JOURNAL ARTICLE REVIEW

North American University

Education Department
M.Ed. in Educational Leadership / M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction
EDUC 5324 Integrating Technology into Education
Name:___Vildan Kucukbasol________

Date: ________10/18/15_____

Cite the reviewed article in APA format:

Dogan, B., & Almus, K. (2014). School Administrators Use of iPads: Impact of Training
and Attitudes Toward School Use.Computers in the Schools, 31(3), 233250.
INTRODUCTION
Research Questions (if research questions are not specifically mentioned, what is
the theoretical background or overarching theme):
1. What is the impact of the training process on school administrators use
of iPads for administrative tasks and personal organization in their professional
duties?
2. What is the impact of the training process on school administrators beliefs
regarding how teachers should use iPads in the classroom?
3. Are there any differences in school administrators survey responses based
on gender, age, years of experience in school administration and education,
highest degree attained, school classification, or school size?

Purpose of the research:

To examine the impact of receiving specific iPad training on school administrators
attitudes toward iPad use.
METHODOLOGY
What is the methodology for the research or approach used to understand the
issue? Provide information regarding the following:

Participants:
Elementary and secondary school administrators (i.e., principals and assistant
principals) working in one of the largest public charter school systems
in a southwestern state.
Procedures:

Participants in this study were contacted by email through the school

systems central office, after securing approvals from the school district and
the university. The initial communication included information on the purpose,
structure, and schedule of the research study along with information on
training and resources to be provided throughout the spring semester of the
20122013 school year. Participants were asked to complete consent forms
prior to the study as required by the school district and the universitys
Institutional Review Board (IRB). Fifty-one participants who owned iPads
volunteered to complete the pre-survey out of approximately 120 school
administrators in the school system.
Data Collection Methods/Data Source:

Two survey instruments as a mechanism to collect data, which were

administered online through the survey submission system hosted at the
universitys server, were developed by the researchers.
The pre-survey was administered at the beginning of the spring 2013
semester and the post survey was given at the end of the four-month
study period. Both instruments were reviewed for face validity by two
education faculty members and then were piloted using a group of school
administrators in a local school district.
Surveys were finalized after the feedback on the pilot versions.
Demographic information collected on the pre-survey included age, years
of experience as a school administrator, years of experience in education,
highest degree earned, school classification, and school size.
The pre-survey also included questions measuring if and how school
administrators were currently using their iPads for their daily schoolrelated tasks, their beliefs about the effectiveness of iPads for
administrative tasks, and if and how school teachers should be using
iPads in the classroom.
Designed as a closure to the study, the post-survey instrument included
questions intended to measure self-reported improvements in certain
tasks after completing the training, as well as items regarding the
evaluation of training session and resources provided to school
administrators during the study. In addition, some of the questions of the
pre-survey were repeated in the post-survey to assess the change in
responses during the study.
Survey instruments included multiple choice and Likert-type scale items.
The survey responses were reported as frequencies. In addition, paired
sample t-test data analysis was conducted to understand the differences
in the responses between the pre- and post-surveys.
Training was designed based on feedback from participants and delivered
through an interactive webinar session. The training of school
administrators included topics intended to develop iPad skills and use
certain workflow, note-taking, calendar, productivity, file-sharing, remote-

desktop, presentation, and screen-sharing applications covered

specifically from a principals perspective.
Additional resources reinforcing the topics covered in the initial training
session were provided later to school administrators in the form of video
and written tutorials for their convenience.

Data Analysis:

A one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) test was conducted to see

whether there were any differences in school administrators responses by
gender, age, years of experience in school administration and education,
highest degree attained, school classification, and school size.
Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software was used to
conduct the data analysis.
RESULTS

Findings or Results (or main points of the article):

DISCUSSIONS
Conclusions/Implications (for your profession):

According to results, school administrators believed that iPads were effective

tools for administrative tasks and personal organization. Overall results of this
study suggest that in order for school administrators to be successful in using
iPads for professional duties, especially for administrative tasks and personal
organization, sufficient and ongoing training is recommended. As school
administrators are seen as both the instructional and technological leaders of
their schools, receiving appropriate training would not only allow them to be
efficient in performing work-related tasks but also positively affect the successful
implementation of iPads by teachers and students.
REFLECTIONS
Students Reflections (changes to your understanding; implications for your
school/work):
Technology is a rapidly changing area and schools with their faculty and students need
to adapt to this change. Every day there are new applications and programs to use that
make teaching easier for an educator. But many people are either not aware of the
technology available or because of a lack of sufficient training in this field, do not know
how to use technological tools efficiently. As we see in this research, iPads, after some
amount of training, are used more actively as an educational tool by the school
administrators. With the use of this technology, the administrators can carry out more
tasks within a shorter amount of time than before.
As the leaders in the school environment, the administrators attitude towards the
technology -in this case the iPads- can affect the vision of the whole school. If the
administrators are willing to integrate the iPads into teaching, they will get to work on
themselves and develop their knowledge on how to use these tools. Then, they can
provide guidance and find trainings for the staff and encourage them to use more of
these devices. An important amount of the budget can be spared for the technology
funding and the students can use different applications for their different needs.
In short, I believe it all starts with the administrators. The more they believe that
technology use is essential for education, the more ways they will find to implement any
technological improvement in their schools.