2.2 Entrepreneurial leadership for technology: an opposable mind

Ncpea publications

Editors

• Janet Tareilo, Stephen F. Austin State University
• Brad Bizzell, Virginia Tech

Associate Editors

• Beverly Irby, Sam Houston State University
• Rosemary Papa, Northern Arizona University
• Thomas Valesky, Florida Gulf Coast University
• Theodore Creighton, Virginia Tech

About the Author

• Theodore Creighton has served as a teacher in the Cleveland Public Schools and the Los Angeles Unified School District, and a principal and superintendent in both Fresno and Kern Counties, CA. Recently (2011) he retired from Virginia Tech as a professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies and presently serves as Director of NCPEA Publications.

Introduction

Before we proceed in this chapter, we must decide if a specific leadership behavior is needed to effectively lead technology in our schools. More importantly, should we suggest that there is something uniquely different about leadership in the broad sense than leadership for such a specialized teaching and learning component as technology?

There is an abundance of empirical evidence that relates the leadership of the principal to a school’s effectiveness (Fullan 2001; Fullan&Stiegelbaure, 1991; Hallinger&Heck, 1996, 1998; Leithwood&Riehl, 2003; Louis, 1994). The most recent and most exhaustive literature review and empirical study related to school technology leadership is the seminal work of Anderson and Dexter (2005), who conclude all the literature on leadership and technology “acknowledges either explicitly or implicitly that school leaders should provide administrative oversight for educational technology” (p. 51). They admit however, that most of the literature tends to be narrow in identifying specifically what the knowledge and skill sets are that define technology leadership. The obvious skills mentioned include (1) principals should learn how to operate technology and use it; (2) principals should ensure that other staff in the building receive learning opportunities; (3) principals should have a vision for the role of educational technology in school; and (4) principals should assess and evaluate the role of academic and administrative uses of technology and make decisions from those data.

The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE, 2002) include the perhaps most recent set of suggestions in the literature about what school principals should do as leaders of technology in schools. The National Educational Technology Standards for Administrators (NETS-A, 2009) are integrated into the ISTE standards and are grouped into five specific areas: