A couple of weeks ago, we shared thoughts on what schools can learn about education innovation from Gartner's Hype Cycle.

There is another innovation model that we find consistently useful: the Rogers Curve, which visualizes the "Innovation Diffusion Theory."

As it just so happens, the Hype Cycle and the Rogers Curve fit together quite nicely. In the image below, the Rogers Curve sits beneath the Hype Cycle. Each of the five stages of "Innovation Diffusion" maps on to one or more segments of the Hype Cycle.

As more "Early Adopter" schools like Design Tech High (founded in 2014) and Albemarle Tech (opening in August 2018) emerge, the future of learning will depend on experimenting across the various stages of the Edu-Hype Cycle.

Before your school can do that, you will need to know the psychographics of your faculty and staff.

• Who are your "Innovators"--the people who are inherently drawn to the new?
• Who are your "Early Adopters"--the visionaries who see extraordinary possibilities in the new?
• Who will follow the "Early Adopters" once they see evidence that experiments have been debugged? These are your "Early Majority."
• Who will only come along once everyone else is on board? These are your "Late Majority" and "Laggards."

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