Sustainable Innovation Making Sense of Technological Complexity Presented by Elson Liu Ohio SchoolNet Conference 2004 March 1, 2004: Columbus, OH

Crises…..… Questions Crisis Key Question 2.Implementation 3.Firefighting 4.Lack of resources 5.Complexity 1.Technological change1.What technology do we choose? When? 2.How do we integrate it into the classroom? 3.How do we make it reliable? 4.How do we make it last? 5.How does it all fit together?

Question Sustainable Innovation 1. What technology do we choose? When? 2. How do we integrate it into the classroom? 3. How do we make it reliable? 4. How do we make it last? 5. How does it all fit together?

Choosing Technologies: Individual 1. U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment, “Teachers and Technology: Making the Connection,” OTA-EHR-616. U.S. Government Printing Office, April 1995, p

Choosing Technologies: Aggregate 2. University of Georgia, “Everett Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovations Theory” web-based learning module available from

Choice: Sustainable Innovation 1. With a large relevant market 2. After they take off in the market 3. That have established industry standards 4. Where multiple vendors compete on price 5. That exhibit rapidly increasing growth Choose Technologies…

Question Sustainable Innovation 1. What technology do we adopt? When? 2. How do we integrate it into the classroom? 3. How do we make it reliable? 4. How do we make it last? 5. How does it all fit together?

Integration: Detailed Process 3. Zaltman, G., Duncan, R., and Holbeck, J. Innovations and Organizations. Robert E. Krieger Publishing Company,

4. Adapted from Cuban, L. Teachers and Machines: The Classroom Use of Technology Since Teachers College Press, 1986, pp Integration: Simple Process

Integration: Factors “Well-known” issues: 1.Professional development 2.Bandwagon effect 3.Initial Cost “Less frequently mentioned” issues: Ongoing costs, inflationary pressures, reversibility, divisibility, terminality, gatekeeping, impact on role of teachers, compatibility with organizational values, leadership, politics

5. Adapted from Pindyck, R. and Rubinfeld, D. Microeconomics, Third Edition. Prentice Hall, 1995, p Accept trade-offs: possibilities frontier Spread resources across multiple strategies Cyclical implementation Expand the entire possibilities frontier Integration: Sustainable Innovation Possibilities Frontier

Question Sustainable Innovation 1. What technology do we adopt? When? 2. How do we make it work? 3. How do we make it reliable? 4. How do we make it last? 5. How does it all fit together?

Reliability: Analytical Methods Risk assessment: Performance as a range of probabilities Failure analysis: Root causes Fault tolerance: Single points of failure Graceful failure: Slow degradation

6. Adapted from Kalinsky, D. “Design Patterns for High Availability,” Embedded.com. July 2002; and other sources. Reliability: Risk Profiles

Reliability: Sustainable Innovation Performance: range of probabilities Fixing: root causes Prevention: both technical and human Trade-off: performance v. redundancy Eliminate: single points of failure Failure analysis: non-catastrophic faults

Question Sustainable Innovation 1. What technology do we adopt? When? 2. How do we implement it? 3. How do we make it reliable? 4. How do we make it last? 5. How does it all fit together?

Public Goods: Characteristics Economics of public goods: “Nonrival” and “nonexclusive” Free riders Market externality Tragedy of the commons

Public Goods: Sustainable Innovation Develop policies to limit consumption Plan for depletion Deploy based on operating costs Accept responsibility: regulation Allocate resources: marketization

Question Sustainable Innovation 1. What technology do we adopt? When? 2. How do we implement it? 3. How do we make it reliable? 4. How do we make it last? 5. How does it all fit together?

Sustainable Development “Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Brundtland, G. Our Common Future: The World Commission on Environment and Development, Oxford University Press, 1987.

Sustainable Innovation Making Sense of Technological Complexity Presented by Elson Liu Ohio SchoolNet Conference 2004 March 1, 2004: Columbus, OH