Research Review: CBAM in depth

Stephen E. Anderson reviews the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM), which may help the ISTUS team to understand the process of facilitating educational change that is leveraged by social media

Among the theories of technology adoption and diffusion, the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM, developed by Hall and colleagues) stands out, since it has been developed and evaluated in education. It is not limited to technology adoption in education. However, in the face of educational change related to technology use, recently the CBAM has received some wider attention.

Research Review: Understanding Technology Adoption in Education

An overview on theories of adoption and diffusion of technology in education by Evan T. Straub

There is quite a lot research targeting the question of how and why individuals and institutions adopt innovations. For the use of ICT in education, theories and models of technology adoption are connect to issues of teacher training, staff development and educational reform. In this paper, Evan T. Straub looks at the most prevalent models of technology adoption: Roger’s innovation diffusion theory, the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (by Hall and colleagues), as well as the Technology Adoption Model and the United Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (by Venkatesh and colleagues).

Research review: How to promote social media uptake in VET and adult training - Project SVEA

Research review: How to promote social media uptake in VET and adult training systems in Europe - practical example of the European project "SVEA".  T. Toole ea (2010), eLearning Papers http://www.elearningeuropa.info/en/article/How-to-promote-social-media-uptake-in-VET-and-adult-training-systems-in-Europe-%E2%80%93-practical-example-of-the-%E2%80%9CSVEA%E2%80%9D-Europea

This article demonstrates the barriers and challenges offered by web 2.0 tools, which currently influencing the European training systems. It is based on the results emerging form the SVEA project following a regional analysis on the uptake of social media in VET and adult training system in Europe.

The most important challenges according to this article are:
- overcoming barriers of acceptance
- overcoming technological barriers
- innovating the management structure of VET institutions

The main benefits this article mentions are:
- the high level of collaboration; learning becoming more interactive and also personalized
- increasing cost effectiveness; not using classrooms and other rescoures

Further, this article outlines some trends that are likely to mark the VET and adult training environment in the next years.

1. Training at work is becoming more important
2. A mixture of face-to-face and online training is important
3. The trainer's role will change to moderator
4. Users of social media will combine the functionalities they require on the same website. 

At final, the very interesting actions the project SVEA has undertaken are:

1. The development of a collaborative online platform offering a range of different web 2.0 tools to be used by learners and learning institutions; http://openatrium.com. The home page of the group space is a dashboard with several customizable mini widgets.
2. The development of short training modules that supports trainers to understand how to use social media for learning purpose and get acquainted with them; http://www.svea-project.eu/svea_training.html

Those two outcomes of the project are very usefull to assist institutions to adapt new online technologies and are well worthy for further exploration!

Second meeting in Glasgow, Scotland

Second meeting in Glasgow, Scotland

ISTUS project partners met up in Glasgow from 23-24 January 2012. The meeting took place in the Mitchell Library in the West End of the city. Some additional project staff were introduced to the group and they kicked off with a summary of the project plan. After that we started working on the research review which involved partners presenting relevant research articles and videos on teaching and learning using social media. 

The workshop continued with the presentation on Concerns-based Adoption Model. This was to allow project members to analyse the key components of technology adoption in education. This work was to form the basis for the development of the questionnaires aimed at different target groups: students, teachers and institutional staff.

On the first evening all members met at a local cooking school and learnt how to make traditional Scottish food.

Mitchell Library

On the second day of the workshop the group discussed project evaluation techniques and how we can measure the success of ISTUS using the most appopriate deliverables. Further work continued on staff capacities in relation to using social media tools in education, as the group further analysed what the key enablers and barriers currently impact on this area.

On the second evening project members saw some Glasgow city sights, before having dinner in Jamie's restaurant.

Research review: Social Media Changes Business

Report: Direct Connection - Social Media Changes Business (Suora yhteys – näin sosiaalinen media muuttaa yritykset) Centre for Finnish Business and Policy Studies, Antti Isokangas and Petteri Kankkunen

Examples of how social media has changed business in Finland and how businesses should gear up for the future. According to the report, social media should not be viewed merely as a marketing medium. Social media is a tool for internal communication and customer service that changes way of thinking and changes the whole culture of business.

Interesting finding: People are used to web tools that they actually find useful in their private lives and expect their employer to be able to provide for them accordingly. If and when companies are not able to produce working (social media) tools, employees turn to resources on the open web. What is interesting they are prepared to brake company policy and brake rules to go online and finding resources that work and fit their needs.

The report (in Finnish) http://www.eva.fi/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Suora-yhteys.pdf