The Stages of Adoption of Technology (Stages v1.1) instrument is a quick self-assessment measure. It has been used in both preservice and inservice education to measure the impact of information technology training as well as trends over time. It is derived from the stages presented by Russell (1995) in research assessing adults learning to use electronic mail. Russell's stages included: (1) awareness, (2) learning the process, (3) understanding the application of the process, (4) familiarity and confidence, (5) adaptation to other contexts, and (6) creative applications to new contexts. In the Stages of Adoption of Technology instrument (Christensen, 1997; Christensen & Knezek, 1999) the stage descriptions are generalized to make them appropriate for any information technology. 

The instrument is a fast and efficient one-time report with many possible applications. For example, it may be useful to determine the average stage for teachers in a school in order to target the initial level of a new school-wide training program. It could be useful as a pre/post technology integration training program measure for professional development. Instructors in a university course that includes technology may find the Stages instrument helpful for pre/post assessment of changes during the semester. The instrument is time efficient, reliable, and valid as an indicator of an educator's progress along a technology integration continuum.

Reliability 

Because the Stages of Adoption of Technology instrument is a single item survey, internal consistency reliability measures cannot be calculated for data gathered through it. However, a high test-retest reliability estimate (.91) was obtained from a sample of 525 K-12 teachers from a metropolitan north Texas public school district during August 1999. The Stages of Adoption of Technology item was included on two attitudinal questionnaires that were completed by educators as near to each other in time as within the same hour, or separated in time by as much as one day. During this process educators never had access to the information provided on one survey while completing the other. 

A Pearson product-moment correlation was calculated between the two reported Stage measures as a form of test-retest reliability. The resulting value of .91 indicates high consistency for these educators on reported stages, within the recognized limitations (remembering the contextual cues) that undoubtedly inflated the estimate, compared to a standard reliability index.

SA- Recommended Administration Procedures

This instrument is a quick and reliable self-report measure for use in assessing technology integration. The user selects a single stage that best describes his/her stage of adoption. Normal completion time is less than 5 minutes.

Stages of Adoption of Technology (SA)