How technology integration in mathematics and science teaching can occur: The role of the maverick teacher

Helping teachers to change practices by adopting new tools and pedagogical approaches is of interest to a wide range of educational researchers and practitioners. This article describes a teacher, Ms. Hogan, who is an early adopter of a technological innovation: the authoring tool Squeak. We analyze email messages from Ms. Hogan applying Rogers' model for the diffusion of innovation. We find that this maverick teacher was quickly persuaded and decided to adopt the tool even before her knowledge of the tool was complete. The tool met the needs of this teacher in her context but in order for her experience to be more general, the authors hypothesize that materials must be created to make the tool relevant to non-maverick teachers.