The diffusion of technological innovations in the educational setting: Expectations, practices, and the role of personality.

摘要

The focus of this study is an examination of the relationship between an educator's personality characteristics and acceptance/adoption of new technologies in the classroom. A total of 150 educators participated in the present investigation. Two test instruments were administered to collect the data for answering the two research questions of the study. Several areas of technology use were examined, and the following conclusions were revealed. The participants felt that both students and teachers had very good access to computers and computer resource assistance in school. They reported that they currently integrated computer technology in the classroom fairly to very often. Their use of computer technology in the classroom tended to be classified in the higher levels, with most respondents placing themselves in the higher creative application, adaptation, and familiarity stages, and relatively few placing themselves in the lower awareness, learning, or understanding levels.;When asked to report on their integration of computer technology in the classroom in eleven different areas, the participants stated that they integrated computer technology most frequently for communication, informative uses, organizational uses, and evaluative purposes, but not for expressive purposes or expansive purposes. Results from the multiple regression analysis indicated the following: The NEO-FFI scales were able to predict scores on the TIQ to a statistically significant degree, although the percentage of variance explained was modest (with a sample percentage of 8% and an estimate of the percentage in the population of 5%).