School leaders, ICT competence and championing innovations

The implementation of new technology is becoming more important to schools and the success of such implementations is often due to the presence of ICT champions. This article examines ICT champions to determine whether the intention to champion ICT is determined by the ICT competence of school leaders. This article, based on responses from 64 school leaders in New Zealand, reports that professional development and ICT usage are antecedents of ICT competency and that school leaders are ICT competent and willing ICT champions. These findings are contrary to existing research which has found that school leaders have poor ICT competency.

[1]  M. Jacobsen,et al.  Technology leadership for the twenty‐first century principal , 2003 .

[2]  C. Dawson,et al.  The Influence of Principals’ Technology Training on the Integration Of Technology into Schools , 2003 .

[3]  Detmar W. Straub,et al.  Reconceptualizing System Usage: An Approach and Empirical Test , 2006, Inf. Syst. Res..

[4]  Chris Higgins,et al.  Charismatic leadership and user acceptance of information technology , 2007, Eur. J. Inf. Syst..

[5]  David Crouse.  The Principal Rules for School Technology , 1997 .

[6]  Izak Benbasat,et al.  Information Technology Competence of Business Managers: A Definition and Research Model , 2001, J. Manag. Inf. Syst..

[7]  Penni Tearle,et al.  ICT implementation: what makes the difference? , 2003, Br. J. Educ. Technol..

[8]  I. Ajzen.  The theory of planned behavior , 1991 .

[9]  John Schiller.  Working with ICT , 2003 .

[10]  Moshe Telem.  Computerization of school administration: impact on the principal's role - a case study , 2001, Comput. Educ..

[11]  M. Conner,et al.  Efficacy of the Theory of Planned Behaviour: a meta-analytic review. , 2001, The British journal of social psychology.

[12]  Jane M. Howell,et al.  Champions of technological innovation: The influence of contextual knowledge, role orientation, idea generation, and idea promotion on champion emergence , 2004 .

[13]  Donn Ritchie,et al.  What factors facilitate teacher skill, teacher morale, and perceived student learning in technology-using classrooms? , 2002, Comput. Educ..

[14]  J. Slowinski.  Becoming a Technologically Savvy Administrator , 2000 .

[15]  Paul Jen-Hwa Hu,et al.  Examining technology acceptance by school teachers: a longitudinal study , 2003, Inf. Manag..

[16]  Sharon K. Parker,et al.  SEEING ANOTHER VIEWPOINT: ANTECEDENTS AND OUTCOMES OF EMPLOYEE PERSPECTIVE TAKING , 2001 .

[17]  E. Rogers,et al.  Diffusion of Innovations , 1964 .

[18]  Icek Ajzen,et al.  Explaining the Discrepancy between Intentions and Actions: The Case of Hypothetical Bias in Contingent Valuation , 2004, Personality & social psychology bulletin.

[19]  Youngkyun Baek,et al.  What makes teachers use technology in the classroom? Exploring the factors affecting facilitation of technology with a Korean sample , 2008, Comput. Educ..

[20]  Jane M. Howell.  The right stuff: Identifying and developing effective champions of innovation , 2005 .

[21]  J. Robertson.  Stepping Out of the Box: Rethinking the Failure of ICT to Transform Schools , 2003 .

[22]  Izak Benbasat,et al.  The Influence of Business Managers' IT Competence on Championing IT , 2003, Inf. Syst. Res..

[23]  Venkatesh,et al.  A Longitudinal Field Investigation of Gender Differences in Individual Technology Adoption Decision-Making Processes. , 2000, Organizational behavior and human decision processes.

[24]  Jane M. Howell,et al.  Champions of Technological Innovation. , 1990 .

[25]  Thomas A. Brush,et al.  Integrating technology into K-12 teaching and learning: current knowledge gaps and recommendations for future research , 2007 .

[26]  A. Bandura.  Self-efficacy: toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. , 1977, Psychological review.

[27]  Fred D. Davis,et al.  Developing and Validating an Observational Learning Model of Computer Software Training and Skill Acquisition , 2003, Inf. Syst. Res..

[28]  Michael J. Gallivan,et al.  Does Information Technology Training Really Matter? A Social Information Processing Analysis of Coworkers' Influence on IT Usage in the Workplace , 2005, J. Manag. Inf. Syst..

[29]  James Y. L. Thong,et al.  An Integrated Model of Information Systems Adoption in Small Businesses , 1999, J. Manag. Inf. Syst..

[30]  Matthew M. Maurer,et al.  Leadership in instructional technology , 1997 .

[31]  Malcolm Munro,et al.  Understanding and measuring user competence , 1997, Inf. Manag..

[32]  I. Ajzen,et al.  Belief, Attitude, Intention, and Behavior: An Introduction to Theory and Research , 1977 .

[33]  Elena Karahanna,et al.  Time Flies When You're Having Fun: Cognitive Absorption and Beliefs About Information Technology Usage , 2000, MIS Q..

[34]  M. Conner,et al.  The Theory of Planned Behaviour , 2004 .

[35]  Jane M. Howell,et al.  Champions of change: Identifying, understanding, and supporting champions of technological innovations , 1990 .

[36]  Marilyn L. Grady,et al.  A Bumpy Road: Principal as Technology Leader. , 2007 .

[37]  Sara Dexter,et al.  School Technology Leadership: An Empirical Investigation of Prevalence and Effect , 2005 .

[38]  George A. Marcoulides,et al.  Modern methods for business research , 1998 .

[39]  Claudia Flowers,et al.  Development and Validation of Scores on the Basic Technology Competencies for Educators Inventory , 2000 .

[40]  Paul A. Roberts.  What Administrators Need To Know about Technology. , 1997 .

[41]  Graeme G. Shanks,et al.  A model of ERP project implementation , 2000, J. Inf. Technol..

[42]  Van E. Cooley,et al.  For the Record: Lessons Learned in Creating a Program , 1997 .

[43]  C. Fornell,et al.  Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. , 1981 .