Diffusion of Web 2.0 Technology in Education

Web 2.0 technology is clearly an innovation that can provide benefits to educational settings. Rogers (2004) describes how innovations can be diffused into a society. I think the question with web 2.0 technology diffusion in schools is how to design the diffusion. Should diffusion take place naturally on an individual teacher or student level? Or should diffusion of this technology take place on an institutional level? My 7 years of experience teaching tell me that individual teachers can make changes within their classroom and act as the innovators to try to create change but systemic change needs to happen at the institutional level. A school district needs to make an investment in technology so that the hardware, software, and training are provided for all teachers. If this does not happen then only the innovative teachers will stay on the cutting edge of technology. Many other teacher will continue to do what they have done unless they are explicitly shown that there is a new/better way or they are forced to incorporate technology.