Chapter 7: Understanding and Addressing a Faculty Member’S Concerns in the Technology Integration Process

This case study explores a two semester technology mentoring relationship between a faculty member, Dr. Smith, senior special education faculty member in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Iowa State University (ISU) and me, a graduate student in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. The main focus of this case is to describe specific experiences with the process of technology integration into teaching exhibited by Dr. Smith with my help. The events that took place in the mentoring meetings are examined based on the Concerns Based Adoption Model (CBAM) of Hall and Hord (1987). Although Rogers’ model is the main theoretical framework for this book (Chapter 2), and illustrates mentoring experiences from both the individual and the system perspectives, CBAM puts more emphasis on the understanding of individuals’ concerns in the process of the adoption of an innovation (Ellsworth, 2000). As a mentor I didn’t want to just meet with Dr. Smith and give him some instructions on his technology needs, but I also wanted to use my own experience and knowledge on the subject to encourage him to think about new and effective ways to integrate technology into his teaching. Thus, I found that CBAM provides a very clear framework that describes steps that I needed to take, including how to raise his awareness of a new technological idea and to help him develop the necessary skills to adopt it. Another important factor that played a key role in using CBAM in this case was that I wanted to know how well I was addressing and assisting him in this process of mentoring, and the CBAM stages of concern can provide evidence of progress. This chapter begins with both mentor and mentee profiles and proceeds with details of mentoring meetings and the connection between the CBAM and our mentoring relationship.