Technology Issues Faced by School Administrators

Technology Issues Faced by School Administrators

Introduction

The main purpose of this paper is to make an analysis on the different issues faced by the school administration. The main issues focused in this paper are the technological issues faced by the schools.

Discussion

School administrators who serve as instructional leaders indirectly impact students' learning environment through contact with teachers through development of “best practice” instruction and curriculum (Bass, 2003). That includes the integration of technology into the classroom environment. These elements combine to enhance the learning environment by providing training and resources directly to teachers. Wenger (2002) noted that there are leadership behaviors that have an effect on students' learning environment and that these “behaviors significantly affect teacher instruction and student learning [both] directly and indirectly” (p. 33). Bass (2003) discussed behaviors of successful administrators and noted that these leaders master four skills which influence higher levels of student achievement in their schools. These skills were: “providing resources, supporting instruction, communicating, and always being present” (pp. 17-19). Teacher support was found to be critical in building teachers' confidence levels when first using technology (Wenger, 2002). (Bass, 2003) compared the impact of teaching environments of exemplary computer-using teachers with those of other computer-using teachers in presenting the same curriculum. Since policies regarding curriculum, pedagogy, and resources tended to originate in the superintendents' offices, Parsad (2005) believed that administrative support, including that from the superintendent, played a key role in integrating technology into the classroom. Parsad (2005) noted that there were three levels of leadership that affected technology integration: 1) superintendents, 2) campus leaders/principals, and 3) technology leadership. Bass (2003) found that “a clearly defined and articulated technology message, coming from (school administrators), understood by their administrative team, and used to build broad community and school board support, is necessary to secure funding, goodwill, and buy-in” (p. 330). Shuldman also noted that direct involvement from the district leaders' levels was essential and that teachers needed more knowledge and skills to successfully implement technology integration (Vinson, 2003). Administrators generally expect that new teachers entering the classroom for the first time will be fully prepared to integrate technology into the curriculum and their classroom. However, prior research suggests that this may not be the norm. The findings from this study moves this analysis one step further and suggests that those who are somewhat proficient in technology may choose to forego integration in the first years. This could be due to the time and effort being placed on classroom “start up” activities and the minimal level of direct support that administrators offer new teachers for technology integration. Integration of technology into the curriculum by new teachers may be positively affected by teachers' own attitudes about technology. The more positive the teachers' attitudes about technology, the more these teachers are prone to attempt integrate technology into their classroom. The present study found that attitudes about technology were a strong predictor of technology integration by new teachers. In other words, those teachers who were positive, and ...