Technological Leadership Behavior of Elementary School Principals in the Process of Supply and Use of Educational Technologies.

Abstract

Introduction The school systems in the world are increasingly under pressure regarding the use of technology in the teaching-learning and management processes (Gurr, 2001). The expectations of students and of parents are increasing day by day. Educational institutions admit students who are acquainted with satellite receivers and use mobile phones, CD-DVD players and computer in their daily lives (Aksoy, 2003). The teaching-learning and management process is transferred into a network environment via online systems such as e-school. In this way, teachers, students and parents can now reach information sources easily. Thus, the importance of educational technologies is increasing with each passing day. There is no clear definition of school principals' duties regarding their technological leadership in schools, yet it is apparent that school principals are responsible for technological applications in schools. Therefore, the International Society for Technology in Education-ISTE published the standards that define the school principals' roles in educational technology use in schools (ISTE, 2002). In addition, ISTE also published national educational technology standards for other sharers in the educational process such as students and teachers. These standards were updated for students in 2007, for teachers in 2008 and for administrators in 2009 (ISTE, 2009). The National Education Technology Standards called NETS standardize the qualifications and proficiencies that teachers, students and school principals should have regarding educational technology use. NETS, with its dimensions for teachers (NETS-T), for students (NETS-S) and for administrators (NETS-A), could be taken as basis for the determining the standards regarding the supply and use of educational technologies in Turkey. According to the NETS-A standards, the goal is to train school principals who have understood the school model in information society to start, to implement and to manage the changes in schools; who can meet the complex needs of schools via technological sources; who can find ways to increase the productivity in the new structure of the school; and who can take decisions regarding the future of the institution. Within the scope of these standards, the skills and knowledge that all school principals--including preschool and highschool principals--should have to become effective leaders in technological applications are defined via 31 performance indicators and six standard areas (ISTE, 2002). In the study conducted by Yu and Durrington (2006) on candidate school principals and experienced school principals, it was found out that school principals demonstrated an average level of techno logical leadership behavior according to the scope of NETS-A standards; that the candidate school principals received the highest score in the area of teaching-learning; and that the experienced school principals received the highest score in the area of social, legal and ethical issues. Similarly, Afshari, Bakar, Luan, Samah, and Fool (2008) found in their study that school principals who used educational technologies for instructional and administrative purposes had an average level of proficiency in applications of educational technologies. According to the result of another study conducted by Persaud (2006), school principals were found to be inefficient in educational technologies and to be in need of personal development in all the dimensions of NETS-A standards. NETS standards, which are directly approved or adapted by a number of countries, have been transformed into national educational technology standards. These standards could also constitute the basis of educational technology use in Turkey. School principals have a key role in Turkey in terms of the investments made by Ministry of National Education (MNE) on the supply of educational technologies for schools and in terms of the activities organized for effective use of these investments. …