I have been asked at the various meetings that I have attended, "What percentage of teachers are going to use a particular innovation?" At times this can bring a quick close to a conversation about any particular technology. At one particular ed-tech leaders meeting I was talking about a videoconference project that our board had done with the Canadian Space Agency. The person I was talking with already brought down the number of actual educator users to less than 0.5% of teachers. In his eyes, it wasn't worth the time or monetary investment for his school board. I offered that it had more to do with the amount of educators who were willing to take risks in what they are doing and how they are doing it. If I asked the students who attended that videoconference with the CSA, I am sure the answer would be different.
I am curious if those educators who are willing to post to blogs, collaborate in wikis, and generally participate in the read/write web are more likely to take risks than other educators. I'm thinking that I would see a strong correlation, but you never know.
I thought I would create an informal survey and base it on Gene Calvert's Risk Attitudes Inventory. I have outlined a few questions in a survey that scratches the surface of this topic. (I'm sure this would make an interesting Master's thesis for someone)
If you are interested in participating, please complete the survey below. When I collect a nice sample of results I will post them for your comments.
[survey_fly]
Share and Enjoy -


innovative tools and how to use them information literacy also rates a good mention Any comments go directly to the blog which you will find here. In addition, Quentin of Teaching.Hacks talked about Risk Taking Educators and Web 2.0. †I am curious if those educators who are willing to post to blogs, collaborate in wikis, and generally participate in the read/write web are more likely to take risks than other educators. I’
View this article on its blog
Quentin, I would be interested in the results of the survey – although, depending how you weight the questions, it could be construed that if you don’t use Web 2.0, you’re not a risk taking teacher. Not sure that could be entirely true as not all risk taking involves online technology.
Hi Graham,
I agree with you. This is the problem with taking results from online surveys in general.
I think the results from the survey will still be interesting with regards to those willing to take risk and participation in the read/write web.
I will post the raw results in a csv file for everyone to make their own conclusions.