Factors influencing secondary school teachers’ adoption of teaching blogs

• Published in: Computers and education Vol. 56; no. 4; pp. 948 - 960
• Main Authors: Lai, Hui-Min, Chen, Chin-Pin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.05.2011; Elsevier
• Subjects: Academic Achievement; Blog; Computer simulation; Decisions; Discriminant Analysis; Education; Electronic Publishing; Evaluation Methods; Information technology; Information technology adoption; Innovation; Innovation diffusion theory; Literature; Mathematical models; Questionnaires; School Support; Secondary education; Secondary School Teachers; Teacher Attitudes; Teachers; Teaching; Web Sites; Innovation diffusion theory; Secondary education; Blog; Information technology adoption
• ISSN: 0360-1315; 1873-782X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.compedu.2010.11.010

Recently, there has been a significant proliferation in the number of teaching blogs; however, little has been explored about what motivates teachers to adopt teaching blogs. The purpose of this study is to find out which factors can significantly influence teacher decisions regarding their teaching blog adoption and the relative importance of these influences. This study extended Rogers’ (1995) Innovation Diffusion Theory (IDT) that incorporates relevant factors from two sources: from within individual IT adoption literature and from within blog research literature emphasizing knowledge sharing motivation. The model includes four dimensions (which are individual, innovation technology, school and environmental characteristics) and 14 factors. A total of 325 valid questionnaires were obtained. Discriminant analysis was employed to test the hypotheses. The results revealed that secondary school teachers’ decisions to adopt teaching blogs are strongly associated with eight factors: perceived enjoyment, codification effort, compatibility, perceived ease of use, personal innovativeness, enjoyment in helping others, school support and perceived usefulness, ordered by their relative importance. The research results also have important implications for researchers, secondary school managers and blog services providers.