Semester

Spring

Date of Graduation

2001

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Type

EdD

College

College of Education and Human Services

Department

Curriculum & Instruction/Literacy Studies

Committee Chair

Paul Leary.

Abstract

By gaining a better understanding of the general computer usage of building-level administrators, effective training programs can be designed to enhance the leadership roles of the school principal. Administrators, supervisors, directors, and program coordinators at the West Virginia Department of Education will be able to use the information found through this study to assist administrators in becoming more effective leaders within their respective schools. More effective leaders will lead to more effective schools. Further, the technologically literate principal will be better equipped to take on a more active role in the technological advancements at his/her respective school.;The purpose of this study was to determine the frequency with which building-level administrators, principals, in West Virginia use office productivity software to complete their management tasks of organizing information, communicating, making presentations, and preparing budgets. Further, this study examined the relationships between specific computer usage by building-level administrators and the independent variables in the category of general computer usage, the category of computer training received, perceptions and attitudes of computer usage, and the three different individual leadership outcomes of extra effort, effectiveness, and satisfaction. Demographic data were examined to determine predictors for computer usage by building-level administrators, principals.;Surveys were sent to all principals in West Virginia public schools. Five hundred three surveys were returned which gave a response rate above 60 percent. Spearman's Rho and the Mann-Whitney U tests were utilized to determine relationships between variables. A stepwise forward multiple linear regression analysis was conducted on the demographic data to determine demographic predictors of computer usage.;The results of this study indicated that building-level administrators were using word processing software and e-mail software for the management function of communicating fairly often. Database and spreadsheet usage for the management functions of organizing information and preparing budgets were used less frequently. Further, this study showed a statistically significant relationship between the frequency of presentation and desktop publishing software and the leadership outcomes of extra effort, effectiveness, and satisfaction.

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