european journal of social sciences issn: 1450-2267 - EuroJournals

European Journal of Social Sciences – Volume 5, Number 3 (2007)
Similarly, Schepers and Wetzels (2005) found that there is a positive relationship between
transformational leadership and technology usage. They added that if a leader encourages creativity
and open-mindedness, employees will be more used to experimenting with new technologies and
procedures. Thus, they learn more quickly. Therefore, a leader should facilitate conditions and events
that create a positive environment for technology adoption such as training and education and
organizational technical support (Frambach and Schillewaert, 2002; Schillewaert et al., 2005).
In this way, transformational leaders can plan for integrating technology into the instructional
program in several different ways. First, they must create a vision statement that describes how
teachers and the staff will use technology for data-driven decision making, increased productivity, and
planning. More broadly, principals are a key source of influence on school’s culture. They should
concentrate on building a school culture in which teachers use technology in teaching and learning
(Felton, 2006). Moreover, they should involve all stakeholders to give them an opportunity to have
input into the goals of the plan. On the other hand, data must be gathered to understand where the
school is in order to plan for the future (Barnett, 2001). Hence, principals must be prepared to embrace
technology and integrate technology into the school. Furthermore, they should be committed to
professional development by providing appropriate training for effective use of technology. In addition
to budget issues, human resources and material resources must be provided by principals (Han, 2002).
Finally, leaders should plan for ongoing monitoring and assessment with benchmarks and timelines
and also they must plan for future technology to allow for new and promising practices and
technologies (Barnett, 2001). Therefore, administrators should not only be competent users of
information and technology tools, but also they must understand how to align technology with the
school’s overall educational vision
6. Conclusion
Technology will continue be an integral part of our schools for the foreseeable future. If school leaders
are to maximize its effectiveness, they must be active learners in this fast changing arena. Leadership is
critical and can significantly determine the extent to which technology becomes integrated in schools.
Integration is facilitated in situations where the leadership body places great emphasis on technology
use. Schiller (2003) stated that the role of the leader is crucial to the successful implementation of ICT.
Hence, leaders should never stop learning and honing their skills. In addition, they must be familiar
with current research and best practices. They must maintain a personal plan for self-improvement and
continuous learning (Bennis, 1990). Then, if principals use technology and understand the benefits of
technology utilization, they can successfully model their use for their staff. In this way, teachers will be
encouraged to model the use of computers for their students. Therefore, school leaders must develop
their style of leadership and learn new technologies to serve precise management task.
According to Schepers and Wetzels (2005), transformational leadership style can influence on
the effective use of ICT. Moreover, Kelloway and Barling (2000) stated that transformational
leadership can be successfully taught. In this way, they used an experimental design to assess the
effectiveness of leadership training. Their result showed that both training and counseling are effective
means of behavioral change. If leaders find that their behavior or leadership style do not fit in their
workplace, they should change their leadership style (Kelloway & Barling, 2000).
In this way, technology and leadership have reciprocal effects, that is; a change in one
necessitates a change in the other (Crawford, 2005). Hence, technology leaders must seek to
understand all of the components in the educational system that are needed to lead technology
integration as an instructional strategy and ultimately to help make technology a transparent tool in the
teaching and learning process. Therefore, technology leaders should be knowledgeable and competent.
Competence in using computers requires a positive attitude, practice time, and staff
development in computer use (Starr, 2001). Besides, a plan for training should focus on the needs of
principals. Hence, consistent and continuous training can raise the proficiency of principals. Moreover,
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