This document discusses effective practices for adopting emerging technologies. It recommends defining parameters to evaluate technologies based on factors like cost, perceived benefits, and instructional improvement. It also advises using processes like Gartner's STREET model to scope, track, rank, evaluate and evangelize technologies. Finally, it encourages finding grants to support emerging technologies when funding is limited and having an open mindset during the evaluation process.
9. Example Parameters
• Cost Effectiveness—Cost plotted against
perceived benefit
Emerging Technologies
High Cost
Unclear Benefit
High Cost
High Benefit
Low Cost
Low Benefit
Low Cost
High BenefitCost
Benefit
10. Example Parameters
• Instructional Improvement Scale—
Perceived improvement in student success
over Cost to adopt
– High Cost to Adopt; High Student Improvement—
Starfish
– High Cost to Adopt: Low Student Improvement
LMS
– Low cost to adopt; High Student Improvement
Concept Mapping Web 2.0
– Low cost to adopt; Unclear Student Improvement-
Ning—what is it adding?
Emerging Technologies
11. Example Parameters
• Innovation Scale—is being innovative an
important characteristic?
• Value of Innovative Culture?
• Cost of Innovative Culture?
Emerging Technologies
12. Technology to Support Learning
• http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record
_id=6160&page=194
Emerging Technologies
13. Summary
• Emerging Technologies are here to stay and
will continue to provide impact
• Find an Effective Process for evaluation
(consider mission, costs, effectiveness,
scalability, etc.)
• Find grants to support activities when
money is unavailable
• Have fun!
Emerging Technologies
14. Join us in San Jose, CA
Sloan-C | July 11-13, 2011
ET4Online Conference
Emerging Technologies
FAILURE should be expected
Leading edge technologies are riskier and therefore require a set of parameters for making informed decisions
Define types of emerging technologies
Find a process that works for you or your organization
Include evaluation points—when to stop or re-evaluate
There many processes to use—THIS is an EXAMPLE! Find one that works for your team!
Scope. The scope stage provides business focus and context for emerging technology investments by identifying what organizational purposes should be served, such as supporting corporate objectives and key initiatives or overcoming business process bottlenecks. Scope also involves determining how aggressive the organization is and wants to be with respect to emerging technologies, including the acceptable level of risk. For business-unit- or team-level adoption decisions, the scope will be focused on the needs and objectives of the unit. Activities include competitive analysis, visioning and scenario building, and identifying business problems and opportunities.
Track. The track stage involves seeking out relevant technologies —those that match the organization's defined scope for innovation through emerging technology — from a broad range of sources. Tracking activities include understanding the position of a technology is in its maturity cycle and identifying potential business applications and champions for the technology. The Emerging Tech Group or ETG should capture the results in a way that can be communicated to others in the organization and that lends itself to further decision making. The track stage drives organizations to be proactive about finding worthwhile emerging technologies.
Rank. In this stage, the ETG considers alternative candidates by ranking the technologies and selecting those worthy of immediate attention. The aim is to identify those technologies that look most likely to bring significant benefit to the organization within acceptable levels of risk. This involves asking probing questions about the potential of each technology and, where possible, comparing the value of multiple technologies against each other. A virtue of ranking multiple technologies at the same time is that it highlights the trade-offs that need to be made in terms of resource allocation — that is, if one person's pet technology is pursued, those resources (people and money) are not being spent on some other, perhaps more worthy, technology. Ranking is a key, but often overlooked, step in emerging technology adoption.
Evaluate. In the evaluate stage, ETGs investigate each of the top-ranked emerging technology candidates where a lack of knowledge or understanding still prevents them from deciding whether to move forward. Activities include paper and hands-on investigations, as well as prototyping and piloting, to understand each technology's value, and eliminate or at least identify remaining risks and uncertainties. The evaluation stage builds in regular evaluation and decision points, and the end-result stage is a decision whether or not to move forward.
Evangelize. In many cases, the people who identify the value of a new technology do not have the direct authority to tell others that they must adopt it. For each technology an ETG recommends pursuing, it therefore needs to inspire, educate and involve other people to obtain the cooperation and support of all those who will influence the successful adoption of the technology by the business. Marketing, educating, networking and engaging others take place throughout the adoption process, but their importance is most apparent after the evaluation phase. The ETG must overcome organizational resistance by inspiring key decision makers to appreciate the technology's business impact.
Transfer. In its role of driving technology innovation, the ETG at some point needs to transfer responsibility for a new technology to another department or project that will take the technology to full-scale deployment, so that the ETG can move on to new territory. This requires more than transferring knowledge (for example, teaching people how to use a development tool). In most cases, the only way technology transfer succeeds is by transferring people — that is, having knowledgeable staff work alongside those who must learn the skills required to deploy the technology. For successful transfer, the players ultimately responsible for driving the technology forward must be involved in earlier stages of the STREET process — in particular, the evaluation activities.
Note the time to Plateau Reached is marked in the lower left bottom of this slide.
High Cost—High Benefit—Enterprise Business Applications
High Cost—Unclear Benefit—Artificial Intelligence
Low Cost—High Benefit—Facebook/Twitter feeds to classes
Low Cost—Low Benefit—(Open tool use in one class)