Administrators and technology

"Basic Technology Competencies of Educational Administrators" By: Carrigan, Jane et al.
Contemporary Education Vol 42 (2) 2001 pg 58-63
The amount of technology available to a school or a district is largely dependant on the decisions of the administrators. One would expect administrators to be up to date on the new technology and have a proficient knowledge of how to use it. This article, and my experience my present school district has proven that this is not true.
This article has some disturbing facts. While administrators tend to be the final decision of what technology teachers and students can have access to, this article makes me think that they are going into these decisions blindly. The research concluded that the Principal's tested showed the lowest competency in "basic computer operation, word processing, database, and spreadsheet skills" (60). I have seen personally how administrators who are not proficient in the technology their teachers and students are using can negatively effect both the value of the education the students are getting and the moral of the teachers. For instance, a colleague of mine discovered a student plagiarizing on an assignment they had to post on the class website. She found this by looking through the page history, a simple concept. When this was brought to the attention of the administrators, they did nothing about it. This teacher believes nothing was done because they do not understand the technology behind how she found how the student was plagiarizing. This is an example of why it is just as important for administrators to be familiar and proficient in the technology used in their districts.
This article stated that perhaps the administration is not meeting the proficient level because their are many higher-priority tasks that administrators must do. This could be the slurry of meetings professionals at this level are required to attend. Knowing this, I feel districts need to alleviate this workload so their administrators be familiar with the technology they themselves are encouraging or enforcing in their school. I think something has to give in order for teachers to be able to incorporate technology their classrooms. If an educator knows the administration will not enforce plagiarism rules, and the students know there is not consequence to plagiarising when they are required to electronically submit an assignment, no teacher will give meaningful assignments in this media.

Interview questions

1. How does your school incorporate MLTI?

2. How would you like to see MLTI executed?

3. What is your major issue with MLTI

4. Describe how confident you are in using wiki's, smart board, word processor, etc...

5. Do you feel you have time in your schedule to attend professional development seminars focused on technology? Do you feel this would be useful?

6. If you could lessen the burden of responsibilities administrators had so you would have more time for professional development, how would you do this?

7. What are some frustrations you have as technology is being incorporated more and more into the classroom?

8. As an administrator, you are responsible for making a lot of decisions in the area of technology, what most influences these decisions?

9. Do you receive any opposition for implementing technology in the classroom. If so, where does it mainly come from?

10. Do you ever feel like some decisions in this area that you are encouraged to enforce are not thought through or have gaps that make it harder on the district?