Becoming a Technologically Savvy Administrator, ERIC Digest Number 135,
Publication Date: 2000-01-00
http://www.ed.gov/databases/ERIC_Digests/ed438593.html

By Guadalupe Briseno

Technology is fast becoming our primary mode of communication and without it being taught at the early stages of childhood, we will cheat our future generations of needed education. This is why I feel so strongly about technology being integrated into the classroom as a process that begins at the top with our administration. Without their approval to move forward all the planning we work for and all the legwork is done for nothing. This is why I was drawn to the ERIC Clearinghouse on Educational Management. This article is a "what administrators need to know" document and discussed topics needed by an administration wanting to integrate technology into the classroom.

Slowinski states that his research concludes by finding that over 90 percent of schools have access to the Internet. But as he states, we all know that technology integration into the classroom is happening whether we like it or not, but there is little discussion on the roles that administrators play in this project. Slowinski provides insight into some issues that affect technology integration and what is important to school leaders.

Slowinski begins by stating why and how administrators should promote technology. He goes on to say that the public education system expects computer training and businesses want their prospective workers to be computer literate and communities around the world require a more technology focused venue for their future. Given these demands, he states that administrators should follow these venues and promote technology so that they can provide their customers, higher education and the community, with technology literate workers, and it all starts at the elementary level.

According to Slowinski, some states are now mandating that their graduates pass a final exam in a technology-related field. With other states soon to follow suit, we can see that without starting our students at a young age, we shut another door on them. Administrators must provide their schools with the tools to bridge the future technology needs to the current needs of the community. Though administrators make the decision to move forward with technology, they must also ensure their staff of teachers that they want to ensure that technology is a way of enhancing teaching and not a sense of replacement.

Donovan (1999), states that to move an innovation to full integration, a reform must have many of the following characteristics: (1) be advantageous to current methods, (2) be compatible with needs and expectations, (3) be simple to use, (4) be easily tried without a huge commitment to change, (5) be observable and modeled by staff who embrace technology. Slowinski then ends with the fact that the more of these characteristics present; the more likely teachers will be to embrace the change.

As we move from the mere point of accessing technology, we must also ensure that we develop ways to keep up with constant change. Technology systems are expensive and administrators all know that this money comes from their taxpayers, so to get the money, they must produce visions for the schools so that ownership is put into the hands of the taxpayers. A school's vision, as explained by the National Center for Technology Planning's Website, are as follows:

  1. Vision and objectives to achieve the vision. Which means, that all involved parties should be involved in the shared vision of the school's technology objectives.

  2. Assessment of current school environment: Make sure you know what you currently have so you know where you have to go.

  3. Gap analysis: Knowing what you currently have and where you want to go helps develop your action plan to move forward.

  4. Evaluation: Be able to evaluate your progress and reformulate you action plan.

  5. Strategy for altering objectives in accordance with formative evaluation data: Make up a change strategy that may have a plan to alter your objectives.

In a way, these steps seem simple to follow, but once you begin the actual task of moving to the next level, it can be a long and arduous process filled with many twists and turns.

Slowinski also states that legal concerns are a prime consideration for administrators, especially nowadays with copyright, privacy, liability and security issues concerning technology. Administrators must consider some type of legal training for their staff and themselves.

What ways can school leaders obtain additional funds to support their technology expenditures? The funds can make or break a school and Slowinski states that a grant writer is the way to go, but can school districts afford one? Administrators must weigh the pros and con's of spending for a grant writer's salary.

Lastly, Slowinski relates that the integration of technology can have a positive impact on students' future. Promoting the use of technology in classrooms is a positive development on both the staff and the students. Bottom line, it promotes self-contained, life-long learning in every individual that ventures out into technology. This article contains ideas that are essential to administrators and can help put our schools into the future. Thinking outside the box, its' paradigm, is essential to an administrators future in the schools and the future of his customers, the students.

Article Reference:

Donovan, M. "Rethinking Faculty Support." Technology Source (November/December 1999).
http://horizon.unc.edu/TS/development/1999-09.asp

WEBSITE:

National Center for Technology Planning (http://www.nctp.com)