School District Implementation of Microcomputers for Instruction

Abstract

To understand how innovation is introduced into an educational setting it is necessary to examine the stages of the process at the school district level. In this study the mobilization and implementation stages of introducing microcomputers into a majority adopter school district are described. The research was conducted as an ethnographic, multiple-size case study using structured and informal interviews, naturalistic observations, content analysis of historical documents, computer usage statistics, and stages-of-concerns data The institutional context, characteristics of the innovation, and concerns of individuals are examined in the central office, schools, and classrooms of a school district. The characteristics of the implementation that contributed to and detracted from institutionalization of the innovation in the school district are discussed.

Keywords:

• technological change
• computer utilization
• microcomputers