Abstract

The promise of electronic distance education will not be realized until we overcome the widespread lack of accessibility to electronic communication technology. Even when the technology is accessible, many people, particularly in less developed countries, cannot afford it. To address these pressing needs on a global scale, a group of concerned educators met in January, 1995 at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, to form the Consortium for Affordable and Accessible Distance Education (CAADE). CAADE's vision is a flexible high-performance electronic communications infrastructure that can be tailored to integrate technologies for mass delivery of instructional materials with those for facilitating student-to-teacher and student-to-student interactions.

Strategies must vary from country to country, depending on culture, economy, and infrastructure. CAADE's research and development efforts help to identify the appropriate mix of satellites, telephone, wireless, and cable and computer-based communication. CAADE projects aim to demonstrate distributed electronic communication technologies that can be configured to

1) provide mass instruction with pre-packaged materials that coexist with and complement highly individualized instruction,
2) combine wireless and wireline technologies into an integrated system at reasonable cost at almost any site, and
3) promote experiential and collaborative learning.

Short-term goals are to demonstrate single, integrated distance education systems that have the following features:

• appropriate for each given cultural and economic situation
• synchronous delivery of "special event" programming
• asynchronous delivery of pre-packaged lessons, simulations and demonstrations
• just-in-time access to presentation and self-teaching materials
• interactive teacher-student sessions
• collaborative learning activities among geographically dispersed students.

Abstract

This paper discusses how theories of innovation diffusion have been incorporated into instructional technology. The paper describes general diffusion theory and includes four of the most commonly discussed theories of diffusion. Following this, the authors describe how general diffusion theories have been used to build diffusion theories specific to instructional technology. The paper states that the two major categories of IT-related diffusion theory are Systemic Change Theories and Product Utilization Theories. The paper describes two opposing philosophical views of technology: Determinism and Instrumentalism. The authors use the two philosophies of technology to create two subcategories of IT-related diffusion theory: Developer-Based Theories and Adopter -Based Theories. The authors contend that Developer-Based Theories are flawed in that they overstate the role of technological superiority in the diffusion process.