Conclusion: List Serve Success

In order to effectively institute the list serve program, Ms Jele realized that she needed to develop a different approach to reach each of the adopter categories. Before the Informational meeting about 3% of families had already signed up for the list serve program. These users needed very little guidance because they were already familiar with list serves from other arenas in their lives. However, Ms. Jele noticed that these innovative adopters were so much more technologically advanced that they went about their work without sharing their knowledge with others. The next significant group to join the list serve had a few questions, but was quick to adapt. This group was a bit larger. They were comfortable with technology and eager to learn. Ms. Jele recognized the potential influential ability of this group and urged them to attend the informational meeting.

The meeting was a great success. The presence of the early adopters eased the concerns of a large number of the other attendees who had not yet signed up for the list serve. A little over 35% of the PB&J Elementary families signed up following the first meeting. After hearing positive feedback from this early majority and observing the list serve's benefits, another large group signed up soon after. However, there was still a small number of families (about 15%) that had not yet gotten involved. Like the innovative adopters, this last group tended not to seek help with the technology, but for different reasons. This group of ělaggardsî was computerphobic and needed to be shown the specific application of the list serve and how it could make their lives more convenient. Ms. Jele, therefore, held a more intimate learning intensive workshop, in which she could take the user through the process, step-by-step on a one to one basis. Ms. Jele has an informational meeting on the list serve program at the beginning of every school year and holds a learning workshop bi-annually. The program is now running efficiently.