Dan's+Resource+List+for+Change

EDC 668 - Managing Learning Technology for Change, Melissa Anderson

**Resource List for Change**
The following resources, including personnel, will be necessary for the change being sought:

//**Note:** The information related to personnel is based on the concept of [|Diffusion of Innovations], which identifies the stages of innovation adoption, and the individuals involved, as well as the type of adopters that emerge from any decision to apply a new innovation. This concept will be continued to be applied moving forward in the change opportunity process, including the time line of the decision where the stages of innovation adoption will be aligned with each stage of the time line.//

Personnel:
There are multiple levels of leadership that will be involved in the decision to change from a Behaviorist to Social Constructivist approach to learning. These leaders will be from both from the operational standpoint, in terms of employee expectations and measurements, and from a Learning and Development standpoint in terms of methods of instruction. Both leadership groups will be involved in decisions regarding hardware, software, and book purchases.
 * Leadership**

As this is a corporate organization the decision will be largely of the "Authority" type, based on the Diffusion of Innovations model. The other two types of decisions will come into play to some degree within the process, such as "Collective" decisions around how to apply the new tools and processes, and even "Optional" decisions as some employees may not elect to participate and leave the organization. In any case, the final "go/no go" decision will rest in the hands of an authorized leader within the organization.

Leadership will also act as champions of the concept to continue the organizational support and focus on the new approach, once the decision has been made.

Initially the Learning and Development Staff will be a part of a short-term, collective decision regarding the value of bringing the new Social Constructivist approach and ensuing method changes forward to leadership. Post-decision they will be a key part of leading the change. As the Diffusion of Innovations concept identifies, there will be various levels of adoption rate within the team: Innovators, Early Adopters, Early Majority, Late Majority, and Laggards. My belief is that most of the individuals on the Learning and Development teams would fall into the category of Innovators and Early Adopters with several Early to Late Majority, and very few Laggards. When considering other key personnel the balance may shift.
 * Learning and Development Staff**

As the leader of this change opportunity, I would act as the initial champion and opinion leader for the effort, until such time that a Learning and Development leader at the corporate level would be assigned as the official driver of the project. My role after that time would be to remain as a champion to help others through the adoption process.

Front-line employees would need to be represented and involved from the outset to be a part of the decision. Again, the final decision to move forward with a new technology and method would rest in the authority vote, but having the input and support at all levels will be essential for the change to take hold, stick, and grow. As mentioned in the section on Learning and Development teams, there will also be a variety of adopter types in this group of personnel, with a potential shift to more Early and Late Majority.
 * Knowledge Workers**

Leaders and support members from the IT Support team will need to be involved to understand the scope of the implementation and key software and hardware requirements. As the recommended software solution (Mzinga Social Learning Suite) is a third-party hosted system, very little hardware configuring should be needed. There will be some back-end network set up requirements and software installation and support, but that will also be minimal. Should a non-hosted solution be implemented for cost-saving reasons, a much larger investment in IT personnel time would be required, with a larger amount of buy-in to the plan being necessary.
 * IT Support Team**

**Software:**
Mzinga Social Learning Suite: Provides for the creation of interactive, immersive learning simulations that also include social learning tools, such as blogs, rating systems, commenting, and discussion forums. Approximate cost - $2.50/month/employee (Roughly 8000 employees, potentially up to 15,000, depending on scope of change effort.) Estimated cost of $240,000 for the first year.

**Hardware:**
Currently installed hardware will support the proposed software applications. The one requirement for hardware will be headsets with microphones. Estimated cost of $12.99/headset x 2000 = $25,980. These will be shared between employee teams and managed by local Learning and Development groups.

**Books:**
Understanding by Design, Expanded 2nd Edition (Paperback) by: Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe. $36.00/book. Will need approximately 50 copies to get started. Estimated cost of $1,800.

Diffusion of innovations. (2009, June 3). In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved June 7, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffusion_of_innovations
 * References:**

[|Mzinga Social Learning Suite]