JOURNAL ARTICLE REVIEW TEMPLATE

North American University

Education Department
M.Ed. in Educational Leadership
EDUC 5324
Name: NAZIFE AKTAS

Date:10/16/2015

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.
doi:10.1080/07380569.2014.932660
INTRODUCTION
Research Questions (if research questions are not specifically mentioned, what is
the theoretical background or overarching theme):
A. What is the impact of the training process on school administrators use of iPads for
administrative tasks and personal organization in their professional duties?
B. What is the impact of the training process on school administrators beliefs regarding
how teachers should use iPads in the classroom?
C. 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:

The purpose of study was how school administrators use iPads for their professional
duties and the potential effects on their work related tasks and personal organization. In
order to determine potential impacts in this area, a research study involving a training
process, which included workshops, online resources and ongoing support was
designed.

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 working in one of the largest

public charter school systems in a southwestern state were the target population
for the study.
Fifty-one participants who owned iPads volunteered to complete the pre-survey
out of approximately 120 school administrators in the school system.
While 58.8% (n = 30) of the pre-surveyparticipants were male, 41.2% (n = 21) of
the participants were female.
37 of pre-survey respondents completed the post-survey, yieldinga response rate

of 72.55%.
Twenty-one (56.76%) respondents in post-surveywere male, and 16 (43.24%)
were female.

Procedures:
A-Participants in this study were contacted by email through the school systems central
office, after securing approvals from the school district and the university.
B-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 years.
C-Participants were asked to complete consent forms prior to the study as required by
the school district and the universitys Institutional Review Board.(IRB)
D-Training was designed based on feedback from participants and delivered through an
interactive webinar session.
E-The training of school administrators included topics intended to develop iPad skills
and use certain workflow, note-taking, calendar, productivity, file-sharing, remotedesktop, presentation, and screen-sharing applications covered specifically from a
principals perspective
F-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
G-Technical support regarding the training topics and study was available to participants
on an ongoing basis. Researchers provided technical support to school administrators
via e-mail and telephone.
Data Collection Methods/Data Source:
Study components included a pre-survey, a training session on the effective use of
iPads for administrative tasks and personal organization, specially designed resources
expanding the topics covered in the training session, on-going support, and a postsurvey.

Data Analysis:
Surveys were multiple choice and Likert-type scale items. t-test data analysis was used
to understand the differences in the responses between the pre- and post-surveys. A
one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) test was used to see 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):
1- Demographic and Contextual Data: The majority of participants schools were
classified as elementary, middle, and high school (K12) (62.75%), followed by
elementary and middle school (K8) (19.61%), middle and high school (612)
(9.80%), and elementary (K5) (7.84%). Participants were also asked in the pre-survey
about the highest level of education that they had attained. According to the results,
50.98% of school administrators held a bachelors degree and 49.02% held a masters
degree.
2- Impact of Training: Use of iPads for Administrative Tasks and Organization in
Professional Duties: Analysis of the question, What is the best feature of iPad in your
experience?, revealed that being mobile was the most selected response with
21.43%, followed by touchscreen (20.88%), being able to use various applications
(15.93%), compact and light (13.74%), digital camera feature (10.44%), connectivity
(9.89%), and camcorder feature (7.69%).
3- Impact of Training on School Administrators Beliefs Regarding How Teachers
Should Use iPads in the Classroom: using iPad for class communication (e-mail,
messaging, contacting parents, etc.) (11.59% vs. 13.22%); making specific applications
(created by the teacher) that might help students (10.30% vs. 12.07%); using specific
applications (created by others) that might help students (15.88% vs. 16.67%); and
projecting/streaming lessons/presentation to the iPad (17.60% vs. 18.39%)
4- Differences in Participants Responses by Their Demographic and Contextual
Data: e K12 school level (M = 1.59, SD = 0.50) was signifi- cantly different from the K
5 level (M = 2.25, SD = 0.50) and the K8 level (M = 2.00, SD = 0.50) at the p < .05
significance level
5- Evaluation of Training Process: Participants were asked in the post-survey which
iPad applications they found most useful among those highlighted in the training session
and post training resources. Google Drive storage and sharing files was the most
selected response (22.30%) to this question Other popular responses included syncing
Google Calendar to your iPad (16.55%), Dropbox for storage and sharing files
(13.67%), and Go Tasks with Google Tasks (10.07%).

DISCUSSIONS
Conclusions/Implications (for your profession):
In this study specifically examined were how school administrators used iPad and iPad
applications in their professional duties before and after training, their beliefs on how
teachers should use iPads in the classroom, differences in participants responses by
demographic and contextual data, and evaluation of the training process.

Regardless of age, years of experience in school administration and in education,

highest degree earned school size, or gender, school administrators responded similarly
to items in this study. Almost all school administrators prior to or after this study
reported that they would like to see their teachers using iPads for classroom teaching.
Specifically, administrators wanted to see their teachers project and stream lessons or
presentations from their iPads, use specific iPad applications that may help students,
and use their iPads for class communication. In conclusion, overall results of this study
suggest that in order for school administrators to be successful in using IPad for
professional duties, administrative tasks, and personal organization, ongoing training is
recommended.

REFLECTIONS
Students Reflections (changes to your understanding; implications for your
school/work):
School administrators play a vital role in the implementation of new technologies, and
they are widely regarded as the instructional leaders of their schools.(Dawson & Rakes,
2003; Lashway, 2002; McLeod, 2008).School administrators participated in this study
understand that iPads are effective tools for administrative tasks and personal business.
Also, administrators were even more in agreement with this idea after concluding the
training process.This research places a base for future studies to explore how providing
iPad training to school administrators helps them to conduct administrative tasks more
professionally and to be seen as the instructional and technical leaders of their schools.
Educators are often provided with technological tools but are given little instruction on
how these tools can be used meaningfully in the classroom. Even though teachers have
more resources available to them than ever before, they still do not receive sufficient
training on the effective use of technology to enhance learning.
As education leaders, it is important to decide what technological tools can be used in
classrooms, but at the same time professional development should provide teachers
with lessons on how to use them effectivelly. Integrating technology in curriculum
instructions, helps administrators and teachers do their job easily with helping students
staying engaged on their lessons.

References;

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.
doi:10.1080/07380569.2014.932660

Dawson, C., & Rakes, G. C. (2003). The influence of principals technology training on
the integration of technology into schools. Journal of Research on Technology in
Education, 36(1), 2949.