I am in the middle of cleaning out old files. I discovered a assignment for my doctoral studies in which I commented on my observations of school principals and their collective ignorance of technology. I am unsure of it is still true. I hope my observations are les true than they were, but I expect they are not. Technology represents a very significant aspects of school. The infrastructure is expensive, it affects teaching and learning (both improving it and detracting from it), it affects communication; it even keeps the doors locked.
In the years since my doctoral studies, I continued to observe school administrators whose approaches to technology are accurately characterized by my writing. I have also been involved with community colleges since completing my dissertation, and the administrators there seem to align with my observations.
As one who believes principals to the stakeholders that most influence the direction (both theoretical and practical) of a school, I am troubled by my perception of their collective achievement of their technology standards. There is no group of stakeholders in which the digital divide is more pronounced than this group. A precious few are technology leaders in their schools, most are incompetent when making technology decisions, a few are in the middle.
Most principals will pay technology lip service, but can neither articulate a vision for technology in the school nor identify technology-rich practices that facilitate meaningful learning. Principals know technology is essential for the image of their school and they believe the rhetoric that technology can transform teaching and learning, but would be absolutely lost if required to teach a lesson using technology. This is despite my observation that many principals do use technology effectively for their professional communication and learning.
I have yet to find any principal who truly understands the support, management and operation of the highly complex networks and systems installed in their buildings. Although I would hope principals would be experts from fields other than technology, they still have a largely unmet responsibility to understand the demands their technology systems make on the human, physical plant and monetary resources available in a school.
On more than one instance, I have observed principals act in a manner that is contrary to the performance described in the standards. I attribute this to a professional ignorance of technology as a professional tool; most principals with whom I have had direct contact are older than me (within weeks of turning 40) and began careers in fields such as special education, language, or social studies teachers, who (traditionally) which adopted technology later than science and math teachers.
Administrators who recognize their own shortcomings as technology leaders tend to take one of two approaches to dealing with technology: 1) Hire or find those who can inform decisions and either empower those people to make decisions or take their advice seriously, or 2) make uniformed decisions or make decisions without truly understanding the choices. I have worked with and for administrators who take each approach; those who take the first are far more successful in promoting effective technology use in a school.