Reflections on Educause Institute
This week I’m attending the Educause Learning Technologies Leadership Institute in Portland, Oregon. The first couple of days have focused on sharing research-driven best practices in communication and relationship building. Making the case to higher administration. The buzz word at this event is “leaderful.” I’m still trying to define it, but I’m pretty sure we’ll all leave the Portland Double Tree wanting to be more leaderful.
Not surprisingly, most of the examples used so far deal with changes, upgrades, and other issues surrounding Learning Management Systems. This is useful to my eLearning team at SBCTC because we are at the start of a major LMS transition. How we communicate about these LMS changes is key to making a successful transition. Paul Fisher’s explanation of the 5 factors to adoption from Everett Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovation:
- Relative advantage – How much does the innovation improve over the previous generation?
- Compatibility – How easily can the innovation be assimilated into an individual’s life?
- Complexity or Simplicity – How difficult is the innovation to adopt?
- Trialability (ease of experimentation) – How easy is it and what is the risk of experimentation?
- Observability – How easy is it to share the benefits of the innovation within your network?
Paul also talked about the power of politicking — of having the “meeting before the meeting.” He said that one of his most effective strategies involves showing up to as many informal gatherings and other events as possible to take the temperature of his constituents on important issues. That way he already knows where his constituents will come down on the issues before critical meetings take place. That’s the power of politicking.
I have also come to realize that even when I attend events that have nothing to do with open education, that subject always comes up at my table for some reason. Maybe it’s me. I often come away from dinner with a couple of business cards from people who want to start sharing their educational materials more openly. Yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s me.
