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ISBN: 978-972-8939-25-0 © 2010 IADISand others, 1999), image (Karahanna and others 1999; Venkatesh and Davis, 2000) are based on TheDiffusion of Innovations Theory (Rogers 1983). The origins of the social influence variable (Malhotra andGalletta, 1999; Venkatesh and Morris, 2000) is stated to be based on the Theory of Planned Behavior whichwas developed by Fishbein and Ajzen (1975), while facilitating conditions (Karahanna and Straub, 1999) onTaylor and Todd (1995) (Lee, Kozar and Larsen 2003).Five of the perceived attributes of social networks have been selected within this study: usefulness,relative advantage, ease of use, social influence, facilitating conditions. These five attributes were selected onthe basis of Usluel and Mazman’ (2010) content analysis study which examines 35 articles about thediffusion, acceptance and a<strong>do</strong>ption of innovations in the field of education published in the last five years onISI Web of Knowledge. This study has suggested that the perception of usefulness, the ease of use, socialinfluence and facilitating conditions have been the most examined factors among the perceived attributes ofinnovation. However, given the definitions of the perceived attributes, it is notable that the perceptions ofrelative advantage and usefulness have been studied through a wide perspective under the performanceexpectancy (Venkatesh and others, 2003). Venkatesh and others (2003) have stated that performanceexpectancy, the perception of usefulness, relative advantage, job relevance, external motivation and resultexpectancy are interrelated, and that these concepts generally reflect the individual’s perception that hewould obtain advantages when he makes use of an innovation. Thus, it has been detected that in all of the 35reviewed studies, the perception of usefulness has been studied in different ways under the termsperformance expectancy, result expectancy and subjective norms. However this study handles relativeadvantage and usefulness as two separate elements, and relative advantage has been included in the study inaddition to the 4 above mentioned attributes.1.1 The Perceived Attributes of Innovation:Davis (1989) defines usefulness as “the degree to which a person believes that using a particular systemwould enhance his or her job performance”, whereas saving prestige and economy refer to usefulness withinthis study. Ease of use is defined as “the degree to which a person believes that using a particular systemwould be free of effort” (Davis, 1989), however in this study ease of use is a<strong>do</strong>pted both learning and usingeasier that is consistent with Davis and Rogers’ approach. Facilitating conditions refer to the perception ofthe technical or institutional infrastructure of the employment of the system by the individual (Venkatesh an<strong>do</strong>thers 2003) which increase the usage and rate of a<strong>do</strong>ption of the system. Social influence is defined as“one’s perception that people who are important to him think he should or should not perform the behavior inquestion” (Fisbein and Ajzen, 1975; 302). Social influence becomes more important for rate of a<strong>do</strong>ptionwithin social networks because of its distinctive connection with sociality. Relative advantage is defined asthe “degree to which an innovation is perceived as better than the idea it supersedes” (Rogers, 2003; 15). Inthis study individuals’ subjective advantageous perception on innovation like <strong>do</strong>ing their job faster and easierexpresses the degree of relative advantage.1.2 The A<strong>do</strong>pter Categories:Based on the idea that the indicator of innovativeness is the relatively earlier a<strong>do</strong>ption of innovation by theindividual or the units compared to the other individual/units in the system, Rogers (2003) categorizes thea<strong>do</strong>pters in five: innovators (2,5%), early a<strong>do</strong>pters (13,5%), early majority (34%), late majority (34%),laggards (16%). In this study, those who choose to use the innovations before their environment, showingtendency to take risks while trying the innovation and who learned how to use it on their own without helpfrom the others shall be referred to as innovators; Those who employed the innovations to keep up with thesocial environment, somehow lagging behind in employing them, and who waited for the others to try theinnovation before they <strong>do</strong> in order to decide shall be referred to as skepticals. This study handles socialnetworks as an innovation, and aims to determine if there is a significant difference in the perceived attributesof innovation in terms of being innovator or skeptical of prospective teachers.304

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