What does a Technology Adoption/Adaptation Advisor do?

We frequently run events to engage the Faculty community in exploring new technologies. The VR Club is an example. We do this to:

1. Gain shared knowledge (for us and the participants) of how innovations may fit (or not) into people’s study, work, and lives – how they might solve a problem, help to achieve a goal, make some activity easier, more enjoyable etc.
2. Inspire people to consider, or dream-up, entirely new goals, new activities, new practices.
3. Understand, and plan for, how they might adopt/adapt innovations into practice.
4. Find commonalities in how different people respond to technologies – for example, is there an innovation that fits in more than one discipline?
5. Help people to become more comfortable in trying, adopting, and adapting specific technologies, and technology in general.
6. Create a community in which new practices can spread more readily.
7. Guide our focus in exploring other emerging technologies.

People might come to an event having reflected on current practice and needs, and with a clear[ish] idea of what they want to achieve.

Others may come more speculatively, and find that the engagement with technology helps them to rethink current practice and to formulate new goals.

Some people just come for fun, and are surprised at what they find.

In all cases, we need to carefully support participants in building sufficient understanding, making decisions, and planning further action.

We also need to be aware and comfortable with accepting that in many cases the engagement will not immediately lead to action.

In facilitating people in these events, we need to:

1. Prepare! Ensure that the space, the tech, the event, the experience, is designed and set up appropriately – high professional standards are really important.
2. Create events that will attract people not because they are about new tech but because something interesting, useful, exciting is offered through the tech.
3. Understand and empathise with individuals, recognising how they are feeling and thinking, so that we can create a personalised experience that is comfortable and rewarding.
4. Engage in a respectful and caring dialogue to get a sense of what their starting point is (capabilities, experiences, goals, styles, etc.) – and revise this understanding as the engagement proceeds. Avoid unconscious bias!
5. Help each participant to select from a range of ideas (e.g. uses of VR, apps, experiences) that might be relevant (work is done before the session to prepare a range of choices that might be of use).
6. Brief the participant on how the technology works, and what the experience might be like using it in their context.
7. Give a carefully managed and realistic enough experience of the technology/practice, so that they can build sufficient understanding and “feel for” what it would be like to adopt it into practice, and how it might be useful.
8. Ensure that the experience is enjoyable and comfortable at all times.
9. Honestly explain cost (time and money) implications, potential complications, and the level and source of support they can expect.
10. Patiently answer questions (or at least understand questions, and try to find answers), and listen to concerns and ideas.
11. Try to end with a route to action, if they want to take it on further, perhaps making a plan for further exploration or adoption/adaption into practice – within the bounds of resources that are available.

I recommend also reading this article by Catherine Allen (who many years ago worked with me as a technology adoption/adaptation advisor in the Arts Faculty at Warwick): What Audiences Want from Immersive Experiences. Catherine’s company Limina Immersive have used a participatory research approach to systematically develop a deep understanding of how to guide people in adopting and adapting immersive tech into their lives.