stories that we can take and apply to our educational settings… While there might be a plethora of spaghetti sauces varieties, we need to be clever enough to ‘make to taste’ for our staff.

    Hmm, I could go on with the food analogy. Maybe it’s a little like books on demand, providing professional development according to recipe, serving people with what they want/need, with the correct diet/dish, when they’re ready to consume/eat…

  3. […] In particular, Colin Warren of Deakin University in Victoria, Australia, made a follow-on post at his blog, in which he referenced Geoffrey Moore’s book Cross the Chasm, and also a related article by Alex […]

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