November 1997 — Features
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The Leadership Role in Making the Technology Connection
Imagine this: At the end of a busy school day, you remember that you have a report to present to the board of school trustees tomorrow. The problem is, you have not gathered the information yet and do not have the traditional types of resources available at hand to complete the report. No problem! Using your computer, you call the state department of education computer and download any relevant information for the report. Then you log on to the Internet, where you find additional information. You save this so that you can use it at home later that night to develop your report. At home, you use all of the information you have gathered to develop the presentation for the board tomorrow.
Maybe this is not how you presently develop presentations, but this is a model that we must prepare ourselves, staff, and students to use in order to be successful in the future.
Setting the Stage
Technology presents new opportunities to change how we function, and leaders need to model the use of technology to change and improve the environment in which educators function. As we plan for technology in our school districts, we must keep two issues in mind:
- Technology has the potential to change how we work, teach, and learn in our school districts; and
- This potential will only be realized if leaders assume the lead role in realizing this potential.
In April 1995, the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) released an extensive survey to the U.S. Senate that addressed the issue of how technology should change and improve education. The report, Teachers and Technology: Making the Connection, had a central theme: "we will never effectively realize the potential of technology to change education unless we address the issue of involving our staff in the use of technology".[1] If we are going to effectively address this concern, then we must reconsider our leadership role in promoting and defining the use of technology by our staff.
Research consistently finds that leadership is a key to successful implementation of technology. For example, Mergendoller (1994) states: "The role of the principal is crucial in promoting school technology use. Similarly, for technology to become diffused across a district, leadership by the central administration, especially the superintendent, is critical. These findings are supported by the organizational change research, which has consistently found that change efforts do not succeed without active administrative leadership, particularly by principals. Research has shown that leaders perform four important tasks: (a) obtaining resources, (b) buffering the project from outside interference, (c) encouraging staff, and (d) adapting standard operating procedures to the project."[2]
