Technology acceptance model

I have been invited to present a few sessions at the Annual Conference in April, and I am deciding how to overcome some obstacles erected by short-sighted administrators, but I intend to be there to learn from and with a very engaging and innovative community for those days.

The second best part of the NELMS AC is that I get to stop and think about what is most important to me as an educators as I prepare my sessions. One idea that has been helping me to make decisions about what to do in my classroom has been the technology acceptance model.

TAM has been around for years and is widely used in the business world to develop hardware, software, and network systems and also to develop strategies and procedures for using IT in organizations. According to TAM, three factors are associated with the intention to use technology and this the actual use of technology in any setting:

As school and technology leaders (and as teachers) we should attempt to make our technology easy to use and useful. Also, we should seek to increase the expectation that it be used-- be careful, however, as compelling one to use technology does not increase the intention to use technology, nor even the use of it.