Institutional Factors in iPad Rollout, Adoption, and Implementation: Isomorphism and the Case of the Los Angeles Unified School District’s iPad Initiative

School districts areincreasingly turning to iPads as a mechanism to increase student engagement andachievement and innovate teaching and learning. Research shows this is afeasible, albeit challenging goal. In this article, we examine the case of alarge-scale iPad rollout in the Los Angeles Unified School District in 2013.Using institutional isomorphism (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983) as our conceptualframework, we find institutional features, like policy, the individuals andgroups who make decisions, and how those decisions are communicated andsupported impact the success of major change initiatives, like 1:1 iPad programs.We argue including institutional lenses in the research on rollout, adoption,and implementation of iPad and technology programs will help schools anddistricts to make better decisions about how to build large-scale changeinitiatives.