Thought Leaders Summit As a precursor to the July conference, selected Thought Leaders from education, business, and educational foundations met in Nashville, Tennessee on April 7 and 8, 2008 to share their respective experiences and insights in achieving scale within educational reform initiatives. This forum (modeled after the National Academies solicitation process) used a variety of techniques (such as keynotes, “fishbowls” and breakout sessions) to facilitate the discussions among the participants. The multiple perspectives arising from the dialogue produced crucial insights that informed the development of the conference in July. The Thought Leaders Summit proved extremely valuable as a vehicle for extending the knowledge of the assembled experts to the conference team and the Innovation Coaches as well as providing a framework for the conference evaluation and subsequent work. The Summit also provided an opportunity for Thought Leaders to learn from each other, as well as to learn more about ATE and community colleges. The agenda for the Summit reflects this practice and included a series of moderated fishbowl sessions as well as concurrent breakout sessions, all focused on aspects and implications of achieving scale in the diffusion of innovations. Synergy Conference Synergy 2008 was held on July 23-26, 2008 at the Hilton Squaw Peak in Phoenix, AZ.  This event focused on achieving scale – scale as a broader idea than just dissemination – more closely aligned with setting in motion those forces necessary to make innovative pedagogical models common practice in technical classrooms. Implicit in this task was the need to develop more big-picture thinking among conference participants, and to help attendees to think about ways to develop and execute projects with scalability as a major outcome. To view the conference agenda and presentations, please click here.  The research that led to Synergy 2008 was grounded in the study of the diffusion of innovations. The first substantial book on the topic that proposed a generalized model of how and why diffusion occurs was authored by Everett M. Rogers in 1962. Numerous researchers have followed, studying diffusion of innovations in educational, management, agricultural, industrial, public policy, medical, and community settings. Research conducted by James W. Dearing, Senior Scientist at Kaiser Permanente, has explored diffusion theory with regard to the importance of seven factors – innovation attributes, innovation clusters, demonstration projects, societal sectors, reinforcing contextual conditions, opinion leadership, and the importance of mutual adaptation of both innovation and organizational context during implementation (Dearing, 2007).  Adding greatly to this body of knowledge was Christopher Dede, Timothy E. Wirth Professor in Learning Technologies, Harvard Graduate School of Education, who has conducted extensive research in the dimensions of scale – depth, sustainability, spread, shift and evolution – as applied to practice in the Partners in Learning program with Microsoft (Dede, 2007). When combined in conjunction with the work of John Bransford on Learning Theory, this research provided a critical knowledge base for addressing some of the key meta-issues of the NSF ATE Program, including efficacy of innovation, replication of successful practice, scalability, sustainability, and return on investment. Evaluation Workshop In conjunction with the ATE PI Conference in Washington, DC, the Synergy Team provided a 2½ hour follow-up workshop on Wednesday morning, October 29, 2008. Over 30 people were in attendance. The workshop was conducted by Saul Rockman and Jennifer Borland who have worked extensively with Chris Dede on the scale project with Microsoft’s Partners in Learning Initiative - www.rockman.com. This workshop tied the work on scale to evaluation in order to maximize effectiveness in both areas. To view the PowerPoint presentation, please click here. To view the template, please click here.