Inspired by Crisis
by Bob Jackman
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here is symbiotic relationship between innovation and adoption. The work of innovation can only go so far until it must wait for adoption to catch up and create the next opportunity for innovation. I have personally experienced this circular relationship, which is especially prominent in the education field. While technical innovations in the classroom have been available for some time, it is the onset of the pandemic that has moved innovative ideas designed for the classroom into the adoptive phase.

As a teacher I want to give students the best experiences and opportunities possible. I know technology enables novel experiences unthinkable to most teachers. One of the technologies I find most fascinating and promising is video calls. I envision expanding my classroom beyond the walls of the school into an ever-shrinking world, connecting my students to experiences normally out of reach. Travel policies and costs make it impossible to take my students beyond an hour’s drive, and budgets prohibit me from bringing in experts with travel requirements. Today, both are accomplished virtually through video calls.

Ironically, the closing of schools was the catalyst for opening classrooms to the world.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought a huge disruption to every facet of life. Most notably it changed the way we connect with people. Being in the physical presence of work colleagues, friends, and even extended family no longer was an option.

Technology Adoption Curve graph
The Birth of the Idea
In 2006, I began work on my master’s degree in music education at the University of Utah. When deciding on a project, I wanted to explore a technology that I could easily share, that would benefit many classrooms and impact a large number of students. I was privileged to have several promising technologies in my classroom with which to experiment and innovate. I chose video calling with webcams because it was the least expensive, the easiest to implement and appeared to have the greatest reach. It appeared to me to have the potential for the greatest impact on education.
Opportunity Knocks
I needed an environment to test my theories and research and, as often occurs, life presented the perfect opportunity. My colleague and high school band director, Kevin Fallon, needed to be in Oregon during the summer of 2007 for his master’s degree program. He was working out a plan to have substitutes run marching band rehearsals during his absence, but he knew that in his absence the amount of progress would be limited. During our conversation he said, “It’s too bad I can’t just run rehearsal from Oregon.” I thought for a second and replied, “Why can’t you? What if we brought you in via webcam to direct the rehearsal?”

While this perhaps doesn’t sound revolutionary today, at the time it was an entirely new concept. Kevin was excited at the possibility, and I was excited to test my theories and research with a real classroom and with a teacher other than myself. We loaded the software and did a couple of tests before he left. In short order we were holding band rehearsals in the music room with his larger-than-life-size image on the projector screen and his voice booming from the stereo. He gave instructions on what to play and the drum majors led the music. Throughout the course of our experiment, Kevin’s colleagues observed what we were doing and were amazed at the effectiveness and impact. I knew at that point we were on to something. We were doing what no one had even considered possible. It was fun and exciting.

With a first successful test run, I was ready to share this with others and had visions of everyone using webcams for video calls in their classroom. I signed up to present a breakout session at the Utah Music Educators Association conference. As music educators walked in, they saw a classroom of students projected onto a screen. When we began, I informed them that what they were seeing was not a video but my actual classroom, at that very moment, live. My faculty advisor was working with my students from 300 miles away. We demonstrated how effective this could be in bringing a guest to the classroom. I gave details on equipment needs and how to set the system up in their own classrooms.

I naively expected to get emails and calls from colleagues telling me about their experiences or asking set-up questions. I was disappointed when only one teacher used what I had shared. Though many thought it was amazing, they didn’t feel they had the necessary technology skills to make it happen in their classroom. I had the same challenges trying to bring guests into my classroom. Most declined because they didn’t feel they could get it to work. Their lack of exposure and experience prevented them from trying, even if I offered to help walk them through it.

The Adoption-Comfort Gap
I learned an important lesson: Innovation creates opportunities but must wait for adoption to catch up. Most people were so unfamiliar with what I was doing that they couldn’t make the jump to trying it themselves. They needed more exposure and experiences to feel comfortable adopting this new technology. I call this the Adoption-Comfort Gap. The larger the gap, the more pain the user experiences in making the change. When the user is more comfortable with supporting ideas and technologies, the Adoption-Comfort Gap becomes smaller and the jump to adoption easier.

An individual’s previous experiences influence their comfort level and the size of the gap. Each individual also has a personal threshold for the amount of gap they are willing to jump for adoption. These two factors determine where on the adoption curve an individual falls. Innovators enjoy the thrill of stepping into something new; laggards will resist as long as possible. Early adopters, the early majority, and the late majority are all determined by these two factors. Some people may be in the early majority for one adoption and the late majority for another.

Observable Adoption
I decided to leave education to pursue a career that would allow me to support a family with a stay-at-home mom. I had the opportunity to watch over time the adoption of my ideas into businesses where it was not seen as an optional addition but as a necessary cost-saving practice. Many often preferred to just use audio on a Zoom call, but when I turned on my camera most would do the same. The result was a more effective experience, with a much lower cost than traveling for an on-site visit. This confirmed my original thesis and showed me adoption was moving in the right direction. Education tends to move slower than business with technology, so I saw this as a foreshadowing of the future for education.
Global Disruption
Then something disruptive happened. The COVID-19 pandemic hit and caused many to work from home. In order to stay connected, video became the primary way of communicating. Video became the standard communication for work, school and even personal calls. It was expected that everyone participate, which forced the rest of the late majority and even laggards to adopt.

Jonathan Fields of the Good Life Project says, “There is no such thing as disruption without possibility.” COVID-19 brought a huge disruption to communication and human connection. This allowed the possibility of video calls to take hold and become standard. Zoom became a household name and almost everyone was participating in regular video calls. The Adoption-Comfort Gap had closed for nearly all.

Final Arrival
I still teach jazz band in the morning at my local middle school. Now I can reach out to university professors and others and ask them to virtually visit my classroom. I am confident I won’t be expected to explain what a video call is and how to get it to work. If I request that someone work with my students they will simply reply with, “Sounds great! Send me a Zoom link.”
Bob Jackman
Bob Jackman graduated from Southern Utah University with a degree in trumpet performance and earned a master’s in music education from the University of Utah. His love of technology and education are present in every pursuit and adventure. Jackman seeks to enable those around him to make all aspects of their life easier and more effective through innovative and creative uses of technology. As he continues his career in customer experience for Docebo, he volunteers his time teaching jazz band at his local middle school. He also founded and directs a community orchestra in the city of Saratoga Springs, Utah. He has four wonderful children who also play and enjoy music.

Bob Jackman graduated from Southern Utah University with a degree in trumpet performance and earned a master’s in music education from the University of Utah. His love of technology and education are present in every pursuit and adventure. Jackman seeks to enable those around him to make all aspects of their life easier and more effective through innovative and creative uses of technology. As he continues his career in customer experience for Docebo, he volunteers his time teaching jazz band at his local middle school. He also founded and directs a community orchestra in the city of Saratoga Springs, Utah. He has four wonderful children who also play and enjoy music.