Diffusion theory and actor-network theory : two views on an innovation

For more than two decades there has been a continuing and significant financial outlay in Australia to equip schools with computers and related communication technologies. The adoption and adaptation of these technologies in schools has been the focus of much research. Where research has been concerned with accounting for the success or failure of such innovations, recourse, either explicitly or implicitly, to tenets of diffusion theory has been common. This paper reports on a study of the development and implementation of an Education Queensland initiative, the ConnectEd project. The study, informed by actor-network theory, analyses key concepts in the overall process of innovating and details the ways in which diffusion theory limits understandings of innovation in education.