Making an Impact - Overcoming the challenges to effective technology leadership

Dr. Scott McLeod led a lively presentation at breakfast hosted by Learning.com at NECC in June 2009. He asked the question, "Why aren't you (the technology coordinator) having a bigger impact?"

"I really believe district-level technology coordinators are probably putting in more hours and have maybe a broader range of responsibilities than anybody else in this room. The people (tech coordinators) that I meet are very dedicated and hard working. They’re really trying their very best in doing a great job for their school in making everything run so smoothly,"

"Why do I hear so many complaints about you?"

Thought-provoking questions and presenting the leadership framework
In the first half of his presentation, Dr. McLeod talks about the Bolman & Deal Leadership Framework that structures school leadership into 4 frames: Structural, Human Resource, Political, Symbolic.

In this presentation you’ll hear his discussion with the audience around these questions:

• How is the technology function structured within your organization? How do you staff it? How do you support it? What are the structural elements that you put into place to make technology happen, in terms of programs and people? What kind of structure do you put into place as a Technology Coordinator to make things happen?
• How well do you do on the human resource side of technology, in terms of you and your staff (the tech support and tech integration function) and also in supporting and empowering non-technology staff (teachers and administrators) to do the technology function?
• How well does this fear of technology operate within the political dynamics of the school system? Is it successful? Are there power struggles? Do you have troubles getting resources that you need? What are some political issues that surround technology function within your organization?
• What are the messages sent to your school about the technology function? What beliefs do people hold in their heads and their hearts about technology in your school organization? How well is the symbolic function around technology fulfilled in terms of getting buy-in, getting passion, getting people to think that work is meaningful and essential as opposed to marginal and optional?

Eye-opening survey results
In the second half of his presentation, Dr. McLeod shares the survey results of 360 district-level tech coordinators and relates those result to the four leadership frames:

• 30 percent of survey responders are the sole provider of tech support at their school district. They maintain the networks, provide desktop and software support, train staff, do budgeting and planning. In rural areas, it jumps to 57 percent. "This raises a structural issue of can one person do this job," McLeod adds.
• 30 percent of Tech Coordinators have an IT background. The vast majority of Tech Coordinators are educators who come up through the system to take on that role as opposed to being hired from outside with an IT background.
• 20 percent believe that their background and training are NOT appropriate for job responsibilities. The number jumps to 33 percent of those responding from rural areas.
• 44 percent considered themselves a district-level employee but on a non-administrative contract. "There's some serious symbolic issue around that. You want me to be a district-level employee but you're still paying me a teacher contract. I'm still considered a teacher not a central office person," McLeod says.
• Rural salaries for Tech Coordinators are significantly lower on average than urban or suburban salaries. The staff people are often the only person doing the job and may have more job responsibilities.
• Half of those surveyed were in their jobs four years or less. "There's a fairly high amount of mobility and turnover within these positions. When I talk to Superintendents, one of the toughest things they say is how do you hold on to a good tech coordinator," McLeod says.

"We need to think of technology as a function of the entire system not as something that resides in you individually. And the leadership for technology is to be distributed across the organization so we can approach it from a systemic standpoint if we're going to be successful."

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