Diffusion of Internet adoption: A study of the relationship between innovativeness, the attitude of teachers toward using the Internet, and Internet use

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between innovativeness, Internet use, demographic variables, and the attitude of teachers toward the use of the Internet. Underpinning the study is the diffusion research tradition, which explains the transfer of new ideas within a social system. The diffusion process is the spread of a new idea from the source of its invention to the ultimate users or adopters.;Innovative adopters are believed to possess higher overall positive attitudes towards new experiences. Results of this study corroborate these findings, as the mean attitude scores of innovators were significantly higher than scores of other adopters. In addition, scores for Internet use were significantly higher for innovators than for laggards. The relationship between adopter type and Internet use in this population is that innovators and majority members are the ones who have used the Internet, while laggards have little experience. Additional findings show that the younger age groups, females, and general subject teachers possessed higher mean scores for innovativeness than other groups.;This study also examined Internet specific variables with respect to computer attitudes and usage in the general K-12 teacher population. Results reveal that there exists a significant positive relationship between increased attitudes toward using the Internet and an increase in teachers' Internet use. Male teachers had significantly lower Internet attitude scores than female teachers. This was related to a small group of male math teachers who also exhibited low scores for Internet use. It is believed that low Internet attitude scores for this group are related to their low levels of Internet use.;Based upon the findings of this study, it is suggested that Internet training be used as a way to provide late majority and laggard adopters with Internet experience. Further implications and recommendations for research are also addressed.