School Technology Leadership: An Empirical

Investigation of Prevalence & Effect (Anderson &

Dexter, 2005)Stephanie Chislett & Mary Ellen Gibbons

BiosRonald E. Anderson

Professor Emeritus

University of Minnesota

Sara Dexter

Assistant Professor, Technology Leadership

University of Virginia

-Professor of sociology at the University of Minnesota since 1968. -His legacy includes: seven books, over 100 articles, 150 presentations at professional meetings, 15 large research grants, over 50 smaller research projects, and at least 40 consulting positions (many of which were evaluations of technology interventions in education).

- Associate professor of education with expertise in technology leadership.-Primary research interests lie in exploring the relationship between educational leadership, technology leadership, and resource management.-She has an extensive background in the development of case-based learning environments for both aspiring teachers and school administrators.

Additional Research Articles

2009 – The Roles and Practices of Specialists in Teamed Institutional Leadership

Project Leader – Educational Technology Integration and Implementation Principles

etips – Educational Theory into Practice Software

“Leadership, especially from the principal, is generally acknowledged as an important influence on a school’s

effectiveness.”

“The article mentions that more than $6 billion US dollars was spent in 2002-2003 on educational technology in schools. This heavy investment in technology suggests that school leaders feel that it shows some promise for contributing to schools’

effectiveness and improvement efforts.”

“Minds on” Activity:

As an educator where is your school at when it comes to technology in the classroom?

Watch the link below and decide what “era” your school is in when it comes to the implementation of technology in the classroom.

While viewing the clip THINK about how leadership, especially from the principal, reflects the “era” your school is teaching in.

http://youtu.be/UFwWWsz_X9s

ISTE’s NETS for Administrators (NETS-A) are the standards for evaluating the skills and knowledge school administrators and leaders need to support digital age learning, implement technology and transform the education landscape.

Breaking NETS-A down…

1. Visionary Leadership: Educational Administrators inspire and lead development and implementation of a shared vision for integration of technology to promote excellence and support transformation throughout the organization

2. Digital Age Learning Culture: Educational Administrators create, promote and sustain a dynamic, digital-age learning culture that provides a rigorous, relevant, and engaging education for students

3. Excellence in Professional Practice: Educational Administrators promote an environment of professional learning and innovation that empowers educators to enhance student learning through the infusion of contemporary technologies

Breaking NETS-A down…

4. Systemic Improvement: Educational Administrators provide digital age leadership and management to continuously improve the organization through the effective use of information and technology/resources

5. Digital Citizenship: Educational Administrators model and facilitate understanding of social, ethical and legal issues and responsibilities related to an evolving digital culture

Based on NETS-A what standards do your technology leaders/ principals/ school administrators meet? Do their standards

reflect the “era” you are currently teaching/working in?

Study Findings

Analysis of Findings

Study confirmed that technology leadership plays a “central, pivotal role in technology related outcomes”

Diversity in technology leadership and organizational support systems

“Perhaps the most important finding from our analysis is that technology leadership has greater leverage on desired outcomes than does technology infrastructure and expenditures. Refinement of the conceptual dimensions of technology leadership would help to address the challenge of optimally defining how technology leadership and resources interact. ”

Implications

Implications for Theory, Practice and Research Distributed leadership theory needs to be applied to

technology leadership

Technology leaders must be actively involved with technology – crafting policies, using e-mail etc.

The preliminary findings of this study suggest that it would be important to follow trends in the "digital technology leadership divide." Often those using the rhetoric of the digital divide claim or imply that the problem can be solved by funding infrastructure, but evidence is building that even more important than such resources are support services and other processes generally associated with technology leadership.

Thoughts and ideas!

References

Anderson, R.E. & Dexter, S. (2005). School Technology Leadership: An Empirical Investigation of Prevalence and Effect. Educational Administration Quarterly, 41 (1) 49 - 82.

Dexter, S., Louis, K.S., Anderson, R.E. (2009). The Roles and Practices of Specialist in Teamed Institutional Leadership. Journal of School Leadership, 19 (4) 445 – 465.

Center for Technology and Teacher Education, http://www.teacherlink.org/about/bios/sdexter.html

International Society for Technology in Education, http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-administrators.aspx

Ronald Anderson website, http://www.soc.umn.edu/~rea/

Sara Dexter website, http://sdexter.net

http://youtu.be/UFwWWsz_X9s