LEADERSHIP CONCERNS ABOUT THE IMPLEMENTATION OF

THE TEXAS ESSENTIAL KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS (TEKS)

FOR TECHNOLOGY APPLICATIONS

by

GALILEO GRANT WELLS JR BSEd MEd

A DISSERTATION

IN

INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY

Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Tech University in

Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for

the Degree of

DOCTOR OF EDUCATION

Approved

Accepted

December 11999

Copyright 1999 GaHleo Grant Wells Jr

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

As Jerry Garcia put it so well What a long strange trip its been Much of the

content for this dissertation the literature supporting it the software systems which

retrieved much of the literature and the computer and software which published the

final product were all merely gleams in someones eye five years ago when this doctoral

program was begun So much has changed fi^om the time I began this research to the

present

What hasnt changed are the principles of instmctional design and standards for

educational leadership which have guided my personal and professional development

both leamed and applied during this doctoral program This final product incorporating

both areas of study is the result of a massive cadre of folks who have influenced me and

supported me along the way

My committee has been a deep resource for stmcturing this dissertation Dr

Terence Ahem my chair has continually provided both the leadership and the motivation

to get this project finished Dr Judith Ponticell with her Been there done that attitude

has provided me with invaluable research sources and was the initial connection to my

research informants Dr Ponticell Dr Robert Price and Dr Arturo Olivarez have

provided keen editorial eyes to my manuscripts and have been appropriately bmtal in

evaluating my research methodology Dr James Bums has provided an appropriate

balance to the research His conversations querying Do you Education people use

instmctional design in your work were what led me to eventually ask him to

participate on this committee

11

Mr John Bethune Lead Teacher and my colleagues at the Homebound unit of

the Lubbock Independent School District are to be thanked for their encouragement I

leamed so much fi-om them and fi-om the students that I was assigned

A special thanks must go to my informants both at the Educational Service

Center Region J and to those superintendents principals and technology coordinators

who spoke so fi-ankly to this stranger about technology implementation in their districts

After the data analysis I felt like Id known these folks for years

Dr Gene Hall Dean of the College of Education at the University of Nevada at

Las Vegas and whose works play a prominent role in the development of this study

granted his permission to reprint the Change Facilitator Stages of Concem instniment

Thanks also to folks at Comerstone Bible Church in LubbockTexas particularly

Richard Gmbbs and Wayne and Rosita Moore

This document did not publish itself Many thanks are in order for the staffs at the

Texas Tech University Library the Porter Henderson Library at Angelo State University

and the tireless and patient folks at the Tom Green County Library in San Angelo Texas

who had never seen several drafts of a dissertation published before

Our children Michael Mark and Melanie have had to endure two uprootings to

get this project accomplished They are certainly glad that Im finished and can get back

to work My wife Michelle has had to patiently endure the most toward producing this

product Her personal and financial support has made this document a reality

Ill

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT vii

LIST OF TABLES ix

LIST OF FIGURES x

CHAPTER

I STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Introduction 1 Problem Statement and Research Questions 3 Rationale 4 Changes in Constraints 13 Research Participants 16 Study Significance 20 Delimitations 22 Term Definitions 23 Organization of the Study 26

n REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Introduction 27 Technology Consortium Development 27 Collaboration 29 The Change Process 30 Difftision of Innovations 31 Concems Theory 34 The Role of CBAM 36 Applications of CB AM 41 The Change Facilitator SoC 42 The CFSoC Instniment 43 Summary and Reflection 46

III METHODOLOGY

Study Design 48 Grand Tour Question 48 Rationale 49 Context for the Study 52

iv

Informant Selection 56 Data Collection 57 Data Analysis 60 Verification Strategies 63 Study Limitations 66

IV RESULTS OF THE STUDY

Informant and CFSoC Profiles 67 Summary of CFSoC 83 Informant Concems 83 Summary of Interview Data 110

V SUMMARY CONCLUSIONS AND REFLECTIONS

Summary of Research 112 CFSoC Profiles 112 Interview Themes 115 Conclusions and Reflections 118 Recommendations for Further Study 121

REFERENCES 124

APPENDIX

A STAGES OF CONCERN ABOUT THE INNOVATION 133

B CHANGE FACILITATOR STAGES OF CONCERN 135

C CHANGE FACILITATOR STAGES OF CONCERN QUESTIONNAIRE 137

D SEMISTRUCTURED INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR INFORMANTS 141

E INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR DR SARAH McCULLOUGH ESC REGION J 142

F LETTER OF INTRODUCTION TO CONSORTIUM SUPERINTENDENTS 143

G PROJECT CONSENT FORMS 145

H THEMES AND SUB-THEMES FOR DATA ANALYSIS 147

I COMPARISON OF TECHNOLOGY IMPLEMENTATION IN STATE CURRICULA 148

VI

ABSTRACT

Although there has been a progression of technological improvements in the tools

available for educators to improve instmction there will always be the need for leamers

to master fimdamental skills and for educators to facilitate that learning Nevertheless the

implementation of innovative technology programs continues to be a priority of educators

in both urban and mral settings Texas educators are now under new Texas Essential

Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) curricular requirements a comprehensive document with

specific learner outcomes particularly with technology embedded into every grade level

Because of these extemal constraints even small rural school districts have to

provide advanced technology capabilities for their leamers This current study

investigated personal and professional concems of change facilitators in a seven-district

technology consortium as these requirements are implemented

This consortium was developed with assistance fiom both the local telephone

service provider and the regional Educational Service Center (ESC) These districts range

a distance of 70 to 125 miles fi^om their ESC Two of the participating school districts

are considered property-wealthy and provide the bulk of the fiinding for the other five

districts through special legislative mles

This exploratory case study used the Concems-based Adoption Model (CBAM)

for evaluating these concems Nine informants three each of superintendents principals

and technology coordinators responded to a 35-item Likert scale which placed the

informant on a Stage of Concem either SELF TASK or IMPACT Informants

vu

concems were rated largely at the TASK level In general an informants stage of

concem increased with a higher status within the school system

These informants were also interviewed on their personal concems toward

technology implementation Seven general themes emerged through the interview

process Informants articulated concems over attitudes power student learning distance

learning staff training infi-astmcture and finances These informants consistently

expressed concem for the prospects of implementing instmctional video and its

instmctional and disciplinary implications Each informant expressed optimism over the

educational and administrative possibilities modem computer technology brought to their

districts

Vlll

LIST OF TABLES

1-1 Teachers Use of Computers Hadley and Sheingold (1993) N=608 9

1-2 Instmcfional Software Use Hadley and Sheingold (1993) N=608 9

1 -3 Full Time Equivalent Staff for TechnologyComputer Operations 21

2-1 Coefficients of Intemal Reliability for the Stages of Concem Questionnaire N=830 39

2-2 Test-Retest Correlations on the Stages of Concem Questionnaire N=132 40

2-3 Means Standard Deviations and Alpha Coefficients for the CFSoC (N=589) 45

2-4 Means Standard Deviations and Alpha Coefficients for the CFSoC

(N=750) 45

2-5 Intercorrelations of the Scale Scores on the CFSoC (N=589) 46

5-1 Study Informants and CBAM Stages of Concem District Comparison 113

5-2 Study Informants and CBAM Stages of Concem Concem Stage Comparison 114

IX

LIST OF FIGURES

4-1 CFSoC Profile of James Petty Camden Principal 68

4-2 CFSoC Profile of Bill Potter Camden Technology Coordinator 70

4-3 CFSoC Profile of Ronnie Bennett Dellwood Technology Coordinator 72

4-4 CFSoC Profile of Larry Beckman North Prairie Superintendent 74

4-5 CFSoC Profile of Mike McCoy Sawtooth Superintendent 76

4-6 CFSoC Profile of Vemon Russell Sawtooth Principal 78

4-7 CFSoC Profile of Renee White Sawtooth Technology Coordinator 79

4-8 CFSoC Profile of David Jackson Woodlake Superintendent 81

4-9 CFSoC Profile of Stephen Greer Woodlake Principal 82

CHAPTER I

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Mr Edison says That the radio will supplant the teacher Already one may leam languages by means of Victrola records The moving picture will visualize What the radio fails to get across Teachers will be relegated to the backwoods With fire-horses And long-haired women Or perhaps shown in museums Education will become a matter Of pressing the button Perhaps I can get a position at the switchboard

(Church cf Cuban 1986 pp 4-5)

Introduction

Virginia Churchs 1925 poem entitled Antiquated probably sounds pessimistic

but facetiously demonstrates her concems of possibly being out of a job with the

approaching array of innovations heralded at that time Our teachers and administrators in

educational institutions at all levels continue to exhibit concems as new innovations are

proffered (Cuban 1986)

Certainly innovations designed to improve instmction have been utilized for

centuries Cuban (1986 pp 3-4) would suggest technology innovation goes back at least

to the invention of the lectem chalk and chalkboards books and pictures with fihn

radio television tape recorders video and computers as more recent examples of

teaching tools Cuban wryly describes how these most recent technologies were at first

lauded as the latest thing for schools how instmction would dramatically improve and

how disillusioned teachers became when the technology did not live up to its predicted

expectations

Bringing all schools up to maximum speed in technology is currently quite

fashionable Rescigno (1988) using his own school district as the example envisioned

the so-called smart classroom with state of the art technology as having the ability to

precisely measure student skill objectives and promote more positive student attitudes

and lower instances of discipline problems

Rescignos school does not seem to have been greatly replicated however

Nevertheless greater technology implementation remains a key element of both

educational and political rhetoric Chris Dede asserts For politicians the Intemet in

every classroom has become the modem equivalent of the promised chicken in every

pot (Dede 1997 p 13) Dede decries such first-generation thinking by those who

would make technology the panacea for magically transforming schools

Yet decades of experience with technological innovations based on first-generation thinking have demonstrated that this viewpoint is misguided Unless other simultaneous innovations occur in pedagogy curriculum assessment and school organization the time and effort expended on instmctional technology produce few improvements in educational outcomes ~ a result that reinforces many educators cynicism about fads based on magical machines (p 13)

Cuban (1984) concurs emphasizing that teachers technology use in the classroom

is just one of a great many factors in how teachers teach with the lions share of factors

related to the extemal constraints of school organization Hodas (1993) reminds us that

the culture and norms of schools are profoundly conservative that the stmcture of

schools have remained unchanged for hundreds of years and that there exists in the

popular mind a definite conservative conception of what schools should be like a

template fi-om which schools stray only at their peril (p 10)

Problem Statement and Research Ouestions

Several factors were considered in formulating a problem for this study There

was the consideration of finding out how schools particularly small ones were

implementing fimding and evaluating technology in their districts Moreover standard

principles of staff development particularly the ascertaining of personal and professional

concems of school leaders were prominent in the literature Finally at the time of

searching for a research topic the State of Texas was developing broad curricular

standards which included extensive instmctional technology components

The problem under study is the concems of three levels of change facilitators

implementing the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) for Technology

Applications The research questions for this study are outlined in the form of a grand

tour question followed by sub-questions (Gay 1997 Spradley 1979)

Grand Tour Ouestion

What are the concems of leadership personnel as the TEKS technology

requirements are implemented in their school districts

Sub-questions

1 Where do these school leaders fall on the Concems-based Adoption Model

(CBAM) continuum regarding TEKS technology implementation

2 What are the specific concems of these school leaders as the TEKS are

implemented and why are these concems important

Rationale

The concept of educational change with technology is not a novel idea despite

those concems that Dede (1997) registered Larry Cuban has written extensively on the

topic of technological change fi-om the perspectives of administration and of educational

history Cuban quotes fi-om a prominent American technology leader who often had much

to say about things

I believe that the motion picture is destined to revolutionize our educational system and that in a few years it will supplant largely if not entirely the use of textbooks I should say that on the average we get about two percent efficiency out of schoolbooks as they are written today The education of the fixture as I see it will be conducted through the medium of the motion picture where it should be possible to obtain one hundred percent efficiency (p 187)

These words came in 1922 fi-om Thomas Alva Edison the inventor of the motion

picture phonograph and other devices at their time thought to be the zenith in

technology Except for the media described many could envision computers as the

subject of that quote Cuban suggests that such entrepreneurs who publicly make broad

educational claims for their products may have more of a profit motive than of student

performance

McDaniel Mclnemey and Armstrong (1993) recognize a shift in classroom

pedagogy fiom those classrooms merely transmitting information to processing

information They assert that computers will play a significant role in how leamers

acquire question and evaluate information Moreover McDaniel et al describe a

changed learning community breaking down the traditional school walls to a classroom

that literally can be the whole world They do not doubt that new programs will continue

to make an impact on how we teach and how students leam

Bumiske (1998) concurs with this shift but tempers it with repeated questioning

of our reasonings and expectations conceming educational technology

Its no longer a question of whether we should introduce computer technology into our classrooms Im afi-aid that choice has already been made for us The question now is how we should make use of this technology for educational purposes The consequence of this is the stifling of essential debates and the repression of significant questions such as At what age should we introduce children to computers What impact will computers have on the social emotional and psychological development of our children And how will computers aUer the dynamics of a classroom and school (p 157)

Cuban (1993) suggests three reasons for the perceived need to implement

technology in the classroom

First there is the drive to bring schools technologically in step with the work place because of the fear that students will be unprepared both to compete in the job market and to adjust to the changing marketplace A second impulse has come fi-om a diverse coalition of academics educators and foundation officials who have

5

neoprogressive values including that of self-directed leaming for children Finally there is the impulse for productivity (pp 189-190)

Unfortunately Cuban pessimistically concludes that despite the use of

technological innovations those innovations have not been central to school reforms

Likewise the marginal use of computers in classrooms is less due to funding teacher

preparation or administrative support but more related to dominant cultural beliefs

about what teaching leaming and proper knowledge are and how schools are organized

for instmction (p 206)

Low administrative support is but one part of the overall picture Poor

infi-astmcture remains in place at many schools The United States Department of

Education (USDE) in its report Getting Americas Students Readv for the 21st Century

(USDE 1996) cited statistics where only four percent of schools had as many as one

computer for five students and only nine percent with Intemet connectivity Yet this

same study asserts 80 percent of Americans believing that teaching computer skills is

absolutely essential 75 percent encouraging a child to use a computer and 86 percent

believing that a computer is the most beneficial product available to increase childrens

opportunities

Why if most educators believe that technology can improve the educational

process is it so difficult to implement and integrate Kwajewski (1997) ponders this

question as he considers the value educators place on technology acceptance

The plain tmth is that technology still confuses the educational establishment It is not an art or a science It is not a curriculum or a

subject It is not a vocation or a college requirement It is not an activity a goal or an objective It is not a course or a program If it were any of these items it might have a fighting chance in the difficult arena of change But it isnt therefore its success is in jeopardy (p 54)

Hodas (1993) suggests that educators require a modicum of comfort before expanding

their intellectual horizons to achieve skill with new technology

There is lively discussion over the extent of how technology can restmcture the

school Schools are finding in diverse ways that the use of technology modifies the

existing school stmcture Braun (1993) points out that investment in technology makes

working with at-risk youth more cost-effective It appears better to pmdently allocate

fimds on high-technology instmction than on the costs involved with dropouts and other

at-risk problems Maddux and Johnson (1997) suggest that the existing stmcture of

schools will be modified by Intemet use but only after the surrounding culture first

makes the change

Addressing new technologies Clark (1983) boldly asserted that the medium of

instmction was no more involved in how well students leam than the tmck that delivers

our groceries causes changes in our nutrition (p 445) and that only the content of

instmction influences student achievement Kozma (1991) aggressively challenges

Clarks position pointing out the distinctives of certain technologies and how they can

help leamers constmct knowledge Chishohn (1996) would go so far as to insist that the

implementation of technology modifies the very social stmcture

Like any human artifact computers are an expression of the people and culture that created them Likewise computer software incorporates the programmers cultural assumptions heuristics and epistemology Even seemingly impartial applications such as

7

databases and word processing programs demonstrate a cultural preference for analytic linear thinking compartmentalization of information and culture-specific logic mles and organization (p 163)

Educational leaders who are comfortable with technology should be primed to

lead the way in facilitating change in schools (Office of Technology Assessment 1995)

Differing somewhat fi-om Cuban Ritchie (1996) notes that a lack of administrative

support leading toward inadequate staff development and inadequate funding continues

to lead the reasons that technology has yet to take hold in some school districts Ritchie

cites Mecklenburger who asserts

Administrators must understand the capabilities and limitations of technology Only then can they plan for budget for purchase carefiiUy install properly maintain dutifiilly schedule adequately distribute appropriately and replace systematically the electronic technology best suited for their needs (Mecklenburger 1989 p 7)

Yet principals and superintendents in the main received their education and

training at a time when computers were not yet part of the educational scene Whatever

training many school leaders have had simply focused on using the technology rather

than focusing on how the technology could be used to augment student leaming (Bailey

1997)

Since 98 percent of the elementary and secondary schools in the United States

have microcomputers (Ely 1993) it is important to analyze how they have been used In

an early pre-Intemet study of typical teacher practice Hadley and Sheingold (1993)

investigated how teachers integrated software into classroom practice In surveying 608

teachers they discovered that teachers used computer software as shown in Table 1-1

Table 1-1 Teachers Use of Computers Hadley and Sheingold (1993) N=608

Software

Text processing tools 95 Instmctional software 89 Analytic and information tools 87 Programming and operating systems 84 Games and simulations 81 Graphics and operating tools 81 Communications 49 Multimedia 25

(Hadley amp Sheingold 1993)

Teachers instmctional software use was fiirther broken down as shown

in Table 1-2

Table 1-2 Instmctional Software Use Hadley and Sheingold (1993) N=608

Software

Problem solving programs 75 Tutorial programs 73 Drill and practice programs 72 Software accompanying a textbook 37 Conceptual tools 30

(Hadley amp Sheingold 1993)

By contrast instead of querying teacher computer usage more current surveys

(eg Texas Association of School Administrators 1998) focus on the classroom

building and district hardware configurations and Intemet use of computers

Teachers obviously embraced the computer as a significant tool in teaching

practice As these researchers gathered data for their study the above activities were

indeed the cutting edge uses of computers just before Windows the World Wide Web

or America Online became household words

Radical educational change is no stranger to technology educators The practices

delineated in the literature have metamorphosed fi-om the above to a listing more

reflective of school Intemet use connectivity and the use of multimedia Echoing Cuban

Becker (1998) notes several generations of the advice of experts conceming change in

computer technology pedagogy each of which reflected conventional wisdom in its time

and underscoring the adage The more things change the more they stay the same

Teachers were first urged to have students program computers in BASIC (1982 Its the language that comes with your computer) then to have them program in Logo (1984 Teach students to think not just program) then to use integrated drill-and-practice systems (1986 Use networked systems that individualize instruction and focus on increasing test scores) then to do word processing (1988 Use computers as tools like adults do) then to use curriculum-specific tools such as history databases and science stimulators and data acquisition probes (1990 Integrate the computers with the existing curriculum) then to do multimedia hypertext programming (1992 Change the curriculum - students leam best by creating products for an audience) then to use electronic mail (1994 Let students be part of the real world) and currently to publish their students work to a worldwide audience via the World Wide Web (1996) Using computers in these respective ways would have generally required teachers to have access to the newest computer equipment being sold at that time (p 25)

Becker fiirther suggests that survey-based data reflects a more conservative and

traditional array of instmctional practices among teachers than what is reported in the

popular press which tends to be more reflective of the more innovative techniques

10

(Becker 1998) Moreover he suggests such survey data was needed to balance the

overly enthusiastic reports in the news media about the generalizability of pioneering

efforts in unusual schools with hard-to-replicate amounts of computer equipment teacher

expertise and family resources (Becker 1991 p 386) It remained to be seen if the

average school district or school board had the financial foresight to establish a similar

facility

Contrasting with pre-Intemet surveys more recent studies reflect surveys of

changing computer use Berg Benz Lasley and Raisch (1997) surveyed teachers about

technology use at school and found that teachers rated student motivation and a change

fi-om the traditional classroom stmcture as the most fi-equent purposes of technology

Concurring with Beckers (1998) conclusions on technology use Berg et al list these as

their most important school computer uses

To motivate students To change fi-om traditional classroom CD-ROMs for research Computers in writing process Using variety of resources (books CD-ROM Web etc) Desktop publishing software To integrate subject matter Intemet to do research Enhance communication with parents Tailor curriculum to individual student needs

(Berg Benz Lasley amp Raisch 1997 p 8)

Curiously Berg et al found distance leaming and video conferencing rated 38th of 39

instmctional purposes as rated by teachers

The Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) executed a survey in

September 1998 to ascertain the levels of technology available in Texas public schools

11

Rather than display teacher use statistics as in previous studies (Becker 1998 Berg et al

1997 Hadley amp Sheingold 1993) this survey is heavily skewed toward Intemet use in

the classroom showing percentages of connectivity fimding sources and resources

(service center technology consortium etc) There are no listings of specific teacher

activities such as word processing graphics or gradebooks Indeed the TASA survey

appears at this writing to be updated at fi-equent intervals (TASA 1998)

Willis (1993) concedes that educational change using technology is difficult to

pull off He identifies barriers to wider technology use including teacher isolation

ownership time and administrative support very similar to concems in much of the staff

development literature (Joyce amp Showers 1988 Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1991)

Recent literature on school technology implementation has raised questions

conceming just how well new programs will be implemented or indeed how extensive

technology implementation has been Maddux (1997) describes a gap in schools between

the increasing sophistication of technology and the ability of teachers to use such

technology Maddux contends that much of the negative reaction conceming the Intemet

the World Wide Web Windows 95982000 and other innovative technologies stems

fi-om just such a gap between the hardware the schools may have on hand and the

systemic requirements of new software purchased Schools by and large often have older

hardware incapable of accepting Windows 95-level software Indeed computer speed

modem speed and hard drive storage (with or without zip drives) in many school-owned

computers remain inadequate Maddux cites Brekhus (1997) who suggests that 80

percent of all computer hardware purchased for schools was obsolete at the time of

12

purchase (p 7) Maddux fiirther maintains that much of this gap is related to educational

fiscal tradition stemming fi-om a lack of acknowledgment that more sophisticated

technology had to be replaced every three to five years

Becker (1998) sounds even more alarming He estimates that the average

cumulative per pupil investment in computers over a typical school lifetime a 13-year

span was only $150 025 percent of the total of what was spent on a pupil in that time

span Only 20 percent of school computers had a hard drive with a similar percentage

having any network access Only 10 percent had CD-ROM capability Very few then of

available school computers were capable of using multimedia the World Wide Web

Windows 9598 or most CD-based software As this dissertation is written computers

with speeds of 500 to 600 megahertz are being offered at discount stores (Micro Center

1999) along with appropriate software Although many schools continue to upgrade the

computing power of their hardware and the regional educational service centers still

provide leadership in bringing up-to-date technology to every remote district

nevertheless many educational institutions remain using outmoded machinery due to

well-felt budgetary restrictions and fluctuating property values

Changes in Constraints

Against this backdrop of confiision over technology implementation overall

educators fi-om coast to coast have had extemally mandated constraints In Texas those

mandates were codified in the Texas Essential Elements (Texas Education Agency

1991) with specific competencies for each subject listed and more recently with the

13

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) standards (Texas Education Agency

1997b) Unlike the Essential Elements which simply specified the subject components

for the teacher to cover in each area the TEKS mandates a much broader array of

performance-based skills to be exhibited by the leamer The emphasis is now on what the

leamer can do over what skills the teacher exhibits School districts in Texas are

obhgated to follow the TEKS in designing curriculum and instmction Evaluation

procedures for Texas educators include the use of technology in the lesson cycle

The TEKS for Technology Applications delineates knowledge and skill

requirements for specific computer applications for grade levels K-8 and specific high

school classes with this common philosophy

(1) The technology applications curriculum has four strands foundations information acquisition work in solving problems and communication

(2) Through the study of technology applications foundations including technology-related terms concepts and data input strategies students leam to make informed decisions about technologies and their applications The efficient acquisition of information includes the identification of task requirements the plan for using search strategies and the use of technology to access analyze and evaluate the acquired information By using technology as a tool that supports the work of individuals and groups in solving problems students will select the technology appropriate for the task synthesize knowledge create a solution and evaluate the results Students communicate information in different formats and to diverse audiences A variety of technologies will be used Students will analyze and evaluate the resuUs (Texas Education Agency 1997b p 1)

Chapter 126 of the TEKS specifies standards for leaming activities under these

four strands in Technology Applications for all Texas leamers This chapter is restricted

14

to instmctional applications excluding curricula that would be better placed in chapters

dealing with Career and Technology Business Applications etc

Chapter 126 Subchapter A delineates skill requirements for leamers as early as

kindergarten Among the skills to be acquired by leamers at that early date include

networking creating naming and saving files keyword searching muhimedia design

and portfolio selection It does not end there Subchapter A spells out a broad outline of

technology activities fi-om kindergarten through fifth grade Subchapter B retains much of

the earlier Essential Elements for middle schools conceming keyboarding and computer

literacy Subchapter C defines requirements for eight specific courses for high school-

level Carnegie-unit credit The minimum hardware for just one of these courses requires

the capability to do local networking Intemet access video production and Web page

production and storage Because of these curricular standards virtually every school in

Texas had to purchase materials appropriate for these activities

These standards went into effect September 1 1998 (Texas Education Agency

1997b) providing impetus for school leaders to recognize and articulate concems over

the implementation of these standards An additional document The Technology

Applications Companion (K-12) (Texas Center for Educational Technology 1998)

containing a comprehensive program entitled Sharing Technology Applications

Resources with Teachers (START) has been distributed on CD-ROM to each public

school building in Texas to provide curricular assistance and resources for TEKS

implementation

15

Research Participants

The informants for this research are among the leadership staff at five school

districts in rural Texas Each would be described as a change facilitator as defined in a

subsequent paragraph The role of the change facilitator is ascribed to a variety of

professionals Three specific roles in the school system are examined in this present

study Each is a change faciUtator but each facilitates change in a unique way

Superintendent~The general superintendent is a certified school employee and is

charged with overseeing all of a school districts operations particularly those related to

supervision and finance This role in the United States was instituted and developed

during nineteenth century bureaucratic changes where centralization of school efforts was

found more economical and where the need was seen for one person to be at the top of

the school stmcture (Urban amp Wagoner 1996)

Lutz and Merz (1992) define the superintendent in three roles manager

politician and teacher The Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) establishes

competencies for school leaders and suggested curricula for their training Superintendent

courses (Texas Education Agency 1991) mostly relegate this role either to be a manager

what with the emphasis on business techniques and school law for school management

or to be the instmctional leader because of specialized expertise in special and

compensatory education and because of recent advancements in school change which

demand that change facilitators already excel as instmctional and curricular leaders

SBOE mles also reinforce the role of politician with a broad array of social science

electives for the prospective school leader

16

The combination of concems over financial matters political pressures and

extemal curricular constramts exclusively laden upon the district superintendent makes

this role particularly important to the proposed research If there is any new technology to

be implemented the superintendent will have to be the first person on deck to secure

community approval particularly that of the school board so that the community has the

opportunity to buy into the new program especially its fiinding It will be necessary to

describe specific concems of superintendents

PrincipalmdashThe principal is a certified school employee who is charged with

leading teachers Unlike the superintendent the principal is generally responsible for only

one building narrowing this persons focus The role developed during the nineteenth

century in urban schools where a beginning teacher would begin teaching at a low grade

level and move up through the system becoming a principal teacher leading the others

(Urban amp Wagoner 1996)

The literature is replete with suggestions for middle management to increase

knowledge of how to implement technology Ritchie (1996) fists vendors school district

personnel technology consultants technology classes and self-instmction as sources of

information for becoming more effective as a change facilitator

Hall Rutherford and Griffin (1982) recognize three distinct change facilitator

styles which largely fit the principals role Responders put heavy emphasis on

empowering teachers and giving them opportunity to take the lead but tend to make

decisions in terms of immediate situations rather than long-term goals Managers tend to

see that things get done but do not normally go beyond the basics of implementing an

17

innovation Initiators take the lead and make things happen having strong beliefs about

what schools should be Nevertheless Hall et al agree that no change faciUtator

completely fits into one of these compartments Much more than the superintendent the

building principals style sets the leadership tone for the students and staff

Hall et al apply these contrasting styles in leadership to applying innovation

implementation

Another apphcation of the ideas proposed in this paper could be in planning school level and district wide implementation efforts Perhaps implementation game plans should be adopted to different schools depending on the change facilitator style of the principal and the assistant principal In a Manager school implementation will likely proceed rather routinely once what is to be done is understood by the principal In a Responders school more encouragement fi-om the outside and more district personnel time spent in the school working with teachers would probably be necessary While in an Initiators school a certain amount of push might be necessary to get implementation of the innovation on the list of the principals priorities On the other hand if the innovation is already a priority for that principal all the central office staff developer may have to do is stand out of the way (pp 19-20)

Middle management concems are a second component of the proposed research

because these individuals provide day-to-day leadership of educators They are

responsible for every detail in their respective buildings including staff development

Although site-based management is ahnost standard in contemporary schools the

principal remains a key force in change

Technology Coordinator-This role is not as clearly defined as principal or

superintendent nor does it have a lengthy historical base but exists nevertheless An

early study by Stmdler and Gall (1988) reported a growing number of individuals with

18

the title of technology coordinator mainly fi-om the ranks of classroom teachers Bailey

(1997) points out that although the role of the technology coordinator is important in

school improvement activities very little recent literature exists that describes the specific

roles and responsibilities of the technology coordinator

Despite variations in the local job title the person recognized as the technology

coordinator will also have concems worth noting in this proposed research As Stmdler

and Gall (1988) reported earlier this person is eighty percent Hkely to come fi-om the

classroom reflecting classroom teacher concems yet will have to assume a leadership

role

Smith (1997) extensively lists qualities and competencies expected of a

technology coordinator under these headings

1 Technical expertise 2 Understanding of technology use in the instmctional environment 3 Professional development 4 Intemet knowledge and experience (p 56)

Jewell (1999) adds the interpersonal skills of vision and diplomacy along with the

ability to find solutions for a diverse group of technology users fi-om a hmited array of

resources Jewell reminds us that

Technology leadership is not for the timid An effective technology leader must be able to navigate the sea of ever-increasing information and equipment as well as the changes in education that comes fi-om technology use What happens with technology and schools will change our world and technology coordinators will have an important role in that outcome (p 57)

19

The Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) annually commission a

survey (TASA 1998) conceming technology usage The 1998 survey specifically

ascertained the availability of on-site technology support Table 1-3 describes the

fi-equency of technology support for a variety of school configurations in Texas

Study Significance

As a major population center and as a resuU a major purchaser of educational materials

(textbooks workbooks etc) Texas has the potential to lead the way with an innovative

array of technology related courses but with new technology changes will be necessary

in how teachers will teach Already school districts are writing funding grants

purchasing more advanced technology and designating an individual with a title

congment to technology coordinator

Administrators will now have to allow for changes in how they do their jobs

Superintendents are already realizing that budgetary planning for technology has to be for

shorter periods that both technology hardware and software will require firequent

upgrades and school policies will need to address technological issues particularly with

legal matters Building principals will not only require a change in their budgetary

procedures but will also need to include technology concems in dealing with both

curriculum and evaluation Having served unofficially as the building technology

computer coordinator this writer observes that these individuals will have concems over

not only keeping current with the technology but also the array of systemic bugs each

piece of hardware and software displays resulting in the attendant complaints expressed

by staff

20

Table 1-3 Full Time Equivalent Staff for TechnologyComputer Operations

Level

Elementary

Middle

High School

Central Office

Other ISD Service

One-campus

N

479

410

470

N

489

N

484

191

No FTEs on campus

()

382

385

362

None ()

595

0 ()

506

335

Vi FTE per campus

()

192

98

104

1 ()

282

1 ()

277

565

i d i lt IFTE ner campus

()

88

12

117

2-3 ()

7

2 ()

97

68

1 FTE or more per campus

()

338

398

417

More than 3 ()

53

3-4 5-6 () ()

52 19

1 0

(TASA 1998 Question 10)

Because of the major changes in what is expected of educators through the

transition fi-om implementing the Essential Elements to TEKS standards these new

regulations should be applicable and flexible enough for at least the next decade

considering that it replaces a document used for 13 years TEKS will be of necessity

21

applicable for implementing innovations that have yet to be invented and for change

strategies not yet imagined

Delimitations

This study focused on technology implementation concems of change facilitators

of school districts in rural Texas limiting the representativeness of the study Any

findings yielded reflected the comments of those interviewed at the time of the study The

constraints of TEKS are not specifically applicable to educational entities in other states

or countries Curricular documents in states other than Texas were surveyed to compare

TEKS requirements for technology with technology expectations for leamers in those

states States bordering Texas as well as the top 15 states in population were considered

(World Almanac 1999) Appendix I contains a listing of these individual states

standards and how much technology usage impacts these standards

This present study is undertaken during the first year of TEKS standards Those

interviewed will not have as much familiarity with TEKS standards as they might in later

years As the researcher involved in compiling this data this writer must recognize

various biases he might have in eliciting comments fi-om these individuals Such

comments will reflect subjective distinctions individuals have about different schools

extemally mandated policies personal expectations of themselves or product

preferences In short this researcher made every effort to allow the respondents to

accurately present themselves

22

Term Definitions

The literature in this study uses terms germane to change instmctional

technology and to applications of the TEKS In addition terms readily known and used

by Texas educators are described

Academic Excellence Indicator System (AEIS) The AEIS (Texas Education

Agency 1999) is a systematic accountability report delivered annually of each school

and school district in Texas Prior to the estabhshment of the AEIS districts were

evaluated for accountability based on mles and procedures With the advent of the AEIS

schools are now evaluated principally on student performance AEIS indicators include

Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) performance attendance and dropout

rates students participating in advanced courses and scores on college entrance

examinations

Change Fullan and Stiegelbauer (1991) suggest that educational change involves

change in practice and indeed is evident at many levels In implementing change three

components are at stake

(1) The possible use of new or revised materials (direct instmctional resources such as curriculum materials or technologies) (2) the possible use of new teaching approaches (i e new teaching strategies or activities) and (3) the possible alteration of beliefs (e g pedagogical assumptions and theories underlying particular new policies and programs) (p 37)

Change Facilitator The role of change facilitator is defined to include not only

superintendents curriculum speciahsts and building principals but also the diverse set

of persons within and outside of organizations who have the formal or informal role to

23

aid those involved in leaming to use innovations (Hall Newlove George Rutherford amp

Hord 1991piii)

Concems Based on the work of Fuller (1969) Hall and his associates expand on

what constitutes concem

The composite representation of these feelings preoccupations thoughts and considerations about a particular issue or task is called concems The mental activity composed of questioning analyzing and re-analyzing considering altemative actions and reactions and anticipating consequences is concem An aroused state of personal feelings and thought about an issue phenomenon or condition as it is perceived is concem To be concemed means to be in a mentally aroused state about something (Hall Newlove George Rutherford amp Hord 1991 p5)

Innovation Loucks-Horsley and Stiegelbauer (1991) include a variety of school

programs as being innovations including school change school mission and goals

shared leadership as well as implementation of new technology Hall and his associates

define innovation as the issue idea or thing that is the center of attention (Hall

George and Rutherford 1977) Hall et als work in ascertaining concems over

educational innovations as will be demonstrated in greater detail in Chapter 2 can be

used to describe a wide variety of school implementations but within this current study is

strictly limited to instmctional technology implementation

Technology Rogers (1983) defines a technology as

A design for instrumental action that reduces the uncertainty in the cause-effect relationships involved in achieving a desired outcome A technology usually has two components (1) a hardware aspect consisting of the tool that embodies the technology as material or physical objects and (2) a software aspect consisting of the information base for the tool (p 12)

24

Technology Applications Chapter 126 of the TEKS for Technology Applications

(Texas Education Agency 1997b) defines what technology applications are in a

common introduction to each subchapter Among competencies at various grade levels

technology applications include the use of several word processing competencies

keyboarding strategies knowledge of a variety of input devices such as mouse modem

disk drive scanner digital video CD-ROM or touch screen database and spreadsheet

usage Intemet intranet and World Wide Web usage formal training in computer

programming languages and guided independent study Certainly a wide variety of

contemporary applications that meet these requirements can fiilfill these guidelines

However these guidelines are so broadly drawn that technologies not yet imagined

constmcted marketed or researched can be effectively implemented for instmctional

purposes

Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) The TAAS is a criterion-

referenced assessment instrument administered to Texas students The core instrument

assesses students skills in writing reading and mathematics at several grade levels At

present TAAS information taken fi-om students in the fourth and eighth grades and fi-om

an exit examination first administered in the tenth grade with multiple opportunities for

mastery Except for a special education exemption given by the Admission Review and

Dismissal (ARD) team for certain special education students Texas students are required

to have successfiilly passed each of the TAAS areas before a high school diploma may be

granted

25

Organization of the Study

This study follows the format and style of the Publication Manual of the

American Psychological Association (APA 1994) in terms of stmcture and organization

for dissertations This present chapter presents introductory material and a statement of

the problem for study Chapter II is a review of related literature tying the postulates of

this study to the established literature base Chapter III describes the research

methodology to be employed along with the context for the study Chapter IV describes

the data analysis for both of the research sub-questions Chapter V provides a summary of

the research its implications and suggestions for fiirther study

26

CHAPTER n

REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Introduction

Fullan and Stiegelbauer (1991) suggest that there will always be the need to make

educational changes as societies become more complex Three broad mechanisms for

effecting these changes include

1 natural disasters

2 extemal forces such as technology values and immigration and

3 intemal contradictions such as changes in technology leading to new social

patterns and needs (Fullan amp Stiegelbauer 1991 p 17)

Innovations then tend to be devised through both political and educational

motives Since technology implementation is included in this list our examination of

technology implementation concems will first discuss the legal foundations of technology

consortium development reasons for collaboration the theory behind change and

diffiision of innovations collaboration then to discuss the theory supporting concems

and finally to discuss some of the means of assessing and evaluating concems of change

facilitators

Technology Consortium Development

The research site for this present study is a technology consortium comprised of

several school districts This consortium will be described fimctionally in Chapter HI but

27

the controlling legal foundations of how this consortium was developed are herein

described fi-om the literature base

A technology consortium is considered an example of an agreement between

state governmental agencies Such an interlocal agreement is defined by the 1971

Interiocal Cooperation Act (the Act) (Vemons Texas Codes Annotated (VTCA)

1991) At present this Act is codified as Chapter 791 of the Texas Government Code

The Act authorizes local governmental agencies to contract with each other or with the

state to provide services to each other Independent school districts are classified as

other governmental fimction as described in sect 791003

Interlocal agreements are required to be authorized by the goveming bodies of

each governmental entity in this case by each member school board sect 791011 provides

for financial cooperation while sect 791013 allows the consortium to designate

administrative personnel to provide services (Bristol amp Jechow 1998)

Hudson (1997) describes the need for interlocal agreements as either being

required by the intensive capital needed for poohng financial resources or requiring a

high degree of special skills such as public utility specialists This technology

consortium requires both capital and technical expertise Resources for purchasing

significant amounts of computer hardware are pooled under sect 791025

Funds for the technology consortium are derived by legal authority in the Texas

Education Code (TEC) Most school districts in Texas are financed under the Minimum

Foundation Program under Chapter 42 of the TEC (VTCA 1996a) Locally generated

28

ftinds are combined with State fimds to provide for the regular education program of

school districts

However certain school districts that are considered property-wealthy have

different financial considerations The value-added nature of such districts may be due to

industry land values or as in this present study mineral wealth specifically petroleum

Chapter 41 of the TEC specifies means to limit the local property wealth per student to

$280000 (sect 41002) Monies in excess of that amount are surrendered to the State

sect 41099 allows for such districts to recapture some of these fimds to support a

technology initiative (VTCA 1996b) Two of the seven districts in this technology

consortium are considered property-rich and serve as financiers for the purchase of

technology for the remaining five districts

Fowler (1998) describes various ways technology consortia have to plan for nuts-

and-bolts administrative details including preparing state and federal reports asset

distribution litigation inclusion into and withdrawl from the consortium and

determining credentials for consortium board membership Chapters III and IV will

describe in greater detail the practical educational applications of this consortium in

operation

Collaboration

A significant part of the innerworkings of a technology consortium is that those in

leadership have mastered the ability to successfiilly collaborate Indeed collaboration

could be considered an innovation in and of itself (Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer

29

1993) Mattessich and Monsey (1992) have identified factors indicative of outstanding

collaborative groups

1 The politicalsocial environment along with a history of previous cooperative

efforts (pp 16-18)

2 Group membership is based on mutual tmst personal self-interest

compromise and a cross-section of the organizations involved (pp 19-22)

3 Group members have a stake in both the process and outcome of decision

making Clear roles and policies must be developed (pp 22-26)

4 Frequent and open communication links should be established (pp 26-28)

5 Reahstic goals and shared vision leading to a unique purpose (pp 28-30)

6 Both financial and human resources should be considered (pp 30-31)

The Change Process

Fullan and Stiegelbauer (1991) identify educational change as developed through

three phases In the initiation (or readiness) phase change leaders establish a need to

make improvements and to assist in the development of vision and planning At this

level intended outcomes of change are identified During the implementation phase

plans are activated to achieve those outcomes Both individuals and organizations

experience change as the result of new leaming experiences and support through follow

up The institutionalization phase stresses the integration of new practices into school

policies budgets routines etc As new needs and plans are identified stmctures are

30

developed to ensure that the newly institutionalized procedures continue to be maintained

(Fullan amp Stiegelbauer 1991 National Staff Development Council 1995)

Diffusion of Innovations

Concems toward innovations have been noted for some time Knowledge of

change is of littie value unless its solutions are diffiised to the level of the practitioner

(Guba 1968) Guba cites Everett Rogers (1955) who describes five stages of diffiision of

innovations

1 Awareness The individual leams of the existence of the innovation

2 Interest The individual seeks more information and considers the merits of

the innovation

3 Evaluation The individual makes a mental application of the innovation and

weighs its merit for his particular situation

4 Trial The individual applies the innovation on a small scale

5 Adoption The individual apphes the innovation for continued use on the basis

of a previous trial (Guba 1968 p 292)

Rogers (1983) builds on his earlier conclusions and adds a description of

characteristics of innovations which explain the differing rates of adoption among groups

1 Relative advantage is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as better

than the idea it supersedes The greater the perceived relative advantage of an

innovation the more rapid its rate of adoption is going to be

31

2 Compatibility is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as being

consistent with the existing values past experiences and needs of potential adopters An

idea that is not compatible with the prevalent values and norms of a social system will not

be adopted as rapidly as an innovation that is compatible

3 Complexity is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as difficult to

understand and use

4 Trialibility is the degree to which an innovation may be experimented with on a

limited basis An innovation that is trialable represents less uncertainty to the

individual who is considering it for adoption as it is possible to leam by doing

5 Observability is the degree to which the results of an innovation are visible to

others The easier it is for individuals to see the results of an innovation the more likely

they are to adopt (Rogers 1983 pp 15-16)

Rogers (1983) describes five categories of individuals accepting irmovations

along a continuum under a normal fi-equency distribution (p 247)

1 Innovators (2 CT below mean) These individuals are described as venturesome

eager to try new ideas desiring the hazardous daring and risky While an innovator

may not be respected by the other members of a social system the innovator plays an

important role in the diffiision process that of launching the new idea in the social system

by importing the innovation fi-om outside of the systems boundaries (p 248)

2 Early Adopters (between 1 and 2 a below the mean) This adopter category

more than any other has the greatest degree of opinion leadership in most social systems

32

(p 249) These are individuals that are the ones to check in with before trying out new

ideas They are the one who enjoy the greatest respect fi-om their associates

3 Early Majority (fi-om mean to 1 CT below mean) These individuals require more

time to deliberate before adopting an iimovation They eventually follow willingly into

the innovation but seldom take the initiative

4 Late Majority (fi-om mean to 1 a above mean) These individuals approach

innovation with caution and skepticism They are not convinced about the innovation

until the social system norms are in place before they will adopt the innovation

5 Laggards (above 1 a above mean) These individuals are the last in the social

system to adopt an innovation They tend to be suspicious of any changes to the social

system and require absolute certainty that new ideas will work

Finally Rogers (1983) suggests that opinion leaders in a social system are the

individuals who lead the group into innovation adoption Rogers identifies generalized

characteristics of opinion leaders that distinguish them fi-om their followers

1 Opinion leaders have greater exposure to mass media than their followers

2 Opinion leaders are more cosmopolite than their followers

3 Opinion leaders have greater change agent contact than their followers

4 Opinion leaders have greater social participation than their followers

5 Opinion leaders have higher economic status than their followers

6 Opinion leaders are more innovative than their followers

33

7 When a social systems norms favor change opinion leaders are more

innovative but when the norms do not favor change opinion leaders are not especially

innovative (Rogers 1983 pp 282-284)

This present research relies heavily on the relative opinion leader status of those

change facilitators fi-om whom data was gathered Because the informants are change

facilitators and their input on technology implementation is considered authoritative

Rogers insights on change facilitators are appropriate here

Concems Theory

In her role as an observer of novice teachers at the University of Texas Frances

Fuller (1969) noted that there were perceptible differences in how experienced and non-

experienced teachers observed their profession

Are typically inexperienced undergraduates not yet ready to benefit fi-om a conventional teacher preparation program What are they ready to leam What does concem them Can we discover regularities in the interests of beginning education students regularities which might fiimish guides to educators in choosing course content and experiences for teacher education programs (Fuller 1969 p 208)

Fuller reviewed the available literature related to the concems of beginning

teachers Her study concluded that their concems primarily centered on classroom

management and perceptions of evaluations She was surprised not only with how

consistently the varied concems were reported but also with what these authors left out

the absence of concems about topics which are usually included in education courses

34

I instmctional design methods of presenting subject matter assessment of pupil leaming

dynamics of child behavior and so on (p 210)

Fullers subsequent research concluded that a developmental conceptualization of

teacher concems was most appropriate

Pre-teaching phase Non-concem ~ During this time before actual contact with

children concems articulated by pre-service teachers were amorphous and vague

Many did not know what to actually be concemed about Much of what these novices

reported could be regarded as hearsay rumors about teaching etc (p 219)

Early Teaching Phase Concem with Self- As the novice educator begins

service concems with Where do I stand and How am I doing were most dominant

(p 220)

Late concems Concems with Pupils - Scant data with experienced educators was

available to Fuller but mature concems appeared to focus on pupil gains and self-

evaluation as opposed to personal gains and evaluations by others (p 221)

Fullers groundbreaking article began the basis for the development of concems

theory She posited significant research implications that were expanded upon by later

researchers

1 Is the concem sequence complete or are there more tasks with specific

competencies to be defined and resequenced

2 Is concem a fimction of the person of the situation of both or of

neither

35

3 Do individuals as well as groups go through these phases Can a

phase be skipped returned to or be in muhiple phases

4 Can these stages be generalized to other groups such as

administrators college professors and non-teaching staff

5 Are concems more related to teaching behavior teacher competency

or student leaming

6 Are these concems measurable Can they be manipulated by

intervention (Fuller 1969 pp 222-223)

With Fullers article the stage was then set for the development of a more

comprehensive method of measuring concems of educators as they deal with innovations

The Role of CBAM

During the period Fuller was conducting her research Gene Hall and his

associates at the University of Texas were also researching teacher needs and concems

initially with a view toward providing relevant staff development activities Their

conceptual fi-amework for ascertaining concems during school change became the

Concems-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) (Hall Wallace amp Dossett 1973)

The CBAM describes feelings perspectives and attitudes of individuals while

they are considering the use of an innovation (Hall 1979) It is a people-oriented model

anticipating what change agents might discover during the change process and generally

used with staff development (Hope 1995) These assumptions undergird the CBAM

36

1 Change is a process not an event Change takes time and is accomplished in

stages

2 The individual is the primary target of interventions designed to facilitate

change in the classroom Institutions cannot change until individuals within them change

3 Change is a highly personal experience The personal satisfactions concems

motivations and perceptions play roles in determining the success or failure of an

innovation

4 The change process is developmental Individuals go through stages in feelings

and perceptions about the innovation as well as in skill of use of the innovation

5 Staff development can be best facilitated by a client-centered diagnostic-

prescriptive model Staff developers must discover what level participants are in the

change process and design activities congment with that level

6 Staff developers need to work in an adaptive yet systemic way They must be

able to assess the change process and adapt training methods to address those changes

(Hall amp Loucks 1978 Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1991)

Within CBAM three aspects of change form the basic fi-ame of reference of the

model

1 the concem that users have about the innovation

2 how the innovation is used and

3 the ways that the innovation can be adapted to meet the needs of individuals

(Hope 1995)

37

This current study focused only on this first strand-concems Using Fullers

research Hall et al redefined Fullers three stages of concem into concems unrelated to

teaching concems about self concems about the task and concems about impact

(Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1991) Seven Stages of Concem (SoC) about the

innovation have been identified (see Appendix A) Hall and his associates have

demonstrated that individuals move through these seven levels in a consistent manner

(Hall 1979 Hall 1985 Hall George amp Rutherford 1977 Hall amp Loucks 1978 Hall

Wallace amp Dossett 1973 Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1991) Stage 0 represents no

concem over the innovation Stages 1 and 2 reflect concems based on self stage 3

represents concem with the task and stages 4 through 6 mirror concems based on pupil

impact

The Stages of Concem Questionnaire the most precise measure of the SoC is a

35-item Likert scale where respondents indicate their present degree of concem about the

topic in an item (Hall George amp Rutherford 1979) Hall et al hypothesize that

individuals will normally flow fi-om the stages in consecutive order and that a scored

profile should place an individual somewhere along the concems continuum It is highly

rigorous and can be used effectively for research for large groups of people and for

tracking groups of people over time

George (1977) provided rehability and validity figures for this instrument

Intemal reliability was shown to be high Table 2-1 shows intemal reliability coefficients

for a 1974 sample (N=830) of teachers and professors A later subsample of teachers

38

Modifications to the content of the SoC have been done (Bailey amp Palsha 1992

Shotsberger amp Crawford 1996) with varying reliability In the main these researchers

concur that teacher concems do indeed occur in stages but differ in the number of stages

they detect

Table 2-1 Coefficients of Intemal Reliability for the Stages of Concem Questionnaire N = 830

Stage Alphas

0 64 1 78 2 83 3 75 4 76 5 82 6 71

(George 1977)

(N=132) was asked to complete the SoC a second time with test-retest correlations

shown in Table 2-2

As an adjunct to the SoC questionnaire the opportunity is presented for the

respondent to provide a written response with an open-ended statement along the lines of

When you think about [the innovation] what are you concemed about An collection

of open-ended statements can give the researcher opportunity to get a quick feeling for

39

Table 2-2 Test-Retest Correlations on the Stages of Concem Questionnaire N=132

Stage Pearson-r

0 65 1 86 2 82 3 81 4 76 5 84 6 71

(George 1977)

the concems of a group Moreover it can ascertain specific issues germane to a particular

group (Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1991) An altemate version of the SoC geared

principally to change facilitators contains an open-ended blank

43 Use this space (and back of this page) to express any concems you have not been able to indicate in the questionnaire (Hall Newlove George Rutherford amp Hord 1991 p 48)

A third means of gaining information is the one-legged interview which can be

done by simply having a conversation with a respondent about the innovation It is called

one-legged because it can be conducted on the mn or brief enough to do while standing

on one leg While not so rigorous as quantitative instruments this format allows for more

simplicity and rapport with chents (Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1991)

40

AppUcations of CBAM

CBAM has been used in a variety of educational situations Malone (1984) used

CBAM to determine concems of pre-service elementary teachers in teaching science

James and Hall (1981) evaluated concems of veteran teachers in implementing new

science curricula

CiccheUi and Baecher (1985 1987) used the CBAM model to study teacher

computer training They found that the level of concems of novice computer-using

teachers was a factor in how staff development was scheduled Their research questions

are similar to this present study

1 What specific concems will teachers have about using microcomputers in the

classroom

2 Do these concems vary and if so to what extent among elementary junior high

and senior high school teachers

3 Are there different concems between male and female teachers

4 In what ways can data yielded fi-om the SoCQ help teacher educators design

effective inservicing (Cicchelli amp Baecher 1985)

Wesley and Franks (1996) observed the voluntary adoption activities of teachers

using computer-assisted instmction (CAI) and multimedia through a variety of staff

development strategies most notably collegiality (Joyce amp Showers 1988) CBAM

developmental stmctures were positively linked to the increasing complexity of

technologies adopted by these teachers As they progress through the SoC teachers

voluntarily adopt technologies toward better leaming in the classroom Hope (1995)

41

examined teachers concems as they gained greater facility with computers in an

elementary school setting

Wells and Anderson (1997) performed studies comparing intemal concems

(stages 0 to 3) and extemal concems (stages 4 to 6) on a variety of computer appUcations

utilized by students in a graduate telecommunications course Prior computer usage in

eight separate skill areas along with general computing experiences was evaluated on the

SoC Ragsdale (1997) used CBAM to research the unexpected reactions of teachers and

students as they work in a variety of technologies Through CBAM Todd (1993) studied

university faculty concems in teacher preparation programs

CBAM is even used in non-scholastic situations Hall and Hord (1987) report

CBAM and SoC used to research nurse training Air Force cadet leadership training

health behavior and textbook sales and service CBAM has been used intemationally

with extensive studies in Belgium the Netherlands and Australia and has been piloted in

Indonesia Venezuela and Thailand (Hall Newlove George Rutherford amp Hord 1991)

The Change Facilitator SoC

The SoC questionnaire was shown to be adequate in determining the concems of

classroom teachers but did not work as well with administrators staff developers and

others who were charged with implementing change (Hall Newlove George Rutherford

amp Hord 1991) Not only were many of the SoC statements often inappropriate for change

facilitators but also scores elicited fi-om change facilitators yielded values skewed higher

in the Impact stages 4 through 6 particularly stage 5 (Collaboration) which is logical

42

considering the definition of stage 5 and the role of the change facilitator (Hall et al

1991 p 15) Earlier studies with change facilitators and CBAM gave impetus for a more

role-related instrument for assessing concems

The net result of this research yielded a set of Change Facilitator Stages of Concem

(CFSoC) The sequence of concems in the CFSoC (unrelated self task impact) is given

in Appendix B As with the SoC the CFSoC again contains 35 Likert-style statements

but each statement is expressed with a more leadership oriented spin Again as in the

earlier SoC Questionnaire Hall et al hypothesize that change facilitators will move along

the same path fi-om one stage to the next in consecutive order

The CFSoC Instrument

This specific instrument formed a significant portion of the data for this present

study and consequently requires more detailed reporting of its development Hall et al

(1991) have prepared a detailed manual describing the development of the instrument

scoring procedures methods of interpretation and reliability and validity data Appendix

C provides the current CFSoC instrument as used in this present study

CFSoC Development

As stated earlier those who had roles as change facilitators exhibited a different

pattem of responses to the SoC questionnaire because the SoC statements are phrased for

users of the innovation (p 15) Hall et al reported that they had to strike a balance

between innovation-related concems and change-facilitator role concems (p 16)

43

Because of this felt need for such a balance in May and June of 1979 Hall et al

instituted a pilot study of a potential change facilitator version of the well-used SoC This

pilot study indicated the need to wholly change the concems statements to reflect change

facilitator roles Additionally they found that the questionnaire items had to reflect the

facilitation of others use of the innovation rather its use per se (p 18) Questionnaire

items for the Impact stages (4-6) had to focus on efforts and concems on revising the

facilitation process rather than personal use of the innovation

Hall et al (1991) describe their later piloting efforts

Pilot data were collected at CBAM workshops for change facilitators in August 1979 in Texas (N=29) and New Mexico (N=23) Item analyses indicated that the intemal reliability of the scales were good (alphas greater than 65 on all scales) but Stages 1 and 2 (Informational and Personal) were too highly correlated This led to fiirther examination of the CFSoC definitions and a new draft of items for Stages 0 12 and 3

In May 1980 a sample of 219 CFSoC Questionnaires was collected by sending the measure to all change facilitators who had participated in Concems-Based Consulting Skills Workshops in 1979 and 1980 Analyses of these responses indicated good reliability and scale intercorrelations for all but Stage 6 (Refocusing) After carefiil analysis of the Stage 6 concept several new Stage 6 items were written and incorporated into the CFSoC

During the summer and fall 1980 an additional set of 288 CFSoC Questionnaires was collected fi-om a variety of workshops and mailings to change facilitators With these data factor analyses and other item analyses were used to select the five items for each stage on the final questionnaire (Hall et al 1991 p 18-19)

Reliability and Validity

Hall et al (1991) report two intemal rehability studies for the CFSoC A 1981

study (N=589) administered the current 35-item scale to a sample group that included a

44

variety of innovations examined job titles and years of experience Table 2-3 shows the

intemal reliability data for each stage Subsequent studies have produced virtually

identical data Another set of CFSoC responses (N=750) yielded the data in Table 2-4

Table 2-3 Means Standard Deviations and Alpha Coefficients for the CFSoC (N=589)

Stage Mean SD Alpha

0 1199 594 61 1 1691 949 85 2 1304 632 62 3 1790 730 72 4 2588 634 70 5 2586 699 77 6 907 652 81

(Halletal 1991p 19)

Table 2-4 Means Standard Deviations and Alpha Coefficients for the CFSoC (N=750)

Stage Mean SD Alpha

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

1320 1920 1140 1766 2477 2499

840

593 925 622 718 672 704 618

63

86

65

73

74

79

81

(Halletal 1991 p 19)

Hall et al conclude These statistics indicate that the scales have adequate

intemal reliability and the scales are consistent across various innovations (p 20) 45

The 1981 study yielded relatively low intercorrelations between stages Such low

intercorrelations indicate that these scales are measuring different concepts Table 2-5

provides a display of the intercorrelations of scale scores

Table 2-5 Intercorrelations of the Scale Scores on the CFSoC (N=589)

Scale 1 2 3 4 5 6

0 15 19 23 -15 -21 22

i 24 09 23

2 37 19

3 32

4

5

18

05

20

67

05

34

09

-06

-15

(Halletal 1991 p 20)

As is noticable in the table most stage correlations are small except for the correlation of

Consequence and Collaboration

Summary and Reflection

To summarize we know a great deal about how schools change fi-om the available

literature Fullan and Stiegelbauer (1991) point out famihar pattems of change and how

individuals adjust through those changes Rogers (1955 1983) insights into the diffiision

of innovations in a social system have expanded and matured with time Rogers points

46

out that those who facilitate change most effectively are those who in the social system

are most effective in social effectiveness Those who would dare to facilitate

technological change would normally reflect Rogers maxims conceming opinion leaders

The concepts of collaborative strategies appear usefiil for a variety of contexts

particularly for cooperative groups of school districts The original Stages of Concem

(SoC) survey continues to be utilized extensively but little hterature exists for the more

restrictive Change Facilitator Stages of Concem (CFSoC) instrument CFSoC authors

appear enthusiastic about its use (Hall amp Hord 1987 Hall Newlove George Rutherford

amp Hord 1991) but as this present research is conducted only one recent article advocates

its use (Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1993)

In communicating with CFSoC personnel they had no direct knowledge of

extensive recent literature on the CFSoC G Hall (personal communication November 2

1998) referred this writer to the original CBAM staff A George (personal

communication November 6 1998) was unable to find extemal validity studies of the

CFSoC There appears a need for this instmment to be used and reported upon

The legal stmctures which provide foundation for establishing a technology

consortium are solidly found in Texas legal literature Because they are based on legal

statutes they could be modified or deleted by subsequent legislatures Moreover the

changing fortunes of Chapter 41 school districts with fluctuating mineral wealth will

make it difficuh to reliably predict the fiiture of such technology consortia

47

CHAPTER m

METHODOLOGY

Study Design

Yin (1994) asserts that the type of research design to be used in any study must be

bounded by (a) the type of research question posed (b) the extent of control an

investigator has over actual behavioral events and (c) the degree of focus on

contemporary as opposed to historical events (p 4)

This present study used the case study method Yin (1993) specifically addressed

and described studies of educational partnerships or consortia as good examples of case

study research The research questions reiterated below are how and why oriented

(Yin 1994) They are presented in the form of a grand tour question what concems the

technology consortium exhibits as a group and sub-questions what concems individuals

(Spradley 1979)

Grand Tour Ouestion

What are the concems of leadership personnel as the TEKS technology

requirements are implemented in their school districts

Sub-questions

1 Where do these school leaders fall on the Concems-based Adoption Model

(CBAM) continuum regarding TEKS technology implementation

48

2 What are the specific concems of these school leaders as these TEKS are

implemented and why are these concems important

Rationale

This research examined details particularly interviewees responses which were

out of this writers direct control This study also focused on contemporary events in a

technology consortium in rural Texas Therefore Yins standards (Yin 1994 p 6) for

applying a case study method were justified

This present study was exploratory As such Yin (1994 p 21) would assert that

specific propositions or underlying assumptions about what we might discover in the

course of the inquiry should not be defined Assumptions tend to interfere with defining

issues they also constmct personal biases to both data gathering and interpretation

Rather Yin suggested that an exploratory study should reflect the purpose of the study

and the criteria by which an explanation will be judged successfiil (p 21) Levine

(1990) concurs that explorations into educational computer use often lack propositions

Many of the published qualitative studies are deemed exploratory by their authors reflecting researchers quandaries about what should be the subject of the inquiry in this new field and of equal importance the lack of any guiding theory against which to cast the qualitative data In general most of the extant models of quahtative investigation into classroom computer use tend to be atheoretical and largely positivist rather than interpretive in their orientation (p 464)

The criteria forjudging an explorations success will be discussed in the later section

dealing with validity and reliability

The unit of analysis for this study was a technology consortium the combined and

49

cooperative efforts of seven school districts to provide instmctional technology leadership

toward better serving their students Such a partnership has collective activities and

outcomes and as a distinct unit represents something greater than activities and

outcomes of member school districts (Yin 1993) Those change facilitators whose

concems were examined were all employed by the individual school districts and were

recognized as leaders within their respective districts Each of these individuals was

asked a set of similar questions Their responses were considered as representative of the

leadership of their individual districts Appendix D provides the list of questions that

were asked

Yin (1993) suggests that topical relevance and access can contribute to the

appropriateness of this research design The consideration of TEKS technology

implementation efforts is being effected during this present academic year and is certainly

current

For linking the data to the research questions the specific analysis strategy used

was the pattem-matching model Those concems registered by the interview participants

were compared with pattems of CBAM data particularly the typical and hypothesized

profiles of school change facilitators as manifested on the Change Facilitator Stages of

Concem (CFSoC) protocol (Hall Newlove George Rutherford amp Hord 1991)

Informants were asked to fill out the brief CFSoC survey The CFSoC manual presented

typical profiles and gave suggested interpretations of representative profiles These were

used to determine the concems rankings of these informants

Yin (1994) admits that there are no precisely set criteria for interpreting findings

In discussing a study by an author named herein Jones Yin made these observations

50

Jones data matched one pattem better than they matched the other But how close does a match have to be so as to be considered a match Note that Jones did not do any statistical test to make the comparison Nor would a statistical test have been possible because each data point in the pattem was a single number for which one could not calculate a variance and could not conduct any statistical test One hopes that the different pattems are sufficiently contrasting that the findings can be interpreted in terms of comparing at least two rival propositions (p 26)

The concems of school change facilitators as they implement new models of

curriculum were studied through the mode of exploratory case study a qualitative study

design Because this current study desired to know the current concems of sitting school

leaders a case study paradigm was used because the events in the study cannot be

manipulated Campbell (1997) suggests that a qualitative design is appropriate when

ascertaining the insiders point of view and the informants personal involvement A

research protocol of examining documents and artifacts and conducting interviews

provided a wide variety of data Moreover as Levine (1990) asserted case study research

could be accomplished relatively quickly Levine suggested that a case study design

appears to be the method of choice for those investigating different facets of educational

uses of computer technology

Clouse and Garrett (1994) suggest more theoretical reasons for utilizing case

study with adult change facilitators Borrowing fi-om Piagetian concepts the stage of

formal operations which forms the basis of case study is well-developed by adulthood

Moreover case study is grounded in the needs of adult leamers because of the

51

meaningfiilness of problems to the aduh and the responsibility they take toward their

own personal development

Stake (1995) describes defining characteristics of case study research that are

apphcable for this present study

1 It is holistic its contextuality is well developed it is case oriented

2 It is empirical it is field oriented its emphasis is on observables including the observations by informants it strives to be naturalistic noninterventionistic and there is a relative preference for natural language description

3 It is interpretive its researchers rely on intuition with many important criteria not specified it is attimed to the fact that research is a researcher-subject interaction

4 It is empathetic although plaimed its design is emergent responsive its reporting provides vicarious experience

(Stake 1995 pp 47-48)

Context for the Study

This study site was selected in consultation with a consultant who had knowledge

of and had worked with this organization I was directed toward one of the Consortiums

superintendents to secure access This superintendent in tum directed me toward a

person at the Educational Service Center who would be able to assist me

This technology consortium was comprised of seven school districts with two

districts declining to participate in this research These districts were rural and agrarian

yet possessed school leaders who tmly wanted to bring their communities up to date with

52

technology These school sites were given pseudonyms which were generated by random

selection of cities fi-om states other than Texas in a current road atlas Names of

participants were given pseudonyms Those names were those of students fi-om my high

school yearbook and were drawn by lot

In general each of the five school districts were in Texas counties which have

declined in population since 1990 The combined population of these districts is 7306

(Texas Almanac 1998) Each districts economy was based on agriculture and varying

amounts of mineral wealth resulting in substantial variance in property values Each

county boasts a relatively low crime rate

More important than minute details this present study is focused on the big

picture the ways and means utiHzed to make this technology consortium a reality In

initial contacts with consortium leadership this researcher was directed toward Dr Sarah

McCuUough a program specialist of the Educational Service Center Region J located in

Center City Texas Dr McCullough was instmmental in establishing this technology

consortium and providing this researcher with the history and innerworkings of this

consortium Interview questions for Dr McCullough are in Appendix E The following

narrative of the foundation and fimctioning of this consortium is based on this

researchers interview with Dr McCullough (personal communication December 9

1998)

The Sah Fork Educational Technology Consortium (the Consortium) is comprised

of seven independent school districts all of which have akeady worked together as a

special education cooperative Six of these districts are members of Educational Service

Center (ESC) Region J while one is actually in the territory of ESC Region K As also

53

with special education cooperatives a technology consortium is an interlocal agreement

by Texas law and has a management board comprised of district superintendents one

district designated as fiscal agent and a chair authorized to speak and act for the group

The Salt Fork Telephone Company (SFTC) headquartered in Dellwood Texas

provides rural telephone service for several counties in Texas All of the school districts

in these counties depend on this provider for both telephone service and the possibihty of

Intemet connectivity In 1995 the SFTC invited school leaders fi-om their service area to

a demonstration in Dellwood to show off a variety of new technologies that they were

excited to announce particularly their new capabiHty for two-way interactive video

Because these districts had worked together before had a common telephone carrier and

had common interests these school leaders concluded it logical and practical to combine

together for technology improvement in their schools

Prior to the Consortiums establishment member districts were limited to only the

computers they currently had in the classroom Almost all of their computers were

stand-alone units Each district also had a satellite dish for the state network materials

but were using them poorly and inefficiently

Dr McCullough was initially hired to work with this group to get a two-way

interactive video setup organized Later she was deeply involved with authoring several

grants for this group Her subsequent work with the Consortium was to conduct an array

of custom-designed technology needs assessments for each of several job descriptions

(teacher counselor administrator etc) with the emphasis on what do you want that you

do not have with the view that technology was the means to fiilfill those needs She now

54

meets regularly with these superintendents as they hold Consortium management board

meetings

Dr McCullough describes the interrelationships of Consortium members

positively She notes very little dissention as they discuss procedures that most decisions

are made by consensus What serves one serves all of them she emphasizes as the

Consortium moves toward better technology use Each board member realizes that they

are at different point toward reaching group goals They realize the benefits of

collaborative planning a hard lesson for everyone to leam

The Consortium keeps operating fiinds in a bank account separate fi-om general

operating fiinds administered by the business manager of the fiscal agent To date

fimding has come fi-om grants and fi-om monies generated fi-om the two member districts

designated as property-wealthy under Chapter 41 of the Texas Education Code These

districts recapture a certain percentage of excess property wealth normally surrendered to

the State and assign those fiinds to the Consortium (see Chapter II) These districts have

voluntarily chosen to redistribute their fiinds in this manner

Because these districts have formed this consortium they not only have more

technology but also more capabilities As a whole there is improved student

performance and better trained teachers with a rise in Academic Excellence Indicator

System (AEIS) scores (see Chapter I) Most importantly these school leaders fimction as

a group They actively seek ways to collaborate

A recent example of this improved outlook on technology concems teachers use

of the Accelerated Reader (AR) program Heretofore it had been difficult to get teachers

to travel all the way to Center City for training for AR but with a high-quality technology

55

center in Dellwood closer to the other Consortium member schools there was high and

enthusiastic tumout for the training sessions

Informant Selection

This researcher invited each of the seven school districts in the technology

consortium to participate in this study In August 1998 a letter was sent to each of the

district superintendents of the Consortium introducing me the goals of the prospective

research how they might participate^ etc A copy of this letter is provided in Appendix F

Within two weeks of the initial invitation a letter was received fi-om one

superintendent stating that in consultation with his districts site-based team they would

decline to participate in this present study That same week this researcher received a

telephone call fi-om the Dellwood ISD superintendent who had been authorized by the

Consortium board to grant permission to use their districts for this study

After securing approval of the Universitys Institutional Review Board these

superintendents were again contacted and consent forms instmctions and CFSoC

surveys were mailed to superintendents building principals and technology coordinators

of the six remaining districts This mailing was in November 1998 Eighteen completed

CFSoC surveys would be the potential maximum Appendix G contains a copy of the

consent forms and instmctions for taking the surveys

Concurrent with mailing queries to Consortium staff this researcher made initial

contact with Dr McCullough of the ESC and conducted an interview with her in

December 1998

56

The mailings yielded only eleven retumed surveys fi-om the maximum eighteen

possible informants However two of those with completed surveys were deleted fi-om

the pool during the pre-interview stage due to lack of fiirther response to interview

queries The net pool yielded exactly three each of superintendents building principals

and technology coordinators representing five school districts These nine informants are

those whose CFSoC profiles and interviews will be discussed in Chapter IV

Data Collection

A variety of data collection methods congment with the case study method was

used leading to the development of converging lines of inquiry allowing triangulation

ofthe data leading to improved validity and reliability of this study (Yin 1994)

Survey The CFSoC instmment contained 35 Likert-style statements which were

grouped into seven stages of concem Each ofthe statements received a score of 0

through 7 The statement scores were added up to provide a raw score for each stage

That raw score was in tum evaluated by a percentile score chart For the given raw

score there was a corresponding percentile score Percentile scores were then encircled

on a CFSoC protocol Interpretation ofthe CFSoC was based on the profile yielded

from the administration ofthe instrument

Hall et al (1991) insist that their instrument must not be used to make a definitive

analysis of a respondent but rather all interpretations must be treated as hypotheses (p

29) They discuss three methods of examining the CFSoC protocol to generate

hypotheses Interpretations can be made either by examining the stage which shows the

highest degree of concem based on percentile score by examining the percentile scores

57

ofthe highest and the second-highest stages or by examining the fiill array of stage

percentile scores Hall et al point out

As individuals move fi-om little concem about facilitating use of an innovation into actively becoming involved with users as a facilitator it is hypothesized that their concems develop fi-om being most intense at Stages 0 1 and 2 to most intense at Stage 3 and uhimately to most intense at Stages 4 5 and 6 This is most likely to occur if the innovation is a positive one and there is administrative support for its implementation However reality has a way of intervening on this idealized trend which results in different and interesting profiles Where an individual is in this change process can best be assessed through interpretation of a complete concems profile Analyzing both the tabular fisting of percentile scores and the plots of these percentile scores as a graph provides the most complete clinical interpretationassessment (Hall et al pp 33-34)

The profiles accuued as part ofthe data collection are thus examined according to

fiill-profile examples given in the CFSoC manual (Hall et al pp 34-42) Additionally

specific information given by the respondents conceming their change facilitator roles is

considered in establishing these hypotheses Scores are interpreted on the shape ofthe

profile and not necessarily on the numerical score of each concem stage

Interviews There were semistmctured interviews with district superintendents

building principals and persons designated within the school community as the

technology coordinator those whom teachers and administrators rely upon when

computer savvy is needed As opposed to the more open-ended interview I made the

interview more focused as Yin (1994 pp 84-85) puts it The informants were busy

educators and administrators and their time was perceived as limited Interviews were

oriented toward ascertaining the informants knowledge and use of technology with a

58

view toward discovering concems they had as new curricular guidelines and concurrent

hardware implementation was instituted Interviews were conducted by telephone tape

recorded and transcribed for review Interview queries were based on the CFSoC

questionnaire (Hall et al 1991) and questions used in a similar dissertation project

(Nagy 1996) This researcher noticed that several questions as listed in Appendix D

would be commented on by the informants without being asked When each ofthe

questions were answered by the informant the interview ceased Any discussion of non-

germane issues (local school politics vocational programs etc) or school activities not

included in Chapter 126 ofthe TEKS were not evaluated

Documentation Merriam (1988) defines documents as just about anything in

existence prior to the research at hand (p 105) but cautions whether it contains

information or insights relevant to the research question and whether it can be acquired in

a reasonably practical yet systematic manner (p 105)

I wanted to review a wide variety of recent public records in the fiirtherance of

technology implementation for this Consortium including but not limited to school

board minutes technology consortium records established policy statements grant

applications tabular data and evaluations Not all of these documents were available

fi-om Dr McCullough or fi-om Consortium members What was available included the

initial grant applications needs assessment surveys and technology plan The Academic

Excellence Indicator System (AEIS) reports for the 1997-98 school year for each district

were retrieved fi-om the TEA web site (TEA 1999) During the course of informant

interviews certain legal documents were alluded to found in Vemons Texas Codes

Annotated and were useful in verifying interview data A current survey (September

59

1998) ofthe Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) provided a comparison

of similarly situated school districts for technology use Cumulative accountability data

conceming these districts was found in pubhc records (TEA 1995 1996 1997a 1998)

Standardized indicators of district performance could thus be obtained as evidence of

progress

Merriam (1988) suggests that the use of these documents assists in grounding a

study into the context ofthe problem that is under investigation A further purpose of

reviewing documentation is that such records present not only the history ofthe

technology program but also the sense of ownership and commitment that the leadership

exerts and the staff reflect in their service to their leaming communities We also seek

independent objective means to determine if these technology implementations yield any

progress thus avoiding halo effects fi-om those most intimately involved with the

organization

Data Analysis

Since data collection and data analysis drive one another (Gay 1997) the data

was organized to reflect pattems or themes which emerged fi-om the data (Bogdan amp

Biklen 1992) As they discuss evaluating data they affirm that a method of finding a

focus is to look over your coding categories and see which have yielded the greatest

amount of data (p 186)

The interview transcripts were read and reread to gamer a sense ofthe concems

manifested by the informants The analysis had to be germane to the viewpoint ofthe

informant (Tashakkori amp Teddlie 1998) Coding categories emerging fi-om the interview

60

data included student leaming distance leaming power attitudes training infrastmcture

and finance The relevant narrative fi-om the hard copies ofthe transcripts were color

coded by crayon By using the cut-and-paste editing method with the word processor

color coded text fi-om individuals transcripts were collated into listings of specific

concems

Bogdan and Biklen (1992) suggest that this method of sorting piles of coded

material helps the researcher in not only making better sense ofthe data but also

communicating the results to others Appendix H shows the broad categories or themes

along with the sub-categories which comprised each theme

Since both quantitative and qualitative data were used in this present research it

becomes vital to justify the use of each paradigm and how the data is analyzed within that

paradigm Tashakkori and Teddlie (1998) wholeheartedly affirm that the two paradigms

can be successfully fused into one study They suggest that researchers deemed

pragmatic do not necessarily have to be doctrinaire about research paradigms Among

the various research models they describe is included a mixed-model study which

includes a research design that calls for a field experiment and extensive ethnographic

interviewing to occur simultaneously and in an integrated manner (p 19)

The CFSoC survey (Hall et al 1991) was analyzed as per the instmctions given

and the examples displayed in Section IV of their instruments manual Since each

informant could be considered at an individual position on the CFSoC concems

continuum a hypothesized profile was made for each informant based on the relative

extremes in percentile ranks derived fi-om the raw scores ofthe seven concem stages on

61

the CFSoC protocol (pp 33-34) Hall et al took pains to remind CFSoC users that the

quantitative results could only be considered data to generate hypotheses (p 43)

The examples given in the CFSoC manual make comparisons ofthe various high

stages that informants exhibit For example a high raw score in Stage 3-Management

would reflect that the informant may have significant concems toward logistics time and

management in fulfilling professional duties vis-a-vis implementing the discussed

innovation A high raw score at Stage 0-Awareness uniquely and specifically indicates

that the informant may have many other concems in addition to the innovation currently

in question These extemal concems could be any other activities that vie for a change

facilitators limited attention that outweigh the immediate concem for the stated

innovation Hall et al describe a variety of combinations and relative positioning of those

concems that are most prominent in the informants thinking Data reporting of

informants CFSoC profiles in Chapter IV will reflect analysis strategies described by

Hall et al in their manual (Hall et al 1991 pp 34-42)

Tashakkori and Teddlie (1998) assert that the qualitative field material (notes

interviews etc) be evaluated on two dimensions a) whether the themes or categories

were established a priori or emerged during the analysis and b) the degree of complexity

ofthe qualitative analysis scheme (ranging fi-om simple to complex) (p 117) They note

that through this process of emerging themes six to eight categories or themes emerge

when no a priori mle is imposed on informants

Because the data would be analyzed using recurring themes (Glesne amp Peshkin

1992 Howard 1994 Miles amp Huberman 1984) emerging fi-om the course of

interviewing the technique of latent content analysis was used As opposed to manifest

62

content the surface meaning of a text latent content refers to determining the underlying

meaning of a narrative and is determined by a subjective evaluation ofthe overall

content ofthe narrative (Tashakkori amp Teddhe 1998 p 122)

The text ofthe interviews was read several times for topics that the informants

found important Those topics which appeared most fi-equently emerged as the themes

Tashakkori and Teddlie point out that this analysis scheme makes it more appropriate for

the phenomenon being studied (p 123)

Verification Strategies

Maxwell (1996) insists that validity in a quahtative study is not acquired simply

by applying boilerplate techniques and strategies but by describing specific ways and

means of mling out possible altematives to our interpretations and conclusions Maxwell

insists that validity is a goal rather than a product it is never something that can be

proven or taken for granted (p 86) Moreover validity must be determined within the

context ofthe research and not merely a property independent ofthe context For each of

three principal means of understanding Maxwell describes a specific method that I was

able to use to better ensure validity

1 Description Since the main threat to description is inaccuracy the informant

interviews were recorded on cassette tape and transcribed Each ofthe informants was

sent a copy ofthe transcribed conversation for review verification and suggestions

2 Interpretation The principal threat to interpretation is imposing my own

meanings to the informants words To combat this validity threat consistent member

checks were made during the course ofthe interviews to ensure that I was getting the

63

correct information from the informant It was important to allow each informant to

express himself or herself in their own words Several methods of eliminating personal

bias are described below

3 Theory Not paying adequate attention to altemative propositions becomes the

most serious threat to theoretical validity (Maxwell 1996 p 89-90) Altemative

propositions can be masked by researcher bias and reactivity

Elimination of researcher bias is based on understanding how my personal biases

could affect the informants and their comments and my conclusions subsequently

derived Maxwell declares that is virtually impossible to totally eliminate my personal

thinking and values from the study (p 91) By asking similar questions of informants by

allowing these informants to candidly express themselves and by consistent member

checking I controlled for personal bias

Reactivity the influence ofthe researcher on the informants is likewise

impossible to totally remove from the research as Maxwell insists

For interviews in contrast reactivity is a powerful and inescapable influence what the informant says is always a function of the interviewer and interview situation What is important is to understand how you are influencing what the informant says and how this affects the validity ofthe inferences you can draw fi-om the interview (p 91)

Lists of what to do to combat reactivity have been compiled (Marshall amp

Rossman 1989 Maxwell 1996) but all of these suggestions (triangulation member

checks audits etc) are simply the usual methods in qualitative research Since there are

64

virtually no qualitative studies ofthe research instrument available for comparison I have

relied on these procedures to control for biases

1 Feedback Maxwell (1996) encourages the use of a variety of outside observers

to examine the data analysis and give their comments to critique my logic and methods

Two individuals with experience with both technology and research methods have agreed

to assist me with this and evaluate the data analysis

a Mr Jack P Stell instmctional design manager Fairfax VA and b Dr C L Wayne Moore Assistant Professor University of Tennessee Knoxville

With differing perspectives and biases these reviewers indicated agreement that

the research methodology proposed was indeed followed and that the research questions

were answered They pointed out grammatical and spelling errors writing style concems

adherence to APA requirements etc

2 Member Checks Although informants were given repeated opportunities to

clarify themselves in the interviews informants were given the opportunity to respond to

the data analysis specifically identifying themselves

3 Rich Data Maxwell (1996) considers rich data to be detailed and complete

enough that they provide a full and revealing picture of what is going on (p 95) This

generally includes verbatim transcripts of interviews which were compiled for each of

the Consortium informants As the data was read and considered themes emerged fi-om

the data

4 Numerical Report Data This researcher used numerical and normally

quantitative data to add to the confidence level of what my informants were saying

There was particular concem with whether the efforts ofthe Consortium were making

65

any progress over the time period from its establishment to the time ofthe interviews

Publicly available data was gamered from AEIS and TAAS reports to ascertain progress

in school performance

Study Limitations

This study focused on technology implementation concems of change facilitators

of a single technology consortium limiting the representativeness ofthe study The

combined student population of these five districts is smaller than many urban high

schools Interview responses reflected a rural attitude Findings yielded reflect the

comments of those interviewed at the time ofthe study There may be a variety of future

long-range plans pending that might modify present policies These would include grants

bond issues school board elections or even newer state mandates

Nevertheless this study must transcend these limitations in order to be of interest

and find applicability by other scholars Yin (1994) hastens to point out that the case

study paradigm relies on analytical generalization not experimental statistical

generalization to generalize the results to a broader theory (p 36) Yin suggests

replication of a case study with similar sites before a general theory can gain wider

acceptance

There is also the problem of apphcability to school settings markedly different

from those studied However issues that are common to school districts in general could

be expressed by these informants (eg concems over funding student leaming staff

development or transfer of power)

66

CHAPTER IV

RESULTS OF THE STUDY

Informant and CFSoC Profiles

As discussed in Chapter III Consortium informants were sent a copy ofthe

CFSoC questionnaire and those protocols were retumed to this researcher These

informants responses have been evaluated according to guidelines established by Hall et

al (1991) This instmment does not consign each informant to each ofthe seven stages of

concem but rather categorizes the informant in a broader category of CBAM either

Awareness Self Task or Impact as was discussed in Chapter II Consequently each

informant will be designated by the general category based on their individual CFSoC

profile TheCFSoC protocols for each ofthe informants are included as figures in this

chapter

James

James Petty is the high school principal at Camden a position he has held for over

fifteen years James considers himself a practical person and professes a rather traditional

attitude toward his administrative duties The interview with James repeatedly mentioned

school discipline and teacher control ofthe classroom He readily admitted to relying on

other persons to inform him on technological issues rather than researching the data

himself

James CFSoC profile (Figure 4-1) exhibited extremely high levels of concem

with Awareness Management and Personal stages with percentile scores over 90 The

67

0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage 0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score 99 69 99 96 13 21 68

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-1 CFSoC Profile of James Petty Camden Principal

68

high Personal score suggests a concem for personal position and standing while the high

Awareness score indicates a diversity of issues facing him which to him are of greater

importance particularly classroom management Also a high Management score implies

time logistical and managerial concems The moderately high Refocusing score

indicates James has thought about altematives to the innovation and would be exhibiting

definite ideas and opinions over the technology implementation This profile suggests

James is not as likely to be involved in the change process as others might be Attempts

to intervene could intensify his current levels of concem Because ofthe high scores in

the Self array of stages I would hypothesize James to be in the SELF stage of concem

Bill

Bill Potter is the technology coordinator for the Camden schools although he

continues to teach math for much of his school day Bill leamed his present trade largely

by doing it Although relatively new to computers (less than fifteen years) Bill considers

himself to have been oriented toward technology from his military days as an Army pilot

during the 1960s to the present His formal computer training has only been in a few

junior college classes and some inservice training Bill credits his technology reputation

to being the one who knew how to operate the computer at an earlier date than his peers

Although in the technology coordinator role Bills highest CFSoC profile (Figure

4-2) score was in Awareness This is most likely attributable to having many other

professional concems at present particularly since he remains a classroom teacher for

69

0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

91 56 62 60

5 12 18

2 3 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-2 CFSoC Profile of Bill Potter Camden Technology Coordinator

70

much ofthe school day as well as his increaseingly greater role in his school district He

may also just now be beginning to envision himself as a change facilitator

Information Personal and Management scores are no more than six percentile

points apart suggesting personal status and time logistical and managerial concems are

also important to Bill An increased Refocusing score also indicates Bill has some

definite ideas about the innovation that warrant consideration Bill manifests a SELF

stage of concem for this iimovation based on his CFSoC profile

Ronnie

Ronnie Bennett has been technology coordinator at Dellwood for just a few years

but has a long reputation and a deep pioneering attitude not only toward computers but to

a wide array of technology Ronnie was the first at his school to use a computer first with

a VCR first with a CD player and first to tinker with quadrophonic sound Like Bill

Ronnie first leamed computing by doing it In addition Ronnie observed and later

worked with the various private vendors and technicians who provided technology

services to his building

Ronnies CFSoC profile (Figure 4-3) indicates several areas of concem High

Awareness and Personal scores indicate many concems other than the present technology

implementation Ronnie also considers his personal position and role in the school

organization to be important The similar scores in Management and Refocusing reflect

his concem for time and managerial issues and his definite additional ideas toward the

71

0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

99 76 97 91 39 40 92

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-3 CFSoC Profile of Ronnie Bennett Dellwood Technology Coordinator

72

innovation that might warrant consideration Ronnie appears to border between the SELF

and TASK stages of concem

Larry

Larry Beckman a former agriculture teacher has been the superintendent at

North Prairie for a few years Larry realizes his mral attitudes and folksy manner but

demonstrates by his proactive approach to leadership that advancing technology in his

district is in the best interests of his students and staff He has had little formal training

intechnology except for several workshops However Larry credits a hands-on

technology approach as most effective for himself

Larry had relatively high percentile scores for each ofthe seven stages of concem

with a low of 68 in Consequence Larrys highest CFSoC profile (Figure 4-4) score was

Management suggesting that the physical nuts and bolts and managerial concems

were most important Information scoring higher than Awareness indicates a better

understanding ofthe details ofthe innovation Larrys lowest scores in Personal

Consequence and Collaboration were only five percentile points apart suggesting

relatively lower concem for interpersonal interests He also scored high in Refocusing

suggesting that he is considering additional ideas about the iimovation that should be

considered Because ofthe high degree of management concems Larry would be best

described as being in the TASK stage of concem

73

0

100

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

87 89 73 94 68 72 92

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-4 CFSoC Profile of Larry Beckman North Prairie Superintendent

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Mike

Mike McCoy has spent almost a decade at Sawtooth as superintendent Like

several others Mike is perceived as a doer having leamed a great deal about

technology through practical application Mike has a more direct responsibility with his

staff doing teacher evaluations and performing first-line maintenance with his buildings

technology He credits both a number of technology workshops and reading of

technology periodicals as being great sources of information

Mike as superintendent has many concems on his mind as his CFSoC profile

(Figure 4-5) indicates with a high score in Awareness His second highest score

Management suggests that he feels the cmnch of managerial and material concems for

his district Low Information and Personal scores could suggest that he feels secure in his

position and understanding ofthe innovation implementation A slight increase in

Refocusing fi-om Collaboration suggests that Mike is considering some ideas in addition

to the innovation implementation Because more personal concems are lower and the

managerial concems are high Mike appears to be in the TASK stage of concem

Vemon

Vemon Russell has well over three decades of public school service currently

finding himself as principal ofthe Sawtooth school Indeed he still teaches some science

classes and has even coached football while still an administrator Vemon is relatively

new to technology but indicates his willingness to leam by studiously reading the

manuals and attending workshops Vemon quips Ive leamed more from it in the last

three years than all the other years put together

75

0 100

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

96 43 34 82 9

18 31

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-5 CFSoC Profile of Mike McCoy Sawtooth Superintendent

76

Vemons CFSoC profile (Figure 4-6) shows him interested and positive about the

innovation with the higher Information score but the high Management score shows

Vemon still concemed over his day-to-day details Low Personal and even lower

Consequence and Collaboration scores and both raw and percentile scores of zero for

Refocusing indicate little concem over his facilitative role his personal status nor his

interest in exploring altematives toward this innovation At this late stage of career

Vemon appears comfortable in his knowledge ofthe innovation Vemon also appears to

be in the TASK stage of concem based on the high Management score

Renee

Renee White a mid-career educator occupies the technology coordinator

designation at Sawtooth schools Having been a secretary for twenty years Renee

considers herself adept at any technology thrown at her Describing herself as the chief

distributor of information Renee considers herself glad not to have a computer in her

home because she would play with it indefinitely

Renee exhibits similarly high percentile scores in Awareness and Management on

her CFSoC profile (Figure 4-7) These scores imply Renee has both a variety of concems

in addition to the innovation implementation and also concems over time logistics and

management of her responsibilities Similarly low percentile scores in Information

Personal Consequence and Collaboration suggest lesser concem for personal position

and collaboration needs A slight upswing in the Refocusing score suggests a concem for

articulating altemative ideas Renee seems to exhibit a TASK stage of concem

77

0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

69 81 30 78 16 4 0

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-6 CFSoC Profile of Vemon Russell Sawtooth Principal

78

0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

91 18 30 86 2 3

18

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-7 CFSoC Profile of Renee White Sawtooth Technology Coordinator

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David

David Jackson has been an administrator for decades and is the superintendent at

Woodlake David recognized the potential of computers and technology as soon as

computers became widely available to schools He enjoys being involved with the nuts

and bolts details of technology implementation even to the point of being involved with

the wiring for hardware implementation

David shows the same percentile score for both Awareness and Information on his

CFSoC profile (Figure 4-8) This impHes Davids concem for a variety of issues at

present and a desire to leam more about the innovation A relatively high Management

score suggests physical and managerial concems Lower scores in Personal and

Consequence imply that personal position and impact are not as important to David

Nevertheless Davids higher scores in Collaboration and Refocusing suggest a desire to

work together with others to make an impact on their leamers and to consider

altematives to innovation implementation David appears to be in the IMPACT stage of

concem very much concemed with how well he facilitates change with his staff

Stephen

Stephen Greer has been secondary principal at Woodlake for several years He has

always been interested in technology but attributes his current increased level of interest

to his rising to his present administrative post Stephen describes himself as a leamer

enjoying researching a problem and its solution A former math teacher and coach

Stephen considers himself an innovator

80

100

0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness I- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

87 87 30 74 13 60 68

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-8 CFSoC Profile of David Jackson Woodlake Superintendent

81

0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1 - Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

81 61 73 93 62 60 13

2 3 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-9 CFSoC Profile of Stephen Greer Woodlake Principal

82

Stephens highest percentile score on his CFSoC profile (Figure 4-9) was in

Management implying greatest concem with logistical and managerial concems A

somewhat lower score in Awareness suggests concems over other issues at present

Similar percentile scores in Personal Consequence and Collaboration could be

interpreted as concem for his impact for his facilitative and collaborative styles A very

low Refocusing score implies that Stephen is not considering altematives to the

innovation at this time Stephens profile best reflects the TASK stage of concem

Summary of CFSoC Data

To summarize these school change facilitators demonstrate a variety of change

facilitator strengths and had at least one individual in each ofthe CBAM stages (SELF

TASK IMPACT) Most of them score relatively high in Awareness suggesting that there

are other competing issues for that individuals time Management also scores

consistently high suggesting the day-to-day managerial and logistical details of the job is

of major importance to each informant Individuals appeared to be on a higher CBAM

stage as they held a higher position in the school district although there were some

differences which could be due to experience with the innovation

Informant Concems

Informant concems were also collected as described in Chapter III Each

informants interview was tape recorded and transcribed Copies ofthe transcriptions

were sent to each informant for confirmation prior to data analysis

83

Seven overriding themes emerged across these interviews These were topics that

appeared to be important to these informants as they implemented new technologies in

their school districts in relation to the TEKS for technology applications The informants

registered strong opinions over these themes To reiterate these themes are discussed in

regard to the Consortium as a whole since the focus ofthe study was not on inter-role

relationships

Attitudes

The informants collectively expressed concems over the attitudes of themselves

their peers and their staffs There was high concem over the prevailing desire to keep

current with the technology David Jackson Woodlake Superintendent was a pioneer in

his district with implementing computer use and describes those early days

When we got our first network and put computers in the classroom that is the first keyboard many of our teachers had ever touched in their life as far as a computer keyboard Had no idea how to tum it on Had no idea how to apply software Knew nothing Scared them to death Still have a few that are very reluctant to use a computer or Intemet or any type of technology of that sort in the classroom

David feels that his some of his staff still manifest a degree of reluctance to use

technology

So the biggest challenge that Ive had is getting teachers to acquaint themselves with computer technology and cable technology all the technologies that have been made available to them You know its not going to do any good if they dont know how to use it

84

Larry Beckman North Prairie Superintendent recognizes the need to keep his

district current with new technology

And I think a part of that is that a lot of us out here we know well I dont know whether we know or whatever but anyway we feel like maybe that weve got to try and stay on top of it as much as we can because we are so far away from anything And if we dont we dont stay on top of it were basically hurting our kids because you know if they graduate fi-om here and go over to Tech or to AampM or somewhere like that then they run into these situations you know theyve never seen any kind of this kind of equipment then theyre already two years behind everybody

Stephen Greer Woodlake Principal believes he is indeed on the fi-ont edge of

the curve at this point in time but credits his rising to an administrative post as a turning

point in his attitudes toward technology

Really up until the time I became an administrator we were the kind of on the back end ofthe curve there for a while but I feel were comfortable where we are right now technology wise

So much ofthe difficulty in implementing technology has centered on the fear of

change These informants encounter these fears daily both within themselves and their

staffs There appears to be a generational gap in acceptance of technology James Petty

Camden Principal considered his teachers and noted

I definitely see a difference in the age groups Those that are five years away from retiring are more difficult to get into use ofthe computer maybe a lot of times And probably the younger ones its just much easier for them to accept and to use a computer right off

85

Similarly Vemon Russell Sawtooth Principal chalks it up to age and experience

level

We have one or two teachers who use it but use it sparingly you know what Im saying But we have other teachers I think that use it a lot Probably our primary grades its used less in K through 1 than anywheres But then they are traditional teachers Theyve been teaching a long time

Concurring David Jackson correctly noted

Because many of our teachers are intimidated by the fact that the students in their classroom know a whole lot more about the technology available in the classroom than they do Which is not uncommon I think in many schools

Bill Potter Camden Technology Coordinator marvels at the older teachers lack

of desire to advance in technology

Its like the older teachers you know they put that thing over in the comer and dust it off just like that F-16 out in front ofthe park you know Nobody knows how to fly it but boy we maintain it and it stays shiny Thats they way a lot of these older teachers treat their computers Theyre afraid to tum them on see so weve got to overcome that fear

Bill suggests that some ofthe more sophisticated technologies now in homes

might influence younger educators greater acceptance of technology

Of course as these people retire and theyre going to get here pretty quick I imagine in our school system and the younger ones take to more technology and the younger they get the better theyre going to be because theyve all grown up with VCRs and your microwaves

86

Renee White Sawtooth Technology Coordinator would add that teachers

purchasing of personal computers improves their attitudes toward technology

A lot ofthe teachers own personal computers and so increasingly at our school theres a higher comfort level with using them and with experimenting and trying to figure things out than there was just two years ago I dont know if its a change in personnel or it its simply the exposure has increased the comfort level Maybe some of both

Larry Beckman as a district leader strongly realizes that m the face of change

positive efforts to make change happen is preferable to ignoring the need for change

It forces you you know its kind of like you can either get on the boat and help paddle or you can get off and swim Id rather be in the boat paddling and trying to stay up with it because I dont swim very fast

Ronnie Bennett Dellwood Technology Coordinator strongly rejects the notion

that change is bad After decades in the classroom and office Ronnie is aware how

attitudes shape teaching activity

A long time ago I leamed that change is not always bad And I guess back there when I first decided you know I told myself there were a lot of people that said Computers are not for me I remember that and I told myself I thought I could either leam how to do this or Im going to fall by the wayside And having always been interested in technology and all change has never been a problem for me And it is for a lot of folks People that have taught school a certam way for twenty or twenty-five years and suddenly you interject this new thing called technology or computers and some people just say Now wait a minute I didnt think what I was doing was all that bad

87

Ronnie suggests that some teachers might be blinded to their own attitudes about

their teaching practices

As a regular classroom teacher I know that the way I present things and the way the kids I dont present things anything like I did when I first started teaching at all And thats because kids change times change You cant stay the same Things dont stay the same You have to be willing to you know if theres a better way to do something you know what we have is we have a lot of people that have been in this profession for twenty twenty-five some of them nearly thirty years and they taught the same lesson wrong for thirty years Just because youve done it over and over and over doesnt mean that its right

Power

In addition to changes in attitudes changes in school curricula educational

methods extemal mandates etc also bring about changes in power Who has the

authority Who decides what to do Who calls the shots These issues were on the minds

ofthe informants

Crawford Bodine and Hoglund (1993) distinguish attributes of recognized power

by de iure school leaders from perceived powerment of classroom personnel Power for

the sitting administrator is the fi-eedom fi-om being told by others what to do (p 143)

The classroom person being empowered to leadership is instead acknowledged their

power and receives fi-eedom to exercise that responsibility with a minimum of

bureaucratic or managerial constraints (p 232)

88

Technology appears to be a key means of providing teachers the empowerment to

collaborate Ronnie Bennetts early vision of computers manifested prescience

I remember thinking you know This is a way for teachers to share things I remember thinking that you know that teachers had access to a machine that would allow them to communicate back and forth with teachers at other schools then would share all this information Of course now with e-mail and the Intemet thats what they want everybody to do

Not only does technology empower the teacher but also the leamer Stephen a

secondary principal would hope that his teachers realize the need to surrender some of

their perceived power with a view toward improving instmction

I have tried to push for change away fi-om lecturelisten and readtake notes multiple choice assessment And I have pushed for learner-centered self directed leaming What I couldnt achieve through preaching and bullying technology has almost single-handedly achieved for me in that area

Renee noted that often her students were akeady prepped to use the technology

She had no quahns over accepting a more facilitative role with her students

Now the fact was you know the computers were there and the kids were going to leam about them whether I helped them or not because thats the nature of children They like that technology theyll figure it out with you or without you

Not only direct instmction but also day-to-day teacher practices are being

changed due to technology Stephen related anecdotes about the changes technology

made in unbalancing teachers perceived status and power

89

Ive witnessed the evolution of one of our teachers in particular that happens to be a coach that when he and I both appeared on this campus ten years ago he was strictly a traditional instmctor But Ill tell you right now its hard for him or has been hard for him but hes making the move successfully to give up the stmcture to give up the power and tum the power of leaming over to the students rather than the power being wielded by the teacher Thats been a hard stretch and technology it helps it gives you a venue to shift that power but at the same time there are sticky issues Obviously fi-ee speech issues obscenity issues those kind of things that are introduced with the advent of technology

Just getting traditional teachers to use a simple software package has tumed into

virtual showdowns in the administrative office Stephen gives an example from a

colleagues experience that echoes his own understanding

I think of an administrator fiiend of mine in a school in the Panhandle and theyre trying to move the rank-and-file in that direction And they are to the point where grades are submitted on disk at the end ofthe semester And they just have one math teacher as it tums out thats refiised you know just-was-not-going-to-do-it you know and finally his principal after two directives the third time he went down there and said Look you will tum your gradebook in on disk in May or you will not be working here in August That simple Step out But there are a lot of people that are nervous and I think its fear mostly I think its fear

The imposition of new ideas and new procedures can have an intimidating effect

on traditional teachers and administrators a relinquishing of power James admittedly a

traditional administrator relates that some of his teachers might be following his lead in

leaming new things

Its like making them do something that you know theyre required to do and theyre only doing it because they have to Maybe

90

Im like them or theyre like me in that some of us older dogs its a bit more difficuh to teach us something new or change

If leaming technology is merely a requirement for continuing teacher development

and not something that is perceived as needed then teachers will exhibit reluctance in

adoption of new technologies

As new technologies are implemented in schools there is the need for immediate

assistance in using the technology Those persons designated as technology coordinator

of a building or a district have had a modicum of perceived power bestowed on them

although each of these coordinators who have acted as informants still spends a

significant portion of their day in the classroom

Ronnie Bennett relates that his experiences with a number of superintendents

have tacitly acknowledged his expertise

Ive always been the kind of person that if something is broke that somehow ends up in my hands

Often they would say to Ronnie You tell me what you want or what to do

Ronnie appreciated one superintendent that was particularly supportive

(Conceming administrative support) but Buster (the superintendent) was like you know he wanted in there boy But he just about anything I ever wanted or needed you know he was just he was ready And he knew what I was talking about above all whereas a lot ofthe others had no idea what I was talking about

Bill found himself stumbling into his role as technology coordinator

91

But as far as being specifically trained for this Im not I just picked it up as I went and I was the guy that knew how to tum the computer on so I got the job you know as the Computer Gum You know the people the powers that be many of them ofthe teachers looked at me as having expertise really that I didnt have I just had one at home and knew how to tum it on they didnt They just thought I was genius you know so thats how I inherited this job

Later Bill found himself besieged by folks wanting his specialized knowledge

As kids leam more and more of this (computers) then we have people I have people you know that call and want to What kind of computer do I need to buy Of course you know thats like trying to recommend the type of automobile (they need to buy) and you dont want to get into that

Renee would chalk up her perceived expertise to her job title She has been skilled

with computers for years but has not always had people wanting her knowledge about

computers while she officially taught another subject at another school

So anyway I knew a lot about computers before other people but (because I taught home economics) no one ever asked me anything about computers at that school The whole year I was there no one had a question about computers All of a sudden because I teach computers I am the computer gum the shift in the role simply came with the title So I think what Im trying to say is is it the title itself dictating your role Not so much at first your knowledge so thats helpful and certainly its going to keep people coming back if youve been able to help them but simply your title itself says Oh you must have explanations that will help us here

Nevertheless final authority remains in the hands of de iure administrators One

ofthe technology coordinators explains

92

And another thing too is that the administrator has the authority and theres a lot of things that I can see like I see we need to be doing training and that sort of thing but I dont have the authority in order to make that happen But until you get these administrators that are you know technologically oriented you know its hard to make things like that happen

This same technology coordinator feels fhistrated with trying to get teachers to use

technology and insists that those in leadership need to take charge and lead

Weve got these people at that level like the administrative level who have to provide the leadership that have the authority to make things happen and its like convincing someone you know youve got to convince them ofthe fact that it needs to be done Theyre too comfortable with you know getting the basketball games arranged and all this sort of thing and making sure a teachers in a certain classroom but boy when it comes to technology unless that person has used a computer its foreign to them

Student Leaming

The educational leadership literature points us to student learning as the ultimate

goal in any educational enterprise These informants unanimously echoed that concem

Unless the school staff perceive that the technology hardware is adequate to provide

quality educational experiences for the students the hardware is of little value Larry a

superintendent wonders why anyone would think otherwise

(Conceming his site-based committee) And then let them kind of I guess decipher what it is that they can use what it is that we need for our students how its going to benefit the kids whenever we get this stuff Whats going to be the benefit for the kids Are we going to teach them how to use it or are we just going to put it in the comer

93

Because he perceives that both students and staff are using the machinery effectively

Larry is more encouraged to plan for an increase in hardware for his district

Renee has been enmeshed in the technology for so long and has seen so much

progress with her students that they find technology use as normal

The kids who are in the tenth grade this year started school with computers They started kindergarten in Sawtooth with computers theyre the first class And when they hit my eighth grade class in computer literacy two years ago all I had to do was say Heres the program I want you to go to the menus at the top ofthe screen and see whats under each menu and get an idea of where things are Now I want you to create a PowerPoint presentation with these elements and I promise you other than probably a four or five minute demonstration on the program how it operated I did not have to tell those kids a thing It was OK where you expect them

Because of implementation of technology teachers are not only expected to use it

and thereby improve their teaching but also to increase student leaming Stephen a

secondary principal noticed the difference almost immediately

When we became connected and we put our computer labs online and when we got computers that are interfaced with televisions that are hooked into the Intemet and also to cable in the classroom Then automatically the teachers saw the convenience and the usefulness of using technology in what they do It sort of served as a catalyst to move fi-om traditional lecture instmction to student self-directed leaming To me thats the biggest change

Stephen considers technology as the catalyst in many areas of education He

integrates his technology concems with more global interests

94

Technology is proving to be a wonderful thing and a wonderfijl instmctional aid and in a large sense in my mind its the thing thats driving the conversations we have in the political realms regarding charter schools home schools private school vouchers because we dont have the monopoly on education any more and I think thats a good thing I think students and their parents are going to look for the most bang for their buck and theyre going to look for education thats provided to them opportunities and experiences thats provided to them in a non-encumbering way To me the biggest question is in relation to technology is how to predict where were going

If indeed the quality of teaching is critical toward student leaming technology is

not always believed to be a positive factor in such progress David a superintendent is

not happy with some ofthe pervasiveness of technology in the classroom

I may be totally wrong but probably thats going to be the biggest area of change is the way we deliver instmction to students other than one-on-one in the classroom I see the day that the kids here at Woodlake schools will be watching the TV monitor

As a traditional administrator in a traditional school James has reservations on

how well teaching quality is exhibited when mixed with various technologies and

instmctional arrangements Traditional school procedures such as homework could be

modified or even made obsolete through technology James even suggests that his

teachers may never have the time nor the physical space in their rooms to handle all the

information fi-om the new technologies He senses a foreboding dread of technology

having the potential to replace the teacher

I see tremendous change and I think its going to continue and grow by leaps and bounds whether its laser discs or computers And I dont know where all its going but I see it coming And I dont think

95

the teachers ever going to be replaced I hope they dont try because itll our quality of teaching is going to diminish I think if they do but I do see more and more technology involved in the classroom by these various kinds of things that weve been talking about

Informants have had varying amounts of time to measure the effectiveness of their

technology implementation Some of these districts have had over a decade to consider

increases in student leaming through computer technology David elaborated about what

his students at Woodlake have accomplished due to their years of experience with

technology

I feel like our students will be very prepared when they leave here to go on to college in the area of technology Woodlake has been fortunate to have (had) technology a lot longer than many other schools and weve had kiddos that have been able to use technology that they leamed here to work their way through college based on what theyve leamed and the exposure they got right here on technology

Mike McCoy Sawtooth Superintendent also has had highly advanced hardware

in his building for years and remarks how Sawtooth students at every level are integrating

technology into the curriculum

The students are just so extremely comfortable with technology I mean its just second nature with them almost You know we have computers in kindergarten you know all the way through twelfth grade and theyre in every classroom Our kindergarteners have no trouble with just going in sitting at the computer and you know being able to by themselves you know pull up a game or whatever it could be Every one of our elementary kids know that the information is available to them and they know how to get it off the Intemet They know where to go

96

Renee cautions that the changes that have been made and the progress achieved are

not just ends in themselves Despite piles of advanced technology in the classroom

Renee interjects

I still have to teach students to write I still have to teach students grammar I still have to teach students how to understand what they read I still have to get them to read I have to get them to write And I think this is tme generally technology is only a tool Its not the end result Were trying to teach students reading writing and arithmetic The 3 Rs The tools have changed the concepts have not Youre still trying to teach kids to think so they can move out into the world and be citizens ofthe greater society

Some administrators admittedly traditional in orientation have concems that

technology will dismpt the orderly progress that they have endeavored to produce in their

buildings They assume that discipline will lead to better student leaming James wonders

what effects distance leaming and Intemet use will have on both instmction and student

research when discussing the new interactive video delivered foreign languages classes

his school might offer

And to go the advanced (diploma) route its almost a necessary part of our curriculum As far as liking it I dont I think they do a poor job of teaching the course I think its just not a good way for students to leam

As for the interactive class James does not think it represents the best teaching method

He would prefer to have a live teacher in the classroom one that will be more proactive

in maintaining discipline and standard teaching activities

97

Vemon also expressed concem over intemal discipline in the use ofthe e-mail

function ofthe system

My concem is consistency on the discipline ofthe e-mail of students in our school We try not to let them use it personally and I dont think its consistently enforced throughout our school and its very hard to supervise e-mail The e-mails a problem here that I have some teachers that watch it close and some teachers that dont

Indeed while discussing student leaming all of these informants expressed

specific concems over distance leaming and about its effects on their jobs and their

leamers As a result an additional concems theme distance emerged fi-om the data

Distance

Because the Consortium is implementing an advanced distance leaming center in

each of its member schools each informant volunteered concems over its

implementation use and outcomes The very concept of distance however is not

simply limited to distance leaming but also to the significant distances Consortium

educators have between their schools and sources of school improvement

These informants perceive improvement for their school districts by being able to

bring a greater variety of activities and services to their districts Larry a superintendent

jumps at the chance to use distance leaming in his district He sees benefits in distance

leaming to both professional and student progress as well as it being a cost-cutting

measure

98

I think its going to be extremely beneficial especially to schools out here like we are that you know were an hour and a half away fi-om the Service Center or fi-om Center City or Tech or anywhere like that and itll be extremely beneficial to our students You know we can pick up some college classes We can get them some dual-credit classes Ive got some people here that want to take some classes and want to work on some graduate work and so forth that maybe we can pick up School board training and in-service training through the Service Center will save us lots of dollars and lots of time because if we dont have to travel all the way to Center City to get our in-service and even if its a half-a-day deal you spend a whole day by the time you drive over there and drive back

Mike agrees with Larrys concem over hteral distance fi-om school to service

center When staff have to do as much travel as do these school leaders distance becomes

a significant factor in what they can accomplish

Were so isolated Were a hundred miles from Center City which is where our Service Center is Instead of travel time you know because any teacher who leaves here loses a full day even if its an hour workshop

Renee echoes Mikes concems She experiences the presure ofthe distance cmnch

as she budgets her time and resources

We live a hundred miles fi-om any kind of technical support and we pay $10000 an hour for somebody to come out and fix it so you think twice before you even ask to have (a computer) looked at Can I work around this

Nevertheless there is a sense of concem registered by each informant over distance

leaming implementation As discussed in the previous section there is a fear of

99

technology supplanting the teachers role David sees distance leaming in his professional

future but also makes this prediction

My first instinct is to say that probably distance education is going to have effect particularly on mral America Im not real sure Im ready to buy that yet It may but Im not totally yet sold on distance leaming as a tool for replacing the teacher in the classroom There may come a day that that might be the only way that we can deliver some instmction to our students If and when that day comes I think thats going to be a shame and I think thats going to be a step back in education

Previous efforts with distance leaming were fi-ustrating at some informants

schools David registers his experiences

And (distance learning) wasnt that well received either fi-om the students or the parents And I know that distance leaming will be better than that because youll have two-way interactive audio and video at all times But I still have reservations and Ill have to see it work well to change my mind on it I probably cant stop it fi-om coming

Ronnie having been a distance leaming facilitator also remembers problems with

this teaching format for students and facilitator alike

But it was all these schools even as far away as Kansas that were viewing this at the same time And its hard to get through on the telephone line because you had all these people trying to get through to ask a question

When asked about the net effects of all this Ronnie explained

We had a lot of I guess youd say disillusioned parents and kids because they were expecting to get you know they thought What a

100

wonderfiil way to be in touch with computers and what have you And you know if we did work we had to bundle that work up send it to San Antonio Well by the time the guy got it graded and got it back you know it might be a week or two And at the same time we were under no pass no play mles And you had athletes that you know at three-weeks reporting period didnt know if they were passing or not And then some of them would wind up failing at the end and they didnt even really know why they were failing And so you know we had a bunch of kids that were like ineligible

Fmstrations registered by the aduh facilitators were received clearly but students

responses to the distance experience were even worse Ronnie elaborated in detail about

the legwork done on-site to facilitate distance leaming As is axiomatic in instmctional

design inadequate feedback does not promote leaming

The kids never really knew for sure if what they were doing was what he wanted or what was acceptable or till he had a chance to mark it and write notes on it and what have you And a lot of times by the time they did get feedback on it well it was too late

Renee also experienced first-hand the details of distance leaming Conceming the

possibilities of interactive video Renee questions

I guess the biggest concem has been teachers who are afi-aid that they will get dumped on How many students are you going to expect me to teach for this class that I have the same prep time that I had when I had seven kids And then all of a sudden Im teaching an interactive video classroom where I have kids fi-om Woodlake and from Dellwood and fi-om Beaverdam and fi-om Sawtooth and all of a sudden I have fifty kids instead of fifteen Im given the same amount of prep time or maybe Im given a second hour of prep I still have the logistics of having to be ready for however many my school district decides to contract for And I have to be eminently more prepared that I ever thought about having to be prepared in a normal classroom Because I cant go on the air and expect to freestyle it you

101

Renee a technology coordinator as well as a classroom teacher brings distance

leaming down to earth with her practical concems Contrasting with the concems of

teachers over the years distance leaming is bringing in new heretofore unanticipated

concems and challenges Renee relates

You know when we just had textbooks the worst problem you had to deal with was with the student who showed up in class without their books or you ran out of chalk and you sent somebody down to the office to get chalk But when you start using these levels of technology where the bugs are not quite as worked out then you not only run into you run into problems using the technology that really can cmsh your class time and cmsh your prep time

James is adamant in his dislike for distance leaming Earlier he indicated that

distance leaming might not be a good way to leam James augments this with more

mundane administrative concems Since James perceives the teacher role in a traditional

manner he has concem over classroom discipline in a distance leaming format

Well I dont think youre going to have any kind of classroom without discipline in the class And the only person that can do that is the one that is supposedly in charge the one thats taking care of grades etc So that teacher has almost got to see her classroom

Training

Unless teachers administrators and other school staff are appropriately trained to

use the new technology hardware and software will be of little use Continuous staff

training goes on in this Consortium but Vemon expressed dismay over some ofthe

preparations for early technology implementation

102

I dont think we did enough preplanning before we got involved with the computers We just sort of put them in and it became a hit-and-miss thing you understand If I had to do it over again I would want lots and lots of preplanning to see how we could do it better how to install how to implement and so forth how we wanted to use it for our curriculum

Other informants quipped that the limits of whatever training they had for some

technology applications simply consisted of Heres the computer Heres the box Theres

the desk Put it there Larry has jumped right in to get his staff trained through a variety

of sources He is looking forward to all the training perks his district will receive from

this present technology implementation and the workshops he has set up

Theres so much information and so many different benefits that can come over that that its just mind-boggling that everything that we can possibly pick up out here And so were going to get plenty of training before we ever jump in there and you know put a room full of equipment in there and then it sits there and gathers dust If we cant use it theres no need for it being out here

Larry affirms the benefits of leaming by doing

I guess I would say that probably about ninety percent of my training has basically come through the Service Center and the other ten percent is just hands-on getting one there and doing it You know I guess Ive leamed Ive leamed a lot by you know just by using it because if you dont well going to all the classes is not going to help you a bit anyway

Stephen realized a concem for the format of much of staff training He found the

typical training arrangements useless and intimidating for his staff Smaller traming

103

groups where more personal assistance can be given seems to be preferable to the mass

training activities so common to staff development

We dont herd thirty people in a room and have one person standing at a computer in front ofthe room and telling them how it can happen I mean we put five or six in the room and have somebody with knowledge about it there and then everybody has their hands on that tool They get to make their own mistakes so they get to correct their own mistakes and real leaming happens then

Now that Bill has a key role in training Camden staff in technology he realizes

that the increasing quantity of hardware possessed by the district carries with it the need

for increasing quality of staff straining

We had a bunch of stuff in quotes stuff but nobody knew anything about it you know And we got this stuff in We got it hooked up And then nobody knew how to maintain it There wasnt any training I mean you know yeah you look out here at Camden Oh boy Weve got computers But nobody knew how to tum them on and of course that wasnt where the emphasis was Wed met a requirement by having so many computers and that sort of thing and maybe doing a paper drill saying that people could do things but in reality that just wasnt there

Bill finds the attitudes of some of his colleagues fiiistrating If the computers are

seen as nothing more than expensive video games the implementation of technology

seems useless The teachers have yet to realize just what these computers can do for their

instmction

Its going to be easier there but we still have to train these people as to How do you use this thing See and most ofthe teachers dont have the time and the creativeness I guess or we dont give them the time you know to sit down and say Look at this thing You know

104

they dont go home like I used to and sit down and play with it because I enjoyed it see Id go home and play with it and say A-ha Man I can use this in my classroom

But as Bill has discovered some ofthe technology training ultimately takes hold

and teachers eventually intemahze new skills

But anything to get them to use those things You know if they just stumble on it like one of our Enghsh teachers has found all this stuff on Shakespeare and Macbeth you know and all this sort of thing Shes just going through the ceiling But thats just a little bitty part of things out there that you can find and these people dont know how to look for this stuff So weve got a lot of training (to do)

Ronnie concurs noting how his colleagues at Dellwood have been trained and

then apply the new technology

Well once they realized that this thing that got placed in their room was a tool that could be used for their benefit and could actually help them and their students you know they were ready to jump in there and start trying stuff

Unfortunately some Dellwood staff do indeed balk at modifications to their

training Citing the example of changing the district-adopted electronic gradebooks

Ronnie concluded

And some of them say Oh I just now leamed how to use the other one and here you are wanting to (change it) You know that type of change People get used to doing something and they dont want you to change them around but I think its human nature in anything

105

Infi-astmcture

With ever-advancing technological strides the infrastmcture needed to

successfully implement new curricular mandates has to also increase Our informants

pride themselves in their personal involvement in ensuring a topflight technology

infi-astmcture for their school districts

David describes himself as a pioneer in implementing new concepts in his district

When the challenge first came for implementing a computer network David relates

The maintenance guy and I sat down and said You know we can do this So we designed it ourselves and ran the wire and made the connections and totally put in the network system ourselves We did not hire it done which has helped from the standpoint of troubleshooting We put it in we know how it works and we can fix it

Mike also has rolled up his sleeves to keep hardware in Sawtooth working

efficiently If the technology coordinator is busy Mike has no qualms about getting

things fixed

We just had a problem this morning I was dealing with I went dovra there I can do the hardware things a whole lot easier than software but you know there were just two wires out of place I just kind of happened to notice it plug them back in the right places and we were back in business

Indeed Mike has stayed current with technology and maintenance

I have to stay a little more up here because if anything happens Im the guy they holler at so first I mean to fix it not just holler at Ive leamed a lot the last few years Just been forced to I guess

106

Bill laments the lack of foresight on the part of some administrators in keeping the

hardware maintained

That one-shot deal We got the computers That cost is out ofthe way We can forget about technology now weve got our X number of computers And then all of a sudden like you say weve got to have a hard drive here you know and a floppy drive went out there and a monitor goes out here well good-ness man whats the problem

Bill wonders if his leadership personnel were misled by various sales

representatives whose goals for sales were not always congment with school needs

Before I got into this our superintendent relied on a salesman and we bought a bunch of stuff we didnt need and it didnt fit in the overall plan It was like buying a Dodge engine and wed buy a Chevrolet body and all of a sudden these things werent compatible So we wasted a lot of money and Im sure school districts all over the state of Texas did This is a small community here Id like every shekel to count Theres not too many people around here that really realize that I dont guess

Stephen is concemed with making reasonable forecasts for what future

technologies he will need for his building He demonstrates that he has thought through

practical technology management issues

To me the biggest question is in relation to technology is how to predict where were going I mean just a little bit because were dropping tons of money on the hardware on the software on the training But even little issues I mean twenty years ago Woodlake was out in fi-ont on technology because they bought a bunch of Apple He computers And then they used them for eighteen years which put them way behind the leaming curve you know and then what computer do you buy Do you buy it with upgradable service contracts What kind of software are you looking for How is distance leaming going to

107

impact all this How does it impact your scheduling on a day-to-day basis How does it impact your school calendar How does it impact the people you hire

Stephen is looking squarely at the future needs of his staff and students

If we knew where it was headed we could be much more effective in our long-range planning But as it is in my mind its hard to plan beyond two years because theres no way of knowing where were going to be Weve had numerous conversations in my faculty meetings about individual laptops for students as opposed to the big stand-alone units in a big lab Theres discussions about the use of software versus hard-copy textbooks And I think were moving that way I just dont know how quickly And I dont know to what degree and thats the most perplexing thing as far as Im concemed

Money

As this present study is conducted significant changes are occurring in the

petroleum industry Since there has been a drop in petroleum prices some Chapter 41

(see Chapter Two) school districts have realized a significant drop in ad valorem

revenues Remembering that much ofthe financing for the Consortium comes fi-om two

Chapter 41 districts there exists some cause for concem Because these informants

represent both Chapter 41 and Chapter 42 districts none of these informants will be

identified by name in this section

One Chapter 41 superintendent related to us the situation regarding a loss of

funding for that superintendents district

Probably the biggest reason this last year we were able to put several million dollars of recapture money into the technology consortium Unfortunately being that most ofthe Chapter 41 districts

108

in our area are highly dependent on oil and mineral value and we lost 25 percent of our value last year Probably well lose at least that and maybe even more

Another Chapter 41 superintendent has noticed a drop of revenue but slants the

situation differently

It doesnt affect us that much believe it or not I mean it affects us some definitely but you know the higher the price of oil the more money we have to give away The lower the price the less we have to give away Because you only get to keep a certain value per student

All ofthe Chapter 41 informants indicated that they were glad to participate with

less property-wealthy districts in maintaining fimding for the Consortium

In dealing with school funding there is also the attendant concem with dealing

with government entities A Chapter 41 superintendent explains the situation as the

potential purchasing of more hardware is considered

(Conceming hardware purchasing) If this legislative session the Legislature does away with the hold harmless for Chapter 41 schools (See Chapter 2) well be in a whole different situation and well be saying Well do that when we can afford it I guarantee you

Because there are restrictions on where Chapter 41 districts can expend their

fiinds a Chapter 41 principal explains some creative strategies for retaining funds

Because the hang-up was that those monies that came out of these wealthy districts So in other words we could send our money to the Region(al Service) Center to be used for those purposes but we couldnt reap the benefit of i t (Dr Sarah McCullough) wrote grants specifically targeted at those of us that were putting money in the pot to help us get distance leaming labs up and running So its just been a

109

maze of dancing with the bear which anytime you deal with the government thats the way it is

As this is written a Chapter 41 superintendent hopes that the Texas Legislattire

will allow the legal stmcttires that made the Consortium a reality and function at its peak

to continue to exist

Now we would hope that the Legislature will realize that and possibly rewrite the current law to allow us to divert possibly more than ten percent into the technology consortium or change the way that we do it altogether to where the technology consortium can continue to benefit in the same arena of money that weve benefited for the last year or two

A Chapter 42 school leader looking at the Consortium as a whole sums up the

attitude of each of our informants

Well this consortium has been a good thing for us because I think by coming together you know I think this is people who have ideas and also have monies that they want to use for telecommunications and technology want to see that people in rural areas like ours are making an effort to pool their resources and thoughts and what have you When they see that you got seven schools that are working together to try to share ideas and help work through problems and even go so far as to share teaching personnel things like that I think thats something that people who have monies are kind of wanting they want to see that Because thats the whole idea behind you know trying to get reach some of our goals by the year 2000

Summary of Interview Data

All nine ofthe informants in this study provided candid assessments of their

individual roles in implementing technology in their districts the improvement of student

110

leaming and the training of staff to use the technology These latter points are also

suggested in the literature on staff development (Joyce amp Showers 1988) Concems over

infi-astmcture and finance were also supported in several other studies (Bailey 1997

Becker 1998 Kwajewski 1997 Maddux 1997 Texas Association of School

Administrators 1998)

New insights fi-om this study included the heavy apprehension over distance

leaming and the intensity ofthe power shift within the school system The fluctuation in

petroleum prices that occurred during this study did not completely take these leaders by

surprise but are concems with which Chapter 41 superintendents will continue to

contend

I l l

CHAPTER V

SUMMARY CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Summary of Research

As described in Chapter III quantitative data was in the form of Change

Facilitator Stages of Concem Questionnaire (CFSoC) profiles evaluated according to

Hall et al (1991) with hypothesized points on the Stages of Concem continuum for each

participant Conversations with nine informants fi-om the Consortium leadership cadre

formed a series of interviews that were analyzed and evaluated for emerging themes

Seven themes grew fi-om the data analysis and were discussed

CFSoC Profiles

Hall et al (1991) suggest that the Stage of Concem for any given innovation

varies with the change facilitator registering the array of concems Borrowing fi-om Fuller

(1969) Hall et al suggest that concems for the innovation within the individual change

facilitator begin at the level of Awareness progressing to Self concems then Task

concems and finally to Impact concems This researcher was able to hypothesize a

general stage of concem for each ofthe informants based on the methods of profile

interpretation defined by Hall et al (pp 29-42) The initial research question referred to

Stages of Concem placement for each informant

Where do these school leaders fall on the Concems-based Adoption Model (CBAM) continuum regarding TEKS technology implementation

112

The initial goal was to ascertain the position of each of these informants on

CBAM Table 5-1 provides a breakdown of this studys informants their job roles and

their hypothesized Stage of Concem

Table 5-1 Study Informants and CBAM Stages of Concem District Comparison

District

Camden

Tipllwor4H

North Prairie

Sawtooth

Woodlake

Superintendent

TASK

TASK

IMPACT

Principal

SELF

TASK

TASK

Technology Coordinator

SELF

SELFTASK

TASK

The table suggests that those in more well-defined administrative roles tended to

be more task oriented about their concems whereas those whose job descriptions are

inclusive ofthe classroom and who are also designated as change agents tended to be

more oriented to self and personal issues despite their abilities or expertise

As Hall et al (1991) have previously hypothesized the more experienced a

change facilitator is in the change facilitator process the more advanced that change

facilitator will be on the CFSoC profile The stages of concem of these informants in this

sample appear to concur with CFSoC projected norms Indeed if tiie stages of concem

are arranged in descending order (Impact Task Self Awareness) as in Table 5-2 there

113

appears to be a greater advancement along the Stages of Concem continuum based on the

more advanced job role

Table 5-2 Study Informants and CBAM Stages of Concem Concem Stage Comparison

Informant Stage of Concem

Woodlake Superintendent IMPACT

North Prairie Superintendent TASK

Sawtooth Superintendent TASK

Sawtooth Principal TASK

Woodlake Principal TASK

Sawtooth Technology Coordinator TASK

Dellwood Technology Coordinator TASKSELF

Camden Principal SELF

Camden Technology Coordinator SELF

These change facilitators fi-om the Sah Fork Consortium seem to manifest stages

of concem similar to those of other change facilitators studied through the CFSoC Two

ofthe technology coordinators seem to be more TASK oriented than a principal and one

technology coordinator is more SELF oriented The two task-oriented coordinators have

many years of experience in either office machinery electronics or staff training They

both suggested to this researcher greater confidence in their abilities to provide input to

their administrators conceming their schools technology requirements Such

114

competencies suggest that the greater stage of concem is based in part on the

individuals greater level of experience

Interview Themes

The hesitancy of new users to use new technologies is repeated with every

generation of innovation (Cuban 1984 1986 1993) Changes this extensive in

technology naturally bring about changes in how we teach and how we perceive our roles

as educators (Becker 1998 Berg Benz Lasley amp Raisch 1997 Braun 1993 Fullan

1990 Fullan amp Stiegelbauer 1991 Hope 1993) This sttidys informants repeatedly

expressed the desire to ensure that their staffs become as competent as possible in using

new technology to improve student leaming In tum these leaders affirmed that their

teachers would have it incumbent upon themselves to avail themselves of this training

As we appreciate the greater empowerment of educators who in tum empower

leamers we reahze that greater access to technology has played a major role in

developing this spirit of empowerment (Bailey 1997) Tmly continued control of

technology signifies continued power ofthe educational system These informants were

unanimous in marveling over the great things that have occurred in their schools as their

teachers adopted greater technology expertise Review of AEIS data since 1994 before

the establishment ofthe Consortium suggests improvements in TAAS scores and other

AEIS indicators (see Chapter I TEA 1995 1996 1997a 1998)

As a result schools become different places for leamers (Armstrong Davis amp

Young 1996 Mecklenburger 1989) Instead ofthe school as one-way insttiiction with

115

passive leamers the focus is now on schools led by leaming facilitators who guide the

leamer toward constmcting personal leaming (Joyce amp Showers 1988) It appears that

the wise change facilitator will recognize this power shift In the main Consortium

change facihtators certainly appeared eager to share that power

If we are not using the improved technology to improve student leaming then we

might be needing to be examine a different iimovation for improving student leaming

(Berg et al 1997 Bumiske 1998 Hope 1993 Joyce amp Showers 1988 National Staff

Development Council 1995) These informants were adamant about the power of

technology not only to foster greater leaming capabihties for students but also to provide

a heightened awareness for those charged with facilitating that leaming (Barr 1990

Hadley amp Sheingold 1993 Maddux 1997 Maddux amp Johnson 1997 Meltzer amp

Sherman 1997 Ragsdale 1997) As a resuh these school leaders and their school

boards will have more solid foundation to continue upgrading their technology Such a

massive influx of equipment as is happening now will not be needed but rather

technology purchasing with a view toward greater student achievement will not be

considered unique by other similarly situated school districts

The notion that technology could bring about needed opportunities and services to

remote sites by distance leaming has been discussed for some time and is now standard

for evaluating a schools technology program (Becker 1998 Texas Association of School

Administrators 1998) Nevertheless there appears to be a need for a semblance of

balance as the positive elements of distance leaming (services teaching physical distance

needs etc) are weighed against the pitfalls (teaching method changes impersonal

116

relationships) of these new technologies (Berg Benz Lasley amp Raisch 1997 Dillon amp

Walsh 1997) The apprehensions of Consortium change facilitators toward the

impending interactive video system were quite real They saw potential for some yet

unknown distracting factor causing havoc with the leaming process as a result of distance

leaming At least one informant voiced active disagreement with distance as a viable

means of teaching and leaming

If training activities are only instituted to meet extemally mandated directives it

seems pointless to expend so much effort in training faculty in technology (Becker 1991

1998 Dede 1997) The concept that technology remains a more advanced means of

game playing is still latent in many educators School leaders need to tmly be leaders

(Office of Technology Assessment 1995 Ritchie 1996) and should provide appropriate

training activities for their staffs (Bradshaw 1997 Davidson amp Maurer 1995 Joyce amp

Showers 1988) Because these school leaders describe the influx of interactive video

hardware as helpfiil in providing for a variety of training opportunities (school board

training college classes etc) this Consortium demonstrates a strong proactive

commitment to ensuring that the entire school community is kept up-to-date with

technology

As to funding and infi-astmcture acquisition a We can do it spirit is still found

in educators when they plan for and purchase their computer machinery Schools in this

Consortium as well as in other locales continue to demonstt-ate creative ways to provide

technology support with the resultant spirit of ownership possessed by all segments ofthe

educational community (Carroll amp Carroll 1994 McDaniel Mclnemey amp Armstrong

117

1993 Office of Technology Assessment 1995) The fact that a superintendent would be

involved in wiring his school for network capability or would do repairs on classroom

hardware suggests genuine committnent Principals with decades of experience in the

classroom and in the office in this rural area are taking the time to leam new computer

skills

Conclusions and Reflections

Because this present study is primarily qualitative it is appropriate that the

researcher does not (and really should not) know in advance all ofthe insights that might

possibly be gleaned fi-om a pending study Although this is a limited sampling of change

facilitators their CFSoC profiles confirmed that the greater the experience level ofthe

change facilitator interacting with the innovation the more advanced Stage of Concem

The Woodlake administrators with Stages of Concems ratings in IMPACT and TASK

stages for example have had the benefit of both performing hands-on technology

implementation (including wiring) and also developing technology programs fi-om Apple

computers in classrooms to vocational training over a twenty-year period

The specifics ofthe second research question require some discussion over the

importance and application ofthe concems of rural educators toward technology

implementation Three clusters of conclusions emerged fi-om the interview data

Personal concems are important in the professional lives of these informants

There is urgency for the educator to leam to use technology and to develop stt-ategies for

incorporating technology use in insttiiction Nevertheless the educator is never to forget

118

that there are still basic instmctional outcomes to be accomplished Leamers still have to

be proficient in reading writing and mathematics Day-to-day activities (lesson planning

teacher paperwork etc) cannot be neglected These informants did not allow this

researcher to overlook this fact All three technology coordinators who served as

informants emphasized their classroom duties with one in particular reminding me that

the computer is simply a tool in teaching basic educational concepts Each principal

interviewed related their technology concems in the context of administrative duties and

concems

In addition leadership personnel are to function as leaders and lead their staffs

Despite the hardware and capabilities schools are still schools Schools are having to

change their stmcture and technology seems to be key in fostering that change The very

use ofthe computer as a personal tool remains a challenge in these informants schools

Bill Potter Camden Technology Coordinator related that he continues to see his fellow

teachers using the computer as nothing more than a game machine The Sawtooth

informants noted that a few older more seasoned teachers are still not yet using

technology as a tool

As opposed to personal concems corporate concems registered by these

informants dealt with building district or Consortium issues Among these informants

there is a genuine sense of Where we are against Where we were in regard to

technology use Each superintendent interviewed expressed his satisfaction with the

improved productivity among his students as a result of technology Now more than ever

is a need to stay abreast of pedagogical as well as technological trends Stephen Greer

119

Woodlake Principal emphasized the need for him to know about technology and its

implementation in teacher practice These informants also indicated a generational trend

in that some educators eyeing retirement realize a lesser interest in leaming new

technologies Younger more recently trained educators are more conversant with new

technologies These informants indicated that the new teachers they hire come prepared to

use technology in the classroom

The informants also indicated a sense of owoiership toward technology

implementation For example several informants have trained themselves to do more

advanced troubleshooting and maintenance certainly more than is in their job

descriptions The Woodlake and Sawtooth superintendents are both adept with the

hardware These individuals want to know more and not just save their district some

funds All three ofthe technology coordinators have a history of leaming by doing

They enjoy reputations as being competent and the person to tum to when expertise is

needed

Cultural concems transcend the immediate short-term issues and are future-

oriented The change in our previously mral agrarian society to a worid filled with data

has had a heady effect on these informants North Prairie superintendent Larry Beckman

for example continues to marvel at all the activities the North Prairie educational

community can now avail themselves of because of technology Technology has assisted

in shifting genuine leaming power fi-om the educator to the student The resultant greater

ownership by students of their leaming is opening up greater avenues for insttaiction

120

There is constant uncertainty ofthe legal political and economic factors in

financing and establishing new technologies at schools The net result hinders these

informants fi-om reliably predicting what technologies might be needed in the future

Indeed it is impossible to predict what new gadgets will be invented or how fast a

computer will process ten years from now Neither ofthe Chapter 41 superintendents

believed their distticts finances were in jeopardy due to the changing pett-oleum prices

but each expressed the concem that the Legislature could modify the mles on finances

possibly making their underwriting of Consortium costs more difficult

Recommendations for Further Study

As this present research was being considered there was considerable concem for

the fact that very little research data existed for the CFSoC instmment This Consortium

had an insufficient number of participants to do a quantitative study of this instrument

with adequate factor analysis Indeed Hall et al (1991) cite themselves as those who

conducted reliability and validity studies of their own instrument A more thorough

validity study with adequate N should be conducted

The original thmst for this research was focused on staff development and teacher

training Because that initial idea was so broad it was abandoned early in this study

However since each informant referred to the teacher traming programs ofthe

Consortium it would be appropriate at a later date to review how teacher tt-aining is

planned and executed in a similarly situated technology cooperative

121

Personal impressions which emerged fi-om both the data collection and data

analysis also suggested additional avenues of study At no time and in no way were either

Consortium school distticts or school staff identified as to their Chapter 41 (Equalized

Wealth Level) or Chapter 42 (Minimum Foundation Program) stattis Nevertheless this

writer recognizes a difference in economic status for these districts that was impossible to

fully ignore and suggests that the differences in funding abilities of school districts be

explored as new technologies become de rigueur for even the smallest and most remote

school district

Also unexamined in this present study was any comparison on a rural-urban axis

Although each ofthe participating school districts was mral with a combined enrolhnent

smaller than one urban high school the available technology was up-to-date and with

more anticipated advanced technology yet to be implemented A similar study of larger

urban school technology programs dealing with identical TEKS constraints could be

instituted to ascertain concems of urban-oriented change facilitators

The professional experience aspect of each ofthe informants was never identified

as a factor in this present research The CFSoC form itself had blanks for data conceming

the number of years experience on the job in the present position etc Indeed the least

number of total years of school experience was nine years The question remains if

simply the amount of time in grade is a factor in the informants position on the CFSoC

continuum This researcher noted a trend in those in stated administrative roles being

more oriented to TASK and IMPACT concems as opposed to the technology

coordinators who by and large had duties more inclusive ofthe classroom and who were

122

more oriented to SELF concems and their personal status This could lead one to ponder

whether the role and the job title are influencing factors in a change facilitators Stage of

Concem

Moreover because ofthe contemporary trends toward school-based

management and greater empowerment of classroom personnel in decision-making it is

likely that those in change faciUtator roles would be more closely aligned to the

classroom ie more teachers may be in leadership roles We might expect the higher the

level of change facilitator position and experience the higher the level of concem (eg

IMPACT) It would be interesting to explore the possibifities and consequences for those

at the classroom level functioning as change facilitators in technology

123

REFERENCES

American Psychological Association (1994) Publication manual ofthe American Psychological Association (4th ed) Washington DC Author

Armstrong D Davis R amp Young G (1996) Technology integration at the middle and high school levels A model for staff development NASSP Bulletin 80(582) 81-88

Bailey G D (1997) What technology leaders need to know The essential top 10 concepts for technology integration in the 21st century Leaming and Leading With Technology 250) 57-62

Bailey D B amp Palsha S A (1992) Qualities ofthe Stages of Concem questionnaire and implications for educational innovations Joumal of Educational Research 85(4) 226-232

Barr D (1990) A solution in search of a problem The role of technology in educational reform Joumal for the Education ofthe Gifted 14(1) 79-95

Becker H J (1991) How computers are used in United States schools Basic data fi-om the 1989 I E A Computers in Education survey Joumal of Educational Computing Research 7(4) 385-406

Becker H J (1998) Running to catch a moving train Schools and information technologies Theory Into Practice 37(1) 20-30

Berg S Benz C Lasley T laquofe Raisch D (1997) The coordinators and the teachers A description of exemplary use of technology in elementary classrooms Paper presented at the Midwestem Educational Research Association Annual Meeting Chicago IL

Bogdan R C amp Biklen S K (1992) Qualitative research for education An introduction tn theory and methods (2nd ed) Boston Allyn amp Bacon

Bradshaw L K (1997) Technology-supported change A staff development opportunity NASSP Bulletin 81(593) 86-92

Braun L (1993) Educational technology Help for all the kids The Computing Teacher 20(8) 11-15

124

Brekhus T R (1997) The SeverNet project-assessment Antiquated systems without curriculum integration The Educational Graveyard of Unfulfilled Promise [Online] URL httpwwwseyemschoolcomsevemetsevemet_assesshtml

Bristol v amp Jechow M (1998) Guidelines on interlocal agreements fi-om the Texas Government Code Texas case law and Texas attomev general opinions [online] URL httpwwwbickerstaff comarticlesinter98htm

Bumiske R W (1998) The shadow play How the integration of technology annihilates debate in our schools Phi Delta Kappan 80(2) 155-157

Campbell T (1997) Technology multimedia and qualitative research in education Joumal of Research on Computing in Education 30(2) 122-132

Carroll S R amp Carroll D (1994) How smart schools get and keep community support Bloomington IN National Educational Service

Chisolm I M (1996) Computer use in a multicultural classroom Joumal of Research on Computing in Education 28(2) 162-174

CicchelH T amp Baecher R (1985) Intt-oducing microcomputers into the classroom A study of teacher concems Joumal of Educational Computing Research 1(1) 55-65

CiccheUi T amp Baecher R E (1987) The use of concems theory in inservice ttaining for computer education Computers amp Education 11(2) 85-93

Clark R E (1983) Reconsidering research on leaming fi-om media Review of Educational Research 53(4) 445-459

Clouse R W amp Garrett L N (1995) Case analysis An insttiictional tool Joumal of Educational Technology Systems 23(1) 39-51

Coffey A amp Atkinson P (1996) Making sense of qualitative data Complementary research strategies Thousand Oaks CA Sage

Crawford D K Bodine R J amp Hoglund R G (1993) The school for quality leaming Managing the school and the classroom the Deming way Champaign IL Research Press

Cuban L (1984) How teachers taupht Constancy and change in American classrooms -1980-1980 New York Longman

125

Copyright 1999 GaHleo Grant Wells Jr

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

As Jerry Garcia put it so well What a long strange trip its been Much of the

content for this dissertation the literature supporting it the software systems which

retrieved much of the literature and the computer and software which published the

final product were all merely gleams in someones eye five years ago when this doctoral

program was begun So much has changed fi^om the time I began this research to the

present

What hasnt changed are the principles of instmctional design and standards for

educational leadership which have guided my personal and professional development

both leamed and applied during this doctoral program This final product incorporating

both areas of study is the result of a massive cadre of folks who have influenced me and

supported me along the way

My committee has been a deep resource for stmcturing this dissertation Dr

Terence Ahem my chair has continually provided both the leadership and the motivation

to get this project finished Dr Judith Ponticell with her Been there done that attitude

has provided me with invaluable research sources and was the initial connection to my

research informants Dr Ponticell Dr Robert Price and Dr Arturo Olivarez have

provided keen editorial eyes to my manuscripts and have been appropriately bmtal in

evaluating my research methodology Dr James Bums has provided an appropriate

balance to the research His conversations querying Do you Education people use

instmctional design in your work were what led me to eventually ask him to

participate on this committee

11

Mr John Bethune Lead Teacher and my colleagues at the Homebound unit of

the Lubbock Independent School District are to be thanked for their encouragement I

leamed so much fi-om them and fi-om the students that I was assigned

A special thanks must go to my informants both at the Educational Service

Center Region J and to those superintendents principals and technology coordinators

who spoke so fi-ankly to this stranger about technology implementation in their districts

After the data analysis I felt like Id known these folks for years

Dr Gene Hall Dean of the College of Education at the University of Nevada at

Las Vegas and whose works play a prominent role in the development of this study

granted his permission to reprint the Change Facilitator Stages of Concem instniment

Thanks also to folks at Comerstone Bible Church in LubbockTexas particularly

Richard Gmbbs and Wayne and Rosita Moore

This document did not publish itself Many thanks are in order for the staffs at the

Texas Tech University Library the Porter Henderson Library at Angelo State University

and the tireless and patient folks at the Tom Green County Library in San Angelo Texas

who had never seen several drafts of a dissertation published before

Our children Michael Mark and Melanie have had to endure two uprootings to

get this project accomplished They are certainly glad that Im finished and can get back

to work My wife Michelle has had to patiently endure the most toward producing this

product Her personal and financial support has made this document a reality

Ill

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT vii

LIST OF TABLES ix

LIST OF FIGURES x

CHAPTER

I STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Introduction 1 Problem Statement and Research Questions 3 Rationale 4 Changes in Constraints 13 Research Participants 16 Study Significance 20 Delimitations 22 Term Definitions 23 Organization of the Study 26

n REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Introduction 27 Technology Consortium Development 27 Collaboration 29 The Change Process 30 Difftision of Innovations 31 Concems Theory 34 The Role of CBAM 36 Applications of CB AM 41 The Change Facilitator SoC 42 The CFSoC Instniment 43 Summary and Reflection 46

III METHODOLOGY

Study Design 48 Grand Tour Question 48 Rationale 49 Context for the Study 52

iv

Informant Selection 56 Data Collection 57 Data Analysis 60 Verification Strategies 63 Study Limitations 66

IV RESULTS OF THE STUDY

Informant and CFSoC Profiles 67 Summary of CFSoC 83 Informant Concems 83 Summary of Interview Data 110

V SUMMARY CONCLUSIONS AND REFLECTIONS

Summary of Research 112 CFSoC Profiles 112 Interview Themes 115 Conclusions and Reflections 118 Recommendations for Further Study 121

REFERENCES 124

APPENDIX

A STAGES OF CONCERN ABOUT THE INNOVATION 133

B CHANGE FACILITATOR STAGES OF CONCERN 135

C CHANGE FACILITATOR STAGES OF CONCERN QUESTIONNAIRE 137

D SEMISTRUCTURED INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR INFORMANTS 141

E INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR DR SARAH McCULLOUGH ESC REGION J 142

F LETTER OF INTRODUCTION TO CONSORTIUM SUPERINTENDENTS 143

G PROJECT CONSENT FORMS 145

H THEMES AND SUB-THEMES FOR DATA ANALYSIS 147

I COMPARISON OF TECHNOLOGY IMPLEMENTATION IN STATE CURRICULA 148

VI

ABSTRACT

Although there has been a progression of technological improvements in the tools

available for educators to improve instmction there will always be the need for leamers

to master fimdamental skills and for educators to facilitate that learning Nevertheless the

implementation of innovative technology programs continues to be a priority of educators

in both urban and mral settings Texas educators are now under new Texas Essential

Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) curricular requirements a comprehensive document with

specific learner outcomes particularly with technology embedded into every grade level

Because of these extemal constraints even small rural school districts have to

provide advanced technology capabilities for their leamers This current study

investigated personal and professional concems of change facilitators in a seven-district

technology consortium as these requirements are implemented

This consortium was developed with assistance fiom both the local telephone

service provider and the regional Educational Service Center (ESC) These districts range

a distance of 70 to 125 miles fi^om their ESC Two of the participating school districts

are considered property-wealthy and provide the bulk of the fiinding for the other five

districts through special legislative mles

This exploratory case study used the Concems-based Adoption Model (CBAM)

for evaluating these concems Nine informants three each of superintendents principals

and technology coordinators responded to a 35-item Likert scale which placed the

informant on a Stage of Concem either SELF TASK or IMPACT Informants

vu

concems were rated largely at the TASK level In general an informants stage of

concem increased with a higher status within the school system

These informants were also interviewed on their personal concems toward

technology implementation Seven general themes emerged through the interview

process Informants articulated concems over attitudes power student learning distance

learning staff training infi-astmcture and finances These informants consistently

expressed concem for the prospects of implementing instmctional video and its

instmctional and disciplinary implications Each informant expressed optimism over the

educational and administrative possibilities modem computer technology brought to their

districts

Vlll

LIST OF TABLES

1-1 Teachers Use of Computers Hadley and Sheingold (1993) N=608 9

1-2 Instmcfional Software Use Hadley and Sheingold (1993) N=608 9

1 -3 Full Time Equivalent Staff for TechnologyComputer Operations 21

2-1 Coefficients of Intemal Reliability for the Stages of Concem Questionnaire N=830 39

2-2 Test-Retest Correlations on the Stages of Concem Questionnaire N=132 40

2-3 Means Standard Deviations and Alpha Coefficients for the CFSoC (N=589) 45

2-4 Means Standard Deviations and Alpha Coefficients for the CFSoC

(N=750) 45

2-5 Intercorrelations of the Scale Scores on the CFSoC (N=589) 46

5-1 Study Informants and CBAM Stages of Concem District Comparison 113

5-2 Study Informants and CBAM Stages of Concem Concem Stage Comparison 114

IX

LIST OF FIGURES

4-1 CFSoC Profile of James Petty Camden Principal 68

4-2 CFSoC Profile of Bill Potter Camden Technology Coordinator 70

4-3 CFSoC Profile of Ronnie Bennett Dellwood Technology Coordinator 72

4-4 CFSoC Profile of Larry Beckman North Prairie Superintendent 74

4-5 CFSoC Profile of Mike McCoy Sawtooth Superintendent 76

4-6 CFSoC Profile of Vemon Russell Sawtooth Principal 78

4-7 CFSoC Profile of Renee White Sawtooth Technology Coordinator 79

4-8 CFSoC Profile of David Jackson Woodlake Superintendent 81

4-9 CFSoC Profile of Stephen Greer Woodlake Principal 82

CHAPTER I

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Mr Edison says That the radio will supplant the teacher Already one may leam languages by means of Victrola records The moving picture will visualize What the radio fails to get across Teachers will be relegated to the backwoods With fire-horses And long-haired women Or perhaps shown in museums Education will become a matter Of pressing the button Perhaps I can get a position at the switchboard

(Church cf Cuban 1986 pp 4-5)

Introduction

Virginia Churchs 1925 poem entitled Antiquated probably sounds pessimistic

but facetiously demonstrates her concems of possibly being out of a job with the

approaching array of innovations heralded at that time Our teachers and administrators in

educational institutions at all levels continue to exhibit concems as new innovations are

proffered (Cuban 1986)

Certainly innovations designed to improve instmction have been utilized for

centuries Cuban (1986 pp 3-4) would suggest technology innovation goes back at least

to the invention of the lectem chalk and chalkboards books and pictures with fihn

radio television tape recorders video and computers as more recent examples of

teaching tools Cuban wryly describes how these most recent technologies were at first

lauded as the latest thing for schools how instmction would dramatically improve and

how disillusioned teachers became when the technology did not live up to its predicted

expectations

Bringing all schools up to maximum speed in technology is currently quite

fashionable Rescigno (1988) using his own school district as the example envisioned

the so-called smart classroom with state of the art technology as having the ability to

precisely measure student skill objectives and promote more positive student attitudes

and lower instances of discipline problems

Rescignos school does not seem to have been greatly replicated however

Nevertheless greater technology implementation remains a key element of both

educational and political rhetoric Chris Dede asserts For politicians the Intemet in

every classroom has become the modem equivalent of the promised chicken in every

pot (Dede 1997 p 13) Dede decries such first-generation thinking by those who

would make technology the panacea for magically transforming schools

Yet decades of experience with technological innovations based on first-generation thinking have demonstrated that this viewpoint is misguided Unless other simultaneous innovations occur in pedagogy curriculum assessment and school organization the time and effort expended on instmctional technology produce few improvements in educational outcomes ~ a result that reinforces many educators cynicism about fads based on magical machines (p 13)

Cuban (1984) concurs emphasizing that teachers technology use in the classroom

is just one of a great many factors in how teachers teach with the lions share of factors

related to the extemal constraints of school organization Hodas (1993) reminds us that

the culture and norms of schools are profoundly conservative that the stmcture of

schools have remained unchanged for hundreds of years and that there exists in the

popular mind a definite conservative conception of what schools should be like a

template fi-om which schools stray only at their peril (p 10)

Problem Statement and Research Ouestions

Several factors were considered in formulating a problem for this study There

was the consideration of finding out how schools particularly small ones were

implementing fimding and evaluating technology in their districts Moreover standard

principles of staff development particularly the ascertaining of personal and professional

concems of school leaders were prominent in the literature Finally at the time of

searching for a research topic the State of Texas was developing broad curricular

standards which included extensive instmctional technology components

The problem under study is the concems of three levels of change facilitators

implementing the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) for Technology

Applications The research questions for this study are outlined in the form of a grand

tour question followed by sub-questions (Gay 1997 Spradley 1979)

Grand Tour Ouestion

What are the concems of leadership personnel as the TEKS technology

requirements are implemented in their school districts

Sub-questions

1 Where do these school leaders fall on the Concems-based Adoption Model

(CBAM) continuum regarding TEKS technology implementation

2 What are the specific concems of these school leaders as the TEKS are

implemented and why are these concems important

Rationale

The concept of educational change with technology is not a novel idea despite

those concems that Dede (1997) registered Larry Cuban has written extensively on the

topic of technological change fi-om the perspectives of administration and of educational

history Cuban quotes fi-om a prominent American technology leader who often had much

to say about things

I believe that the motion picture is destined to revolutionize our educational system and that in a few years it will supplant largely if not entirely the use of textbooks I should say that on the average we get about two percent efficiency out of schoolbooks as they are written today The education of the fixture as I see it will be conducted through the medium of the motion picture where it should be possible to obtain one hundred percent efficiency (p 187)

These words came in 1922 fi-om Thomas Alva Edison the inventor of the motion

picture phonograph and other devices at their time thought to be the zenith in

technology Except for the media described many could envision computers as the

subject of that quote Cuban suggests that such entrepreneurs who publicly make broad

educational claims for their products may have more of a profit motive than of student

performance

McDaniel Mclnemey and Armstrong (1993) recognize a shift in classroom

pedagogy fiom those classrooms merely transmitting information to processing

information They assert that computers will play a significant role in how leamers

acquire question and evaluate information Moreover McDaniel et al describe a

changed learning community breaking down the traditional school walls to a classroom

that literally can be the whole world They do not doubt that new programs will continue

to make an impact on how we teach and how students leam

Bumiske (1998) concurs with this shift but tempers it with repeated questioning

of our reasonings and expectations conceming educational technology

Its no longer a question of whether we should introduce computer technology into our classrooms Im afi-aid that choice has already been made for us The question now is how we should make use of this technology for educational purposes The consequence of this is the stifling of essential debates and the repression of significant questions such as At what age should we introduce children to computers What impact will computers have on the social emotional and psychological development of our children And how will computers aUer the dynamics of a classroom and school (p 157)

Cuban (1993) suggests three reasons for the perceived need to implement

technology in the classroom

First there is the drive to bring schools technologically in step with the work place because of the fear that students will be unprepared both to compete in the job market and to adjust to the changing marketplace A second impulse has come fi-om a diverse coalition of academics educators and foundation officials who have

5

neoprogressive values including that of self-directed leaming for children Finally there is the impulse for productivity (pp 189-190)

Unfortunately Cuban pessimistically concludes that despite the use of

technological innovations those innovations have not been central to school reforms

Likewise the marginal use of computers in classrooms is less due to funding teacher

preparation or administrative support but more related to dominant cultural beliefs

about what teaching leaming and proper knowledge are and how schools are organized

for instmction (p 206)

Low administrative support is but one part of the overall picture Poor

infi-astmcture remains in place at many schools The United States Department of

Education (USDE) in its report Getting Americas Students Readv for the 21st Century

(USDE 1996) cited statistics where only four percent of schools had as many as one

computer for five students and only nine percent with Intemet connectivity Yet this

same study asserts 80 percent of Americans believing that teaching computer skills is

absolutely essential 75 percent encouraging a child to use a computer and 86 percent

believing that a computer is the most beneficial product available to increase childrens

opportunities

Why if most educators believe that technology can improve the educational

process is it so difficult to implement and integrate Kwajewski (1997) ponders this

question as he considers the value educators place on technology acceptance

The plain tmth is that technology still confuses the educational establishment It is not an art or a science It is not a curriculum or a

subject It is not a vocation or a college requirement It is not an activity a goal or an objective It is not a course or a program If it were any of these items it might have a fighting chance in the difficult arena of change But it isnt therefore its success is in jeopardy (p 54)

Hodas (1993) suggests that educators require a modicum of comfort before expanding

their intellectual horizons to achieve skill with new technology

There is lively discussion over the extent of how technology can restmcture the

school Schools are finding in diverse ways that the use of technology modifies the

existing school stmcture Braun (1993) points out that investment in technology makes

working with at-risk youth more cost-effective It appears better to pmdently allocate

fimds on high-technology instmction than on the costs involved with dropouts and other

at-risk problems Maddux and Johnson (1997) suggest that the existing stmcture of

schools will be modified by Intemet use but only after the surrounding culture first

makes the change

Addressing new technologies Clark (1983) boldly asserted that the medium of

instmction was no more involved in how well students leam than the tmck that delivers

our groceries causes changes in our nutrition (p 445) and that only the content of

instmction influences student achievement Kozma (1991) aggressively challenges

Clarks position pointing out the distinctives of certain technologies and how they can

help leamers constmct knowledge Chishohn (1996) would go so far as to insist that the

implementation of technology modifies the very social stmcture

Like any human artifact computers are an expression of the people and culture that created them Likewise computer software incorporates the programmers cultural assumptions heuristics and epistemology Even seemingly impartial applications such as

7

databases and word processing programs demonstrate a cultural preference for analytic linear thinking compartmentalization of information and culture-specific logic mles and organization (p 163)

Educational leaders who are comfortable with technology should be primed to

lead the way in facilitating change in schools (Office of Technology Assessment 1995)

Differing somewhat fi-om Cuban Ritchie (1996) notes that a lack of administrative

support leading toward inadequate staff development and inadequate funding continues

to lead the reasons that technology has yet to take hold in some school districts Ritchie

cites Mecklenburger who asserts

Administrators must understand the capabilities and limitations of technology Only then can they plan for budget for purchase carefiiUy install properly maintain dutifiilly schedule adequately distribute appropriately and replace systematically the electronic technology best suited for their needs (Mecklenburger 1989 p 7)

Yet principals and superintendents in the main received their education and

training at a time when computers were not yet part of the educational scene Whatever

training many school leaders have had simply focused on using the technology rather

than focusing on how the technology could be used to augment student leaming (Bailey

1997)

Since 98 percent of the elementary and secondary schools in the United States

have microcomputers (Ely 1993) it is important to analyze how they have been used In

an early pre-Intemet study of typical teacher practice Hadley and Sheingold (1993)

investigated how teachers integrated software into classroom practice In surveying 608

teachers they discovered that teachers used computer software as shown in Table 1-1

Table 1-1 Teachers Use of Computers Hadley and Sheingold (1993) N=608

Software

Text processing tools 95 Instmctional software 89 Analytic and information tools 87 Programming and operating systems 84 Games and simulations 81 Graphics and operating tools 81 Communications 49 Multimedia 25

(Hadley amp Sheingold 1993)

Teachers instmctional software use was fiirther broken down as shown

in Table 1-2

Table 1-2 Instmctional Software Use Hadley and Sheingold (1993) N=608

Software

Problem solving programs 75 Tutorial programs 73 Drill and practice programs 72 Software accompanying a textbook 37 Conceptual tools 30

(Hadley amp Sheingold 1993)

By contrast instead of querying teacher computer usage more current surveys

(eg Texas Association of School Administrators 1998) focus on the classroom

building and district hardware configurations and Intemet use of computers

Teachers obviously embraced the computer as a significant tool in teaching

practice As these researchers gathered data for their study the above activities were

indeed the cutting edge uses of computers just before Windows the World Wide Web

or America Online became household words

Radical educational change is no stranger to technology educators The practices

delineated in the literature have metamorphosed fi-om the above to a listing more

reflective of school Intemet use connectivity and the use of multimedia Echoing Cuban

Becker (1998) notes several generations of the advice of experts conceming change in

computer technology pedagogy each of which reflected conventional wisdom in its time

and underscoring the adage The more things change the more they stay the same

Teachers were first urged to have students program computers in BASIC (1982 Its the language that comes with your computer) then to have them program in Logo (1984 Teach students to think not just program) then to use integrated drill-and-practice systems (1986 Use networked systems that individualize instruction and focus on increasing test scores) then to do word processing (1988 Use computers as tools like adults do) then to use curriculum-specific tools such as history databases and science stimulators and data acquisition probes (1990 Integrate the computers with the existing curriculum) then to do multimedia hypertext programming (1992 Change the curriculum - students leam best by creating products for an audience) then to use electronic mail (1994 Let students be part of the real world) and currently to publish their students work to a worldwide audience via the World Wide Web (1996) Using computers in these respective ways would have generally required teachers to have access to the newest computer equipment being sold at that time (p 25)

Becker fiirther suggests that survey-based data reflects a more conservative and

traditional array of instmctional practices among teachers than what is reported in the

popular press which tends to be more reflective of the more innovative techniques

10

(Becker 1998) Moreover he suggests such survey data was needed to balance the

overly enthusiastic reports in the news media about the generalizability of pioneering

efforts in unusual schools with hard-to-replicate amounts of computer equipment teacher

expertise and family resources (Becker 1991 p 386) It remained to be seen if the

average school district or school board had the financial foresight to establish a similar

facility

Contrasting with pre-Intemet surveys more recent studies reflect surveys of

changing computer use Berg Benz Lasley and Raisch (1997) surveyed teachers about

technology use at school and found that teachers rated student motivation and a change

fi-om the traditional classroom stmcture as the most fi-equent purposes of technology

Concurring with Beckers (1998) conclusions on technology use Berg et al list these as

their most important school computer uses

To motivate students To change fi-om traditional classroom CD-ROMs for research Computers in writing process Using variety of resources (books CD-ROM Web etc) Desktop publishing software To integrate subject matter Intemet to do research Enhance communication with parents Tailor curriculum to individual student needs

(Berg Benz Lasley amp Raisch 1997 p 8)

Curiously Berg et al found distance leaming and video conferencing rated 38th of 39

instmctional purposes as rated by teachers

The Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) executed a survey in

September 1998 to ascertain the levels of technology available in Texas public schools

11

Rather than display teacher use statistics as in previous studies (Becker 1998 Berg et al

1997 Hadley amp Sheingold 1993) this survey is heavily skewed toward Intemet use in

the classroom showing percentages of connectivity fimding sources and resources

(service center technology consortium etc) There are no listings of specific teacher

activities such as word processing graphics or gradebooks Indeed the TASA survey

appears at this writing to be updated at fi-equent intervals (TASA 1998)

Willis (1993) concedes that educational change using technology is difficult to

pull off He identifies barriers to wider technology use including teacher isolation

ownership time and administrative support very similar to concems in much of the staff

development literature (Joyce amp Showers 1988 Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1991)

Recent literature on school technology implementation has raised questions

conceming just how well new programs will be implemented or indeed how extensive

technology implementation has been Maddux (1997) describes a gap in schools between

the increasing sophistication of technology and the ability of teachers to use such

technology Maddux contends that much of the negative reaction conceming the Intemet

the World Wide Web Windows 95982000 and other innovative technologies stems

fi-om just such a gap between the hardware the schools may have on hand and the

systemic requirements of new software purchased Schools by and large often have older

hardware incapable of accepting Windows 95-level software Indeed computer speed

modem speed and hard drive storage (with or without zip drives) in many school-owned

computers remain inadequate Maddux cites Brekhus (1997) who suggests that 80

percent of all computer hardware purchased for schools was obsolete at the time of

12

purchase (p 7) Maddux fiirther maintains that much of this gap is related to educational

fiscal tradition stemming fi-om a lack of acknowledgment that more sophisticated

technology had to be replaced every three to five years

Becker (1998) sounds even more alarming He estimates that the average

cumulative per pupil investment in computers over a typical school lifetime a 13-year

span was only $150 025 percent of the total of what was spent on a pupil in that time

span Only 20 percent of school computers had a hard drive with a similar percentage

having any network access Only 10 percent had CD-ROM capability Very few then of

available school computers were capable of using multimedia the World Wide Web

Windows 9598 or most CD-based software As this dissertation is written computers

with speeds of 500 to 600 megahertz are being offered at discount stores (Micro Center

1999) along with appropriate software Although many schools continue to upgrade the

computing power of their hardware and the regional educational service centers still

provide leadership in bringing up-to-date technology to every remote district

nevertheless many educational institutions remain using outmoded machinery due to

well-felt budgetary restrictions and fluctuating property values

Changes in Constraints

Against this backdrop of confiision over technology implementation overall

educators fi-om coast to coast have had extemally mandated constraints In Texas those

mandates were codified in the Texas Essential Elements (Texas Education Agency

1991) with specific competencies for each subject listed and more recently with the

13

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) standards (Texas Education Agency

1997b) Unlike the Essential Elements which simply specified the subject components

for the teacher to cover in each area the TEKS mandates a much broader array of

performance-based skills to be exhibited by the leamer The emphasis is now on what the

leamer can do over what skills the teacher exhibits School districts in Texas are

obhgated to follow the TEKS in designing curriculum and instmction Evaluation

procedures for Texas educators include the use of technology in the lesson cycle

The TEKS for Technology Applications delineates knowledge and skill

requirements for specific computer applications for grade levels K-8 and specific high

school classes with this common philosophy

(1) The technology applications curriculum has four strands foundations information acquisition work in solving problems and communication

(2) Through the study of technology applications foundations including technology-related terms concepts and data input strategies students leam to make informed decisions about technologies and their applications The efficient acquisition of information includes the identification of task requirements the plan for using search strategies and the use of technology to access analyze and evaluate the acquired information By using technology as a tool that supports the work of individuals and groups in solving problems students will select the technology appropriate for the task synthesize knowledge create a solution and evaluate the results Students communicate information in different formats and to diverse audiences A variety of technologies will be used Students will analyze and evaluate the resuUs (Texas Education Agency 1997b p 1)

Chapter 126 of the TEKS specifies standards for leaming activities under these

four strands in Technology Applications for all Texas leamers This chapter is restricted

14

to instmctional applications excluding curricula that would be better placed in chapters

dealing with Career and Technology Business Applications etc

Chapter 126 Subchapter A delineates skill requirements for leamers as early as

kindergarten Among the skills to be acquired by leamers at that early date include

networking creating naming and saving files keyword searching muhimedia design

and portfolio selection It does not end there Subchapter A spells out a broad outline of

technology activities fi-om kindergarten through fifth grade Subchapter B retains much of

the earlier Essential Elements for middle schools conceming keyboarding and computer

literacy Subchapter C defines requirements for eight specific courses for high school-

level Carnegie-unit credit The minimum hardware for just one of these courses requires

the capability to do local networking Intemet access video production and Web page

production and storage Because of these curricular standards virtually every school in

Texas had to purchase materials appropriate for these activities

These standards went into effect September 1 1998 (Texas Education Agency

1997b) providing impetus for school leaders to recognize and articulate concems over

the implementation of these standards An additional document The Technology

Applications Companion (K-12) (Texas Center for Educational Technology 1998)

containing a comprehensive program entitled Sharing Technology Applications

Resources with Teachers (START) has been distributed on CD-ROM to each public

school building in Texas to provide curricular assistance and resources for TEKS

implementation

15

Research Participants

The informants for this research are among the leadership staff at five school

districts in rural Texas Each would be described as a change facilitator as defined in a

subsequent paragraph The role of the change facilitator is ascribed to a variety of

professionals Three specific roles in the school system are examined in this present

study Each is a change faciUtator but each facilitates change in a unique way

Superintendent~The general superintendent is a certified school employee and is

charged with overseeing all of a school districts operations particularly those related to

supervision and finance This role in the United States was instituted and developed

during nineteenth century bureaucratic changes where centralization of school efforts was

found more economical and where the need was seen for one person to be at the top of

the school stmcture (Urban amp Wagoner 1996)

Lutz and Merz (1992) define the superintendent in three roles manager

politician and teacher The Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) establishes

competencies for school leaders and suggested curricula for their training Superintendent

courses (Texas Education Agency 1991) mostly relegate this role either to be a manager

what with the emphasis on business techniques and school law for school management

or to be the instmctional leader because of specialized expertise in special and

compensatory education and because of recent advancements in school change which

demand that change facilitators already excel as instmctional and curricular leaders

SBOE mles also reinforce the role of politician with a broad array of social science

electives for the prospective school leader

16

The combination of concems over financial matters political pressures and

extemal curricular constramts exclusively laden upon the district superintendent makes

this role particularly important to the proposed research If there is any new technology to

be implemented the superintendent will have to be the first person on deck to secure

community approval particularly that of the school board so that the community has the

opportunity to buy into the new program especially its fiinding It will be necessary to

describe specific concems of superintendents

PrincipalmdashThe principal is a certified school employee who is charged with

leading teachers Unlike the superintendent the principal is generally responsible for only

one building narrowing this persons focus The role developed during the nineteenth

century in urban schools where a beginning teacher would begin teaching at a low grade

level and move up through the system becoming a principal teacher leading the others

(Urban amp Wagoner 1996)

The literature is replete with suggestions for middle management to increase

knowledge of how to implement technology Ritchie (1996) fists vendors school district

personnel technology consultants technology classes and self-instmction as sources of

information for becoming more effective as a change facilitator

Hall Rutherford and Griffin (1982) recognize three distinct change facilitator

styles which largely fit the principals role Responders put heavy emphasis on

empowering teachers and giving them opportunity to take the lead but tend to make

decisions in terms of immediate situations rather than long-term goals Managers tend to

see that things get done but do not normally go beyond the basics of implementing an

17

innovation Initiators take the lead and make things happen having strong beliefs about

what schools should be Nevertheless Hall et al agree that no change faciUtator

completely fits into one of these compartments Much more than the superintendent the

building principals style sets the leadership tone for the students and staff

Hall et al apply these contrasting styles in leadership to applying innovation

implementation

Another apphcation of the ideas proposed in this paper could be in planning school level and district wide implementation efforts Perhaps implementation game plans should be adopted to different schools depending on the change facilitator style of the principal and the assistant principal In a Manager school implementation will likely proceed rather routinely once what is to be done is understood by the principal In a Responders school more encouragement fi-om the outside and more district personnel time spent in the school working with teachers would probably be necessary While in an Initiators school a certain amount of push might be necessary to get implementation of the innovation on the list of the principals priorities On the other hand if the innovation is already a priority for that principal all the central office staff developer may have to do is stand out of the way (pp 19-20)

Middle management concems are a second component of the proposed research

because these individuals provide day-to-day leadership of educators They are

responsible for every detail in their respective buildings including staff development

Although site-based management is ahnost standard in contemporary schools the

principal remains a key force in change

Technology Coordinator-This role is not as clearly defined as principal or

superintendent nor does it have a lengthy historical base but exists nevertheless An

early study by Stmdler and Gall (1988) reported a growing number of individuals with

18

the title of technology coordinator mainly fi-om the ranks of classroom teachers Bailey

(1997) points out that although the role of the technology coordinator is important in

school improvement activities very little recent literature exists that describes the specific

roles and responsibilities of the technology coordinator

Despite variations in the local job title the person recognized as the technology

coordinator will also have concems worth noting in this proposed research As Stmdler

and Gall (1988) reported earlier this person is eighty percent Hkely to come fi-om the

classroom reflecting classroom teacher concems yet will have to assume a leadership

role

Smith (1997) extensively lists qualities and competencies expected of a

technology coordinator under these headings

1 Technical expertise 2 Understanding of technology use in the instmctional environment 3 Professional development 4 Intemet knowledge and experience (p 56)

Jewell (1999) adds the interpersonal skills of vision and diplomacy along with the

ability to find solutions for a diverse group of technology users fi-om a hmited array of

resources Jewell reminds us that

Technology leadership is not for the timid An effective technology leader must be able to navigate the sea of ever-increasing information and equipment as well as the changes in education that comes fi-om technology use What happens with technology and schools will change our world and technology coordinators will have an important role in that outcome (p 57)

19

The Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) annually commission a

survey (TASA 1998) conceming technology usage The 1998 survey specifically

ascertained the availability of on-site technology support Table 1-3 describes the

fi-equency of technology support for a variety of school configurations in Texas

Study Significance

As a major population center and as a resuU a major purchaser of educational materials

(textbooks workbooks etc) Texas has the potential to lead the way with an innovative

array of technology related courses but with new technology changes will be necessary

in how teachers will teach Already school districts are writing funding grants

purchasing more advanced technology and designating an individual with a title

congment to technology coordinator

Administrators will now have to allow for changes in how they do their jobs

Superintendents are already realizing that budgetary planning for technology has to be for

shorter periods that both technology hardware and software will require firequent

upgrades and school policies will need to address technological issues particularly with

legal matters Building principals will not only require a change in their budgetary

procedures but will also need to include technology concems in dealing with both

curriculum and evaluation Having served unofficially as the building technology

computer coordinator this writer observes that these individuals will have concems over

not only keeping current with the technology but also the array of systemic bugs each

piece of hardware and software displays resulting in the attendant complaints expressed

by staff

20

Table 1-3 Full Time Equivalent Staff for TechnologyComputer Operations

Level

Elementary

Middle

High School

Central Office

Other ISD Service

One-campus

N

479

410

470

N

489

N

484

191

No FTEs on campus

()

382

385

362

None ()

595

0 ()

506

335

Vi FTE per campus

()

192

98

104

1 ()

282

1 ()

277

565

i d i lt IFTE ner campus

()

88

12

117

2-3 ()

7

2 ()

97

68

1 FTE or more per campus

()

338

398

417

More than 3 ()

53

3-4 5-6 () ()

52 19

1 0

(TASA 1998 Question 10)

Because of the major changes in what is expected of educators through the

transition fi-om implementing the Essential Elements to TEKS standards these new

regulations should be applicable and flexible enough for at least the next decade

considering that it replaces a document used for 13 years TEKS will be of necessity

21

applicable for implementing innovations that have yet to be invented and for change

strategies not yet imagined

Delimitations

This study focused on technology implementation concems of change facilitators

of school districts in rural Texas limiting the representativeness of the study Any

findings yielded reflected the comments of those interviewed at the time of the study The

constraints of TEKS are not specifically applicable to educational entities in other states

or countries Curricular documents in states other than Texas were surveyed to compare

TEKS requirements for technology with technology expectations for leamers in those

states States bordering Texas as well as the top 15 states in population were considered

(World Almanac 1999) Appendix I contains a listing of these individual states

standards and how much technology usage impacts these standards

This present study is undertaken during the first year of TEKS standards Those

interviewed will not have as much familiarity with TEKS standards as they might in later

years As the researcher involved in compiling this data this writer must recognize

various biases he might have in eliciting comments fi-om these individuals Such

comments will reflect subjective distinctions individuals have about different schools

extemally mandated policies personal expectations of themselves or product

preferences In short this researcher made every effort to allow the respondents to

accurately present themselves

22

Term Definitions

The literature in this study uses terms germane to change instmctional

technology and to applications of the TEKS In addition terms readily known and used

by Texas educators are described

Academic Excellence Indicator System (AEIS) The AEIS (Texas Education

Agency 1999) is a systematic accountability report delivered annually of each school

and school district in Texas Prior to the estabhshment of the AEIS districts were

evaluated for accountability based on mles and procedures With the advent of the AEIS

schools are now evaluated principally on student performance AEIS indicators include

Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) performance attendance and dropout

rates students participating in advanced courses and scores on college entrance

examinations

Change Fullan and Stiegelbauer (1991) suggest that educational change involves

change in practice and indeed is evident at many levels In implementing change three

components are at stake

(1) The possible use of new or revised materials (direct instmctional resources such as curriculum materials or technologies) (2) the possible use of new teaching approaches (i e new teaching strategies or activities) and (3) the possible alteration of beliefs (e g pedagogical assumptions and theories underlying particular new policies and programs) (p 37)

Change Facilitator The role of change facilitator is defined to include not only

superintendents curriculum speciahsts and building principals but also the diverse set

of persons within and outside of organizations who have the formal or informal role to

23

aid those involved in leaming to use innovations (Hall Newlove George Rutherford amp

Hord 1991piii)

Concems Based on the work of Fuller (1969) Hall and his associates expand on

what constitutes concem

The composite representation of these feelings preoccupations thoughts and considerations about a particular issue or task is called concems The mental activity composed of questioning analyzing and re-analyzing considering altemative actions and reactions and anticipating consequences is concem An aroused state of personal feelings and thought about an issue phenomenon or condition as it is perceived is concem To be concemed means to be in a mentally aroused state about something (Hall Newlove George Rutherford amp Hord 1991 p5)

Innovation Loucks-Horsley and Stiegelbauer (1991) include a variety of school

programs as being innovations including school change school mission and goals

shared leadership as well as implementation of new technology Hall and his associates

define innovation as the issue idea or thing that is the center of attention (Hall

George and Rutherford 1977) Hall et als work in ascertaining concems over

educational innovations as will be demonstrated in greater detail in Chapter 2 can be

used to describe a wide variety of school implementations but within this current study is

strictly limited to instmctional technology implementation

Technology Rogers (1983) defines a technology as

A design for instrumental action that reduces the uncertainty in the cause-effect relationships involved in achieving a desired outcome A technology usually has two components (1) a hardware aspect consisting of the tool that embodies the technology as material or physical objects and (2) a software aspect consisting of the information base for the tool (p 12)

24

Technology Applications Chapter 126 of the TEKS for Technology Applications

(Texas Education Agency 1997b) defines what technology applications are in a

common introduction to each subchapter Among competencies at various grade levels

technology applications include the use of several word processing competencies

keyboarding strategies knowledge of a variety of input devices such as mouse modem

disk drive scanner digital video CD-ROM or touch screen database and spreadsheet

usage Intemet intranet and World Wide Web usage formal training in computer

programming languages and guided independent study Certainly a wide variety of

contemporary applications that meet these requirements can fiilfill these guidelines

However these guidelines are so broadly drawn that technologies not yet imagined

constmcted marketed or researched can be effectively implemented for instmctional

purposes

Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) The TAAS is a criterion-

referenced assessment instrument administered to Texas students The core instrument

assesses students skills in writing reading and mathematics at several grade levels At

present TAAS information taken fi-om students in the fourth and eighth grades and fi-om

an exit examination first administered in the tenth grade with multiple opportunities for

mastery Except for a special education exemption given by the Admission Review and

Dismissal (ARD) team for certain special education students Texas students are required

to have successfiilly passed each of the TAAS areas before a high school diploma may be

granted

25

Organization of the Study

This study follows the format and style of the Publication Manual of the

American Psychological Association (APA 1994) in terms of stmcture and organization

for dissertations This present chapter presents introductory material and a statement of

the problem for study Chapter II is a review of related literature tying the postulates of

this study to the established literature base Chapter III describes the research

methodology to be employed along with the context for the study Chapter IV describes

the data analysis for both of the research sub-questions Chapter V provides a summary of

the research its implications and suggestions for fiirther study

26

CHAPTER n

REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Introduction

Fullan and Stiegelbauer (1991) suggest that there will always be the need to make

educational changes as societies become more complex Three broad mechanisms for

effecting these changes include

1 natural disasters

2 extemal forces such as technology values and immigration and

3 intemal contradictions such as changes in technology leading to new social

patterns and needs (Fullan amp Stiegelbauer 1991 p 17)

Innovations then tend to be devised through both political and educational

motives Since technology implementation is included in this list our examination of

technology implementation concems will first discuss the legal foundations of technology

consortium development reasons for collaboration the theory behind change and

diffiision of innovations collaboration then to discuss the theory supporting concems

and finally to discuss some of the means of assessing and evaluating concems of change

facilitators

Technology Consortium Development

The research site for this present study is a technology consortium comprised of

several school districts This consortium will be described fimctionally in Chapter HI but

27

the controlling legal foundations of how this consortium was developed are herein

described fi-om the literature base

A technology consortium is considered an example of an agreement between

state governmental agencies Such an interlocal agreement is defined by the 1971

Interiocal Cooperation Act (the Act) (Vemons Texas Codes Annotated (VTCA)

1991) At present this Act is codified as Chapter 791 of the Texas Government Code

The Act authorizes local governmental agencies to contract with each other or with the

state to provide services to each other Independent school districts are classified as

other governmental fimction as described in sect 791003

Interlocal agreements are required to be authorized by the goveming bodies of

each governmental entity in this case by each member school board sect 791011 provides

for financial cooperation while sect 791013 allows the consortium to designate

administrative personnel to provide services (Bristol amp Jechow 1998)

Hudson (1997) describes the need for interlocal agreements as either being

required by the intensive capital needed for poohng financial resources or requiring a

high degree of special skills such as public utility specialists This technology

consortium requires both capital and technical expertise Resources for purchasing

significant amounts of computer hardware are pooled under sect 791025

Funds for the technology consortium are derived by legal authority in the Texas

Education Code (TEC) Most school districts in Texas are financed under the Minimum

Foundation Program under Chapter 42 of the TEC (VTCA 1996a) Locally generated

28

ftinds are combined with State fimds to provide for the regular education program of

school districts

However certain school districts that are considered property-wealthy have

different financial considerations The value-added nature of such districts may be due to

industry land values or as in this present study mineral wealth specifically petroleum

Chapter 41 of the TEC specifies means to limit the local property wealth per student to

$280000 (sect 41002) Monies in excess of that amount are surrendered to the State

sect 41099 allows for such districts to recapture some of these fimds to support a

technology initiative (VTCA 1996b) Two of the seven districts in this technology

consortium are considered property-rich and serve as financiers for the purchase of

technology for the remaining five districts

Fowler (1998) describes various ways technology consortia have to plan for nuts-

and-bolts administrative details including preparing state and federal reports asset

distribution litigation inclusion into and withdrawl from the consortium and

determining credentials for consortium board membership Chapters III and IV will

describe in greater detail the practical educational applications of this consortium in

operation

Collaboration

A significant part of the innerworkings of a technology consortium is that those in

leadership have mastered the ability to successfiilly collaborate Indeed collaboration

could be considered an innovation in and of itself (Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer

29

1993) Mattessich and Monsey (1992) have identified factors indicative of outstanding

collaborative groups

1 The politicalsocial environment along with a history of previous cooperative

efforts (pp 16-18)

2 Group membership is based on mutual tmst personal self-interest

compromise and a cross-section of the organizations involved (pp 19-22)

3 Group members have a stake in both the process and outcome of decision

making Clear roles and policies must be developed (pp 22-26)

4 Frequent and open communication links should be established (pp 26-28)

5 Reahstic goals and shared vision leading to a unique purpose (pp 28-30)

6 Both financial and human resources should be considered (pp 30-31)

The Change Process

Fullan and Stiegelbauer (1991) identify educational change as developed through

three phases In the initiation (or readiness) phase change leaders establish a need to

make improvements and to assist in the development of vision and planning At this

level intended outcomes of change are identified During the implementation phase

plans are activated to achieve those outcomes Both individuals and organizations

experience change as the result of new leaming experiences and support through follow

up The institutionalization phase stresses the integration of new practices into school

policies budgets routines etc As new needs and plans are identified stmctures are

30

developed to ensure that the newly institutionalized procedures continue to be maintained

(Fullan amp Stiegelbauer 1991 National Staff Development Council 1995)

Diffusion of Innovations

Concems toward innovations have been noted for some time Knowledge of

change is of littie value unless its solutions are diffiised to the level of the practitioner

(Guba 1968) Guba cites Everett Rogers (1955) who describes five stages of diffiision of

innovations

1 Awareness The individual leams of the existence of the innovation

2 Interest The individual seeks more information and considers the merits of

the innovation

3 Evaluation The individual makes a mental application of the innovation and

weighs its merit for his particular situation

4 Trial The individual applies the innovation on a small scale

5 Adoption The individual apphes the innovation for continued use on the basis

of a previous trial (Guba 1968 p 292)

Rogers (1983) builds on his earlier conclusions and adds a description of

characteristics of innovations which explain the differing rates of adoption among groups

1 Relative advantage is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as better

than the idea it supersedes The greater the perceived relative advantage of an

innovation the more rapid its rate of adoption is going to be

31

2 Compatibility is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as being

consistent with the existing values past experiences and needs of potential adopters An

idea that is not compatible with the prevalent values and norms of a social system will not

be adopted as rapidly as an innovation that is compatible

3 Complexity is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as difficult to

understand and use

4 Trialibility is the degree to which an innovation may be experimented with on a

limited basis An innovation that is trialable represents less uncertainty to the

individual who is considering it for adoption as it is possible to leam by doing

5 Observability is the degree to which the results of an innovation are visible to

others The easier it is for individuals to see the results of an innovation the more likely

they are to adopt (Rogers 1983 pp 15-16)

Rogers (1983) describes five categories of individuals accepting irmovations

along a continuum under a normal fi-equency distribution (p 247)

1 Innovators (2 CT below mean) These individuals are described as venturesome

eager to try new ideas desiring the hazardous daring and risky While an innovator

may not be respected by the other members of a social system the innovator plays an

important role in the diffiision process that of launching the new idea in the social system

by importing the innovation fi-om outside of the systems boundaries (p 248)

2 Early Adopters (between 1 and 2 a below the mean) This adopter category

more than any other has the greatest degree of opinion leadership in most social systems

32

(p 249) These are individuals that are the ones to check in with before trying out new

ideas They are the one who enjoy the greatest respect fi-om their associates

3 Early Majority (fi-om mean to 1 CT below mean) These individuals require more

time to deliberate before adopting an iimovation They eventually follow willingly into

the innovation but seldom take the initiative

4 Late Majority (fi-om mean to 1 a above mean) These individuals approach

innovation with caution and skepticism They are not convinced about the innovation

until the social system norms are in place before they will adopt the innovation

5 Laggards (above 1 a above mean) These individuals are the last in the social

system to adopt an innovation They tend to be suspicious of any changes to the social

system and require absolute certainty that new ideas will work

Finally Rogers (1983) suggests that opinion leaders in a social system are the

individuals who lead the group into innovation adoption Rogers identifies generalized

characteristics of opinion leaders that distinguish them fi-om their followers

1 Opinion leaders have greater exposure to mass media than their followers

2 Opinion leaders are more cosmopolite than their followers

3 Opinion leaders have greater change agent contact than their followers

4 Opinion leaders have greater social participation than their followers

5 Opinion leaders have higher economic status than their followers

6 Opinion leaders are more innovative than their followers

33

7 When a social systems norms favor change opinion leaders are more

innovative but when the norms do not favor change opinion leaders are not especially

innovative (Rogers 1983 pp 282-284)

This present research relies heavily on the relative opinion leader status of those

change facilitators fi-om whom data was gathered Because the informants are change

facilitators and their input on technology implementation is considered authoritative

Rogers insights on change facilitators are appropriate here

Concems Theory

In her role as an observer of novice teachers at the University of Texas Frances

Fuller (1969) noted that there were perceptible differences in how experienced and non-

experienced teachers observed their profession

Are typically inexperienced undergraduates not yet ready to benefit fi-om a conventional teacher preparation program What are they ready to leam What does concem them Can we discover regularities in the interests of beginning education students regularities which might fiimish guides to educators in choosing course content and experiences for teacher education programs (Fuller 1969 p 208)

Fuller reviewed the available literature related to the concems of beginning

teachers Her study concluded that their concems primarily centered on classroom

management and perceptions of evaluations She was surprised not only with how

consistently the varied concems were reported but also with what these authors left out

the absence of concems about topics which are usually included in education courses

34

I instmctional design methods of presenting subject matter assessment of pupil leaming

dynamics of child behavior and so on (p 210)

Fullers subsequent research concluded that a developmental conceptualization of

teacher concems was most appropriate

Pre-teaching phase Non-concem ~ During this time before actual contact with

children concems articulated by pre-service teachers were amorphous and vague

Many did not know what to actually be concemed about Much of what these novices

reported could be regarded as hearsay rumors about teaching etc (p 219)

Early Teaching Phase Concem with Self- As the novice educator begins

service concems with Where do I stand and How am I doing were most dominant

(p 220)

Late concems Concems with Pupils - Scant data with experienced educators was

available to Fuller but mature concems appeared to focus on pupil gains and self-

evaluation as opposed to personal gains and evaluations by others (p 221)

Fullers groundbreaking article began the basis for the development of concems

theory She posited significant research implications that were expanded upon by later

researchers

1 Is the concem sequence complete or are there more tasks with specific

competencies to be defined and resequenced

2 Is concem a fimction of the person of the situation of both or of

neither

35

3 Do individuals as well as groups go through these phases Can a

phase be skipped returned to or be in muhiple phases

4 Can these stages be generalized to other groups such as

administrators college professors and non-teaching staff

5 Are concems more related to teaching behavior teacher competency

or student leaming

6 Are these concems measurable Can they be manipulated by

intervention (Fuller 1969 pp 222-223)

With Fullers article the stage was then set for the development of a more

comprehensive method of measuring concems of educators as they deal with innovations

The Role of CBAM

During the period Fuller was conducting her research Gene Hall and his

associates at the University of Texas were also researching teacher needs and concems

initially with a view toward providing relevant staff development activities Their

conceptual fi-amework for ascertaining concems during school change became the

Concems-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) (Hall Wallace amp Dossett 1973)

The CBAM describes feelings perspectives and attitudes of individuals while

they are considering the use of an innovation (Hall 1979) It is a people-oriented model

anticipating what change agents might discover during the change process and generally

used with staff development (Hope 1995) These assumptions undergird the CBAM

36

1 Change is a process not an event Change takes time and is accomplished in

stages

2 The individual is the primary target of interventions designed to facilitate

change in the classroom Institutions cannot change until individuals within them change

3 Change is a highly personal experience The personal satisfactions concems

motivations and perceptions play roles in determining the success or failure of an

innovation

4 The change process is developmental Individuals go through stages in feelings

and perceptions about the innovation as well as in skill of use of the innovation

5 Staff development can be best facilitated by a client-centered diagnostic-

prescriptive model Staff developers must discover what level participants are in the

change process and design activities congment with that level

6 Staff developers need to work in an adaptive yet systemic way They must be

able to assess the change process and adapt training methods to address those changes

(Hall amp Loucks 1978 Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1991)

Within CBAM three aspects of change form the basic fi-ame of reference of the

model

1 the concem that users have about the innovation

2 how the innovation is used and

3 the ways that the innovation can be adapted to meet the needs of individuals

(Hope 1995)

37

This current study focused only on this first strand-concems Using Fullers

research Hall et al redefined Fullers three stages of concem into concems unrelated to

teaching concems about self concems about the task and concems about impact

(Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1991) Seven Stages of Concem (SoC) about the

innovation have been identified (see Appendix A) Hall and his associates have

demonstrated that individuals move through these seven levels in a consistent manner

(Hall 1979 Hall 1985 Hall George amp Rutherford 1977 Hall amp Loucks 1978 Hall

Wallace amp Dossett 1973 Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1991) Stage 0 represents no

concem over the innovation Stages 1 and 2 reflect concems based on self stage 3

represents concem with the task and stages 4 through 6 mirror concems based on pupil

impact

The Stages of Concem Questionnaire the most precise measure of the SoC is a

35-item Likert scale where respondents indicate their present degree of concem about the

topic in an item (Hall George amp Rutherford 1979) Hall et al hypothesize that

individuals will normally flow fi-om the stages in consecutive order and that a scored

profile should place an individual somewhere along the concems continuum It is highly

rigorous and can be used effectively for research for large groups of people and for

tracking groups of people over time

George (1977) provided rehability and validity figures for this instrument

Intemal reliability was shown to be high Table 2-1 shows intemal reliability coefficients

for a 1974 sample (N=830) of teachers and professors A later subsample of teachers

38

Modifications to the content of the SoC have been done (Bailey amp Palsha 1992

Shotsberger amp Crawford 1996) with varying reliability In the main these researchers

concur that teacher concems do indeed occur in stages but differ in the number of stages

they detect

Table 2-1 Coefficients of Intemal Reliability for the Stages of Concem Questionnaire N = 830

Stage Alphas

0 64 1 78 2 83 3 75 4 76 5 82 6 71

(George 1977)

(N=132) was asked to complete the SoC a second time with test-retest correlations

shown in Table 2-2

As an adjunct to the SoC questionnaire the opportunity is presented for the

respondent to provide a written response with an open-ended statement along the lines of

When you think about [the innovation] what are you concemed about An collection

of open-ended statements can give the researcher opportunity to get a quick feeling for

39

Table 2-2 Test-Retest Correlations on the Stages of Concem Questionnaire N=132

Stage Pearson-r

0 65 1 86 2 82 3 81 4 76 5 84 6 71

(George 1977)

the concems of a group Moreover it can ascertain specific issues germane to a particular

group (Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1991) An altemate version of the SoC geared

principally to change facilitators contains an open-ended blank

43 Use this space (and back of this page) to express any concems you have not been able to indicate in the questionnaire (Hall Newlove George Rutherford amp Hord 1991 p 48)

A third means of gaining information is the one-legged interview which can be

done by simply having a conversation with a respondent about the innovation It is called

one-legged because it can be conducted on the mn or brief enough to do while standing

on one leg While not so rigorous as quantitative instruments this format allows for more

simplicity and rapport with chents (Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1991)

40

AppUcations of CBAM

CBAM has been used in a variety of educational situations Malone (1984) used

CBAM to determine concems of pre-service elementary teachers in teaching science

James and Hall (1981) evaluated concems of veteran teachers in implementing new

science curricula

CiccheUi and Baecher (1985 1987) used the CBAM model to study teacher

computer training They found that the level of concems of novice computer-using

teachers was a factor in how staff development was scheduled Their research questions

are similar to this present study

1 What specific concems will teachers have about using microcomputers in the

classroom

2 Do these concems vary and if so to what extent among elementary junior high

and senior high school teachers

3 Are there different concems between male and female teachers

4 In what ways can data yielded fi-om the SoCQ help teacher educators design

effective inservicing (Cicchelli amp Baecher 1985)

Wesley and Franks (1996) observed the voluntary adoption activities of teachers

using computer-assisted instmction (CAI) and multimedia through a variety of staff

development strategies most notably collegiality (Joyce amp Showers 1988) CBAM

developmental stmctures were positively linked to the increasing complexity of

technologies adopted by these teachers As they progress through the SoC teachers

voluntarily adopt technologies toward better leaming in the classroom Hope (1995)

41

examined teachers concems as they gained greater facility with computers in an

elementary school setting

Wells and Anderson (1997) performed studies comparing intemal concems

(stages 0 to 3) and extemal concems (stages 4 to 6) on a variety of computer appUcations

utilized by students in a graduate telecommunications course Prior computer usage in

eight separate skill areas along with general computing experiences was evaluated on the

SoC Ragsdale (1997) used CBAM to research the unexpected reactions of teachers and

students as they work in a variety of technologies Through CBAM Todd (1993) studied

university faculty concems in teacher preparation programs

CBAM is even used in non-scholastic situations Hall and Hord (1987) report

CBAM and SoC used to research nurse training Air Force cadet leadership training

health behavior and textbook sales and service CBAM has been used intemationally

with extensive studies in Belgium the Netherlands and Australia and has been piloted in

Indonesia Venezuela and Thailand (Hall Newlove George Rutherford amp Hord 1991)

The Change Facilitator SoC

The SoC questionnaire was shown to be adequate in determining the concems of

classroom teachers but did not work as well with administrators staff developers and

others who were charged with implementing change (Hall Newlove George Rutherford

amp Hord 1991) Not only were many of the SoC statements often inappropriate for change

facilitators but also scores elicited fi-om change facilitators yielded values skewed higher

in the Impact stages 4 through 6 particularly stage 5 (Collaboration) which is logical

42

considering the definition of stage 5 and the role of the change facilitator (Hall et al

1991 p 15) Earlier studies with change facilitators and CBAM gave impetus for a more

role-related instrument for assessing concems

The net result of this research yielded a set of Change Facilitator Stages of Concem

(CFSoC) The sequence of concems in the CFSoC (unrelated self task impact) is given

in Appendix B As with the SoC the CFSoC again contains 35 Likert-style statements

but each statement is expressed with a more leadership oriented spin Again as in the

earlier SoC Questionnaire Hall et al hypothesize that change facilitators will move along

the same path fi-om one stage to the next in consecutive order

The CFSoC Instrument

This specific instrument formed a significant portion of the data for this present

study and consequently requires more detailed reporting of its development Hall et al

(1991) have prepared a detailed manual describing the development of the instrument

scoring procedures methods of interpretation and reliability and validity data Appendix

C provides the current CFSoC instrument as used in this present study

CFSoC Development

As stated earlier those who had roles as change facilitators exhibited a different

pattem of responses to the SoC questionnaire because the SoC statements are phrased for

users of the innovation (p 15) Hall et al reported that they had to strike a balance

between innovation-related concems and change-facilitator role concems (p 16)

43

Because of this felt need for such a balance in May and June of 1979 Hall et al

instituted a pilot study of a potential change facilitator version of the well-used SoC This

pilot study indicated the need to wholly change the concems statements to reflect change

facilitator roles Additionally they found that the questionnaire items had to reflect the

facilitation of others use of the innovation rather its use per se (p 18) Questionnaire

items for the Impact stages (4-6) had to focus on efforts and concems on revising the

facilitation process rather than personal use of the innovation

Hall et al (1991) describe their later piloting efforts

Pilot data were collected at CBAM workshops for change facilitators in August 1979 in Texas (N=29) and New Mexico (N=23) Item analyses indicated that the intemal reliability of the scales were good (alphas greater than 65 on all scales) but Stages 1 and 2 (Informational and Personal) were too highly correlated This led to fiirther examination of the CFSoC definitions and a new draft of items for Stages 0 12 and 3

In May 1980 a sample of 219 CFSoC Questionnaires was collected by sending the measure to all change facilitators who had participated in Concems-Based Consulting Skills Workshops in 1979 and 1980 Analyses of these responses indicated good reliability and scale intercorrelations for all but Stage 6 (Refocusing) After carefiil analysis of the Stage 6 concept several new Stage 6 items were written and incorporated into the CFSoC

During the summer and fall 1980 an additional set of 288 CFSoC Questionnaires was collected fi-om a variety of workshops and mailings to change facilitators With these data factor analyses and other item analyses were used to select the five items for each stage on the final questionnaire (Hall et al 1991 p 18-19)

Reliability and Validity

Hall et al (1991) report two intemal rehability studies for the CFSoC A 1981

study (N=589) administered the current 35-item scale to a sample group that included a

44

variety of innovations examined job titles and years of experience Table 2-3 shows the

intemal reliability data for each stage Subsequent studies have produced virtually

identical data Another set of CFSoC responses (N=750) yielded the data in Table 2-4

Table 2-3 Means Standard Deviations and Alpha Coefficients for the CFSoC (N=589)

Stage Mean SD Alpha

0 1199 594 61 1 1691 949 85 2 1304 632 62 3 1790 730 72 4 2588 634 70 5 2586 699 77 6 907 652 81

(Halletal 1991p 19)

Table 2-4 Means Standard Deviations and Alpha Coefficients for the CFSoC (N=750)

Stage Mean SD Alpha

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

1320 1920 1140 1766 2477 2499

840

593 925 622 718 672 704 618

63

86

65

73

74

79

81

(Halletal 1991 p 19)

Hall et al conclude These statistics indicate that the scales have adequate

intemal reliability and the scales are consistent across various innovations (p 20) 45

The 1981 study yielded relatively low intercorrelations between stages Such low

intercorrelations indicate that these scales are measuring different concepts Table 2-5

provides a display of the intercorrelations of scale scores

Table 2-5 Intercorrelations of the Scale Scores on the CFSoC (N=589)

Scale 1 2 3 4 5 6

0 15 19 23 -15 -21 22

i 24 09 23

2 37 19

3 32

4

5

18

05

20

67

05

34

09

-06

-15

(Halletal 1991 p 20)

As is noticable in the table most stage correlations are small except for the correlation of

Consequence and Collaboration

Summary and Reflection

To summarize we know a great deal about how schools change fi-om the available

literature Fullan and Stiegelbauer (1991) point out famihar pattems of change and how

individuals adjust through those changes Rogers (1955 1983) insights into the diffiision

of innovations in a social system have expanded and matured with time Rogers points

46

out that those who facilitate change most effectively are those who in the social system

are most effective in social effectiveness Those who would dare to facilitate

technological change would normally reflect Rogers maxims conceming opinion leaders

The concepts of collaborative strategies appear usefiil for a variety of contexts

particularly for cooperative groups of school districts The original Stages of Concem

(SoC) survey continues to be utilized extensively but little hterature exists for the more

restrictive Change Facilitator Stages of Concem (CFSoC) instrument CFSoC authors

appear enthusiastic about its use (Hall amp Hord 1987 Hall Newlove George Rutherford

amp Hord 1991) but as this present research is conducted only one recent article advocates

its use (Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1993)

In communicating with CFSoC personnel they had no direct knowledge of

extensive recent literature on the CFSoC G Hall (personal communication November 2

1998) referred this writer to the original CBAM staff A George (personal

communication November 6 1998) was unable to find extemal validity studies of the

CFSoC There appears a need for this instmment to be used and reported upon

The legal stmctures which provide foundation for establishing a technology

consortium are solidly found in Texas legal literature Because they are based on legal

statutes they could be modified or deleted by subsequent legislatures Moreover the

changing fortunes of Chapter 41 school districts with fluctuating mineral wealth will

make it difficuh to reliably predict the fiiture of such technology consortia

47

CHAPTER m

METHODOLOGY

Study Design

Yin (1994) asserts that the type of research design to be used in any study must be

bounded by (a) the type of research question posed (b) the extent of control an

investigator has over actual behavioral events and (c) the degree of focus on

contemporary as opposed to historical events (p 4)

This present study used the case study method Yin (1993) specifically addressed

and described studies of educational partnerships or consortia as good examples of case

study research The research questions reiterated below are how and why oriented

(Yin 1994) They are presented in the form of a grand tour question what concems the

technology consortium exhibits as a group and sub-questions what concems individuals

(Spradley 1979)

Grand Tour Ouestion

What are the concems of leadership personnel as the TEKS technology

requirements are implemented in their school districts

Sub-questions

1 Where do these school leaders fall on the Concems-based Adoption Model

(CBAM) continuum regarding TEKS technology implementation

48

2 What are the specific concems of these school leaders as these TEKS are

implemented and why are these concems important

Rationale

This research examined details particularly interviewees responses which were

out of this writers direct control This study also focused on contemporary events in a

technology consortium in rural Texas Therefore Yins standards (Yin 1994 p 6) for

applying a case study method were justified

This present study was exploratory As such Yin (1994 p 21) would assert that

specific propositions or underlying assumptions about what we might discover in the

course of the inquiry should not be defined Assumptions tend to interfere with defining

issues they also constmct personal biases to both data gathering and interpretation

Rather Yin suggested that an exploratory study should reflect the purpose of the study

and the criteria by which an explanation will be judged successfiil (p 21) Levine

(1990) concurs that explorations into educational computer use often lack propositions

Many of the published qualitative studies are deemed exploratory by their authors reflecting researchers quandaries about what should be the subject of the inquiry in this new field and of equal importance the lack of any guiding theory against which to cast the qualitative data In general most of the extant models of quahtative investigation into classroom computer use tend to be atheoretical and largely positivist rather than interpretive in their orientation (p 464)

The criteria forjudging an explorations success will be discussed in the later section

dealing with validity and reliability

The unit of analysis for this study was a technology consortium the combined and

49

cooperative efforts of seven school districts to provide instmctional technology leadership

toward better serving their students Such a partnership has collective activities and

outcomes and as a distinct unit represents something greater than activities and

outcomes of member school districts (Yin 1993) Those change facilitators whose

concems were examined were all employed by the individual school districts and were

recognized as leaders within their respective districts Each of these individuals was

asked a set of similar questions Their responses were considered as representative of the

leadership of their individual districts Appendix D provides the list of questions that

were asked

Yin (1993) suggests that topical relevance and access can contribute to the

appropriateness of this research design The consideration of TEKS technology

implementation efforts is being effected during this present academic year and is certainly

current

For linking the data to the research questions the specific analysis strategy used

was the pattem-matching model Those concems registered by the interview participants

were compared with pattems of CBAM data particularly the typical and hypothesized

profiles of school change facilitators as manifested on the Change Facilitator Stages of

Concem (CFSoC) protocol (Hall Newlove George Rutherford amp Hord 1991)

Informants were asked to fill out the brief CFSoC survey The CFSoC manual presented

typical profiles and gave suggested interpretations of representative profiles These were

used to determine the concems rankings of these informants

Yin (1994) admits that there are no precisely set criteria for interpreting findings

In discussing a study by an author named herein Jones Yin made these observations

50

Jones data matched one pattem better than they matched the other But how close does a match have to be so as to be considered a match Note that Jones did not do any statistical test to make the comparison Nor would a statistical test have been possible because each data point in the pattem was a single number for which one could not calculate a variance and could not conduct any statistical test One hopes that the different pattems are sufficiently contrasting that the findings can be interpreted in terms of comparing at least two rival propositions (p 26)

The concems of school change facilitators as they implement new models of

curriculum were studied through the mode of exploratory case study a qualitative study

design Because this current study desired to know the current concems of sitting school

leaders a case study paradigm was used because the events in the study cannot be

manipulated Campbell (1997) suggests that a qualitative design is appropriate when

ascertaining the insiders point of view and the informants personal involvement A

research protocol of examining documents and artifacts and conducting interviews

provided a wide variety of data Moreover as Levine (1990) asserted case study research

could be accomplished relatively quickly Levine suggested that a case study design

appears to be the method of choice for those investigating different facets of educational

uses of computer technology

Clouse and Garrett (1994) suggest more theoretical reasons for utilizing case

study with adult change facilitators Borrowing fi-om Piagetian concepts the stage of

formal operations which forms the basis of case study is well-developed by adulthood

Moreover case study is grounded in the needs of adult leamers because of the

51

meaningfiilness of problems to the aduh and the responsibility they take toward their

own personal development

Stake (1995) describes defining characteristics of case study research that are

apphcable for this present study

1 It is holistic its contextuality is well developed it is case oriented

2 It is empirical it is field oriented its emphasis is on observables including the observations by informants it strives to be naturalistic noninterventionistic and there is a relative preference for natural language description

3 It is interpretive its researchers rely on intuition with many important criteria not specified it is attimed to the fact that research is a researcher-subject interaction

4 It is empathetic although plaimed its design is emergent responsive its reporting provides vicarious experience

(Stake 1995 pp 47-48)

Context for the Study

This study site was selected in consultation with a consultant who had knowledge

of and had worked with this organization I was directed toward one of the Consortiums

superintendents to secure access This superintendent in tum directed me toward a

person at the Educational Service Center who would be able to assist me

This technology consortium was comprised of seven school districts with two

districts declining to participate in this research These districts were rural and agrarian

yet possessed school leaders who tmly wanted to bring their communities up to date with

52

technology These school sites were given pseudonyms which were generated by random

selection of cities fi-om states other than Texas in a current road atlas Names of

participants were given pseudonyms Those names were those of students fi-om my high

school yearbook and were drawn by lot

In general each of the five school districts were in Texas counties which have

declined in population since 1990 The combined population of these districts is 7306

(Texas Almanac 1998) Each districts economy was based on agriculture and varying

amounts of mineral wealth resulting in substantial variance in property values Each

county boasts a relatively low crime rate

More important than minute details this present study is focused on the big

picture the ways and means utiHzed to make this technology consortium a reality In

initial contacts with consortium leadership this researcher was directed toward Dr Sarah

McCuUough a program specialist of the Educational Service Center Region J located in

Center City Texas Dr McCullough was instmmental in establishing this technology

consortium and providing this researcher with the history and innerworkings of this

consortium Interview questions for Dr McCullough are in Appendix E The following

narrative of the foundation and fimctioning of this consortium is based on this

researchers interview with Dr McCullough (personal communication December 9

1998)

The Sah Fork Educational Technology Consortium (the Consortium) is comprised

of seven independent school districts all of which have akeady worked together as a

special education cooperative Six of these districts are members of Educational Service

Center (ESC) Region J while one is actually in the territory of ESC Region K As also

53

with special education cooperatives a technology consortium is an interlocal agreement

by Texas law and has a management board comprised of district superintendents one

district designated as fiscal agent and a chair authorized to speak and act for the group

The Salt Fork Telephone Company (SFTC) headquartered in Dellwood Texas

provides rural telephone service for several counties in Texas All of the school districts

in these counties depend on this provider for both telephone service and the possibihty of

Intemet connectivity In 1995 the SFTC invited school leaders fi-om their service area to

a demonstration in Dellwood to show off a variety of new technologies that they were

excited to announce particularly their new capabiHty for two-way interactive video

Because these districts had worked together before had a common telephone carrier and

had common interests these school leaders concluded it logical and practical to combine

together for technology improvement in their schools

Prior to the Consortiums establishment member districts were limited to only the

computers they currently had in the classroom Almost all of their computers were

stand-alone units Each district also had a satellite dish for the state network materials

but were using them poorly and inefficiently

Dr McCullough was initially hired to work with this group to get a two-way

interactive video setup organized Later she was deeply involved with authoring several

grants for this group Her subsequent work with the Consortium was to conduct an array

of custom-designed technology needs assessments for each of several job descriptions

(teacher counselor administrator etc) with the emphasis on what do you want that you

do not have with the view that technology was the means to fiilfill those needs She now

54

meets regularly with these superintendents as they hold Consortium management board

meetings

Dr McCullough describes the interrelationships of Consortium members

positively She notes very little dissention as they discuss procedures that most decisions

are made by consensus What serves one serves all of them she emphasizes as the

Consortium moves toward better technology use Each board member realizes that they

are at different point toward reaching group goals They realize the benefits of

collaborative planning a hard lesson for everyone to leam

The Consortium keeps operating fiinds in a bank account separate fi-om general

operating fiinds administered by the business manager of the fiscal agent To date

fimding has come fi-om grants and fi-om monies generated fi-om the two member districts

designated as property-wealthy under Chapter 41 of the Texas Education Code These

districts recapture a certain percentage of excess property wealth normally surrendered to

the State and assign those fiinds to the Consortium (see Chapter II) These districts have

voluntarily chosen to redistribute their fiinds in this manner

Because these districts have formed this consortium they not only have more

technology but also more capabilities As a whole there is improved student

performance and better trained teachers with a rise in Academic Excellence Indicator

System (AEIS) scores (see Chapter I) Most importantly these school leaders fimction as

a group They actively seek ways to collaborate

A recent example of this improved outlook on technology concems teachers use

of the Accelerated Reader (AR) program Heretofore it had been difficult to get teachers

to travel all the way to Center City for training for AR but with a high-quality technology

55

center in Dellwood closer to the other Consortium member schools there was high and

enthusiastic tumout for the training sessions

Informant Selection

This researcher invited each of the seven school districts in the technology

consortium to participate in this study In August 1998 a letter was sent to each of the

district superintendents of the Consortium introducing me the goals of the prospective

research how they might participate^ etc A copy of this letter is provided in Appendix F

Within two weeks of the initial invitation a letter was received fi-om one

superintendent stating that in consultation with his districts site-based team they would

decline to participate in this present study That same week this researcher received a

telephone call fi-om the Dellwood ISD superintendent who had been authorized by the

Consortium board to grant permission to use their districts for this study

After securing approval of the Universitys Institutional Review Board these

superintendents were again contacted and consent forms instmctions and CFSoC

surveys were mailed to superintendents building principals and technology coordinators

of the six remaining districts This mailing was in November 1998 Eighteen completed

CFSoC surveys would be the potential maximum Appendix G contains a copy of the

consent forms and instmctions for taking the surveys

Concurrent with mailing queries to Consortium staff this researcher made initial

contact with Dr McCullough of the ESC and conducted an interview with her in

December 1998

56

The mailings yielded only eleven retumed surveys fi-om the maximum eighteen

possible informants However two of those with completed surveys were deleted fi-om

the pool during the pre-interview stage due to lack of fiirther response to interview

queries The net pool yielded exactly three each of superintendents building principals

and technology coordinators representing five school districts These nine informants are

those whose CFSoC profiles and interviews will be discussed in Chapter IV

Data Collection

A variety of data collection methods congment with the case study method was

used leading to the development of converging lines of inquiry allowing triangulation

ofthe data leading to improved validity and reliability of this study (Yin 1994)

Survey The CFSoC instmment contained 35 Likert-style statements which were

grouped into seven stages of concem Each ofthe statements received a score of 0

through 7 The statement scores were added up to provide a raw score for each stage

That raw score was in tum evaluated by a percentile score chart For the given raw

score there was a corresponding percentile score Percentile scores were then encircled

on a CFSoC protocol Interpretation ofthe CFSoC was based on the profile yielded

from the administration ofthe instrument

Hall et al (1991) insist that their instrument must not be used to make a definitive

analysis of a respondent but rather all interpretations must be treated as hypotheses (p

29) They discuss three methods of examining the CFSoC protocol to generate

hypotheses Interpretations can be made either by examining the stage which shows the

highest degree of concem based on percentile score by examining the percentile scores

57

ofthe highest and the second-highest stages or by examining the fiill array of stage

percentile scores Hall et al point out

As individuals move fi-om little concem about facilitating use of an innovation into actively becoming involved with users as a facilitator it is hypothesized that their concems develop fi-om being most intense at Stages 0 1 and 2 to most intense at Stage 3 and uhimately to most intense at Stages 4 5 and 6 This is most likely to occur if the innovation is a positive one and there is administrative support for its implementation However reality has a way of intervening on this idealized trend which results in different and interesting profiles Where an individual is in this change process can best be assessed through interpretation of a complete concems profile Analyzing both the tabular fisting of percentile scores and the plots of these percentile scores as a graph provides the most complete clinical interpretationassessment (Hall et al pp 33-34)

The profiles accuued as part ofthe data collection are thus examined according to

fiill-profile examples given in the CFSoC manual (Hall et al pp 34-42) Additionally

specific information given by the respondents conceming their change facilitator roles is

considered in establishing these hypotheses Scores are interpreted on the shape ofthe

profile and not necessarily on the numerical score of each concem stage

Interviews There were semistmctured interviews with district superintendents

building principals and persons designated within the school community as the

technology coordinator those whom teachers and administrators rely upon when

computer savvy is needed As opposed to the more open-ended interview I made the

interview more focused as Yin (1994 pp 84-85) puts it The informants were busy

educators and administrators and their time was perceived as limited Interviews were

oriented toward ascertaining the informants knowledge and use of technology with a

58

view toward discovering concems they had as new curricular guidelines and concurrent

hardware implementation was instituted Interviews were conducted by telephone tape

recorded and transcribed for review Interview queries were based on the CFSoC

questionnaire (Hall et al 1991) and questions used in a similar dissertation project

(Nagy 1996) This researcher noticed that several questions as listed in Appendix D

would be commented on by the informants without being asked When each ofthe

questions were answered by the informant the interview ceased Any discussion of non-

germane issues (local school politics vocational programs etc) or school activities not

included in Chapter 126 ofthe TEKS were not evaluated

Documentation Merriam (1988) defines documents as just about anything in

existence prior to the research at hand (p 105) but cautions whether it contains

information or insights relevant to the research question and whether it can be acquired in

a reasonably practical yet systematic manner (p 105)

I wanted to review a wide variety of recent public records in the fiirtherance of

technology implementation for this Consortium including but not limited to school

board minutes technology consortium records established policy statements grant

applications tabular data and evaluations Not all of these documents were available

fi-om Dr McCullough or fi-om Consortium members What was available included the

initial grant applications needs assessment surveys and technology plan The Academic

Excellence Indicator System (AEIS) reports for the 1997-98 school year for each district

were retrieved fi-om the TEA web site (TEA 1999) During the course of informant

interviews certain legal documents were alluded to found in Vemons Texas Codes

Annotated and were useful in verifying interview data A current survey (September

59

1998) ofthe Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) provided a comparison

of similarly situated school districts for technology use Cumulative accountability data

conceming these districts was found in pubhc records (TEA 1995 1996 1997a 1998)

Standardized indicators of district performance could thus be obtained as evidence of

progress

Merriam (1988) suggests that the use of these documents assists in grounding a

study into the context ofthe problem that is under investigation A further purpose of

reviewing documentation is that such records present not only the history ofthe

technology program but also the sense of ownership and commitment that the leadership

exerts and the staff reflect in their service to their leaming communities We also seek

independent objective means to determine if these technology implementations yield any

progress thus avoiding halo effects fi-om those most intimately involved with the

organization

Data Analysis

Since data collection and data analysis drive one another (Gay 1997) the data

was organized to reflect pattems or themes which emerged fi-om the data (Bogdan amp

Biklen 1992) As they discuss evaluating data they affirm that a method of finding a

focus is to look over your coding categories and see which have yielded the greatest

amount of data (p 186)

The interview transcripts were read and reread to gamer a sense ofthe concems

manifested by the informants The analysis had to be germane to the viewpoint ofthe

informant (Tashakkori amp Teddlie 1998) Coding categories emerging fi-om the interview

60

data included student leaming distance leaming power attitudes training infrastmcture

and finance The relevant narrative fi-om the hard copies ofthe transcripts were color

coded by crayon By using the cut-and-paste editing method with the word processor

color coded text fi-om individuals transcripts were collated into listings of specific

concems

Bogdan and Biklen (1992) suggest that this method of sorting piles of coded

material helps the researcher in not only making better sense ofthe data but also

communicating the results to others Appendix H shows the broad categories or themes

along with the sub-categories which comprised each theme

Since both quantitative and qualitative data were used in this present research it

becomes vital to justify the use of each paradigm and how the data is analyzed within that

paradigm Tashakkori and Teddlie (1998) wholeheartedly affirm that the two paradigms

can be successfully fused into one study They suggest that researchers deemed

pragmatic do not necessarily have to be doctrinaire about research paradigms Among

the various research models they describe is included a mixed-model study which

includes a research design that calls for a field experiment and extensive ethnographic

interviewing to occur simultaneously and in an integrated manner (p 19)

The CFSoC survey (Hall et al 1991) was analyzed as per the instmctions given

and the examples displayed in Section IV of their instruments manual Since each

informant could be considered at an individual position on the CFSoC concems

continuum a hypothesized profile was made for each informant based on the relative

extremes in percentile ranks derived fi-om the raw scores ofthe seven concem stages on

61

the CFSoC protocol (pp 33-34) Hall et al took pains to remind CFSoC users that the

quantitative results could only be considered data to generate hypotheses (p 43)

The examples given in the CFSoC manual make comparisons ofthe various high

stages that informants exhibit For example a high raw score in Stage 3-Management

would reflect that the informant may have significant concems toward logistics time and

management in fulfilling professional duties vis-a-vis implementing the discussed

innovation A high raw score at Stage 0-Awareness uniquely and specifically indicates

that the informant may have many other concems in addition to the innovation currently

in question These extemal concems could be any other activities that vie for a change

facilitators limited attention that outweigh the immediate concem for the stated

innovation Hall et al describe a variety of combinations and relative positioning of those

concems that are most prominent in the informants thinking Data reporting of

informants CFSoC profiles in Chapter IV will reflect analysis strategies described by

Hall et al in their manual (Hall et al 1991 pp 34-42)

Tashakkori and Teddlie (1998) assert that the qualitative field material (notes

interviews etc) be evaluated on two dimensions a) whether the themes or categories

were established a priori or emerged during the analysis and b) the degree of complexity

ofthe qualitative analysis scheme (ranging fi-om simple to complex) (p 117) They note

that through this process of emerging themes six to eight categories or themes emerge

when no a priori mle is imposed on informants

Because the data would be analyzed using recurring themes (Glesne amp Peshkin

1992 Howard 1994 Miles amp Huberman 1984) emerging fi-om the course of

interviewing the technique of latent content analysis was used As opposed to manifest

62

content the surface meaning of a text latent content refers to determining the underlying

meaning of a narrative and is determined by a subjective evaluation ofthe overall

content ofthe narrative (Tashakkori amp Teddhe 1998 p 122)

The text ofthe interviews was read several times for topics that the informants

found important Those topics which appeared most fi-equently emerged as the themes

Tashakkori and Teddlie point out that this analysis scheme makes it more appropriate for

the phenomenon being studied (p 123)

Verification Strategies

Maxwell (1996) insists that validity in a quahtative study is not acquired simply

by applying boilerplate techniques and strategies but by describing specific ways and

means of mling out possible altematives to our interpretations and conclusions Maxwell

insists that validity is a goal rather than a product it is never something that can be

proven or taken for granted (p 86) Moreover validity must be determined within the

context ofthe research and not merely a property independent ofthe context For each of

three principal means of understanding Maxwell describes a specific method that I was

able to use to better ensure validity

1 Description Since the main threat to description is inaccuracy the informant

interviews were recorded on cassette tape and transcribed Each ofthe informants was

sent a copy ofthe transcribed conversation for review verification and suggestions

2 Interpretation The principal threat to interpretation is imposing my own

meanings to the informants words To combat this validity threat consistent member

checks were made during the course ofthe interviews to ensure that I was getting the

63

correct information from the informant It was important to allow each informant to

express himself or herself in their own words Several methods of eliminating personal

bias are described below

3 Theory Not paying adequate attention to altemative propositions becomes the

most serious threat to theoretical validity (Maxwell 1996 p 89-90) Altemative

propositions can be masked by researcher bias and reactivity

Elimination of researcher bias is based on understanding how my personal biases

could affect the informants and their comments and my conclusions subsequently

derived Maxwell declares that is virtually impossible to totally eliminate my personal

thinking and values from the study (p 91) By asking similar questions of informants by

allowing these informants to candidly express themselves and by consistent member

checking I controlled for personal bias

Reactivity the influence ofthe researcher on the informants is likewise

impossible to totally remove from the research as Maxwell insists

For interviews in contrast reactivity is a powerful and inescapable influence what the informant says is always a function of the interviewer and interview situation What is important is to understand how you are influencing what the informant says and how this affects the validity ofthe inferences you can draw fi-om the interview (p 91)

Lists of what to do to combat reactivity have been compiled (Marshall amp

Rossman 1989 Maxwell 1996) but all of these suggestions (triangulation member

checks audits etc) are simply the usual methods in qualitative research Since there are

64

virtually no qualitative studies ofthe research instrument available for comparison I have

relied on these procedures to control for biases

1 Feedback Maxwell (1996) encourages the use of a variety of outside observers

to examine the data analysis and give their comments to critique my logic and methods

Two individuals with experience with both technology and research methods have agreed

to assist me with this and evaluate the data analysis

a Mr Jack P Stell instmctional design manager Fairfax VA and b Dr C L Wayne Moore Assistant Professor University of Tennessee Knoxville

With differing perspectives and biases these reviewers indicated agreement that

the research methodology proposed was indeed followed and that the research questions

were answered They pointed out grammatical and spelling errors writing style concems

adherence to APA requirements etc

2 Member Checks Although informants were given repeated opportunities to

clarify themselves in the interviews informants were given the opportunity to respond to

the data analysis specifically identifying themselves

3 Rich Data Maxwell (1996) considers rich data to be detailed and complete

enough that they provide a full and revealing picture of what is going on (p 95) This

generally includes verbatim transcripts of interviews which were compiled for each of

the Consortium informants As the data was read and considered themes emerged fi-om

the data

4 Numerical Report Data This researcher used numerical and normally

quantitative data to add to the confidence level of what my informants were saying

There was particular concem with whether the efforts ofthe Consortium were making

65

any progress over the time period from its establishment to the time ofthe interviews

Publicly available data was gamered from AEIS and TAAS reports to ascertain progress

in school performance

Study Limitations

This study focused on technology implementation concems of change facilitators

of a single technology consortium limiting the representativeness ofthe study The

combined student population of these five districts is smaller than many urban high

schools Interview responses reflected a rural attitude Findings yielded reflect the

comments of those interviewed at the time ofthe study There may be a variety of future

long-range plans pending that might modify present policies These would include grants

bond issues school board elections or even newer state mandates

Nevertheless this study must transcend these limitations in order to be of interest

and find applicability by other scholars Yin (1994) hastens to point out that the case

study paradigm relies on analytical generalization not experimental statistical

generalization to generalize the results to a broader theory (p 36) Yin suggests

replication of a case study with similar sites before a general theory can gain wider

acceptance

There is also the problem of apphcability to school settings markedly different

from those studied However issues that are common to school districts in general could

be expressed by these informants (eg concems over funding student leaming staff

development or transfer of power)

66

CHAPTER IV

RESULTS OF THE STUDY

Informant and CFSoC Profiles

As discussed in Chapter III Consortium informants were sent a copy ofthe

CFSoC questionnaire and those protocols were retumed to this researcher These

informants responses have been evaluated according to guidelines established by Hall et

al (1991) This instmment does not consign each informant to each ofthe seven stages of

concem but rather categorizes the informant in a broader category of CBAM either

Awareness Self Task or Impact as was discussed in Chapter II Consequently each

informant will be designated by the general category based on their individual CFSoC

profile TheCFSoC protocols for each ofthe informants are included as figures in this

chapter

James

James Petty is the high school principal at Camden a position he has held for over

fifteen years James considers himself a practical person and professes a rather traditional

attitude toward his administrative duties The interview with James repeatedly mentioned

school discipline and teacher control ofthe classroom He readily admitted to relying on

other persons to inform him on technological issues rather than researching the data

himself

James CFSoC profile (Figure 4-1) exhibited extremely high levels of concem

with Awareness Management and Personal stages with percentile scores over 90 The

67

0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage 0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score 99 69 99 96 13 21 68

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-1 CFSoC Profile of James Petty Camden Principal

68

high Personal score suggests a concem for personal position and standing while the high

Awareness score indicates a diversity of issues facing him which to him are of greater

importance particularly classroom management Also a high Management score implies

time logistical and managerial concems The moderately high Refocusing score

indicates James has thought about altematives to the innovation and would be exhibiting

definite ideas and opinions over the technology implementation This profile suggests

James is not as likely to be involved in the change process as others might be Attempts

to intervene could intensify his current levels of concem Because ofthe high scores in

the Self array of stages I would hypothesize James to be in the SELF stage of concem

Bill

Bill Potter is the technology coordinator for the Camden schools although he

continues to teach math for much of his school day Bill leamed his present trade largely

by doing it Although relatively new to computers (less than fifteen years) Bill considers

himself to have been oriented toward technology from his military days as an Army pilot

during the 1960s to the present His formal computer training has only been in a few

junior college classes and some inservice training Bill credits his technology reputation

to being the one who knew how to operate the computer at an earlier date than his peers

Although in the technology coordinator role Bills highest CFSoC profile (Figure

4-2) score was in Awareness This is most likely attributable to having many other

professional concems at present particularly since he remains a classroom teacher for

69

0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

91 56 62 60

5 12 18

2 3 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-2 CFSoC Profile of Bill Potter Camden Technology Coordinator

70

much ofthe school day as well as his increaseingly greater role in his school district He

may also just now be beginning to envision himself as a change facilitator

Information Personal and Management scores are no more than six percentile

points apart suggesting personal status and time logistical and managerial concems are

also important to Bill An increased Refocusing score also indicates Bill has some

definite ideas about the innovation that warrant consideration Bill manifests a SELF

stage of concem for this iimovation based on his CFSoC profile

Ronnie

Ronnie Bennett has been technology coordinator at Dellwood for just a few years

but has a long reputation and a deep pioneering attitude not only toward computers but to

a wide array of technology Ronnie was the first at his school to use a computer first with

a VCR first with a CD player and first to tinker with quadrophonic sound Like Bill

Ronnie first leamed computing by doing it In addition Ronnie observed and later

worked with the various private vendors and technicians who provided technology

services to his building

Ronnies CFSoC profile (Figure 4-3) indicates several areas of concem High

Awareness and Personal scores indicate many concems other than the present technology

implementation Ronnie also considers his personal position and role in the school

organization to be important The similar scores in Management and Refocusing reflect

his concem for time and managerial issues and his definite additional ideas toward the

71

0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

99 76 97 91 39 40 92

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-3 CFSoC Profile of Ronnie Bennett Dellwood Technology Coordinator

72

innovation that might warrant consideration Ronnie appears to border between the SELF

and TASK stages of concem

Larry

Larry Beckman a former agriculture teacher has been the superintendent at

North Prairie for a few years Larry realizes his mral attitudes and folksy manner but

demonstrates by his proactive approach to leadership that advancing technology in his

district is in the best interests of his students and staff He has had little formal training

intechnology except for several workshops However Larry credits a hands-on

technology approach as most effective for himself

Larry had relatively high percentile scores for each ofthe seven stages of concem

with a low of 68 in Consequence Larrys highest CFSoC profile (Figure 4-4) score was

Management suggesting that the physical nuts and bolts and managerial concems

were most important Information scoring higher than Awareness indicates a better

understanding ofthe details ofthe innovation Larrys lowest scores in Personal

Consequence and Collaboration were only five percentile points apart suggesting

relatively lower concem for interpersonal interests He also scored high in Refocusing

suggesting that he is considering additional ideas about the iimovation that should be

considered Because ofthe high degree of management concems Larry would be best

described as being in the TASK stage of concem

73

0

100

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

87 89 73 94 68 72 92

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-4 CFSoC Profile of Larry Beckman North Prairie Superintendent

74

Mike

Mike McCoy has spent almost a decade at Sawtooth as superintendent Like

several others Mike is perceived as a doer having leamed a great deal about

technology through practical application Mike has a more direct responsibility with his

staff doing teacher evaluations and performing first-line maintenance with his buildings

technology He credits both a number of technology workshops and reading of

technology periodicals as being great sources of information

Mike as superintendent has many concems on his mind as his CFSoC profile

(Figure 4-5) indicates with a high score in Awareness His second highest score

Management suggests that he feels the cmnch of managerial and material concems for

his district Low Information and Personal scores could suggest that he feels secure in his

position and understanding ofthe innovation implementation A slight increase in

Refocusing fi-om Collaboration suggests that Mike is considering some ideas in addition

to the innovation implementation Because more personal concems are lower and the

managerial concems are high Mike appears to be in the TASK stage of concem

Vemon

Vemon Russell has well over three decades of public school service currently

finding himself as principal ofthe Sawtooth school Indeed he still teaches some science

classes and has even coached football while still an administrator Vemon is relatively

new to technology but indicates his willingness to leam by studiously reading the

manuals and attending workshops Vemon quips Ive leamed more from it in the last

three years than all the other years put together

75

0 100

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

96 43 34 82 9

18 31

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-5 CFSoC Profile of Mike McCoy Sawtooth Superintendent

76

Vemons CFSoC profile (Figure 4-6) shows him interested and positive about the

innovation with the higher Information score but the high Management score shows

Vemon still concemed over his day-to-day details Low Personal and even lower

Consequence and Collaboration scores and both raw and percentile scores of zero for

Refocusing indicate little concem over his facilitative role his personal status nor his

interest in exploring altematives toward this innovation At this late stage of career

Vemon appears comfortable in his knowledge ofthe innovation Vemon also appears to

be in the TASK stage of concem based on the high Management score

Renee

Renee White a mid-career educator occupies the technology coordinator

designation at Sawtooth schools Having been a secretary for twenty years Renee

considers herself adept at any technology thrown at her Describing herself as the chief

distributor of information Renee considers herself glad not to have a computer in her

home because she would play with it indefinitely

Renee exhibits similarly high percentile scores in Awareness and Management on

her CFSoC profile (Figure 4-7) These scores imply Renee has both a variety of concems

in addition to the innovation implementation and also concems over time logistics and

management of her responsibilities Similarly low percentile scores in Information

Personal Consequence and Collaboration suggest lesser concem for personal position

and collaboration needs A slight upswing in the Refocusing score suggests a concem for

articulating altemative ideas Renee seems to exhibit a TASK stage of concem

77

0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

69 81 30 78 16 4 0

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-6 CFSoC Profile of Vemon Russell Sawtooth Principal

78

0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

91 18 30 86 2 3

18

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-7 CFSoC Profile of Renee White Sawtooth Technology Coordinator

79

David

David Jackson has been an administrator for decades and is the superintendent at

Woodlake David recognized the potential of computers and technology as soon as

computers became widely available to schools He enjoys being involved with the nuts

and bolts details of technology implementation even to the point of being involved with

the wiring for hardware implementation

David shows the same percentile score for both Awareness and Information on his

CFSoC profile (Figure 4-8) This impHes Davids concem for a variety of issues at

present and a desire to leam more about the innovation A relatively high Management

score suggests physical and managerial concems Lower scores in Personal and

Consequence imply that personal position and impact are not as important to David

Nevertheless Davids higher scores in Collaboration and Refocusing suggest a desire to

work together with others to make an impact on their leamers and to consider

altematives to innovation implementation David appears to be in the IMPACT stage of

concem very much concemed with how well he facilitates change with his staff

Stephen

Stephen Greer has been secondary principal at Woodlake for several years He has

always been interested in technology but attributes his current increased level of interest

to his rising to his present administrative post Stephen describes himself as a leamer

enjoying researching a problem and its solution A former math teacher and coach

Stephen considers himself an innovator

80

100

0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness I- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

87 87 30 74 13 60 68

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-8 CFSoC Profile of David Jackson Woodlake Superintendent

81

0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1 - Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

81 61 73 93 62 60 13

2 3 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-9 CFSoC Profile of Stephen Greer Woodlake Principal

82

Stephens highest percentile score on his CFSoC profile (Figure 4-9) was in

Management implying greatest concem with logistical and managerial concems A

somewhat lower score in Awareness suggests concems over other issues at present

Similar percentile scores in Personal Consequence and Collaboration could be

interpreted as concem for his impact for his facilitative and collaborative styles A very

low Refocusing score implies that Stephen is not considering altematives to the

innovation at this time Stephens profile best reflects the TASK stage of concem

Summary of CFSoC Data

To summarize these school change facilitators demonstrate a variety of change

facilitator strengths and had at least one individual in each ofthe CBAM stages (SELF

TASK IMPACT) Most of them score relatively high in Awareness suggesting that there

are other competing issues for that individuals time Management also scores

consistently high suggesting the day-to-day managerial and logistical details of the job is

of major importance to each informant Individuals appeared to be on a higher CBAM

stage as they held a higher position in the school district although there were some

differences which could be due to experience with the innovation

Informant Concems

Informant concems were also collected as described in Chapter III Each

informants interview was tape recorded and transcribed Copies ofthe transcriptions

were sent to each informant for confirmation prior to data analysis

83

Seven overriding themes emerged across these interviews These were topics that

appeared to be important to these informants as they implemented new technologies in

their school districts in relation to the TEKS for technology applications The informants

registered strong opinions over these themes To reiterate these themes are discussed in

regard to the Consortium as a whole since the focus ofthe study was not on inter-role

relationships

Attitudes

The informants collectively expressed concems over the attitudes of themselves

their peers and their staffs There was high concem over the prevailing desire to keep

current with the technology David Jackson Woodlake Superintendent was a pioneer in

his district with implementing computer use and describes those early days

When we got our first network and put computers in the classroom that is the first keyboard many of our teachers had ever touched in their life as far as a computer keyboard Had no idea how to tum it on Had no idea how to apply software Knew nothing Scared them to death Still have a few that are very reluctant to use a computer or Intemet or any type of technology of that sort in the classroom

David feels that his some of his staff still manifest a degree of reluctance to use

technology

So the biggest challenge that Ive had is getting teachers to acquaint themselves with computer technology and cable technology all the technologies that have been made available to them You know its not going to do any good if they dont know how to use it

84

Larry Beckman North Prairie Superintendent recognizes the need to keep his

district current with new technology

And I think a part of that is that a lot of us out here we know well I dont know whether we know or whatever but anyway we feel like maybe that weve got to try and stay on top of it as much as we can because we are so far away from anything And if we dont we dont stay on top of it were basically hurting our kids because you know if they graduate fi-om here and go over to Tech or to AampM or somewhere like that then they run into these situations you know theyve never seen any kind of this kind of equipment then theyre already two years behind everybody

Stephen Greer Woodlake Principal believes he is indeed on the fi-ont edge of

the curve at this point in time but credits his rising to an administrative post as a turning

point in his attitudes toward technology

Really up until the time I became an administrator we were the kind of on the back end ofthe curve there for a while but I feel were comfortable where we are right now technology wise

So much ofthe difficulty in implementing technology has centered on the fear of

change These informants encounter these fears daily both within themselves and their

staffs There appears to be a generational gap in acceptance of technology James Petty

Camden Principal considered his teachers and noted

I definitely see a difference in the age groups Those that are five years away from retiring are more difficult to get into use ofthe computer maybe a lot of times And probably the younger ones its just much easier for them to accept and to use a computer right off

85

Similarly Vemon Russell Sawtooth Principal chalks it up to age and experience

level

We have one or two teachers who use it but use it sparingly you know what Im saying But we have other teachers I think that use it a lot Probably our primary grades its used less in K through 1 than anywheres But then they are traditional teachers Theyve been teaching a long time

Concurring David Jackson correctly noted

Because many of our teachers are intimidated by the fact that the students in their classroom know a whole lot more about the technology available in the classroom than they do Which is not uncommon I think in many schools

Bill Potter Camden Technology Coordinator marvels at the older teachers lack

of desire to advance in technology

Its like the older teachers you know they put that thing over in the comer and dust it off just like that F-16 out in front ofthe park you know Nobody knows how to fly it but boy we maintain it and it stays shiny Thats they way a lot of these older teachers treat their computers Theyre afraid to tum them on see so weve got to overcome that fear

Bill suggests that some ofthe more sophisticated technologies now in homes

might influence younger educators greater acceptance of technology

Of course as these people retire and theyre going to get here pretty quick I imagine in our school system and the younger ones take to more technology and the younger they get the better theyre going to be because theyve all grown up with VCRs and your microwaves

86

Renee White Sawtooth Technology Coordinator would add that teachers

purchasing of personal computers improves their attitudes toward technology

A lot ofthe teachers own personal computers and so increasingly at our school theres a higher comfort level with using them and with experimenting and trying to figure things out than there was just two years ago I dont know if its a change in personnel or it its simply the exposure has increased the comfort level Maybe some of both

Larry Beckman as a district leader strongly realizes that m the face of change

positive efforts to make change happen is preferable to ignoring the need for change

It forces you you know its kind of like you can either get on the boat and help paddle or you can get off and swim Id rather be in the boat paddling and trying to stay up with it because I dont swim very fast

Ronnie Bennett Dellwood Technology Coordinator strongly rejects the notion

that change is bad After decades in the classroom and office Ronnie is aware how

attitudes shape teaching activity

A long time ago I leamed that change is not always bad And I guess back there when I first decided you know I told myself there were a lot of people that said Computers are not for me I remember that and I told myself I thought I could either leam how to do this or Im going to fall by the wayside And having always been interested in technology and all change has never been a problem for me And it is for a lot of folks People that have taught school a certam way for twenty or twenty-five years and suddenly you interject this new thing called technology or computers and some people just say Now wait a minute I didnt think what I was doing was all that bad

87

Ronnie suggests that some teachers might be blinded to their own attitudes about

their teaching practices

As a regular classroom teacher I know that the way I present things and the way the kids I dont present things anything like I did when I first started teaching at all And thats because kids change times change You cant stay the same Things dont stay the same You have to be willing to you know if theres a better way to do something you know what we have is we have a lot of people that have been in this profession for twenty twenty-five some of them nearly thirty years and they taught the same lesson wrong for thirty years Just because youve done it over and over and over doesnt mean that its right

Power

In addition to changes in attitudes changes in school curricula educational

methods extemal mandates etc also bring about changes in power Who has the

authority Who decides what to do Who calls the shots These issues were on the minds

ofthe informants

Crawford Bodine and Hoglund (1993) distinguish attributes of recognized power

by de iure school leaders from perceived powerment of classroom personnel Power for

the sitting administrator is the fi-eedom fi-om being told by others what to do (p 143)

The classroom person being empowered to leadership is instead acknowledged their

power and receives fi-eedom to exercise that responsibility with a minimum of

bureaucratic or managerial constraints (p 232)

88

Technology appears to be a key means of providing teachers the empowerment to

collaborate Ronnie Bennetts early vision of computers manifested prescience

I remember thinking you know This is a way for teachers to share things I remember thinking that you know that teachers had access to a machine that would allow them to communicate back and forth with teachers at other schools then would share all this information Of course now with e-mail and the Intemet thats what they want everybody to do

Not only does technology empower the teacher but also the leamer Stephen a

secondary principal would hope that his teachers realize the need to surrender some of

their perceived power with a view toward improving instmction

I have tried to push for change away fi-om lecturelisten and readtake notes multiple choice assessment And I have pushed for learner-centered self directed leaming What I couldnt achieve through preaching and bullying technology has almost single-handedly achieved for me in that area

Renee noted that often her students were akeady prepped to use the technology

She had no quahns over accepting a more facilitative role with her students

Now the fact was you know the computers were there and the kids were going to leam about them whether I helped them or not because thats the nature of children They like that technology theyll figure it out with you or without you

Not only direct instmction but also day-to-day teacher practices are being

changed due to technology Stephen related anecdotes about the changes technology

made in unbalancing teachers perceived status and power

89

Ive witnessed the evolution of one of our teachers in particular that happens to be a coach that when he and I both appeared on this campus ten years ago he was strictly a traditional instmctor But Ill tell you right now its hard for him or has been hard for him but hes making the move successfully to give up the stmcture to give up the power and tum the power of leaming over to the students rather than the power being wielded by the teacher Thats been a hard stretch and technology it helps it gives you a venue to shift that power but at the same time there are sticky issues Obviously fi-ee speech issues obscenity issues those kind of things that are introduced with the advent of technology

Just getting traditional teachers to use a simple software package has tumed into

virtual showdowns in the administrative office Stephen gives an example from a

colleagues experience that echoes his own understanding

I think of an administrator fiiend of mine in a school in the Panhandle and theyre trying to move the rank-and-file in that direction And they are to the point where grades are submitted on disk at the end ofthe semester And they just have one math teacher as it tums out thats refiised you know just-was-not-going-to-do-it you know and finally his principal after two directives the third time he went down there and said Look you will tum your gradebook in on disk in May or you will not be working here in August That simple Step out But there are a lot of people that are nervous and I think its fear mostly I think its fear

The imposition of new ideas and new procedures can have an intimidating effect

on traditional teachers and administrators a relinquishing of power James admittedly a

traditional administrator relates that some of his teachers might be following his lead in

leaming new things

Its like making them do something that you know theyre required to do and theyre only doing it because they have to Maybe

90

Im like them or theyre like me in that some of us older dogs its a bit more difficuh to teach us something new or change

If leaming technology is merely a requirement for continuing teacher development

and not something that is perceived as needed then teachers will exhibit reluctance in

adoption of new technologies

As new technologies are implemented in schools there is the need for immediate

assistance in using the technology Those persons designated as technology coordinator

of a building or a district have had a modicum of perceived power bestowed on them

although each of these coordinators who have acted as informants still spends a

significant portion of their day in the classroom

Ronnie Bennett relates that his experiences with a number of superintendents

have tacitly acknowledged his expertise

Ive always been the kind of person that if something is broke that somehow ends up in my hands

Often they would say to Ronnie You tell me what you want or what to do

Ronnie appreciated one superintendent that was particularly supportive

(Conceming administrative support) but Buster (the superintendent) was like you know he wanted in there boy But he just about anything I ever wanted or needed you know he was just he was ready And he knew what I was talking about above all whereas a lot ofthe others had no idea what I was talking about

Bill found himself stumbling into his role as technology coordinator

91

But as far as being specifically trained for this Im not I just picked it up as I went and I was the guy that knew how to tum the computer on so I got the job you know as the Computer Gum You know the people the powers that be many of them ofthe teachers looked at me as having expertise really that I didnt have I just had one at home and knew how to tum it on they didnt They just thought I was genius you know so thats how I inherited this job

Later Bill found himself besieged by folks wanting his specialized knowledge

As kids leam more and more of this (computers) then we have people I have people you know that call and want to What kind of computer do I need to buy Of course you know thats like trying to recommend the type of automobile (they need to buy) and you dont want to get into that

Renee would chalk up her perceived expertise to her job title She has been skilled

with computers for years but has not always had people wanting her knowledge about

computers while she officially taught another subject at another school

So anyway I knew a lot about computers before other people but (because I taught home economics) no one ever asked me anything about computers at that school The whole year I was there no one had a question about computers All of a sudden because I teach computers I am the computer gum the shift in the role simply came with the title So I think what Im trying to say is is it the title itself dictating your role Not so much at first your knowledge so thats helpful and certainly its going to keep people coming back if youve been able to help them but simply your title itself says Oh you must have explanations that will help us here

Nevertheless final authority remains in the hands of de iure administrators One

ofthe technology coordinators explains

92

And another thing too is that the administrator has the authority and theres a lot of things that I can see like I see we need to be doing training and that sort of thing but I dont have the authority in order to make that happen But until you get these administrators that are you know technologically oriented you know its hard to make things like that happen

This same technology coordinator feels fhistrated with trying to get teachers to use

technology and insists that those in leadership need to take charge and lead

Weve got these people at that level like the administrative level who have to provide the leadership that have the authority to make things happen and its like convincing someone you know youve got to convince them ofthe fact that it needs to be done Theyre too comfortable with you know getting the basketball games arranged and all this sort of thing and making sure a teachers in a certain classroom but boy when it comes to technology unless that person has used a computer its foreign to them

Student Leaming

The educational leadership literature points us to student learning as the ultimate

goal in any educational enterprise These informants unanimously echoed that concem

Unless the school staff perceive that the technology hardware is adequate to provide

quality educational experiences for the students the hardware is of little value Larry a

superintendent wonders why anyone would think otherwise

(Conceming his site-based committee) And then let them kind of I guess decipher what it is that they can use what it is that we need for our students how its going to benefit the kids whenever we get this stuff Whats going to be the benefit for the kids Are we going to teach them how to use it or are we just going to put it in the comer

93

Because he perceives that both students and staff are using the machinery effectively

Larry is more encouraged to plan for an increase in hardware for his district

Renee has been enmeshed in the technology for so long and has seen so much

progress with her students that they find technology use as normal

The kids who are in the tenth grade this year started school with computers They started kindergarten in Sawtooth with computers theyre the first class And when they hit my eighth grade class in computer literacy two years ago all I had to do was say Heres the program I want you to go to the menus at the top ofthe screen and see whats under each menu and get an idea of where things are Now I want you to create a PowerPoint presentation with these elements and I promise you other than probably a four or five minute demonstration on the program how it operated I did not have to tell those kids a thing It was OK where you expect them

Because of implementation of technology teachers are not only expected to use it

and thereby improve their teaching but also to increase student leaming Stephen a

secondary principal noticed the difference almost immediately

When we became connected and we put our computer labs online and when we got computers that are interfaced with televisions that are hooked into the Intemet and also to cable in the classroom Then automatically the teachers saw the convenience and the usefulness of using technology in what they do It sort of served as a catalyst to move fi-om traditional lecture instmction to student self-directed leaming To me thats the biggest change

Stephen considers technology as the catalyst in many areas of education He

integrates his technology concems with more global interests

94

Technology is proving to be a wonderful thing and a wonderfijl instmctional aid and in a large sense in my mind its the thing thats driving the conversations we have in the political realms regarding charter schools home schools private school vouchers because we dont have the monopoly on education any more and I think thats a good thing I think students and their parents are going to look for the most bang for their buck and theyre going to look for education thats provided to them opportunities and experiences thats provided to them in a non-encumbering way To me the biggest question is in relation to technology is how to predict where were going

If indeed the quality of teaching is critical toward student leaming technology is

not always believed to be a positive factor in such progress David a superintendent is

not happy with some ofthe pervasiveness of technology in the classroom

I may be totally wrong but probably thats going to be the biggest area of change is the way we deliver instmction to students other than one-on-one in the classroom I see the day that the kids here at Woodlake schools will be watching the TV monitor

As a traditional administrator in a traditional school James has reservations on

how well teaching quality is exhibited when mixed with various technologies and

instmctional arrangements Traditional school procedures such as homework could be

modified or even made obsolete through technology James even suggests that his

teachers may never have the time nor the physical space in their rooms to handle all the

information fi-om the new technologies He senses a foreboding dread of technology

having the potential to replace the teacher

I see tremendous change and I think its going to continue and grow by leaps and bounds whether its laser discs or computers And I dont know where all its going but I see it coming And I dont think

95

the teachers ever going to be replaced I hope they dont try because itll our quality of teaching is going to diminish I think if they do but I do see more and more technology involved in the classroom by these various kinds of things that weve been talking about

Informants have had varying amounts of time to measure the effectiveness of their

technology implementation Some of these districts have had over a decade to consider

increases in student leaming through computer technology David elaborated about what

his students at Woodlake have accomplished due to their years of experience with

technology

I feel like our students will be very prepared when they leave here to go on to college in the area of technology Woodlake has been fortunate to have (had) technology a lot longer than many other schools and weve had kiddos that have been able to use technology that they leamed here to work their way through college based on what theyve leamed and the exposure they got right here on technology

Mike McCoy Sawtooth Superintendent also has had highly advanced hardware

in his building for years and remarks how Sawtooth students at every level are integrating

technology into the curriculum

The students are just so extremely comfortable with technology I mean its just second nature with them almost You know we have computers in kindergarten you know all the way through twelfth grade and theyre in every classroom Our kindergarteners have no trouble with just going in sitting at the computer and you know being able to by themselves you know pull up a game or whatever it could be Every one of our elementary kids know that the information is available to them and they know how to get it off the Intemet They know where to go

96

Renee cautions that the changes that have been made and the progress achieved are

not just ends in themselves Despite piles of advanced technology in the classroom

Renee interjects

I still have to teach students to write I still have to teach students grammar I still have to teach students how to understand what they read I still have to get them to read I have to get them to write And I think this is tme generally technology is only a tool Its not the end result Were trying to teach students reading writing and arithmetic The 3 Rs The tools have changed the concepts have not Youre still trying to teach kids to think so they can move out into the world and be citizens ofthe greater society

Some administrators admittedly traditional in orientation have concems that

technology will dismpt the orderly progress that they have endeavored to produce in their

buildings They assume that discipline will lead to better student leaming James wonders

what effects distance leaming and Intemet use will have on both instmction and student

research when discussing the new interactive video delivered foreign languages classes

his school might offer

And to go the advanced (diploma) route its almost a necessary part of our curriculum As far as liking it I dont I think they do a poor job of teaching the course I think its just not a good way for students to leam

As for the interactive class James does not think it represents the best teaching method

He would prefer to have a live teacher in the classroom one that will be more proactive

in maintaining discipline and standard teaching activities

97

Vemon also expressed concem over intemal discipline in the use ofthe e-mail

function ofthe system

My concem is consistency on the discipline ofthe e-mail of students in our school We try not to let them use it personally and I dont think its consistently enforced throughout our school and its very hard to supervise e-mail The e-mails a problem here that I have some teachers that watch it close and some teachers that dont

Indeed while discussing student leaming all of these informants expressed

specific concems over distance leaming and about its effects on their jobs and their

leamers As a result an additional concems theme distance emerged fi-om the data

Distance

Because the Consortium is implementing an advanced distance leaming center in

each of its member schools each informant volunteered concems over its

implementation use and outcomes The very concept of distance however is not

simply limited to distance leaming but also to the significant distances Consortium

educators have between their schools and sources of school improvement

These informants perceive improvement for their school districts by being able to

bring a greater variety of activities and services to their districts Larry a superintendent

jumps at the chance to use distance leaming in his district He sees benefits in distance

leaming to both professional and student progress as well as it being a cost-cutting

measure

98

I think its going to be extremely beneficial especially to schools out here like we are that you know were an hour and a half away fi-om the Service Center or fi-om Center City or Tech or anywhere like that and itll be extremely beneficial to our students You know we can pick up some college classes We can get them some dual-credit classes Ive got some people here that want to take some classes and want to work on some graduate work and so forth that maybe we can pick up School board training and in-service training through the Service Center will save us lots of dollars and lots of time because if we dont have to travel all the way to Center City to get our in-service and even if its a half-a-day deal you spend a whole day by the time you drive over there and drive back

Mike agrees with Larrys concem over hteral distance fi-om school to service

center When staff have to do as much travel as do these school leaders distance becomes

a significant factor in what they can accomplish

Were so isolated Were a hundred miles from Center City which is where our Service Center is Instead of travel time you know because any teacher who leaves here loses a full day even if its an hour workshop

Renee echoes Mikes concems She experiences the presure ofthe distance cmnch

as she budgets her time and resources

We live a hundred miles fi-om any kind of technical support and we pay $10000 an hour for somebody to come out and fix it so you think twice before you even ask to have (a computer) looked at Can I work around this

Nevertheless there is a sense of concem registered by each informant over distance

leaming implementation As discussed in the previous section there is a fear of

99

technology supplanting the teachers role David sees distance leaming in his professional

future but also makes this prediction

My first instinct is to say that probably distance education is going to have effect particularly on mral America Im not real sure Im ready to buy that yet It may but Im not totally yet sold on distance leaming as a tool for replacing the teacher in the classroom There may come a day that that might be the only way that we can deliver some instmction to our students If and when that day comes I think thats going to be a shame and I think thats going to be a step back in education

Previous efforts with distance leaming were fi-ustrating at some informants

schools David registers his experiences

And (distance learning) wasnt that well received either fi-om the students or the parents And I know that distance leaming will be better than that because youll have two-way interactive audio and video at all times But I still have reservations and Ill have to see it work well to change my mind on it I probably cant stop it fi-om coming

Ronnie having been a distance leaming facilitator also remembers problems with

this teaching format for students and facilitator alike

But it was all these schools even as far away as Kansas that were viewing this at the same time And its hard to get through on the telephone line because you had all these people trying to get through to ask a question

When asked about the net effects of all this Ronnie explained

We had a lot of I guess youd say disillusioned parents and kids because they were expecting to get you know they thought What a

100

wonderfiil way to be in touch with computers and what have you And you know if we did work we had to bundle that work up send it to San Antonio Well by the time the guy got it graded and got it back you know it might be a week or two And at the same time we were under no pass no play mles And you had athletes that you know at three-weeks reporting period didnt know if they were passing or not And then some of them would wind up failing at the end and they didnt even really know why they were failing And so you know we had a bunch of kids that were like ineligible

Fmstrations registered by the aduh facilitators were received clearly but students

responses to the distance experience were even worse Ronnie elaborated in detail about

the legwork done on-site to facilitate distance leaming As is axiomatic in instmctional

design inadequate feedback does not promote leaming

The kids never really knew for sure if what they were doing was what he wanted or what was acceptable or till he had a chance to mark it and write notes on it and what have you And a lot of times by the time they did get feedback on it well it was too late

Renee also experienced first-hand the details of distance leaming Conceming the

possibilities of interactive video Renee questions

I guess the biggest concem has been teachers who are afi-aid that they will get dumped on How many students are you going to expect me to teach for this class that I have the same prep time that I had when I had seven kids And then all of a sudden Im teaching an interactive video classroom where I have kids fi-om Woodlake and from Dellwood and fi-om Beaverdam and fi-om Sawtooth and all of a sudden I have fifty kids instead of fifteen Im given the same amount of prep time or maybe Im given a second hour of prep I still have the logistics of having to be ready for however many my school district decides to contract for And I have to be eminently more prepared that I ever thought about having to be prepared in a normal classroom Because I cant go on the air and expect to freestyle it you

101

Renee a technology coordinator as well as a classroom teacher brings distance

leaming down to earth with her practical concems Contrasting with the concems of

teachers over the years distance leaming is bringing in new heretofore unanticipated

concems and challenges Renee relates

You know when we just had textbooks the worst problem you had to deal with was with the student who showed up in class without their books or you ran out of chalk and you sent somebody down to the office to get chalk But when you start using these levels of technology where the bugs are not quite as worked out then you not only run into you run into problems using the technology that really can cmsh your class time and cmsh your prep time

James is adamant in his dislike for distance leaming Earlier he indicated that

distance leaming might not be a good way to leam James augments this with more

mundane administrative concems Since James perceives the teacher role in a traditional

manner he has concem over classroom discipline in a distance leaming format

Well I dont think youre going to have any kind of classroom without discipline in the class And the only person that can do that is the one that is supposedly in charge the one thats taking care of grades etc So that teacher has almost got to see her classroom

Training

Unless teachers administrators and other school staff are appropriately trained to

use the new technology hardware and software will be of little use Continuous staff

training goes on in this Consortium but Vemon expressed dismay over some ofthe

preparations for early technology implementation

102

I dont think we did enough preplanning before we got involved with the computers We just sort of put them in and it became a hit-and-miss thing you understand If I had to do it over again I would want lots and lots of preplanning to see how we could do it better how to install how to implement and so forth how we wanted to use it for our curriculum

Other informants quipped that the limits of whatever training they had for some

technology applications simply consisted of Heres the computer Heres the box Theres

the desk Put it there Larry has jumped right in to get his staff trained through a variety

of sources He is looking forward to all the training perks his district will receive from

this present technology implementation and the workshops he has set up

Theres so much information and so many different benefits that can come over that that its just mind-boggling that everything that we can possibly pick up out here And so were going to get plenty of training before we ever jump in there and you know put a room full of equipment in there and then it sits there and gathers dust If we cant use it theres no need for it being out here

Larry affirms the benefits of leaming by doing

I guess I would say that probably about ninety percent of my training has basically come through the Service Center and the other ten percent is just hands-on getting one there and doing it You know I guess Ive leamed Ive leamed a lot by you know just by using it because if you dont well going to all the classes is not going to help you a bit anyway

Stephen realized a concem for the format of much of staff training He found the

typical training arrangements useless and intimidating for his staff Smaller traming

103

groups where more personal assistance can be given seems to be preferable to the mass

training activities so common to staff development

We dont herd thirty people in a room and have one person standing at a computer in front ofthe room and telling them how it can happen I mean we put five or six in the room and have somebody with knowledge about it there and then everybody has their hands on that tool They get to make their own mistakes so they get to correct their own mistakes and real leaming happens then

Now that Bill has a key role in training Camden staff in technology he realizes

that the increasing quantity of hardware possessed by the district carries with it the need

for increasing quality of staff straining

We had a bunch of stuff in quotes stuff but nobody knew anything about it you know And we got this stuff in We got it hooked up And then nobody knew how to maintain it There wasnt any training I mean you know yeah you look out here at Camden Oh boy Weve got computers But nobody knew how to tum them on and of course that wasnt where the emphasis was Wed met a requirement by having so many computers and that sort of thing and maybe doing a paper drill saying that people could do things but in reality that just wasnt there

Bill finds the attitudes of some of his colleagues fiiistrating If the computers are

seen as nothing more than expensive video games the implementation of technology

seems useless The teachers have yet to realize just what these computers can do for their

instmction

Its going to be easier there but we still have to train these people as to How do you use this thing See and most ofthe teachers dont have the time and the creativeness I guess or we dont give them the time you know to sit down and say Look at this thing You know

104

they dont go home like I used to and sit down and play with it because I enjoyed it see Id go home and play with it and say A-ha Man I can use this in my classroom

But as Bill has discovered some ofthe technology training ultimately takes hold

and teachers eventually intemahze new skills

But anything to get them to use those things You know if they just stumble on it like one of our Enghsh teachers has found all this stuff on Shakespeare and Macbeth you know and all this sort of thing Shes just going through the ceiling But thats just a little bitty part of things out there that you can find and these people dont know how to look for this stuff So weve got a lot of training (to do)

Ronnie concurs noting how his colleagues at Dellwood have been trained and

then apply the new technology

Well once they realized that this thing that got placed in their room was a tool that could be used for their benefit and could actually help them and their students you know they were ready to jump in there and start trying stuff

Unfortunately some Dellwood staff do indeed balk at modifications to their

training Citing the example of changing the district-adopted electronic gradebooks

Ronnie concluded

And some of them say Oh I just now leamed how to use the other one and here you are wanting to (change it) You know that type of change People get used to doing something and they dont want you to change them around but I think its human nature in anything

105

Infi-astmcture

With ever-advancing technological strides the infrastmcture needed to

successfully implement new curricular mandates has to also increase Our informants

pride themselves in their personal involvement in ensuring a topflight technology

infi-astmcture for their school districts

David describes himself as a pioneer in implementing new concepts in his district

When the challenge first came for implementing a computer network David relates

The maintenance guy and I sat down and said You know we can do this So we designed it ourselves and ran the wire and made the connections and totally put in the network system ourselves We did not hire it done which has helped from the standpoint of troubleshooting We put it in we know how it works and we can fix it

Mike also has rolled up his sleeves to keep hardware in Sawtooth working

efficiently If the technology coordinator is busy Mike has no qualms about getting

things fixed

We just had a problem this morning I was dealing with I went dovra there I can do the hardware things a whole lot easier than software but you know there were just two wires out of place I just kind of happened to notice it plug them back in the right places and we were back in business

Indeed Mike has stayed current with technology and maintenance

I have to stay a little more up here because if anything happens Im the guy they holler at so first I mean to fix it not just holler at Ive leamed a lot the last few years Just been forced to I guess

106

Bill laments the lack of foresight on the part of some administrators in keeping the

hardware maintained

That one-shot deal We got the computers That cost is out ofthe way We can forget about technology now weve got our X number of computers And then all of a sudden like you say weve got to have a hard drive here you know and a floppy drive went out there and a monitor goes out here well good-ness man whats the problem

Bill wonders if his leadership personnel were misled by various sales

representatives whose goals for sales were not always congment with school needs

Before I got into this our superintendent relied on a salesman and we bought a bunch of stuff we didnt need and it didnt fit in the overall plan It was like buying a Dodge engine and wed buy a Chevrolet body and all of a sudden these things werent compatible So we wasted a lot of money and Im sure school districts all over the state of Texas did This is a small community here Id like every shekel to count Theres not too many people around here that really realize that I dont guess

Stephen is concemed with making reasonable forecasts for what future

technologies he will need for his building He demonstrates that he has thought through

practical technology management issues

To me the biggest question is in relation to technology is how to predict where were going I mean just a little bit because were dropping tons of money on the hardware on the software on the training But even little issues I mean twenty years ago Woodlake was out in fi-ont on technology because they bought a bunch of Apple He computers And then they used them for eighteen years which put them way behind the leaming curve you know and then what computer do you buy Do you buy it with upgradable service contracts What kind of software are you looking for How is distance leaming going to

107

impact all this How does it impact your scheduling on a day-to-day basis How does it impact your school calendar How does it impact the people you hire

Stephen is looking squarely at the future needs of his staff and students

If we knew where it was headed we could be much more effective in our long-range planning But as it is in my mind its hard to plan beyond two years because theres no way of knowing where were going to be Weve had numerous conversations in my faculty meetings about individual laptops for students as opposed to the big stand-alone units in a big lab Theres discussions about the use of software versus hard-copy textbooks And I think were moving that way I just dont know how quickly And I dont know to what degree and thats the most perplexing thing as far as Im concemed

Money

As this present study is conducted significant changes are occurring in the

petroleum industry Since there has been a drop in petroleum prices some Chapter 41

(see Chapter Two) school districts have realized a significant drop in ad valorem

revenues Remembering that much ofthe financing for the Consortium comes fi-om two

Chapter 41 districts there exists some cause for concem Because these informants

represent both Chapter 41 and Chapter 42 districts none of these informants will be

identified by name in this section

One Chapter 41 superintendent related to us the situation regarding a loss of

funding for that superintendents district

Probably the biggest reason this last year we were able to put several million dollars of recapture money into the technology consortium Unfortunately being that most ofthe Chapter 41 districts

108

in our area are highly dependent on oil and mineral value and we lost 25 percent of our value last year Probably well lose at least that and maybe even more

Another Chapter 41 superintendent has noticed a drop of revenue but slants the

situation differently

It doesnt affect us that much believe it or not I mean it affects us some definitely but you know the higher the price of oil the more money we have to give away The lower the price the less we have to give away Because you only get to keep a certain value per student

All ofthe Chapter 41 informants indicated that they were glad to participate with

less property-wealthy districts in maintaining fimding for the Consortium

In dealing with school funding there is also the attendant concem with dealing

with government entities A Chapter 41 superintendent explains the situation as the

potential purchasing of more hardware is considered

(Conceming hardware purchasing) If this legislative session the Legislature does away with the hold harmless for Chapter 41 schools (See Chapter 2) well be in a whole different situation and well be saying Well do that when we can afford it I guarantee you

Because there are restrictions on where Chapter 41 districts can expend their

fiinds a Chapter 41 principal explains some creative strategies for retaining funds

Because the hang-up was that those monies that came out of these wealthy districts So in other words we could send our money to the Region(al Service) Center to be used for those purposes but we couldnt reap the benefit of i t (Dr Sarah McCullough) wrote grants specifically targeted at those of us that were putting money in the pot to help us get distance leaming labs up and running So its just been a

109

maze of dancing with the bear which anytime you deal with the government thats the way it is

As this is written a Chapter 41 superintendent hopes that the Texas Legislattire

will allow the legal stmcttires that made the Consortium a reality and function at its peak

to continue to exist

Now we would hope that the Legislature will realize that and possibly rewrite the current law to allow us to divert possibly more than ten percent into the technology consortium or change the way that we do it altogether to where the technology consortium can continue to benefit in the same arena of money that weve benefited for the last year or two

A Chapter 42 school leader looking at the Consortium as a whole sums up the

attitude of each of our informants

Well this consortium has been a good thing for us because I think by coming together you know I think this is people who have ideas and also have monies that they want to use for telecommunications and technology want to see that people in rural areas like ours are making an effort to pool their resources and thoughts and what have you When they see that you got seven schools that are working together to try to share ideas and help work through problems and even go so far as to share teaching personnel things like that I think thats something that people who have monies are kind of wanting they want to see that Because thats the whole idea behind you know trying to get reach some of our goals by the year 2000

Summary of Interview Data

All nine ofthe informants in this study provided candid assessments of their

individual roles in implementing technology in their districts the improvement of student

110

leaming and the training of staff to use the technology These latter points are also

suggested in the literature on staff development (Joyce amp Showers 1988) Concems over

infi-astmcture and finance were also supported in several other studies (Bailey 1997

Becker 1998 Kwajewski 1997 Maddux 1997 Texas Association of School

Administrators 1998)

New insights fi-om this study included the heavy apprehension over distance

leaming and the intensity ofthe power shift within the school system The fluctuation in

petroleum prices that occurred during this study did not completely take these leaders by

surprise but are concems with which Chapter 41 superintendents will continue to

contend

I l l

CHAPTER V

SUMMARY CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Summary of Research

As described in Chapter III quantitative data was in the form of Change

Facilitator Stages of Concem Questionnaire (CFSoC) profiles evaluated according to

Hall et al (1991) with hypothesized points on the Stages of Concem continuum for each

participant Conversations with nine informants fi-om the Consortium leadership cadre

formed a series of interviews that were analyzed and evaluated for emerging themes

Seven themes grew fi-om the data analysis and were discussed

CFSoC Profiles

Hall et al (1991) suggest that the Stage of Concem for any given innovation

varies with the change facilitator registering the array of concems Borrowing fi-om Fuller

(1969) Hall et al suggest that concems for the innovation within the individual change

facilitator begin at the level of Awareness progressing to Self concems then Task

concems and finally to Impact concems This researcher was able to hypothesize a

general stage of concem for each ofthe informants based on the methods of profile

interpretation defined by Hall et al (pp 29-42) The initial research question referred to

Stages of Concem placement for each informant

Where do these school leaders fall on the Concems-based Adoption Model (CBAM) continuum regarding TEKS technology implementation

112

The initial goal was to ascertain the position of each of these informants on

CBAM Table 5-1 provides a breakdown of this studys informants their job roles and

their hypothesized Stage of Concem

Table 5-1 Study Informants and CBAM Stages of Concem District Comparison

District

Camden

Tipllwor4H

North Prairie

Sawtooth

Woodlake

Superintendent

TASK

TASK

IMPACT

Principal

SELF

TASK

TASK

Technology Coordinator

SELF

SELFTASK

TASK

The table suggests that those in more well-defined administrative roles tended to

be more task oriented about their concems whereas those whose job descriptions are

inclusive ofthe classroom and who are also designated as change agents tended to be

more oriented to self and personal issues despite their abilities or expertise

As Hall et al (1991) have previously hypothesized the more experienced a

change facilitator is in the change facilitator process the more advanced that change

facilitator will be on the CFSoC profile The stages of concem of these informants in this

sample appear to concur with CFSoC projected norms Indeed if tiie stages of concem

are arranged in descending order (Impact Task Self Awareness) as in Table 5-2 there

113

appears to be a greater advancement along the Stages of Concem continuum based on the

more advanced job role

Table 5-2 Study Informants and CBAM Stages of Concem Concem Stage Comparison

Informant Stage of Concem

Woodlake Superintendent IMPACT

North Prairie Superintendent TASK

Sawtooth Superintendent TASK

Sawtooth Principal TASK

Woodlake Principal TASK

Sawtooth Technology Coordinator TASK

Dellwood Technology Coordinator TASKSELF

Camden Principal SELF

Camden Technology Coordinator SELF

These change facilitators fi-om the Sah Fork Consortium seem to manifest stages

of concem similar to those of other change facilitators studied through the CFSoC Two

ofthe technology coordinators seem to be more TASK oriented than a principal and one

technology coordinator is more SELF oriented The two task-oriented coordinators have

many years of experience in either office machinery electronics or staff training They

both suggested to this researcher greater confidence in their abilities to provide input to

their administrators conceming their schools technology requirements Such

114

competencies suggest that the greater stage of concem is based in part on the

individuals greater level of experience

Interview Themes

The hesitancy of new users to use new technologies is repeated with every

generation of innovation (Cuban 1984 1986 1993) Changes this extensive in

technology naturally bring about changes in how we teach and how we perceive our roles

as educators (Becker 1998 Berg Benz Lasley amp Raisch 1997 Braun 1993 Fullan

1990 Fullan amp Stiegelbauer 1991 Hope 1993) This sttidys informants repeatedly

expressed the desire to ensure that their staffs become as competent as possible in using

new technology to improve student leaming In tum these leaders affirmed that their

teachers would have it incumbent upon themselves to avail themselves of this training

As we appreciate the greater empowerment of educators who in tum empower

leamers we reahze that greater access to technology has played a major role in

developing this spirit of empowerment (Bailey 1997) Tmly continued control of

technology signifies continued power ofthe educational system These informants were

unanimous in marveling over the great things that have occurred in their schools as their

teachers adopted greater technology expertise Review of AEIS data since 1994 before

the establishment ofthe Consortium suggests improvements in TAAS scores and other

AEIS indicators (see Chapter I TEA 1995 1996 1997a 1998)

As a result schools become different places for leamers (Armstrong Davis amp

Young 1996 Mecklenburger 1989) Instead ofthe school as one-way insttiiction with

115

passive leamers the focus is now on schools led by leaming facilitators who guide the

leamer toward constmcting personal leaming (Joyce amp Showers 1988) It appears that

the wise change facilitator will recognize this power shift In the main Consortium

change facihtators certainly appeared eager to share that power

If we are not using the improved technology to improve student leaming then we

might be needing to be examine a different iimovation for improving student leaming

(Berg et al 1997 Bumiske 1998 Hope 1993 Joyce amp Showers 1988 National Staff

Development Council 1995) These informants were adamant about the power of

technology not only to foster greater leaming capabihties for students but also to provide

a heightened awareness for those charged with facilitating that leaming (Barr 1990

Hadley amp Sheingold 1993 Maddux 1997 Maddux amp Johnson 1997 Meltzer amp

Sherman 1997 Ragsdale 1997) As a resuh these school leaders and their school

boards will have more solid foundation to continue upgrading their technology Such a

massive influx of equipment as is happening now will not be needed but rather

technology purchasing with a view toward greater student achievement will not be

considered unique by other similarly situated school districts

The notion that technology could bring about needed opportunities and services to

remote sites by distance leaming has been discussed for some time and is now standard

for evaluating a schools technology program (Becker 1998 Texas Association of School

Administrators 1998) Nevertheless there appears to be a need for a semblance of

balance as the positive elements of distance leaming (services teaching physical distance

needs etc) are weighed against the pitfalls (teaching method changes impersonal

116

relationships) of these new technologies (Berg Benz Lasley amp Raisch 1997 Dillon amp

Walsh 1997) The apprehensions of Consortium change facilitators toward the

impending interactive video system were quite real They saw potential for some yet

unknown distracting factor causing havoc with the leaming process as a result of distance

leaming At least one informant voiced active disagreement with distance as a viable

means of teaching and leaming

If training activities are only instituted to meet extemally mandated directives it

seems pointless to expend so much effort in training faculty in technology (Becker 1991

1998 Dede 1997) The concept that technology remains a more advanced means of

game playing is still latent in many educators School leaders need to tmly be leaders

(Office of Technology Assessment 1995 Ritchie 1996) and should provide appropriate

training activities for their staffs (Bradshaw 1997 Davidson amp Maurer 1995 Joyce amp

Showers 1988) Because these school leaders describe the influx of interactive video

hardware as helpfiil in providing for a variety of training opportunities (school board

training college classes etc) this Consortium demonstrates a strong proactive

commitment to ensuring that the entire school community is kept up-to-date with

technology

As to funding and infi-astmcture acquisition a We can do it spirit is still found

in educators when they plan for and purchase their computer machinery Schools in this

Consortium as well as in other locales continue to demonstt-ate creative ways to provide

technology support with the resultant spirit of ownership possessed by all segments ofthe

educational community (Carroll amp Carroll 1994 McDaniel Mclnemey amp Armstrong

117

1993 Office of Technology Assessment 1995) The fact that a superintendent would be

involved in wiring his school for network capability or would do repairs on classroom

hardware suggests genuine committnent Principals with decades of experience in the

classroom and in the office in this rural area are taking the time to leam new computer

skills

Conclusions and Reflections

Because this present study is primarily qualitative it is appropriate that the

researcher does not (and really should not) know in advance all ofthe insights that might

possibly be gleaned fi-om a pending study Although this is a limited sampling of change

facilitators their CFSoC profiles confirmed that the greater the experience level ofthe

change facilitator interacting with the innovation the more advanced Stage of Concem

The Woodlake administrators with Stages of Concems ratings in IMPACT and TASK

stages for example have had the benefit of both performing hands-on technology

implementation (including wiring) and also developing technology programs fi-om Apple

computers in classrooms to vocational training over a twenty-year period

The specifics ofthe second research question require some discussion over the

importance and application ofthe concems of rural educators toward technology

implementation Three clusters of conclusions emerged fi-om the interview data

Personal concems are important in the professional lives of these informants

There is urgency for the educator to leam to use technology and to develop stt-ategies for

incorporating technology use in insttiiction Nevertheless the educator is never to forget

118

that there are still basic instmctional outcomes to be accomplished Leamers still have to

be proficient in reading writing and mathematics Day-to-day activities (lesson planning

teacher paperwork etc) cannot be neglected These informants did not allow this

researcher to overlook this fact All three technology coordinators who served as

informants emphasized their classroom duties with one in particular reminding me that

the computer is simply a tool in teaching basic educational concepts Each principal

interviewed related their technology concems in the context of administrative duties and

concems

In addition leadership personnel are to function as leaders and lead their staffs

Despite the hardware and capabilities schools are still schools Schools are having to

change their stmcture and technology seems to be key in fostering that change The very

use ofthe computer as a personal tool remains a challenge in these informants schools

Bill Potter Camden Technology Coordinator related that he continues to see his fellow

teachers using the computer as nothing more than a game machine The Sawtooth

informants noted that a few older more seasoned teachers are still not yet using

technology as a tool

As opposed to personal concems corporate concems registered by these

informants dealt with building district or Consortium issues Among these informants

there is a genuine sense of Where we are against Where we were in regard to

technology use Each superintendent interviewed expressed his satisfaction with the

improved productivity among his students as a result of technology Now more than ever

is a need to stay abreast of pedagogical as well as technological trends Stephen Greer

119

Woodlake Principal emphasized the need for him to know about technology and its

implementation in teacher practice These informants also indicated a generational trend

in that some educators eyeing retirement realize a lesser interest in leaming new

technologies Younger more recently trained educators are more conversant with new

technologies These informants indicated that the new teachers they hire come prepared to

use technology in the classroom

The informants also indicated a sense of owoiership toward technology

implementation For example several informants have trained themselves to do more

advanced troubleshooting and maintenance certainly more than is in their job

descriptions The Woodlake and Sawtooth superintendents are both adept with the

hardware These individuals want to know more and not just save their district some

funds All three ofthe technology coordinators have a history of leaming by doing

They enjoy reputations as being competent and the person to tum to when expertise is

needed

Cultural concems transcend the immediate short-term issues and are future-

oriented The change in our previously mral agrarian society to a worid filled with data

has had a heady effect on these informants North Prairie superintendent Larry Beckman

for example continues to marvel at all the activities the North Prairie educational

community can now avail themselves of because of technology Technology has assisted

in shifting genuine leaming power fi-om the educator to the student The resultant greater

ownership by students of their leaming is opening up greater avenues for insttaiction

120

There is constant uncertainty ofthe legal political and economic factors in

financing and establishing new technologies at schools The net result hinders these

informants fi-om reliably predicting what technologies might be needed in the future

Indeed it is impossible to predict what new gadgets will be invented or how fast a

computer will process ten years from now Neither ofthe Chapter 41 superintendents

believed their distticts finances were in jeopardy due to the changing pett-oleum prices

but each expressed the concem that the Legislature could modify the mles on finances

possibly making their underwriting of Consortium costs more difficult

Recommendations for Further Study

As this present research was being considered there was considerable concem for

the fact that very little research data existed for the CFSoC instmment This Consortium

had an insufficient number of participants to do a quantitative study of this instrument

with adequate factor analysis Indeed Hall et al (1991) cite themselves as those who

conducted reliability and validity studies of their own instrument A more thorough

validity study with adequate N should be conducted

The original thmst for this research was focused on staff development and teacher

training Because that initial idea was so broad it was abandoned early in this study

However since each informant referred to the teacher traming programs ofthe

Consortium it would be appropriate at a later date to review how teacher tt-aining is

planned and executed in a similarly situated technology cooperative

121

Personal impressions which emerged fi-om both the data collection and data

analysis also suggested additional avenues of study At no time and in no way were either

Consortium school distticts or school staff identified as to their Chapter 41 (Equalized

Wealth Level) or Chapter 42 (Minimum Foundation Program) stattis Nevertheless this

writer recognizes a difference in economic status for these districts that was impossible to

fully ignore and suggests that the differences in funding abilities of school districts be

explored as new technologies become de rigueur for even the smallest and most remote

school district

Also unexamined in this present study was any comparison on a rural-urban axis

Although each ofthe participating school districts was mral with a combined enrolhnent

smaller than one urban high school the available technology was up-to-date and with

more anticipated advanced technology yet to be implemented A similar study of larger

urban school technology programs dealing with identical TEKS constraints could be

instituted to ascertain concems of urban-oriented change facilitators

The professional experience aspect of each ofthe informants was never identified

as a factor in this present research The CFSoC form itself had blanks for data conceming

the number of years experience on the job in the present position etc Indeed the least

number of total years of school experience was nine years The question remains if

simply the amount of time in grade is a factor in the informants position on the CFSoC

continuum This researcher noted a trend in those in stated administrative roles being

more oriented to TASK and IMPACT concems as opposed to the technology

coordinators who by and large had duties more inclusive ofthe classroom and who were

122

more oriented to SELF concems and their personal status This could lead one to ponder

whether the role and the job title are influencing factors in a change facilitators Stage of

Concem

Moreover because ofthe contemporary trends toward school-based

management and greater empowerment of classroom personnel in decision-making it is

likely that those in change faciUtator roles would be more closely aligned to the

classroom ie more teachers may be in leadership roles We might expect the higher the

level of change facilitator position and experience the higher the level of concem (eg

IMPACT) It would be interesting to explore the possibifities and consequences for those

at the classroom level functioning as change facilitators in technology

123

REFERENCES

American Psychological Association (1994) Publication manual ofthe American Psychological Association (4th ed) Washington DC Author

Armstrong D Davis R amp Young G (1996) Technology integration at the middle and high school levels A model for staff development NASSP Bulletin 80(582) 81-88

Bailey G D (1997) What technology leaders need to know The essential top 10 concepts for technology integration in the 21st century Leaming and Leading With Technology 250) 57-62

Bailey D B amp Palsha S A (1992) Qualities ofthe Stages of Concem questionnaire and implications for educational innovations Joumal of Educational Research 85(4) 226-232

Barr D (1990) A solution in search of a problem The role of technology in educational reform Joumal for the Education ofthe Gifted 14(1) 79-95

Becker H J (1991) How computers are used in United States schools Basic data fi-om the 1989 I E A Computers in Education survey Joumal of Educational Computing Research 7(4) 385-406

Becker H J (1998) Running to catch a moving train Schools and information technologies Theory Into Practice 37(1) 20-30

Berg S Benz C Lasley T laquofe Raisch D (1997) The coordinators and the teachers A description of exemplary use of technology in elementary classrooms Paper presented at the Midwestem Educational Research Association Annual Meeting Chicago IL

Bogdan R C amp Biklen S K (1992) Qualitative research for education An introduction tn theory and methods (2nd ed) Boston Allyn amp Bacon

Bradshaw L K (1997) Technology-supported change A staff development opportunity NASSP Bulletin 81(593) 86-92

Braun L (1993) Educational technology Help for all the kids The Computing Teacher 20(8) 11-15

124

Brekhus T R (1997) The SeverNet project-assessment Antiquated systems without curriculum integration The Educational Graveyard of Unfulfilled Promise [Online] URL httpwwwseyemschoolcomsevemetsevemet_assesshtml

Bristol v amp Jechow M (1998) Guidelines on interlocal agreements fi-om the Texas Government Code Texas case law and Texas attomev general opinions [online] URL httpwwwbickerstaff comarticlesinter98htm

Bumiske R W (1998) The shadow play How the integration of technology annihilates debate in our schools Phi Delta Kappan 80(2) 155-157

Campbell T (1997) Technology multimedia and qualitative research in education Joumal of Research on Computing in Education 30(2) 122-132

Carroll S R amp Carroll D (1994) How smart schools get and keep community support Bloomington IN National Educational Service

Chisolm I M (1996) Computer use in a multicultural classroom Joumal of Research on Computing in Education 28(2) 162-174

CicchelH T amp Baecher R (1985) Intt-oducing microcomputers into the classroom A study of teacher concems Joumal of Educational Computing Research 1(1) 55-65

CiccheUi T amp Baecher R E (1987) The use of concems theory in inservice ttaining for computer education Computers amp Education 11(2) 85-93

Clark R E (1983) Reconsidering research on leaming fi-om media Review of Educational Research 53(4) 445-459

Clouse R W amp Garrett L N (1995) Case analysis An insttiictional tool Joumal of Educational Technology Systems 23(1) 39-51

Coffey A amp Atkinson P (1996) Making sense of qualitative data Complementary research strategies Thousand Oaks CA Sage

Crawford D K Bodine R J amp Hoglund R G (1993) The school for quality leaming Managing the school and the classroom the Deming way Champaign IL Research Press

Cuban L (1984) How teachers taupht Constancy and change in American classrooms -1980-1980 New York Longman

125

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

As Jerry Garcia put it so well What a long strange trip its been Much of the

content for this dissertation the literature supporting it the software systems which

retrieved much of the literature and the computer and software which published the

final product were all merely gleams in someones eye five years ago when this doctoral

program was begun So much has changed fi^om the time I began this research to the

present

What hasnt changed are the principles of instmctional design and standards for

educational leadership which have guided my personal and professional development

both leamed and applied during this doctoral program This final product incorporating

both areas of study is the result of a massive cadre of folks who have influenced me and

supported me along the way

My committee has been a deep resource for stmcturing this dissertation Dr

Terence Ahem my chair has continually provided both the leadership and the motivation

to get this project finished Dr Judith Ponticell with her Been there done that attitude

has provided me with invaluable research sources and was the initial connection to my

research informants Dr Ponticell Dr Robert Price and Dr Arturo Olivarez have

provided keen editorial eyes to my manuscripts and have been appropriately bmtal in

evaluating my research methodology Dr James Bums has provided an appropriate

balance to the research His conversations querying Do you Education people use

instmctional design in your work were what led me to eventually ask him to

participate on this committee

11

Mr John Bethune Lead Teacher and my colleagues at the Homebound unit of

the Lubbock Independent School District are to be thanked for their encouragement I

leamed so much fi-om them and fi-om the students that I was assigned

A special thanks must go to my informants both at the Educational Service

Center Region J and to those superintendents principals and technology coordinators

who spoke so fi-ankly to this stranger about technology implementation in their districts

After the data analysis I felt like Id known these folks for years

Dr Gene Hall Dean of the College of Education at the University of Nevada at

Las Vegas and whose works play a prominent role in the development of this study

granted his permission to reprint the Change Facilitator Stages of Concem instniment

Thanks also to folks at Comerstone Bible Church in LubbockTexas particularly

Richard Gmbbs and Wayne and Rosita Moore

This document did not publish itself Many thanks are in order for the staffs at the

Texas Tech University Library the Porter Henderson Library at Angelo State University

and the tireless and patient folks at the Tom Green County Library in San Angelo Texas

who had never seen several drafts of a dissertation published before

Our children Michael Mark and Melanie have had to endure two uprootings to

get this project accomplished They are certainly glad that Im finished and can get back

to work My wife Michelle has had to patiently endure the most toward producing this

product Her personal and financial support has made this document a reality

Ill

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT vii

LIST OF TABLES ix

LIST OF FIGURES x

CHAPTER

I STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Introduction 1 Problem Statement and Research Questions 3 Rationale 4 Changes in Constraints 13 Research Participants 16 Study Significance 20 Delimitations 22 Term Definitions 23 Organization of the Study 26

n REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Introduction 27 Technology Consortium Development 27 Collaboration 29 The Change Process 30 Difftision of Innovations 31 Concems Theory 34 The Role of CBAM 36 Applications of CB AM 41 The Change Facilitator SoC 42 The CFSoC Instniment 43 Summary and Reflection 46

III METHODOLOGY

Study Design 48 Grand Tour Question 48 Rationale 49 Context for the Study 52

iv

Informant Selection 56 Data Collection 57 Data Analysis 60 Verification Strategies 63 Study Limitations 66

IV RESULTS OF THE STUDY

Informant and CFSoC Profiles 67 Summary of CFSoC 83 Informant Concems 83 Summary of Interview Data 110

V SUMMARY CONCLUSIONS AND REFLECTIONS

Summary of Research 112 CFSoC Profiles 112 Interview Themes 115 Conclusions and Reflections 118 Recommendations for Further Study 121

REFERENCES 124

APPENDIX

A STAGES OF CONCERN ABOUT THE INNOVATION 133

B CHANGE FACILITATOR STAGES OF CONCERN 135

C CHANGE FACILITATOR STAGES OF CONCERN QUESTIONNAIRE 137

D SEMISTRUCTURED INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR INFORMANTS 141

E INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR DR SARAH McCULLOUGH ESC REGION J 142

F LETTER OF INTRODUCTION TO CONSORTIUM SUPERINTENDENTS 143

G PROJECT CONSENT FORMS 145

H THEMES AND SUB-THEMES FOR DATA ANALYSIS 147

I COMPARISON OF TECHNOLOGY IMPLEMENTATION IN STATE CURRICULA 148

VI

ABSTRACT

Although there has been a progression of technological improvements in the tools

available for educators to improve instmction there will always be the need for leamers

to master fimdamental skills and for educators to facilitate that learning Nevertheless the

implementation of innovative technology programs continues to be a priority of educators

in both urban and mral settings Texas educators are now under new Texas Essential

Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) curricular requirements a comprehensive document with

specific learner outcomes particularly with technology embedded into every grade level

Because of these extemal constraints even small rural school districts have to

provide advanced technology capabilities for their leamers This current study

investigated personal and professional concems of change facilitators in a seven-district

technology consortium as these requirements are implemented

This consortium was developed with assistance fiom both the local telephone

service provider and the regional Educational Service Center (ESC) These districts range

a distance of 70 to 125 miles fi^om their ESC Two of the participating school districts

are considered property-wealthy and provide the bulk of the fiinding for the other five

districts through special legislative mles

This exploratory case study used the Concems-based Adoption Model (CBAM)

for evaluating these concems Nine informants three each of superintendents principals

and technology coordinators responded to a 35-item Likert scale which placed the

informant on a Stage of Concem either SELF TASK or IMPACT Informants

vu

concems were rated largely at the TASK level In general an informants stage of

concem increased with a higher status within the school system

These informants were also interviewed on their personal concems toward

technology implementation Seven general themes emerged through the interview

process Informants articulated concems over attitudes power student learning distance

learning staff training infi-astmcture and finances These informants consistently

expressed concem for the prospects of implementing instmctional video and its

instmctional and disciplinary implications Each informant expressed optimism over the

educational and administrative possibilities modem computer technology brought to their

districts

Vlll

LIST OF TABLES

1-1 Teachers Use of Computers Hadley and Sheingold (1993) N=608 9

1-2 Instmcfional Software Use Hadley and Sheingold (1993) N=608 9

1 -3 Full Time Equivalent Staff for TechnologyComputer Operations 21

2-1 Coefficients of Intemal Reliability for the Stages of Concem Questionnaire N=830 39

2-2 Test-Retest Correlations on the Stages of Concem Questionnaire N=132 40

2-3 Means Standard Deviations and Alpha Coefficients for the CFSoC (N=589) 45

2-4 Means Standard Deviations and Alpha Coefficients for the CFSoC

(N=750) 45

2-5 Intercorrelations of the Scale Scores on the CFSoC (N=589) 46

5-1 Study Informants and CBAM Stages of Concem District Comparison 113

5-2 Study Informants and CBAM Stages of Concem Concem Stage Comparison 114

IX

LIST OF FIGURES

4-1 CFSoC Profile of James Petty Camden Principal 68

4-2 CFSoC Profile of Bill Potter Camden Technology Coordinator 70

4-3 CFSoC Profile of Ronnie Bennett Dellwood Technology Coordinator 72

4-4 CFSoC Profile of Larry Beckman North Prairie Superintendent 74

4-5 CFSoC Profile of Mike McCoy Sawtooth Superintendent 76

4-6 CFSoC Profile of Vemon Russell Sawtooth Principal 78

4-7 CFSoC Profile of Renee White Sawtooth Technology Coordinator 79

4-8 CFSoC Profile of David Jackson Woodlake Superintendent 81

4-9 CFSoC Profile of Stephen Greer Woodlake Principal 82

CHAPTER I

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Mr Edison says That the radio will supplant the teacher Already one may leam languages by means of Victrola records The moving picture will visualize What the radio fails to get across Teachers will be relegated to the backwoods With fire-horses And long-haired women Or perhaps shown in museums Education will become a matter Of pressing the button Perhaps I can get a position at the switchboard

(Church cf Cuban 1986 pp 4-5)

Introduction

Virginia Churchs 1925 poem entitled Antiquated probably sounds pessimistic

but facetiously demonstrates her concems of possibly being out of a job with the

approaching array of innovations heralded at that time Our teachers and administrators in

educational institutions at all levels continue to exhibit concems as new innovations are

proffered (Cuban 1986)

Certainly innovations designed to improve instmction have been utilized for

centuries Cuban (1986 pp 3-4) would suggest technology innovation goes back at least

to the invention of the lectem chalk and chalkboards books and pictures with fihn

radio television tape recorders video and computers as more recent examples of

teaching tools Cuban wryly describes how these most recent technologies were at first

lauded as the latest thing for schools how instmction would dramatically improve and

how disillusioned teachers became when the technology did not live up to its predicted

expectations

Bringing all schools up to maximum speed in technology is currently quite

fashionable Rescigno (1988) using his own school district as the example envisioned

the so-called smart classroom with state of the art technology as having the ability to

precisely measure student skill objectives and promote more positive student attitudes

and lower instances of discipline problems

Rescignos school does not seem to have been greatly replicated however

Nevertheless greater technology implementation remains a key element of both

educational and political rhetoric Chris Dede asserts For politicians the Intemet in

every classroom has become the modem equivalent of the promised chicken in every

pot (Dede 1997 p 13) Dede decries such first-generation thinking by those who

would make technology the panacea for magically transforming schools

Yet decades of experience with technological innovations based on first-generation thinking have demonstrated that this viewpoint is misguided Unless other simultaneous innovations occur in pedagogy curriculum assessment and school organization the time and effort expended on instmctional technology produce few improvements in educational outcomes ~ a result that reinforces many educators cynicism about fads based on magical machines (p 13)

Cuban (1984) concurs emphasizing that teachers technology use in the classroom

is just one of a great many factors in how teachers teach with the lions share of factors

related to the extemal constraints of school organization Hodas (1993) reminds us that

the culture and norms of schools are profoundly conservative that the stmcture of

schools have remained unchanged for hundreds of years and that there exists in the

popular mind a definite conservative conception of what schools should be like a

template fi-om which schools stray only at their peril (p 10)

Problem Statement and Research Ouestions

Several factors were considered in formulating a problem for this study There

was the consideration of finding out how schools particularly small ones were

implementing fimding and evaluating technology in their districts Moreover standard

principles of staff development particularly the ascertaining of personal and professional

concems of school leaders were prominent in the literature Finally at the time of

searching for a research topic the State of Texas was developing broad curricular

standards which included extensive instmctional technology components

The problem under study is the concems of three levels of change facilitators

implementing the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) for Technology

Applications The research questions for this study are outlined in the form of a grand

tour question followed by sub-questions (Gay 1997 Spradley 1979)

Grand Tour Ouestion

What are the concems of leadership personnel as the TEKS technology

requirements are implemented in their school districts

Sub-questions

1 Where do these school leaders fall on the Concems-based Adoption Model

(CBAM) continuum regarding TEKS technology implementation

2 What are the specific concems of these school leaders as the TEKS are

implemented and why are these concems important

Rationale

The concept of educational change with technology is not a novel idea despite

those concems that Dede (1997) registered Larry Cuban has written extensively on the

topic of technological change fi-om the perspectives of administration and of educational

history Cuban quotes fi-om a prominent American technology leader who often had much

to say about things

I believe that the motion picture is destined to revolutionize our educational system and that in a few years it will supplant largely if not entirely the use of textbooks I should say that on the average we get about two percent efficiency out of schoolbooks as they are written today The education of the fixture as I see it will be conducted through the medium of the motion picture where it should be possible to obtain one hundred percent efficiency (p 187)

These words came in 1922 fi-om Thomas Alva Edison the inventor of the motion

picture phonograph and other devices at their time thought to be the zenith in

technology Except for the media described many could envision computers as the

subject of that quote Cuban suggests that such entrepreneurs who publicly make broad

educational claims for their products may have more of a profit motive than of student

performance

McDaniel Mclnemey and Armstrong (1993) recognize a shift in classroom

pedagogy fiom those classrooms merely transmitting information to processing

information They assert that computers will play a significant role in how leamers

acquire question and evaluate information Moreover McDaniel et al describe a

changed learning community breaking down the traditional school walls to a classroom

that literally can be the whole world They do not doubt that new programs will continue

to make an impact on how we teach and how students leam

Bumiske (1998) concurs with this shift but tempers it with repeated questioning

of our reasonings and expectations conceming educational technology

Its no longer a question of whether we should introduce computer technology into our classrooms Im afi-aid that choice has already been made for us The question now is how we should make use of this technology for educational purposes The consequence of this is the stifling of essential debates and the repression of significant questions such as At what age should we introduce children to computers What impact will computers have on the social emotional and psychological development of our children And how will computers aUer the dynamics of a classroom and school (p 157)

Cuban (1993) suggests three reasons for the perceived need to implement

technology in the classroom

First there is the drive to bring schools technologically in step with the work place because of the fear that students will be unprepared both to compete in the job market and to adjust to the changing marketplace A second impulse has come fi-om a diverse coalition of academics educators and foundation officials who have

5

neoprogressive values including that of self-directed leaming for children Finally there is the impulse for productivity (pp 189-190)

Unfortunately Cuban pessimistically concludes that despite the use of

technological innovations those innovations have not been central to school reforms

Likewise the marginal use of computers in classrooms is less due to funding teacher

preparation or administrative support but more related to dominant cultural beliefs

about what teaching leaming and proper knowledge are and how schools are organized

for instmction (p 206)

Low administrative support is but one part of the overall picture Poor

infi-astmcture remains in place at many schools The United States Department of

Education (USDE) in its report Getting Americas Students Readv for the 21st Century

(USDE 1996) cited statistics where only four percent of schools had as many as one

computer for five students and only nine percent with Intemet connectivity Yet this

same study asserts 80 percent of Americans believing that teaching computer skills is

absolutely essential 75 percent encouraging a child to use a computer and 86 percent

believing that a computer is the most beneficial product available to increase childrens

opportunities

Why if most educators believe that technology can improve the educational

process is it so difficult to implement and integrate Kwajewski (1997) ponders this

question as he considers the value educators place on technology acceptance

The plain tmth is that technology still confuses the educational establishment It is not an art or a science It is not a curriculum or a

subject It is not a vocation or a college requirement It is not an activity a goal or an objective It is not a course or a program If it were any of these items it might have a fighting chance in the difficult arena of change But it isnt therefore its success is in jeopardy (p 54)

Hodas (1993) suggests that educators require a modicum of comfort before expanding

their intellectual horizons to achieve skill with new technology

There is lively discussion over the extent of how technology can restmcture the

school Schools are finding in diverse ways that the use of technology modifies the

existing school stmcture Braun (1993) points out that investment in technology makes

working with at-risk youth more cost-effective It appears better to pmdently allocate

fimds on high-technology instmction than on the costs involved with dropouts and other

at-risk problems Maddux and Johnson (1997) suggest that the existing stmcture of

schools will be modified by Intemet use but only after the surrounding culture first

makes the change

Addressing new technologies Clark (1983) boldly asserted that the medium of

instmction was no more involved in how well students leam than the tmck that delivers

our groceries causes changes in our nutrition (p 445) and that only the content of

instmction influences student achievement Kozma (1991) aggressively challenges

Clarks position pointing out the distinctives of certain technologies and how they can

help leamers constmct knowledge Chishohn (1996) would go so far as to insist that the

implementation of technology modifies the very social stmcture

Like any human artifact computers are an expression of the people and culture that created them Likewise computer software incorporates the programmers cultural assumptions heuristics and epistemology Even seemingly impartial applications such as

7

databases and word processing programs demonstrate a cultural preference for analytic linear thinking compartmentalization of information and culture-specific logic mles and organization (p 163)

Educational leaders who are comfortable with technology should be primed to

lead the way in facilitating change in schools (Office of Technology Assessment 1995)

Differing somewhat fi-om Cuban Ritchie (1996) notes that a lack of administrative

support leading toward inadequate staff development and inadequate funding continues

to lead the reasons that technology has yet to take hold in some school districts Ritchie

cites Mecklenburger who asserts

Administrators must understand the capabilities and limitations of technology Only then can they plan for budget for purchase carefiiUy install properly maintain dutifiilly schedule adequately distribute appropriately and replace systematically the electronic technology best suited for their needs (Mecklenburger 1989 p 7)

Yet principals and superintendents in the main received their education and

training at a time when computers were not yet part of the educational scene Whatever

training many school leaders have had simply focused on using the technology rather

than focusing on how the technology could be used to augment student leaming (Bailey

1997)

Since 98 percent of the elementary and secondary schools in the United States

have microcomputers (Ely 1993) it is important to analyze how they have been used In

an early pre-Intemet study of typical teacher practice Hadley and Sheingold (1993)

investigated how teachers integrated software into classroom practice In surveying 608

teachers they discovered that teachers used computer software as shown in Table 1-1

Table 1-1 Teachers Use of Computers Hadley and Sheingold (1993) N=608

Software

Text processing tools 95 Instmctional software 89 Analytic and information tools 87 Programming and operating systems 84 Games and simulations 81 Graphics and operating tools 81 Communications 49 Multimedia 25

(Hadley amp Sheingold 1993)

Teachers instmctional software use was fiirther broken down as shown

in Table 1-2

Table 1-2 Instmctional Software Use Hadley and Sheingold (1993) N=608

Software

Problem solving programs 75 Tutorial programs 73 Drill and practice programs 72 Software accompanying a textbook 37 Conceptual tools 30

(Hadley amp Sheingold 1993)

By contrast instead of querying teacher computer usage more current surveys

(eg Texas Association of School Administrators 1998) focus on the classroom

building and district hardware configurations and Intemet use of computers

Teachers obviously embraced the computer as a significant tool in teaching

practice As these researchers gathered data for their study the above activities were

indeed the cutting edge uses of computers just before Windows the World Wide Web

or America Online became household words

Radical educational change is no stranger to technology educators The practices

delineated in the literature have metamorphosed fi-om the above to a listing more

reflective of school Intemet use connectivity and the use of multimedia Echoing Cuban

Becker (1998) notes several generations of the advice of experts conceming change in

computer technology pedagogy each of which reflected conventional wisdom in its time

and underscoring the adage The more things change the more they stay the same

Teachers were first urged to have students program computers in BASIC (1982 Its the language that comes with your computer) then to have them program in Logo (1984 Teach students to think not just program) then to use integrated drill-and-practice systems (1986 Use networked systems that individualize instruction and focus on increasing test scores) then to do word processing (1988 Use computers as tools like adults do) then to use curriculum-specific tools such as history databases and science stimulators and data acquisition probes (1990 Integrate the computers with the existing curriculum) then to do multimedia hypertext programming (1992 Change the curriculum - students leam best by creating products for an audience) then to use electronic mail (1994 Let students be part of the real world) and currently to publish their students work to a worldwide audience via the World Wide Web (1996) Using computers in these respective ways would have generally required teachers to have access to the newest computer equipment being sold at that time (p 25)

Becker fiirther suggests that survey-based data reflects a more conservative and

traditional array of instmctional practices among teachers than what is reported in the

popular press which tends to be more reflective of the more innovative techniques

10

(Becker 1998) Moreover he suggests such survey data was needed to balance the

overly enthusiastic reports in the news media about the generalizability of pioneering

efforts in unusual schools with hard-to-replicate amounts of computer equipment teacher

expertise and family resources (Becker 1991 p 386) It remained to be seen if the

average school district or school board had the financial foresight to establish a similar

facility

Contrasting with pre-Intemet surveys more recent studies reflect surveys of

changing computer use Berg Benz Lasley and Raisch (1997) surveyed teachers about

technology use at school and found that teachers rated student motivation and a change

fi-om the traditional classroom stmcture as the most fi-equent purposes of technology

Concurring with Beckers (1998) conclusions on technology use Berg et al list these as

their most important school computer uses

To motivate students To change fi-om traditional classroom CD-ROMs for research Computers in writing process Using variety of resources (books CD-ROM Web etc) Desktop publishing software To integrate subject matter Intemet to do research Enhance communication with parents Tailor curriculum to individual student needs

(Berg Benz Lasley amp Raisch 1997 p 8)

Curiously Berg et al found distance leaming and video conferencing rated 38th of 39

instmctional purposes as rated by teachers

The Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) executed a survey in

September 1998 to ascertain the levels of technology available in Texas public schools

11

Rather than display teacher use statistics as in previous studies (Becker 1998 Berg et al

1997 Hadley amp Sheingold 1993) this survey is heavily skewed toward Intemet use in

the classroom showing percentages of connectivity fimding sources and resources

(service center technology consortium etc) There are no listings of specific teacher

activities such as word processing graphics or gradebooks Indeed the TASA survey

appears at this writing to be updated at fi-equent intervals (TASA 1998)

Willis (1993) concedes that educational change using technology is difficult to

pull off He identifies barriers to wider technology use including teacher isolation

ownership time and administrative support very similar to concems in much of the staff

development literature (Joyce amp Showers 1988 Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1991)

Recent literature on school technology implementation has raised questions

conceming just how well new programs will be implemented or indeed how extensive

technology implementation has been Maddux (1997) describes a gap in schools between

the increasing sophistication of technology and the ability of teachers to use such

technology Maddux contends that much of the negative reaction conceming the Intemet

the World Wide Web Windows 95982000 and other innovative technologies stems

fi-om just such a gap between the hardware the schools may have on hand and the

systemic requirements of new software purchased Schools by and large often have older

hardware incapable of accepting Windows 95-level software Indeed computer speed

modem speed and hard drive storage (with or without zip drives) in many school-owned

computers remain inadequate Maddux cites Brekhus (1997) who suggests that 80

percent of all computer hardware purchased for schools was obsolete at the time of

12

purchase (p 7) Maddux fiirther maintains that much of this gap is related to educational

fiscal tradition stemming fi-om a lack of acknowledgment that more sophisticated

technology had to be replaced every three to five years

Becker (1998) sounds even more alarming He estimates that the average

cumulative per pupil investment in computers over a typical school lifetime a 13-year

span was only $150 025 percent of the total of what was spent on a pupil in that time

span Only 20 percent of school computers had a hard drive with a similar percentage

having any network access Only 10 percent had CD-ROM capability Very few then of

available school computers were capable of using multimedia the World Wide Web

Windows 9598 or most CD-based software As this dissertation is written computers

with speeds of 500 to 600 megahertz are being offered at discount stores (Micro Center

1999) along with appropriate software Although many schools continue to upgrade the

computing power of their hardware and the regional educational service centers still

provide leadership in bringing up-to-date technology to every remote district

nevertheless many educational institutions remain using outmoded machinery due to

well-felt budgetary restrictions and fluctuating property values

Changes in Constraints

Against this backdrop of confiision over technology implementation overall

educators fi-om coast to coast have had extemally mandated constraints In Texas those

mandates were codified in the Texas Essential Elements (Texas Education Agency

1991) with specific competencies for each subject listed and more recently with the

13

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) standards (Texas Education Agency

1997b) Unlike the Essential Elements which simply specified the subject components

for the teacher to cover in each area the TEKS mandates a much broader array of

performance-based skills to be exhibited by the leamer The emphasis is now on what the

leamer can do over what skills the teacher exhibits School districts in Texas are

obhgated to follow the TEKS in designing curriculum and instmction Evaluation

procedures for Texas educators include the use of technology in the lesson cycle

The TEKS for Technology Applications delineates knowledge and skill

requirements for specific computer applications for grade levels K-8 and specific high

school classes with this common philosophy

(1) The technology applications curriculum has four strands foundations information acquisition work in solving problems and communication

(2) Through the study of technology applications foundations including technology-related terms concepts and data input strategies students leam to make informed decisions about technologies and their applications The efficient acquisition of information includes the identification of task requirements the plan for using search strategies and the use of technology to access analyze and evaluate the acquired information By using technology as a tool that supports the work of individuals and groups in solving problems students will select the technology appropriate for the task synthesize knowledge create a solution and evaluate the results Students communicate information in different formats and to diverse audiences A variety of technologies will be used Students will analyze and evaluate the resuUs (Texas Education Agency 1997b p 1)

Chapter 126 of the TEKS specifies standards for leaming activities under these

four strands in Technology Applications for all Texas leamers This chapter is restricted

14

to instmctional applications excluding curricula that would be better placed in chapters

dealing with Career and Technology Business Applications etc

Chapter 126 Subchapter A delineates skill requirements for leamers as early as

kindergarten Among the skills to be acquired by leamers at that early date include

networking creating naming and saving files keyword searching muhimedia design

and portfolio selection It does not end there Subchapter A spells out a broad outline of

technology activities fi-om kindergarten through fifth grade Subchapter B retains much of

the earlier Essential Elements for middle schools conceming keyboarding and computer

literacy Subchapter C defines requirements for eight specific courses for high school-

level Carnegie-unit credit The minimum hardware for just one of these courses requires

the capability to do local networking Intemet access video production and Web page

production and storage Because of these curricular standards virtually every school in

Texas had to purchase materials appropriate for these activities

These standards went into effect September 1 1998 (Texas Education Agency

1997b) providing impetus for school leaders to recognize and articulate concems over

the implementation of these standards An additional document The Technology

Applications Companion (K-12) (Texas Center for Educational Technology 1998)

containing a comprehensive program entitled Sharing Technology Applications

Resources with Teachers (START) has been distributed on CD-ROM to each public

school building in Texas to provide curricular assistance and resources for TEKS

implementation

15

Research Participants

The informants for this research are among the leadership staff at five school

districts in rural Texas Each would be described as a change facilitator as defined in a

subsequent paragraph The role of the change facilitator is ascribed to a variety of

professionals Three specific roles in the school system are examined in this present

study Each is a change faciUtator but each facilitates change in a unique way

Superintendent~The general superintendent is a certified school employee and is

charged with overseeing all of a school districts operations particularly those related to

supervision and finance This role in the United States was instituted and developed

during nineteenth century bureaucratic changes where centralization of school efforts was

found more economical and where the need was seen for one person to be at the top of

the school stmcture (Urban amp Wagoner 1996)

Lutz and Merz (1992) define the superintendent in three roles manager

politician and teacher The Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) establishes

competencies for school leaders and suggested curricula for their training Superintendent

courses (Texas Education Agency 1991) mostly relegate this role either to be a manager

what with the emphasis on business techniques and school law for school management

or to be the instmctional leader because of specialized expertise in special and

compensatory education and because of recent advancements in school change which

demand that change facilitators already excel as instmctional and curricular leaders

SBOE mles also reinforce the role of politician with a broad array of social science

electives for the prospective school leader

16

The combination of concems over financial matters political pressures and

extemal curricular constramts exclusively laden upon the district superintendent makes

this role particularly important to the proposed research If there is any new technology to

be implemented the superintendent will have to be the first person on deck to secure

community approval particularly that of the school board so that the community has the

opportunity to buy into the new program especially its fiinding It will be necessary to

describe specific concems of superintendents

PrincipalmdashThe principal is a certified school employee who is charged with

leading teachers Unlike the superintendent the principal is generally responsible for only

one building narrowing this persons focus The role developed during the nineteenth

century in urban schools where a beginning teacher would begin teaching at a low grade

level and move up through the system becoming a principal teacher leading the others

(Urban amp Wagoner 1996)

The literature is replete with suggestions for middle management to increase

knowledge of how to implement technology Ritchie (1996) fists vendors school district

personnel technology consultants technology classes and self-instmction as sources of

information for becoming more effective as a change facilitator

Hall Rutherford and Griffin (1982) recognize three distinct change facilitator

styles which largely fit the principals role Responders put heavy emphasis on

empowering teachers and giving them opportunity to take the lead but tend to make

decisions in terms of immediate situations rather than long-term goals Managers tend to

see that things get done but do not normally go beyond the basics of implementing an

17

innovation Initiators take the lead and make things happen having strong beliefs about

what schools should be Nevertheless Hall et al agree that no change faciUtator

completely fits into one of these compartments Much more than the superintendent the

building principals style sets the leadership tone for the students and staff

Hall et al apply these contrasting styles in leadership to applying innovation

implementation

Another apphcation of the ideas proposed in this paper could be in planning school level and district wide implementation efforts Perhaps implementation game plans should be adopted to different schools depending on the change facilitator style of the principal and the assistant principal In a Manager school implementation will likely proceed rather routinely once what is to be done is understood by the principal In a Responders school more encouragement fi-om the outside and more district personnel time spent in the school working with teachers would probably be necessary While in an Initiators school a certain amount of push might be necessary to get implementation of the innovation on the list of the principals priorities On the other hand if the innovation is already a priority for that principal all the central office staff developer may have to do is stand out of the way (pp 19-20)

Middle management concems are a second component of the proposed research

because these individuals provide day-to-day leadership of educators They are

responsible for every detail in their respective buildings including staff development

Although site-based management is ahnost standard in contemporary schools the

principal remains a key force in change

Technology Coordinator-This role is not as clearly defined as principal or

superintendent nor does it have a lengthy historical base but exists nevertheless An

early study by Stmdler and Gall (1988) reported a growing number of individuals with

18

the title of technology coordinator mainly fi-om the ranks of classroom teachers Bailey

(1997) points out that although the role of the technology coordinator is important in

school improvement activities very little recent literature exists that describes the specific

roles and responsibilities of the technology coordinator

Despite variations in the local job title the person recognized as the technology

coordinator will also have concems worth noting in this proposed research As Stmdler

and Gall (1988) reported earlier this person is eighty percent Hkely to come fi-om the

classroom reflecting classroom teacher concems yet will have to assume a leadership

role

Smith (1997) extensively lists qualities and competencies expected of a

technology coordinator under these headings

1 Technical expertise 2 Understanding of technology use in the instmctional environment 3 Professional development 4 Intemet knowledge and experience (p 56)

Jewell (1999) adds the interpersonal skills of vision and diplomacy along with the

ability to find solutions for a diverse group of technology users fi-om a hmited array of

resources Jewell reminds us that

Technology leadership is not for the timid An effective technology leader must be able to navigate the sea of ever-increasing information and equipment as well as the changes in education that comes fi-om technology use What happens with technology and schools will change our world and technology coordinators will have an important role in that outcome (p 57)

19

The Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) annually commission a

survey (TASA 1998) conceming technology usage The 1998 survey specifically

ascertained the availability of on-site technology support Table 1-3 describes the

fi-equency of technology support for a variety of school configurations in Texas

Study Significance

As a major population center and as a resuU a major purchaser of educational materials

(textbooks workbooks etc) Texas has the potential to lead the way with an innovative

array of technology related courses but with new technology changes will be necessary

in how teachers will teach Already school districts are writing funding grants

purchasing more advanced technology and designating an individual with a title

congment to technology coordinator

Administrators will now have to allow for changes in how they do their jobs

Superintendents are already realizing that budgetary planning for technology has to be for

shorter periods that both technology hardware and software will require firequent

upgrades and school policies will need to address technological issues particularly with

legal matters Building principals will not only require a change in their budgetary

procedures but will also need to include technology concems in dealing with both

curriculum and evaluation Having served unofficially as the building technology

computer coordinator this writer observes that these individuals will have concems over

not only keeping current with the technology but also the array of systemic bugs each

piece of hardware and software displays resulting in the attendant complaints expressed

by staff

20

Table 1-3 Full Time Equivalent Staff for TechnologyComputer Operations

Level

Elementary

Middle

High School

Central Office

Other ISD Service

One-campus

N

479

410

470

N

489

N

484

191

No FTEs on campus

()

382

385

362

None ()

595

0 ()

506

335

Vi FTE per campus

()

192

98

104

1 ()

282

1 ()

277

565

i d i lt IFTE ner campus

()

88

12

117

2-3 ()

7

2 ()

97

68

1 FTE or more per campus

()

338

398

417

More than 3 ()

53

3-4 5-6 () ()

52 19

1 0

(TASA 1998 Question 10)

Because of the major changes in what is expected of educators through the

transition fi-om implementing the Essential Elements to TEKS standards these new

regulations should be applicable and flexible enough for at least the next decade

considering that it replaces a document used for 13 years TEKS will be of necessity

21

applicable for implementing innovations that have yet to be invented and for change

strategies not yet imagined

Delimitations

This study focused on technology implementation concems of change facilitators

of school districts in rural Texas limiting the representativeness of the study Any

findings yielded reflected the comments of those interviewed at the time of the study The

constraints of TEKS are not specifically applicable to educational entities in other states

or countries Curricular documents in states other than Texas were surveyed to compare

TEKS requirements for technology with technology expectations for leamers in those

states States bordering Texas as well as the top 15 states in population were considered

(World Almanac 1999) Appendix I contains a listing of these individual states

standards and how much technology usage impacts these standards

This present study is undertaken during the first year of TEKS standards Those

interviewed will not have as much familiarity with TEKS standards as they might in later

years As the researcher involved in compiling this data this writer must recognize

various biases he might have in eliciting comments fi-om these individuals Such

comments will reflect subjective distinctions individuals have about different schools

extemally mandated policies personal expectations of themselves or product

preferences In short this researcher made every effort to allow the respondents to

accurately present themselves

22

Term Definitions

The literature in this study uses terms germane to change instmctional

technology and to applications of the TEKS In addition terms readily known and used

by Texas educators are described

Academic Excellence Indicator System (AEIS) The AEIS (Texas Education

Agency 1999) is a systematic accountability report delivered annually of each school

and school district in Texas Prior to the estabhshment of the AEIS districts were

evaluated for accountability based on mles and procedures With the advent of the AEIS

schools are now evaluated principally on student performance AEIS indicators include

Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) performance attendance and dropout

rates students participating in advanced courses and scores on college entrance

examinations

Change Fullan and Stiegelbauer (1991) suggest that educational change involves

change in practice and indeed is evident at many levels In implementing change three

components are at stake

(1) The possible use of new or revised materials (direct instmctional resources such as curriculum materials or technologies) (2) the possible use of new teaching approaches (i e new teaching strategies or activities) and (3) the possible alteration of beliefs (e g pedagogical assumptions and theories underlying particular new policies and programs) (p 37)

Change Facilitator The role of change facilitator is defined to include not only

superintendents curriculum speciahsts and building principals but also the diverse set

of persons within and outside of organizations who have the formal or informal role to

23

aid those involved in leaming to use innovations (Hall Newlove George Rutherford amp

Hord 1991piii)

Concems Based on the work of Fuller (1969) Hall and his associates expand on

what constitutes concem

The composite representation of these feelings preoccupations thoughts and considerations about a particular issue or task is called concems The mental activity composed of questioning analyzing and re-analyzing considering altemative actions and reactions and anticipating consequences is concem An aroused state of personal feelings and thought about an issue phenomenon or condition as it is perceived is concem To be concemed means to be in a mentally aroused state about something (Hall Newlove George Rutherford amp Hord 1991 p5)

Innovation Loucks-Horsley and Stiegelbauer (1991) include a variety of school

programs as being innovations including school change school mission and goals

shared leadership as well as implementation of new technology Hall and his associates

define innovation as the issue idea or thing that is the center of attention (Hall

George and Rutherford 1977) Hall et als work in ascertaining concems over

educational innovations as will be demonstrated in greater detail in Chapter 2 can be

used to describe a wide variety of school implementations but within this current study is

strictly limited to instmctional technology implementation

Technology Rogers (1983) defines a technology as

A design for instrumental action that reduces the uncertainty in the cause-effect relationships involved in achieving a desired outcome A technology usually has two components (1) a hardware aspect consisting of the tool that embodies the technology as material or physical objects and (2) a software aspect consisting of the information base for the tool (p 12)

24

Technology Applications Chapter 126 of the TEKS for Technology Applications

(Texas Education Agency 1997b) defines what technology applications are in a

common introduction to each subchapter Among competencies at various grade levels

technology applications include the use of several word processing competencies

keyboarding strategies knowledge of a variety of input devices such as mouse modem

disk drive scanner digital video CD-ROM or touch screen database and spreadsheet

usage Intemet intranet and World Wide Web usage formal training in computer

programming languages and guided independent study Certainly a wide variety of

contemporary applications that meet these requirements can fiilfill these guidelines

However these guidelines are so broadly drawn that technologies not yet imagined

constmcted marketed or researched can be effectively implemented for instmctional

purposes

Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) The TAAS is a criterion-

referenced assessment instrument administered to Texas students The core instrument

assesses students skills in writing reading and mathematics at several grade levels At

present TAAS information taken fi-om students in the fourth and eighth grades and fi-om

an exit examination first administered in the tenth grade with multiple opportunities for

mastery Except for a special education exemption given by the Admission Review and

Dismissal (ARD) team for certain special education students Texas students are required

to have successfiilly passed each of the TAAS areas before a high school diploma may be

granted

25

Organization of the Study

This study follows the format and style of the Publication Manual of the

American Psychological Association (APA 1994) in terms of stmcture and organization

for dissertations This present chapter presents introductory material and a statement of

the problem for study Chapter II is a review of related literature tying the postulates of

this study to the established literature base Chapter III describes the research

methodology to be employed along with the context for the study Chapter IV describes

the data analysis for both of the research sub-questions Chapter V provides a summary of

the research its implications and suggestions for fiirther study

26

CHAPTER n

REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Introduction

Fullan and Stiegelbauer (1991) suggest that there will always be the need to make

educational changes as societies become more complex Three broad mechanisms for

effecting these changes include

1 natural disasters

2 extemal forces such as technology values and immigration and

3 intemal contradictions such as changes in technology leading to new social

patterns and needs (Fullan amp Stiegelbauer 1991 p 17)

Innovations then tend to be devised through both political and educational

motives Since technology implementation is included in this list our examination of

technology implementation concems will first discuss the legal foundations of technology

consortium development reasons for collaboration the theory behind change and

diffiision of innovations collaboration then to discuss the theory supporting concems

and finally to discuss some of the means of assessing and evaluating concems of change

facilitators

Technology Consortium Development

The research site for this present study is a technology consortium comprised of

several school districts This consortium will be described fimctionally in Chapter HI but

27

the controlling legal foundations of how this consortium was developed are herein

described fi-om the literature base

A technology consortium is considered an example of an agreement between

state governmental agencies Such an interlocal agreement is defined by the 1971

Interiocal Cooperation Act (the Act) (Vemons Texas Codes Annotated (VTCA)

1991) At present this Act is codified as Chapter 791 of the Texas Government Code

The Act authorizes local governmental agencies to contract with each other or with the

state to provide services to each other Independent school districts are classified as

other governmental fimction as described in sect 791003

Interlocal agreements are required to be authorized by the goveming bodies of

each governmental entity in this case by each member school board sect 791011 provides

for financial cooperation while sect 791013 allows the consortium to designate

administrative personnel to provide services (Bristol amp Jechow 1998)

Hudson (1997) describes the need for interlocal agreements as either being

required by the intensive capital needed for poohng financial resources or requiring a

high degree of special skills such as public utility specialists This technology

consortium requires both capital and technical expertise Resources for purchasing

significant amounts of computer hardware are pooled under sect 791025

Funds for the technology consortium are derived by legal authority in the Texas

Education Code (TEC) Most school districts in Texas are financed under the Minimum

Foundation Program under Chapter 42 of the TEC (VTCA 1996a) Locally generated

28

ftinds are combined with State fimds to provide for the regular education program of

school districts

However certain school districts that are considered property-wealthy have

different financial considerations The value-added nature of such districts may be due to

industry land values or as in this present study mineral wealth specifically petroleum

Chapter 41 of the TEC specifies means to limit the local property wealth per student to

$280000 (sect 41002) Monies in excess of that amount are surrendered to the State

sect 41099 allows for such districts to recapture some of these fimds to support a

technology initiative (VTCA 1996b) Two of the seven districts in this technology

consortium are considered property-rich and serve as financiers for the purchase of

technology for the remaining five districts

Fowler (1998) describes various ways technology consortia have to plan for nuts-

and-bolts administrative details including preparing state and federal reports asset

distribution litigation inclusion into and withdrawl from the consortium and

determining credentials for consortium board membership Chapters III and IV will

describe in greater detail the practical educational applications of this consortium in

operation

Collaboration

A significant part of the innerworkings of a technology consortium is that those in

leadership have mastered the ability to successfiilly collaborate Indeed collaboration

could be considered an innovation in and of itself (Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer

29

1993) Mattessich and Monsey (1992) have identified factors indicative of outstanding

collaborative groups

1 The politicalsocial environment along with a history of previous cooperative

efforts (pp 16-18)

2 Group membership is based on mutual tmst personal self-interest

compromise and a cross-section of the organizations involved (pp 19-22)

3 Group members have a stake in both the process and outcome of decision

making Clear roles and policies must be developed (pp 22-26)

4 Frequent and open communication links should be established (pp 26-28)

5 Reahstic goals and shared vision leading to a unique purpose (pp 28-30)

6 Both financial and human resources should be considered (pp 30-31)

The Change Process

Fullan and Stiegelbauer (1991) identify educational change as developed through

three phases In the initiation (or readiness) phase change leaders establish a need to

make improvements and to assist in the development of vision and planning At this

level intended outcomes of change are identified During the implementation phase

plans are activated to achieve those outcomes Both individuals and organizations

experience change as the result of new leaming experiences and support through follow

up The institutionalization phase stresses the integration of new practices into school

policies budgets routines etc As new needs and plans are identified stmctures are

30

developed to ensure that the newly institutionalized procedures continue to be maintained

(Fullan amp Stiegelbauer 1991 National Staff Development Council 1995)

Diffusion of Innovations

Concems toward innovations have been noted for some time Knowledge of

change is of littie value unless its solutions are diffiised to the level of the practitioner

(Guba 1968) Guba cites Everett Rogers (1955) who describes five stages of diffiision of

innovations

1 Awareness The individual leams of the existence of the innovation

2 Interest The individual seeks more information and considers the merits of

the innovation

3 Evaluation The individual makes a mental application of the innovation and

weighs its merit for his particular situation

4 Trial The individual applies the innovation on a small scale

5 Adoption The individual apphes the innovation for continued use on the basis

of a previous trial (Guba 1968 p 292)

Rogers (1983) builds on his earlier conclusions and adds a description of

characteristics of innovations which explain the differing rates of adoption among groups

1 Relative advantage is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as better

than the idea it supersedes The greater the perceived relative advantage of an

innovation the more rapid its rate of adoption is going to be

31

2 Compatibility is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as being

consistent with the existing values past experiences and needs of potential adopters An

idea that is not compatible with the prevalent values and norms of a social system will not

be adopted as rapidly as an innovation that is compatible

3 Complexity is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as difficult to

understand and use

4 Trialibility is the degree to which an innovation may be experimented with on a

limited basis An innovation that is trialable represents less uncertainty to the

individual who is considering it for adoption as it is possible to leam by doing

5 Observability is the degree to which the results of an innovation are visible to

others The easier it is for individuals to see the results of an innovation the more likely

they are to adopt (Rogers 1983 pp 15-16)

Rogers (1983) describes five categories of individuals accepting irmovations

along a continuum under a normal fi-equency distribution (p 247)

1 Innovators (2 CT below mean) These individuals are described as venturesome

eager to try new ideas desiring the hazardous daring and risky While an innovator

may not be respected by the other members of a social system the innovator plays an

important role in the diffiision process that of launching the new idea in the social system

by importing the innovation fi-om outside of the systems boundaries (p 248)

2 Early Adopters (between 1 and 2 a below the mean) This adopter category

more than any other has the greatest degree of opinion leadership in most social systems

32

(p 249) These are individuals that are the ones to check in with before trying out new

ideas They are the one who enjoy the greatest respect fi-om their associates

3 Early Majority (fi-om mean to 1 CT below mean) These individuals require more

time to deliberate before adopting an iimovation They eventually follow willingly into

the innovation but seldom take the initiative

4 Late Majority (fi-om mean to 1 a above mean) These individuals approach

innovation with caution and skepticism They are not convinced about the innovation

until the social system norms are in place before they will adopt the innovation

5 Laggards (above 1 a above mean) These individuals are the last in the social

system to adopt an innovation They tend to be suspicious of any changes to the social

system and require absolute certainty that new ideas will work

Finally Rogers (1983) suggests that opinion leaders in a social system are the

individuals who lead the group into innovation adoption Rogers identifies generalized

characteristics of opinion leaders that distinguish them fi-om their followers

1 Opinion leaders have greater exposure to mass media than their followers

2 Opinion leaders are more cosmopolite than their followers

3 Opinion leaders have greater change agent contact than their followers

4 Opinion leaders have greater social participation than their followers

5 Opinion leaders have higher economic status than their followers

6 Opinion leaders are more innovative than their followers

33

7 When a social systems norms favor change opinion leaders are more

innovative but when the norms do not favor change opinion leaders are not especially

innovative (Rogers 1983 pp 282-284)

This present research relies heavily on the relative opinion leader status of those

change facilitators fi-om whom data was gathered Because the informants are change

facilitators and their input on technology implementation is considered authoritative

Rogers insights on change facilitators are appropriate here

Concems Theory

In her role as an observer of novice teachers at the University of Texas Frances

Fuller (1969) noted that there were perceptible differences in how experienced and non-

experienced teachers observed their profession

Are typically inexperienced undergraduates not yet ready to benefit fi-om a conventional teacher preparation program What are they ready to leam What does concem them Can we discover regularities in the interests of beginning education students regularities which might fiimish guides to educators in choosing course content and experiences for teacher education programs (Fuller 1969 p 208)

Fuller reviewed the available literature related to the concems of beginning

teachers Her study concluded that their concems primarily centered on classroom

management and perceptions of evaluations She was surprised not only with how

consistently the varied concems were reported but also with what these authors left out

the absence of concems about topics which are usually included in education courses

34

I instmctional design methods of presenting subject matter assessment of pupil leaming

dynamics of child behavior and so on (p 210)

Fullers subsequent research concluded that a developmental conceptualization of

teacher concems was most appropriate

Pre-teaching phase Non-concem ~ During this time before actual contact with

children concems articulated by pre-service teachers were amorphous and vague

Many did not know what to actually be concemed about Much of what these novices

reported could be regarded as hearsay rumors about teaching etc (p 219)

Early Teaching Phase Concem with Self- As the novice educator begins

service concems with Where do I stand and How am I doing were most dominant

(p 220)

Late concems Concems with Pupils - Scant data with experienced educators was

available to Fuller but mature concems appeared to focus on pupil gains and self-

evaluation as opposed to personal gains and evaluations by others (p 221)

Fullers groundbreaking article began the basis for the development of concems

theory She posited significant research implications that were expanded upon by later

researchers

1 Is the concem sequence complete or are there more tasks with specific

competencies to be defined and resequenced

2 Is concem a fimction of the person of the situation of both or of

neither

35

3 Do individuals as well as groups go through these phases Can a

phase be skipped returned to or be in muhiple phases

4 Can these stages be generalized to other groups such as

administrators college professors and non-teaching staff

5 Are concems more related to teaching behavior teacher competency

or student leaming

6 Are these concems measurable Can they be manipulated by

intervention (Fuller 1969 pp 222-223)

With Fullers article the stage was then set for the development of a more

comprehensive method of measuring concems of educators as they deal with innovations

The Role of CBAM

During the period Fuller was conducting her research Gene Hall and his

associates at the University of Texas were also researching teacher needs and concems

initially with a view toward providing relevant staff development activities Their

conceptual fi-amework for ascertaining concems during school change became the

Concems-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) (Hall Wallace amp Dossett 1973)

The CBAM describes feelings perspectives and attitudes of individuals while

they are considering the use of an innovation (Hall 1979) It is a people-oriented model

anticipating what change agents might discover during the change process and generally

used with staff development (Hope 1995) These assumptions undergird the CBAM

36

1 Change is a process not an event Change takes time and is accomplished in

stages

2 The individual is the primary target of interventions designed to facilitate

change in the classroom Institutions cannot change until individuals within them change

3 Change is a highly personal experience The personal satisfactions concems

motivations and perceptions play roles in determining the success or failure of an

innovation

4 The change process is developmental Individuals go through stages in feelings

and perceptions about the innovation as well as in skill of use of the innovation

5 Staff development can be best facilitated by a client-centered diagnostic-

prescriptive model Staff developers must discover what level participants are in the

change process and design activities congment with that level

6 Staff developers need to work in an adaptive yet systemic way They must be

able to assess the change process and adapt training methods to address those changes

(Hall amp Loucks 1978 Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1991)

Within CBAM three aspects of change form the basic fi-ame of reference of the

model

1 the concem that users have about the innovation

2 how the innovation is used and

3 the ways that the innovation can be adapted to meet the needs of individuals

(Hope 1995)

37

This current study focused only on this first strand-concems Using Fullers

research Hall et al redefined Fullers three stages of concem into concems unrelated to

teaching concems about self concems about the task and concems about impact

(Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1991) Seven Stages of Concem (SoC) about the

innovation have been identified (see Appendix A) Hall and his associates have

demonstrated that individuals move through these seven levels in a consistent manner

(Hall 1979 Hall 1985 Hall George amp Rutherford 1977 Hall amp Loucks 1978 Hall

Wallace amp Dossett 1973 Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1991) Stage 0 represents no

concem over the innovation Stages 1 and 2 reflect concems based on self stage 3

represents concem with the task and stages 4 through 6 mirror concems based on pupil

impact

The Stages of Concem Questionnaire the most precise measure of the SoC is a

35-item Likert scale where respondents indicate their present degree of concem about the

topic in an item (Hall George amp Rutherford 1979) Hall et al hypothesize that

individuals will normally flow fi-om the stages in consecutive order and that a scored

profile should place an individual somewhere along the concems continuum It is highly

rigorous and can be used effectively for research for large groups of people and for

tracking groups of people over time

George (1977) provided rehability and validity figures for this instrument

Intemal reliability was shown to be high Table 2-1 shows intemal reliability coefficients

for a 1974 sample (N=830) of teachers and professors A later subsample of teachers

38

Modifications to the content of the SoC have been done (Bailey amp Palsha 1992

Shotsberger amp Crawford 1996) with varying reliability In the main these researchers

concur that teacher concems do indeed occur in stages but differ in the number of stages

they detect

Table 2-1 Coefficients of Intemal Reliability for the Stages of Concem Questionnaire N = 830

Stage Alphas

0 64 1 78 2 83 3 75 4 76 5 82 6 71

(George 1977)

(N=132) was asked to complete the SoC a second time with test-retest correlations

shown in Table 2-2

As an adjunct to the SoC questionnaire the opportunity is presented for the

respondent to provide a written response with an open-ended statement along the lines of

When you think about [the innovation] what are you concemed about An collection

of open-ended statements can give the researcher opportunity to get a quick feeling for

39

Table 2-2 Test-Retest Correlations on the Stages of Concem Questionnaire N=132

Stage Pearson-r

0 65 1 86 2 82 3 81 4 76 5 84 6 71

(George 1977)

the concems of a group Moreover it can ascertain specific issues germane to a particular

group (Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1991) An altemate version of the SoC geared

principally to change facilitators contains an open-ended blank

43 Use this space (and back of this page) to express any concems you have not been able to indicate in the questionnaire (Hall Newlove George Rutherford amp Hord 1991 p 48)

A third means of gaining information is the one-legged interview which can be

done by simply having a conversation with a respondent about the innovation It is called

one-legged because it can be conducted on the mn or brief enough to do while standing

on one leg While not so rigorous as quantitative instruments this format allows for more

simplicity and rapport with chents (Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1991)

40

AppUcations of CBAM

CBAM has been used in a variety of educational situations Malone (1984) used

CBAM to determine concems of pre-service elementary teachers in teaching science

James and Hall (1981) evaluated concems of veteran teachers in implementing new

science curricula

CiccheUi and Baecher (1985 1987) used the CBAM model to study teacher

computer training They found that the level of concems of novice computer-using

teachers was a factor in how staff development was scheduled Their research questions

are similar to this present study

1 What specific concems will teachers have about using microcomputers in the

classroom

2 Do these concems vary and if so to what extent among elementary junior high

and senior high school teachers

3 Are there different concems between male and female teachers

4 In what ways can data yielded fi-om the SoCQ help teacher educators design

effective inservicing (Cicchelli amp Baecher 1985)

Wesley and Franks (1996) observed the voluntary adoption activities of teachers

using computer-assisted instmction (CAI) and multimedia through a variety of staff

development strategies most notably collegiality (Joyce amp Showers 1988) CBAM

developmental stmctures were positively linked to the increasing complexity of

technologies adopted by these teachers As they progress through the SoC teachers

voluntarily adopt technologies toward better leaming in the classroom Hope (1995)

41

examined teachers concems as they gained greater facility with computers in an

elementary school setting

Wells and Anderson (1997) performed studies comparing intemal concems

(stages 0 to 3) and extemal concems (stages 4 to 6) on a variety of computer appUcations

utilized by students in a graduate telecommunications course Prior computer usage in

eight separate skill areas along with general computing experiences was evaluated on the

SoC Ragsdale (1997) used CBAM to research the unexpected reactions of teachers and

students as they work in a variety of technologies Through CBAM Todd (1993) studied

university faculty concems in teacher preparation programs

CBAM is even used in non-scholastic situations Hall and Hord (1987) report

CBAM and SoC used to research nurse training Air Force cadet leadership training

health behavior and textbook sales and service CBAM has been used intemationally

with extensive studies in Belgium the Netherlands and Australia and has been piloted in

Indonesia Venezuela and Thailand (Hall Newlove George Rutherford amp Hord 1991)

The Change Facilitator SoC

The SoC questionnaire was shown to be adequate in determining the concems of

classroom teachers but did not work as well with administrators staff developers and

others who were charged with implementing change (Hall Newlove George Rutherford

amp Hord 1991) Not only were many of the SoC statements often inappropriate for change

facilitators but also scores elicited fi-om change facilitators yielded values skewed higher

in the Impact stages 4 through 6 particularly stage 5 (Collaboration) which is logical

42

considering the definition of stage 5 and the role of the change facilitator (Hall et al

1991 p 15) Earlier studies with change facilitators and CBAM gave impetus for a more

role-related instrument for assessing concems

The net result of this research yielded a set of Change Facilitator Stages of Concem

(CFSoC) The sequence of concems in the CFSoC (unrelated self task impact) is given

in Appendix B As with the SoC the CFSoC again contains 35 Likert-style statements

but each statement is expressed with a more leadership oriented spin Again as in the

earlier SoC Questionnaire Hall et al hypothesize that change facilitators will move along

the same path fi-om one stage to the next in consecutive order

The CFSoC Instrument

This specific instrument formed a significant portion of the data for this present

study and consequently requires more detailed reporting of its development Hall et al

(1991) have prepared a detailed manual describing the development of the instrument

scoring procedures methods of interpretation and reliability and validity data Appendix

C provides the current CFSoC instrument as used in this present study

CFSoC Development

As stated earlier those who had roles as change facilitators exhibited a different

pattem of responses to the SoC questionnaire because the SoC statements are phrased for

users of the innovation (p 15) Hall et al reported that they had to strike a balance

between innovation-related concems and change-facilitator role concems (p 16)

43

Because of this felt need for such a balance in May and June of 1979 Hall et al

instituted a pilot study of a potential change facilitator version of the well-used SoC This

pilot study indicated the need to wholly change the concems statements to reflect change

facilitator roles Additionally they found that the questionnaire items had to reflect the

facilitation of others use of the innovation rather its use per se (p 18) Questionnaire

items for the Impact stages (4-6) had to focus on efforts and concems on revising the

facilitation process rather than personal use of the innovation

Hall et al (1991) describe their later piloting efforts

Pilot data were collected at CBAM workshops for change facilitators in August 1979 in Texas (N=29) and New Mexico (N=23) Item analyses indicated that the intemal reliability of the scales were good (alphas greater than 65 on all scales) but Stages 1 and 2 (Informational and Personal) were too highly correlated This led to fiirther examination of the CFSoC definitions and a new draft of items for Stages 0 12 and 3

In May 1980 a sample of 219 CFSoC Questionnaires was collected by sending the measure to all change facilitators who had participated in Concems-Based Consulting Skills Workshops in 1979 and 1980 Analyses of these responses indicated good reliability and scale intercorrelations for all but Stage 6 (Refocusing) After carefiil analysis of the Stage 6 concept several new Stage 6 items were written and incorporated into the CFSoC

During the summer and fall 1980 an additional set of 288 CFSoC Questionnaires was collected fi-om a variety of workshops and mailings to change facilitators With these data factor analyses and other item analyses were used to select the five items for each stage on the final questionnaire (Hall et al 1991 p 18-19)

Reliability and Validity

Hall et al (1991) report two intemal rehability studies for the CFSoC A 1981

study (N=589) administered the current 35-item scale to a sample group that included a

44

variety of innovations examined job titles and years of experience Table 2-3 shows the

intemal reliability data for each stage Subsequent studies have produced virtually

identical data Another set of CFSoC responses (N=750) yielded the data in Table 2-4

Table 2-3 Means Standard Deviations and Alpha Coefficients for the CFSoC (N=589)

Stage Mean SD Alpha

0 1199 594 61 1 1691 949 85 2 1304 632 62 3 1790 730 72 4 2588 634 70 5 2586 699 77 6 907 652 81

(Halletal 1991p 19)

Table 2-4 Means Standard Deviations and Alpha Coefficients for the CFSoC (N=750)

Stage Mean SD Alpha

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

1320 1920 1140 1766 2477 2499

840

593 925 622 718 672 704 618

63

86

65

73

74

79

81

(Halletal 1991 p 19)

Hall et al conclude These statistics indicate that the scales have adequate

intemal reliability and the scales are consistent across various innovations (p 20) 45

The 1981 study yielded relatively low intercorrelations between stages Such low

intercorrelations indicate that these scales are measuring different concepts Table 2-5

provides a display of the intercorrelations of scale scores

Table 2-5 Intercorrelations of the Scale Scores on the CFSoC (N=589)

Scale 1 2 3 4 5 6

0 15 19 23 -15 -21 22

i 24 09 23

2 37 19

3 32

4

5

18

05

20

67

05

34

09

-06

-15

(Halletal 1991 p 20)

As is noticable in the table most stage correlations are small except for the correlation of

Consequence and Collaboration

Summary and Reflection

To summarize we know a great deal about how schools change fi-om the available

literature Fullan and Stiegelbauer (1991) point out famihar pattems of change and how

individuals adjust through those changes Rogers (1955 1983) insights into the diffiision

of innovations in a social system have expanded and matured with time Rogers points

46

out that those who facilitate change most effectively are those who in the social system

are most effective in social effectiveness Those who would dare to facilitate

technological change would normally reflect Rogers maxims conceming opinion leaders

The concepts of collaborative strategies appear usefiil for a variety of contexts

particularly for cooperative groups of school districts The original Stages of Concem

(SoC) survey continues to be utilized extensively but little hterature exists for the more

restrictive Change Facilitator Stages of Concem (CFSoC) instrument CFSoC authors

appear enthusiastic about its use (Hall amp Hord 1987 Hall Newlove George Rutherford

amp Hord 1991) but as this present research is conducted only one recent article advocates

its use (Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1993)

In communicating with CFSoC personnel they had no direct knowledge of

extensive recent literature on the CFSoC G Hall (personal communication November 2

1998) referred this writer to the original CBAM staff A George (personal

communication November 6 1998) was unable to find extemal validity studies of the

CFSoC There appears a need for this instmment to be used and reported upon

The legal stmctures which provide foundation for establishing a technology

consortium are solidly found in Texas legal literature Because they are based on legal

statutes they could be modified or deleted by subsequent legislatures Moreover the

changing fortunes of Chapter 41 school districts with fluctuating mineral wealth will

make it difficuh to reliably predict the fiiture of such technology consortia

47

CHAPTER m

METHODOLOGY

Study Design

Yin (1994) asserts that the type of research design to be used in any study must be

bounded by (a) the type of research question posed (b) the extent of control an

investigator has over actual behavioral events and (c) the degree of focus on

contemporary as opposed to historical events (p 4)

This present study used the case study method Yin (1993) specifically addressed

and described studies of educational partnerships or consortia as good examples of case

study research The research questions reiterated below are how and why oriented

(Yin 1994) They are presented in the form of a grand tour question what concems the

technology consortium exhibits as a group and sub-questions what concems individuals

(Spradley 1979)

Grand Tour Ouestion

What are the concems of leadership personnel as the TEKS technology

requirements are implemented in their school districts

Sub-questions

1 Where do these school leaders fall on the Concems-based Adoption Model

(CBAM) continuum regarding TEKS technology implementation

48

2 What are the specific concems of these school leaders as these TEKS are

implemented and why are these concems important

Rationale

This research examined details particularly interviewees responses which were

out of this writers direct control This study also focused on contemporary events in a

technology consortium in rural Texas Therefore Yins standards (Yin 1994 p 6) for

applying a case study method were justified

This present study was exploratory As such Yin (1994 p 21) would assert that

specific propositions or underlying assumptions about what we might discover in the

course of the inquiry should not be defined Assumptions tend to interfere with defining

issues they also constmct personal biases to both data gathering and interpretation

Rather Yin suggested that an exploratory study should reflect the purpose of the study

and the criteria by which an explanation will be judged successfiil (p 21) Levine

(1990) concurs that explorations into educational computer use often lack propositions

Many of the published qualitative studies are deemed exploratory by their authors reflecting researchers quandaries about what should be the subject of the inquiry in this new field and of equal importance the lack of any guiding theory against which to cast the qualitative data In general most of the extant models of quahtative investigation into classroom computer use tend to be atheoretical and largely positivist rather than interpretive in their orientation (p 464)

The criteria forjudging an explorations success will be discussed in the later section

dealing with validity and reliability

The unit of analysis for this study was a technology consortium the combined and

49

cooperative efforts of seven school districts to provide instmctional technology leadership

toward better serving their students Such a partnership has collective activities and

outcomes and as a distinct unit represents something greater than activities and

outcomes of member school districts (Yin 1993) Those change facilitators whose

concems were examined were all employed by the individual school districts and were

recognized as leaders within their respective districts Each of these individuals was

asked a set of similar questions Their responses were considered as representative of the

leadership of their individual districts Appendix D provides the list of questions that

were asked

Yin (1993) suggests that topical relevance and access can contribute to the

appropriateness of this research design The consideration of TEKS technology

implementation efforts is being effected during this present academic year and is certainly

current

For linking the data to the research questions the specific analysis strategy used

was the pattem-matching model Those concems registered by the interview participants

were compared with pattems of CBAM data particularly the typical and hypothesized

profiles of school change facilitators as manifested on the Change Facilitator Stages of

Concem (CFSoC) protocol (Hall Newlove George Rutherford amp Hord 1991)

Informants were asked to fill out the brief CFSoC survey The CFSoC manual presented

typical profiles and gave suggested interpretations of representative profiles These were

used to determine the concems rankings of these informants

Yin (1994) admits that there are no precisely set criteria for interpreting findings

In discussing a study by an author named herein Jones Yin made these observations

50

Jones data matched one pattem better than they matched the other But how close does a match have to be so as to be considered a match Note that Jones did not do any statistical test to make the comparison Nor would a statistical test have been possible because each data point in the pattem was a single number for which one could not calculate a variance and could not conduct any statistical test One hopes that the different pattems are sufficiently contrasting that the findings can be interpreted in terms of comparing at least two rival propositions (p 26)

The concems of school change facilitators as they implement new models of

curriculum were studied through the mode of exploratory case study a qualitative study

design Because this current study desired to know the current concems of sitting school

leaders a case study paradigm was used because the events in the study cannot be

manipulated Campbell (1997) suggests that a qualitative design is appropriate when

ascertaining the insiders point of view and the informants personal involvement A

research protocol of examining documents and artifacts and conducting interviews

provided a wide variety of data Moreover as Levine (1990) asserted case study research

could be accomplished relatively quickly Levine suggested that a case study design

appears to be the method of choice for those investigating different facets of educational

uses of computer technology

Clouse and Garrett (1994) suggest more theoretical reasons for utilizing case

study with adult change facilitators Borrowing fi-om Piagetian concepts the stage of

formal operations which forms the basis of case study is well-developed by adulthood

Moreover case study is grounded in the needs of adult leamers because of the

51

meaningfiilness of problems to the aduh and the responsibility they take toward their

own personal development

Stake (1995) describes defining characteristics of case study research that are

apphcable for this present study

1 It is holistic its contextuality is well developed it is case oriented

2 It is empirical it is field oriented its emphasis is on observables including the observations by informants it strives to be naturalistic noninterventionistic and there is a relative preference for natural language description

3 It is interpretive its researchers rely on intuition with many important criteria not specified it is attimed to the fact that research is a researcher-subject interaction

4 It is empathetic although plaimed its design is emergent responsive its reporting provides vicarious experience

(Stake 1995 pp 47-48)

Context for the Study

This study site was selected in consultation with a consultant who had knowledge

of and had worked with this organization I was directed toward one of the Consortiums

superintendents to secure access This superintendent in tum directed me toward a

person at the Educational Service Center who would be able to assist me

This technology consortium was comprised of seven school districts with two

districts declining to participate in this research These districts were rural and agrarian

yet possessed school leaders who tmly wanted to bring their communities up to date with

52

technology These school sites were given pseudonyms which were generated by random

selection of cities fi-om states other than Texas in a current road atlas Names of

participants were given pseudonyms Those names were those of students fi-om my high

school yearbook and were drawn by lot

In general each of the five school districts were in Texas counties which have

declined in population since 1990 The combined population of these districts is 7306

(Texas Almanac 1998) Each districts economy was based on agriculture and varying

amounts of mineral wealth resulting in substantial variance in property values Each

county boasts a relatively low crime rate

More important than minute details this present study is focused on the big

picture the ways and means utiHzed to make this technology consortium a reality In

initial contacts with consortium leadership this researcher was directed toward Dr Sarah

McCuUough a program specialist of the Educational Service Center Region J located in

Center City Texas Dr McCullough was instmmental in establishing this technology

consortium and providing this researcher with the history and innerworkings of this

consortium Interview questions for Dr McCullough are in Appendix E The following

narrative of the foundation and fimctioning of this consortium is based on this

researchers interview with Dr McCullough (personal communication December 9

1998)

The Sah Fork Educational Technology Consortium (the Consortium) is comprised

of seven independent school districts all of which have akeady worked together as a

special education cooperative Six of these districts are members of Educational Service

Center (ESC) Region J while one is actually in the territory of ESC Region K As also

53

with special education cooperatives a technology consortium is an interlocal agreement

by Texas law and has a management board comprised of district superintendents one

district designated as fiscal agent and a chair authorized to speak and act for the group

The Salt Fork Telephone Company (SFTC) headquartered in Dellwood Texas

provides rural telephone service for several counties in Texas All of the school districts

in these counties depend on this provider for both telephone service and the possibihty of

Intemet connectivity In 1995 the SFTC invited school leaders fi-om their service area to

a demonstration in Dellwood to show off a variety of new technologies that they were

excited to announce particularly their new capabiHty for two-way interactive video

Because these districts had worked together before had a common telephone carrier and

had common interests these school leaders concluded it logical and practical to combine

together for technology improvement in their schools

Prior to the Consortiums establishment member districts were limited to only the

computers they currently had in the classroom Almost all of their computers were

stand-alone units Each district also had a satellite dish for the state network materials

but were using them poorly and inefficiently

Dr McCullough was initially hired to work with this group to get a two-way

interactive video setup organized Later she was deeply involved with authoring several

grants for this group Her subsequent work with the Consortium was to conduct an array

of custom-designed technology needs assessments for each of several job descriptions

(teacher counselor administrator etc) with the emphasis on what do you want that you

do not have with the view that technology was the means to fiilfill those needs She now

54

meets regularly with these superintendents as they hold Consortium management board

meetings

Dr McCullough describes the interrelationships of Consortium members

positively She notes very little dissention as they discuss procedures that most decisions

are made by consensus What serves one serves all of them she emphasizes as the

Consortium moves toward better technology use Each board member realizes that they

are at different point toward reaching group goals They realize the benefits of

collaborative planning a hard lesson for everyone to leam

The Consortium keeps operating fiinds in a bank account separate fi-om general

operating fiinds administered by the business manager of the fiscal agent To date

fimding has come fi-om grants and fi-om monies generated fi-om the two member districts

designated as property-wealthy under Chapter 41 of the Texas Education Code These

districts recapture a certain percentage of excess property wealth normally surrendered to

the State and assign those fiinds to the Consortium (see Chapter II) These districts have

voluntarily chosen to redistribute their fiinds in this manner

Because these districts have formed this consortium they not only have more

technology but also more capabilities As a whole there is improved student

performance and better trained teachers with a rise in Academic Excellence Indicator

System (AEIS) scores (see Chapter I) Most importantly these school leaders fimction as

a group They actively seek ways to collaborate

A recent example of this improved outlook on technology concems teachers use

of the Accelerated Reader (AR) program Heretofore it had been difficult to get teachers

to travel all the way to Center City for training for AR but with a high-quality technology

55

center in Dellwood closer to the other Consortium member schools there was high and

enthusiastic tumout for the training sessions

Informant Selection

This researcher invited each of the seven school districts in the technology

consortium to participate in this study In August 1998 a letter was sent to each of the

district superintendents of the Consortium introducing me the goals of the prospective

research how they might participate^ etc A copy of this letter is provided in Appendix F

Within two weeks of the initial invitation a letter was received fi-om one

superintendent stating that in consultation with his districts site-based team they would

decline to participate in this present study That same week this researcher received a

telephone call fi-om the Dellwood ISD superintendent who had been authorized by the

Consortium board to grant permission to use their districts for this study

After securing approval of the Universitys Institutional Review Board these

superintendents were again contacted and consent forms instmctions and CFSoC

surveys were mailed to superintendents building principals and technology coordinators

of the six remaining districts This mailing was in November 1998 Eighteen completed

CFSoC surveys would be the potential maximum Appendix G contains a copy of the

consent forms and instmctions for taking the surveys

Concurrent with mailing queries to Consortium staff this researcher made initial

contact with Dr McCullough of the ESC and conducted an interview with her in

December 1998

56

The mailings yielded only eleven retumed surveys fi-om the maximum eighteen

possible informants However two of those with completed surveys were deleted fi-om

the pool during the pre-interview stage due to lack of fiirther response to interview

queries The net pool yielded exactly three each of superintendents building principals

and technology coordinators representing five school districts These nine informants are

those whose CFSoC profiles and interviews will be discussed in Chapter IV

Data Collection

A variety of data collection methods congment with the case study method was

used leading to the development of converging lines of inquiry allowing triangulation

ofthe data leading to improved validity and reliability of this study (Yin 1994)

Survey The CFSoC instmment contained 35 Likert-style statements which were

grouped into seven stages of concem Each ofthe statements received a score of 0

through 7 The statement scores were added up to provide a raw score for each stage

That raw score was in tum evaluated by a percentile score chart For the given raw

score there was a corresponding percentile score Percentile scores were then encircled

on a CFSoC protocol Interpretation ofthe CFSoC was based on the profile yielded

from the administration ofthe instrument

Hall et al (1991) insist that their instrument must not be used to make a definitive

analysis of a respondent but rather all interpretations must be treated as hypotheses (p

29) They discuss three methods of examining the CFSoC protocol to generate

hypotheses Interpretations can be made either by examining the stage which shows the

highest degree of concem based on percentile score by examining the percentile scores

57

ofthe highest and the second-highest stages or by examining the fiill array of stage

percentile scores Hall et al point out

As individuals move fi-om little concem about facilitating use of an innovation into actively becoming involved with users as a facilitator it is hypothesized that their concems develop fi-om being most intense at Stages 0 1 and 2 to most intense at Stage 3 and uhimately to most intense at Stages 4 5 and 6 This is most likely to occur if the innovation is a positive one and there is administrative support for its implementation However reality has a way of intervening on this idealized trend which results in different and interesting profiles Where an individual is in this change process can best be assessed through interpretation of a complete concems profile Analyzing both the tabular fisting of percentile scores and the plots of these percentile scores as a graph provides the most complete clinical interpretationassessment (Hall et al pp 33-34)

The profiles accuued as part ofthe data collection are thus examined according to

fiill-profile examples given in the CFSoC manual (Hall et al pp 34-42) Additionally

specific information given by the respondents conceming their change facilitator roles is

considered in establishing these hypotheses Scores are interpreted on the shape ofthe

profile and not necessarily on the numerical score of each concem stage

Interviews There were semistmctured interviews with district superintendents

building principals and persons designated within the school community as the

technology coordinator those whom teachers and administrators rely upon when

computer savvy is needed As opposed to the more open-ended interview I made the

interview more focused as Yin (1994 pp 84-85) puts it The informants were busy

educators and administrators and their time was perceived as limited Interviews were

oriented toward ascertaining the informants knowledge and use of technology with a

58

view toward discovering concems they had as new curricular guidelines and concurrent

hardware implementation was instituted Interviews were conducted by telephone tape

recorded and transcribed for review Interview queries were based on the CFSoC

questionnaire (Hall et al 1991) and questions used in a similar dissertation project

(Nagy 1996) This researcher noticed that several questions as listed in Appendix D

would be commented on by the informants without being asked When each ofthe

questions were answered by the informant the interview ceased Any discussion of non-

germane issues (local school politics vocational programs etc) or school activities not

included in Chapter 126 ofthe TEKS were not evaluated

Documentation Merriam (1988) defines documents as just about anything in

existence prior to the research at hand (p 105) but cautions whether it contains

information or insights relevant to the research question and whether it can be acquired in

a reasonably practical yet systematic manner (p 105)

I wanted to review a wide variety of recent public records in the fiirtherance of

technology implementation for this Consortium including but not limited to school

board minutes technology consortium records established policy statements grant

applications tabular data and evaluations Not all of these documents were available

fi-om Dr McCullough or fi-om Consortium members What was available included the

initial grant applications needs assessment surveys and technology plan The Academic

Excellence Indicator System (AEIS) reports for the 1997-98 school year for each district

were retrieved fi-om the TEA web site (TEA 1999) During the course of informant

interviews certain legal documents were alluded to found in Vemons Texas Codes

Annotated and were useful in verifying interview data A current survey (September

59

1998) ofthe Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) provided a comparison

of similarly situated school districts for technology use Cumulative accountability data

conceming these districts was found in pubhc records (TEA 1995 1996 1997a 1998)

Standardized indicators of district performance could thus be obtained as evidence of

progress

Merriam (1988) suggests that the use of these documents assists in grounding a

study into the context ofthe problem that is under investigation A further purpose of

reviewing documentation is that such records present not only the history ofthe

technology program but also the sense of ownership and commitment that the leadership

exerts and the staff reflect in their service to their leaming communities We also seek

independent objective means to determine if these technology implementations yield any

progress thus avoiding halo effects fi-om those most intimately involved with the

organization

Data Analysis

Since data collection and data analysis drive one another (Gay 1997) the data

was organized to reflect pattems or themes which emerged fi-om the data (Bogdan amp

Biklen 1992) As they discuss evaluating data they affirm that a method of finding a

focus is to look over your coding categories and see which have yielded the greatest

amount of data (p 186)

The interview transcripts were read and reread to gamer a sense ofthe concems

manifested by the informants The analysis had to be germane to the viewpoint ofthe

informant (Tashakkori amp Teddlie 1998) Coding categories emerging fi-om the interview

60

data included student leaming distance leaming power attitudes training infrastmcture

and finance The relevant narrative fi-om the hard copies ofthe transcripts were color

coded by crayon By using the cut-and-paste editing method with the word processor

color coded text fi-om individuals transcripts were collated into listings of specific

concems

Bogdan and Biklen (1992) suggest that this method of sorting piles of coded

material helps the researcher in not only making better sense ofthe data but also

communicating the results to others Appendix H shows the broad categories or themes

along with the sub-categories which comprised each theme

Since both quantitative and qualitative data were used in this present research it

becomes vital to justify the use of each paradigm and how the data is analyzed within that

paradigm Tashakkori and Teddlie (1998) wholeheartedly affirm that the two paradigms

can be successfully fused into one study They suggest that researchers deemed

pragmatic do not necessarily have to be doctrinaire about research paradigms Among

the various research models they describe is included a mixed-model study which

includes a research design that calls for a field experiment and extensive ethnographic

interviewing to occur simultaneously and in an integrated manner (p 19)

The CFSoC survey (Hall et al 1991) was analyzed as per the instmctions given

and the examples displayed in Section IV of their instruments manual Since each

informant could be considered at an individual position on the CFSoC concems

continuum a hypothesized profile was made for each informant based on the relative

extremes in percentile ranks derived fi-om the raw scores ofthe seven concem stages on

61

the CFSoC protocol (pp 33-34) Hall et al took pains to remind CFSoC users that the

quantitative results could only be considered data to generate hypotheses (p 43)

The examples given in the CFSoC manual make comparisons ofthe various high

stages that informants exhibit For example a high raw score in Stage 3-Management

would reflect that the informant may have significant concems toward logistics time and

management in fulfilling professional duties vis-a-vis implementing the discussed

innovation A high raw score at Stage 0-Awareness uniquely and specifically indicates

that the informant may have many other concems in addition to the innovation currently

in question These extemal concems could be any other activities that vie for a change

facilitators limited attention that outweigh the immediate concem for the stated

innovation Hall et al describe a variety of combinations and relative positioning of those

concems that are most prominent in the informants thinking Data reporting of

informants CFSoC profiles in Chapter IV will reflect analysis strategies described by

Hall et al in their manual (Hall et al 1991 pp 34-42)

Tashakkori and Teddlie (1998) assert that the qualitative field material (notes

interviews etc) be evaluated on two dimensions a) whether the themes or categories

were established a priori or emerged during the analysis and b) the degree of complexity

ofthe qualitative analysis scheme (ranging fi-om simple to complex) (p 117) They note

that through this process of emerging themes six to eight categories or themes emerge

when no a priori mle is imposed on informants

Because the data would be analyzed using recurring themes (Glesne amp Peshkin

1992 Howard 1994 Miles amp Huberman 1984) emerging fi-om the course of

interviewing the technique of latent content analysis was used As opposed to manifest

62

content the surface meaning of a text latent content refers to determining the underlying

meaning of a narrative and is determined by a subjective evaluation ofthe overall

content ofthe narrative (Tashakkori amp Teddhe 1998 p 122)

The text ofthe interviews was read several times for topics that the informants

found important Those topics which appeared most fi-equently emerged as the themes

Tashakkori and Teddlie point out that this analysis scheme makes it more appropriate for

the phenomenon being studied (p 123)

Verification Strategies

Maxwell (1996) insists that validity in a quahtative study is not acquired simply

by applying boilerplate techniques and strategies but by describing specific ways and

means of mling out possible altematives to our interpretations and conclusions Maxwell

insists that validity is a goal rather than a product it is never something that can be

proven or taken for granted (p 86) Moreover validity must be determined within the

context ofthe research and not merely a property independent ofthe context For each of

three principal means of understanding Maxwell describes a specific method that I was

able to use to better ensure validity

1 Description Since the main threat to description is inaccuracy the informant

interviews were recorded on cassette tape and transcribed Each ofthe informants was

sent a copy ofthe transcribed conversation for review verification and suggestions

2 Interpretation The principal threat to interpretation is imposing my own

meanings to the informants words To combat this validity threat consistent member

checks were made during the course ofthe interviews to ensure that I was getting the

63

correct information from the informant It was important to allow each informant to

express himself or herself in their own words Several methods of eliminating personal

bias are described below

3 Theory Not paying adequate attention to altemative propositions becomes the

most serious threat to theoretical validity (Maxwell 1996 p 89-90) Altemative

propositions can be masked by researcher bias and reactivity

Elimination of researcher bias is based on understanding how my personal biases

could affect the informants and their comments and my conclusions subsequently

derived Maxwell declares that is virtually impossible to totally eliminate my personal

thinking and values from the study (p 91) By asking similar questions of informants by

allowing these informants to candidly express themselves and by consistent member

checking I controlled for personal bias

Reactivity the influence ofthe researcher on the informants is likewise

impossible to totally remove from the research as Maxwell insists

For interviews in contrast reactivity is a powerful and inescapable influence what the informant says is always a function of the interviewer and interview situation What is important is to understand how you are influencing what the informant says and how this affects the validity ofthe inferences you can draw fi-om the interview (p 91)

Lists of what to do to combat reactivity have been compiled (Marshall amp

Rossman 1989 Maxwell 1996) but all of these suggestions (triangulation member

checks audits etc) are simply the usual methods in qualitative research Since there are

64

virtually no qualitative studies ofthe research instrument available for comparison I have

relied on these procedures to control for biases

1 Feedback Maxwell (1996) encourages the use of a variety of outside observers

to examine the data analysis and give their comments to critique my logic and methods

Two individuals with experience with both technology and research methods have agreed

to assist me with this and evaluate the data analysis

a Mr Jack P Stell instmctional design manager Fairfax VA and b Dr C L Wayne Moore Assistant Professor University of Tennessee Knoxville

With differing perspectives and biases these reviewers indicated agreement that

the research methodology proposed was indeed followed and that the research questions

were answered They pointed out grammatical and spelling errors writing style concems

adherence to APA requirements etc

2 Member Checks Although informants were given repeated opportunities to

clarify themselves in the interviews informants were given the opportunity to respond to

the data analysis specifically identifying themselves

3 Rich Data Maxwell (1996) considers rich data to be detailed and complete

enough that they provide a full and revealing picture of what is going on (p 95) This

generally includes verbatim transcripts of interviews which were compiled for each of

the Consortium informants As the data was read and considered themes emerged fi-om

the data

4 Numerical Report Data This researcher used numerical and normally

quantitative data to add to the confidence level of what my informants were saying

There was particular concem with whether the efforts ofthe Consortium were making

65

any progress over the time period from its establishment to the time ofthe interviews

Publicly available data was gamered from AEIS and TAAS reports to ascertain progress

in school performance

Study Limitations

This study focused on technology implementation concems of change facilitators

of a single technology consortium limiting the representativeness ofthe study The

combined student population of these five districts is smaller than many urban high

schools Interview responses reflected a rural attitude Findings yielded reflect the

comments of those interviewed at the time ofthe study There may be a variety of future

long-range plans pending that might modify present policies These would include grants

bond issues school board elections or even newer state mandates

Nevertheless this study must transcend these limitations in order to be of interest

and find applicability by other scholars Yin (1994) hastens to point out that the case

study paradigm relies on analytical generalization not experimental statistical

generalization to generalize the results to a broader theory (p 36) Yin suggests

replication of a case study with similar sites before a general theory can gain wider

acceptance

There is also the problem of apphcability to school settings markedly different

from those studied However issues that are common to school districts in general could

be expressed by these informants (eg concems over funding student leaming staff

development or transfer of power)

66

CHAPTER IV

RESULTS OF THE STUDY

Informant and CFSoC Profiles

As discussed in Chapter III Consortium informants were sent a copy ofthe

CFSoC questionnaire and those protocols were retumed to this researcher These

informants responses have been evaluated according to guidelines established by Hall et

al (1991) This instmment does not consign each informant to each ofthe seven stages of

concem but rather categorizes the informant in a broader category of CBAM either

Awareness Self Task or Impact as was discussed in Chapter II Consequently each

informant will be designated by the general category based on their individual CFSoC

profile TheCFSoC protocols for each ofthe informants are included as figures in this

chapter

James

James Petty is the high school principal at Camden a position he has held for over

fifteen years James considers himself a practical person and professes a rather traditional

attitude toward his administrative duties The interview with James repeatedly mentioned

school discipline and teacher control ofthe classroom He readily admitted to relying on

other persons to inform him on technological issues rather than researching the data

himself

James CFSoC profile (Figure 4-1) exhibited extremely high levels of concem

with Awareness Management and Personal stages with percentile scores over 90 The

67

0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage 0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score 99 69 99 96 13 21 68

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-1 CFSoC Profile of James Petty Camden Principal

68

high Personal score suggests a concem for personal position and standing while the high

Awareness score indicates a diversity of issues facing him which to him are of greater

importance particularly classroom management Also a high Management score implies

time logistical and managerial concems The moderately high Refocusing score

indicates James has thought about altematives to the innovation and would be exhibiting

definite ideas and opinions over the technology implementation This profile suggests

James is not as likely to be involved in the change process as others might be Attempts

to intervene could intensify his current levels of concem Because ofthe high scores in

the Self array of stages I would hypothesize James to be in the SELF stage of concem

Bill

Bill Potter is the technology coordinator for the Camden schools although he

continues to teach math for much of his school day Bill leamed his present trade largely

by doing it Although relatively new to computers (less than fifteen years) Bill considers

himself to have been oriented toward technology from his military days as an Army pilot

during the 1960s to the present His formal computer training has only been in a few

junior college classes and some inservice training Bill credits his technology reputation

to being the one who knew how to operate the computer at an earlier date than his peers

Although in the technology coordinator role Bills highest CFSoC profile (Figure

4-2) score was in Awareness This is most likely attributable to having many other

professional concems at present particularly since he remains a classroom teacher for

69

0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

91 56 62 60

5 12 18

2 3 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-2 CFSoC Profile of Bill Potter Camden Technology Coordinator

70

much ofthe school day as well as his increaseingly greater role in his school district He

may also just now be beginning to envision himself as a change facilitator

Information Personal and Management scores are no more than six percentile

points apart suggesting personal status and time logistical and managerial concems are

also important to Bill An increased Refocusing score also indicates Bill has some

definite ideas about the innovation that warrant consideration Bill manifests a SELF

stage of concem for this iimovation based on his CFSoC profile

Ronnie

Ronnie Bennett has been technology coordinator at Dellwood for just a few years

but has a long reputation and a deep pioneering attitude not only toward computers but to

a wide array of technology Ronnie was the first at his school to use a computer first with

a VCR first with a CD player and first to tinker with quadrophonic sound Like Bill

Ronnie first leamed computing by doing it In addition Ronnie observed and later

worked with the various private vendors and technicians who provided technology

services to his building

Ronnies CFSoC profile (Figure 4-3) indicates several areas of concem High

Awareness and Personal scores indicate many concems other than the present technology

implementation Ronnie also considers his personal position and role in the school

organization to be important The similar scores in Management and Refocusing reflect

his concem for time and managerial issues and his definite additional ideas toward the

71

0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

99 76 97 91 39 40 92

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-3 CFSoC Profile of Ronnie Bennett Dellwood Technology Coordinator

72

innovation that might warrant consideration Ronnie appears to border between the SELF

and TASK stages of concem

Larry

Larry Beckman a former agriculture teacher has been the superintendent at

North Prairie for a few years Larry realizes his mral attitudes and folksy manner but

demonstrates by his proactive approach to leadership that advancing technology in his

district is in the best interests of his students and staff He has had little formal training

intechnology except for several workshops However Larry credits a hands-on

technology approach as most effective for himself

Larry had relatively high percentile scores for each ofthe seven stages of concem

with a low of 68 in Consequence Larrys highest CFSoC profile (Figure 4-4) score was

Management suggesting that the physical nuts and bolts and managerial concems

were most important Information scoring higher than Awareness indicates a better

understanding ofthe details ofthe innovation Larrys lowest scores in Personal

Consequence and Collaboration were only five percentile points apart suggesting

relatively lower concem for interpersonal interests He also scored high in Refocusing

suggesting that he is considering additional ideas about the iimovation that should be

considered Because ofthe high degree of management concems Larry would be best

described as being in the TASK stage of concem

73

0

100

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

87 89 73 94 68 72 92

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-4 CFSoC Profile of Larry Beckman North Prairie Superintendent

74

Mike

Mike McCoy has spent almost a decade at Sawtooth as superintendent Like

several others Mike is perceived as a doer having leamed a great deal about

technology through practical application Mike has a more direct responsibility with his

staff doing teacher evaluations and performing first-line maintenance with his buildings

technology He credits both a number of technology workshops and reading of

technology periodicals as being great sources of information

Mike as superintendent has many concems on his mind as his CFSoC profile

(Figure 4-5) indicates with a high score in Awareness His second highest score

Management suggests that he feels the cmnch of managerial and material concems for

his district Low Information and Personal scores could suggest that he feels secure in his

position and understanding ofthe innovation implementation A slight increase in

Refocusing fi-om Collaboration suggests that Mike is considering some ideas in addition

to the innovation implementation Because more personal concems are lower and the

managerial concems are high Mike appears to be in the TASK stage of concem

Vemon

Vemon Russell has well over three decades of public school service currently

finding himself as principal ofthe Sawtooth school Indeed he still teaches some science

classes and has even coached football while still an administrator Vemon is relatively

new to technology but indicates his willingness to leam by studiously reading the

manuals and attending workshops Vemon quips Ive leamed more from it in the last

three years than all the other years put together

75

0 100

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

96 43 34 82 9

18 31

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-5 CFSoC Profile of Mike McCoy Sawtooth Superintendent

76

Vemons CFSoC profile (Figure 4-6) shows him interested and positive about the

innovation with the higher Information score but the high Management score shows

Vemon still concemed over his day-to-day details Low Personal and even lower

Consequence and Collaboration scores and both raw and percentile scores of zero for

Refocusing indicate little concem over his facilitative role his personal status nor his

interest in exploring altematives toward this innovation At this late stage of career

Vemon appears comfortable in his knowledge ofthe innovation Vemon also appears to

be in the TASK stage of concem based on the high Management score

Renee

Renee White a mid-career educator occupies the technology coordinator

designation at Sawtooth schools Having been a secretary for twenty years Renee

considers herself adept at any technology thrown at her Describing herself as the chief

distributor of information Renee considers herself glad not to have a computer in her

home because she would play with it indefinitely

Renee exhibits similarly high percentile scores in Awareness and Management on

her CFSoC profile (Figure 4-7) These scores imply Renee has both a variety of concems

in addition to the innovation implementation and also concems over time logistics and

management of her responsibilities Similarly low percentile scores in Information

Personal Consequence and Collaboration suggest lesser concem for personal position

and collaboration needs A slight upswing in the Refocusing score suggests a concem for

articulating altemative ideas Renee seems to exhibit a TASK stage of concem

77

0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

69 81 30 78 16 4 0

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-6 CFSoC Profile of Vemon Russell Sawtooth Principal

78

0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

91 18 30 86 2 3

18

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-7 CFSoC Profile of Renee White Sawtooth Technology Coordinator

79

David

David Jackson has been an administrator for decades and is the superintendent at

Woodlake David recognized the potential of computers and technology as soon as

computers became widely available to schools He enjoys being involved with the nuts

and bolts details of technology implementation even to the point of being involved with

the wiring for hardware implementation

David shows the same percentile score for both Awareness and Information on his

CFSoC profile (Figure 4-8) This impHes Davids concem for a variety of issues at

present and a desire to leam more about the innovation A relatively high Management

score suggests physical and managerial concems Lower scores in Personal and

Consequence imply that personal position and impact are not as important to David

Nevertheless Davids higher scores in Collaboration and Refocusing suggest a desire to

work together with others to make an impact on their leamers and to consider

altematives to innovation implementation David appears to be in the IMPACT stage of

concem very much concemed with how well he facilitates change with his staff

Stephen

Stephen Greer has been secondary principal at Woodlake for several years He has

always been interested in technology but attributes his current increased level of interest

to his rising to his present administrative post Stephen describes himself as a leamer

enjoying researching a problem and its solution A former math teacher and coach

Stephen considers himself an innovator

80

100

0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness I- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

87 87 30 74 13 60 68

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-8 CFSoC Profile of David Jackson Woodlake Superintendent

81

0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1 - Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

81 61 73 93 62 60 13

2 3 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-9 CFSoC Profile of Stephen Greer Woodlake Principal

82

Stephens highest percentile score on his CFSoC profile (Figure 4-9) was in

Management implying greatest concem with logistical and managerial concems A

somewhat lower score in Awareness suggests concems over other issues at present

Similar percentile scores in Personal Consequence and Collaboration could be

interpreted as concem for his impact for his facilitative and collaborative styles A very

low Refocusing score implies that Stephen is not considering altematives to the

innovation at this time Stephens profile best reflects the TASK stage of concem

Summary of CFSoC Data

To summarize these school change facilitators demonstrate a variety of change

facilitator strengths and had at least one individual in each ofthe CBAM stages (SELF

TASK IMPACT) Most of them score relatively high in Awareness suggesting that there

are other competing issues for that individuals time Management also scores

consistently high suggesting the day-to-day managerial and logistical details of the job is

of major importance to each informant Individuals appeared to be on a higher CBAM

stage as they held a higher position in the school district although there were some

differences which could be due to experience with the innovation

Informant Concems

Informant concems were also collected as described in Chapter III Each

informants interview was tape recorded and transcribed Copies ofthe transcriptions

were sent to each informant for confirmation prior to data analysis

83

Seven overriding themes emerged across these interviews These were topics that

appeared to be important to these informants as they implemented new technologies in

their school districts in relation to the TEKS for technology applications The informants

registered strong opinions over these themes To reiterate these themes are discussed in

regard to the Consortium as a whole since the focus ofthe study was not on inter-role

relationships

Attitudes

The informants collectively expressed concems over the attitudes of themselves

their peers and their staffs There was high concem over the prevailing desire to keep

current with the technology David Jackson Woodlake Superintendent was a pioneer in

his district with implementing computer use and describes those early days

When we got our first network and put computers in the classroom that is the first keyboard many of our teachers had ever touched in their life as far as a computer keyboard Had no idea how to tum it on Had no idea how to apply software Knew nothing Scared them to death Still have a few that are very reluctant to use a computer or Intemet or any type of technology of that sort in the classroom

David feels that his some of his staff still manifest a degree of reluctance to use

technology

So the biggest challenge that Ive had is getting teachers to acquaint themselves with computer technology and cable technology all the technologies that have been made available to them You know its not going to do any good if they dont know how to use it

84

Larry Beckman North Prairie Superintendent recognizes the need to keep his

district current with new technology

And I think a part of that is that a lot of us out here we know well I dont know whether we know or whatever but anyway we feel like maybe that weve got to try and stay on top of it as much as we can because we are so far away from anything And if we dont we dont stay on top of it were basically hurting our kids because you know if they graduate fi-om here and go over to Tech or to AampM or somewhere like that then they run into these situations you know theyve never seen any kind of this kind of equipment then theyre already two years behind everybody

Stephen Greer Woodlake Principal believes he is indeed on the fi-ont edge of

the curve at this point in time but credits his rising to an administrative post as a turning

point in his attitudes toward technology

Really up until the time I became an administrator we were the kind of on the back end ofthe curve there for a while but I feel were comfortable where we are right now technology wise

So much ofthe difficulty in implementing technology has centered on the fear of

change These informants encounter these fears daily both within themselves and their

staffs There appears to be a generational gap in acceptance of technology James Petty

Camden Principal considered his teachers and noted

I definitely see a difference in the age groups Those that are five years away from retiring are more difficult to get into use ofthe computer maybe a lot of times And probably the younger ones its just much easier for them to accept and to use a computer right off

85

Similarly Vemon Russell Sawtooth Principal chalks it up to age and experience

level

We have one or two teachers who use it but use it sparingly you know what Im saying But we have other teachers I think that use it a lot Probably our primary grades its used less in K through 1 than anywheres But then they are traditional teachers Theyve been teaching a long time

Concurring David Jackson correctly noted

Because many of our teachers are intimidated by the fact that the students in their classroom know a whole lot more about the technology available in the classroom than they do Which is not uncommon I think in many schools

Bill Potter Camden Technology Coordinator marvels at the older teachers lack

of desire to advance in technology

Its like the older teachers you know they put that thing over in the comer and dust it off just like that F-16 out in front ofthe park you know Nobody knows how to fly it but boy we maintain it and it stays shiny Thats they way a lot of these older teachers treat their computers Theyre afraid to tum them on see so weve got to overcome that fear

Bill suggests that some ofthe more sophisticated technologies now in homes

might influence younger educators greater acceptance of technology

Of course as these people retire and theyre going to get here pretty quick I imagine in our school system and the younger ones take to more technology and the younger they get the better theyre going to be because theyve all grown up with VCRs and your microwaves

86

Renee White Sawtooth Technology Coordinator would add that teachers

purchasing of personal computers improves their attitudes toward technology

A lot ofthe teachers own personal computers and so increasingly at our school theres a higher comfort level with using them and with experimenting and trying to figure things out than there was just two years ago I dont know if its a change in personnel or it its simply the exposure has increased the comfort level Maybe some of both

Larry Beckman as a district leader strongly realizes that m the face of change

positive efforts to make change happen is preferable to ignoring the need for change

It forces you you know its kind of like you can either get on the boat and help paddle or you can get off and swim Id rather be in the boat paddling and trying to stay up with it because I dont swim very fast

Ronnie Bennett Dellwood Technology Coordinator strongly rejects the notion

that change is bad After decades in the classroom and office Ronnie is aware how

attitudes shape teaching activity

A long time ago I leamed that change is not always bad And I guess back there when I first decided you know I told myself there were a lot of people that said Computers are not for me I remember that and I told myself I thought I could either leam how to do this or Im going to fall by the wayside And having always been interested in technology and all change has never been a problem for me And it is for a lot of folks People that have taught school a certam way for twenty or twenty-five years and suddenly you interject this new thing called technology or computers and some people just say Now wait a minute I didnt think what I was doing was all that bad

87

Ronnie suggests that some teachers might be blinded to their own attitudes about

their teaching practices

As a regular classroom teacher I know that the way I present things and the way the kids I dont present things anything like I did when I first started teaching at all And thats because kids change times change You cant stay the same Things dont stay the same You have to be willing to you know if theres a better way to do something you know what we have is we have a lot of people that have been in this profession for twenty twenty-five some of them nearly thirty years and they taught the same lesson wrong for thirty years Just because youve done it over and over and over doesnt mean that its right

Power

In addition to changes in attitudes changes in school curricula educational

methods extemal mandates etc also bring about changes in power Who has the

authority Who decides what to do Who calls the shots These issues were on the minds

ofthe informants

Crawford Bodine and Hoglund (1993) distinguish attributes of recognized power

by de iure school leaders from perceived powerment of classroom personnel Power for

the sitting administrator is the fi-eedom fi-om being told by others what to do (p 143)

The classroom person being empowered to leadership is instead acknowledged their

power and receives fi-eedom to exercise that responsibility with a minimum of

bureaucratic or managerial constraints (p 232)

88

Technology appears to be a key means of providing teachers the empowerment to

collaborate Ronnie Bennetts early vision of computers manifested prescience

I remember thinking you know This is a way for teachers to share things I remember thinking that you know that teachers had access to a machine that would allow them to communicate back and forth with teachers at other schools then would share all this information Of course now with e-mail and the Intemet thats what they want everybody to do

Not only does technology empower the teacher but also the leamer Stephen a

secondary principal would hope that his teachers realize the need to surrender some of

their perceived power with a view toward improving instmction

I have tried to push for change away fi-om lecturelisten and readtake notes multiple choice assessment And I have pushed for learner-centered self directed leaming What I couldnt achieve through preaching and bullying technology has almost single-handedly achieved for me in that area

Renee noted that often her students were akeady prepped to use the technology

She had no quahns over accepting a more facilitative role with her students

Now the fact was you know the computers were there and the kids were going to leam about them whether I helped them or not because thats the nature of children They like that technology theyll figure it out with you or without you

Not only direct instmction but also day-to-day teacher practices are being

changed due to technology Stephen related anecdotes about the changes technology

made in unbalancing teachers perceived status and power

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Ive witnessed the evolution of one of our teachers in particular that happens to be a coach that when he and I both appeared on this campus ten years ago he was strictly a traditional instmctor But Ill tell you right now its hard for him or has been hard for him but hes making the move successfully to give up the stmcture to give up the power and tum the power of leaming over to the students rather than the power being wielded by the teacher Thats been a hard stretch and technology it helps it gives you a venue to shift that power but at the same time there are sticky issues Obviously fi-ee speech issues obscenity issues those kind of things that are introduced with the advent of technology

Just getting traditional teachers to use a simple software package has tumed into

virtual showdowns in the administrative office Stephen gives an example from a

colleagues experience that echoes his own understanding

I think of an administrator fiiend of mine in a school in the Panhandle and theyre trying to move the rank-and-file in that direction And they are to the point where grades are submitted on disk at the end ofthe semester And they just have one math teacher as it tums out thats refiised you know just-was-not-going-to-do-it you know and finally his principal after two directives the third time he went down there and said Look you will tum your gradebook in on disk in May or you will not be working here in August That simple Step out But there are a lot of people that are nervous and I think its fear mostly I think its fear

The imposition of new ideas and new procedures can have an intimidating effect

on traditional teachers and administrators a relinquishing of power James admittedly a

traditional administrator relates that some of his teachers might be following his lead in

leaming new things

Its like making them do something that you know theyre required to do and theyre only doing it because they have to Maybe

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Im like them or theyre like me in that some of us older dogs its a bit more difficuh to teach us something new or change

If leaming technology is merely a requirement for continuing teacher development

and not something that is perceived as needed then teachers will exhibit reluctance in

adoption of new technologies

As new technologies are implemented in schools there is the need for immediate

assistance in using the technology Those persons designated as technology coordinator

of a building or a district have had a modicum of perceived power bestowed on them

although each of these coordinators who have acted as informants still spends a

significant portion of their day in the classroom

Ronnie Bennett relates that his experiences with a number of superintendents

have tacitly acknowledged his expertise

Ive always been the kind of person that if something is broke that somehow ends up in my hands

Often they would say to Ronnie You tell me what you want or what to do

Ronnie appreciated one superintendent that was particularly supportive

(Conceming administrative support) but Buster (the superintendent) was like you know he wanted in there boy But he just about anything I ever wanted or needed you know he was just he was ready And he knew what I was talking about above all whereas a lot ofthe others had no idea what I was talking about

Bill found himself stumbling into his role as technology coordinator

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But as far as being specifically trained for this Im not I just picked it up as I went and I was the guy that knew how to tum the computer on so I got the job you know as the Computer Gum You know the people the powers that be many of them ofthe teachers looked at me as having expertise really that I didnt have I just had one at home and knew how to tum it on they didnt They just thought I was genius you know so thats how I inherited this job

Later Bill found himself besieged by folks wanting his specialized knowledge

As kids leam more and more of this (computers) then we have people I have people you know that call and want to What kind of computer do I need to buy Of course you know thats like trying to recommend the type of automobile (they need to buy) and you dont want to get into that

Renee would chalk up her perceived expertise to her job title She has been skilled

with computers for years but has not always had people wanting her knowledge about

computers while she officially taught another subject at another school

So anyway I knew a lot about computers before other people but (because I taught home economics) no one ever asked me anything about computers at that school The whole year I was there no one had a question about computers All of a sudden because I teach computers I am the computer gum the shift in the role simply came with the title So I think what Im trying to say is is it the title itself dictating your role Not so much at first your knowledge so thats helpful and certainly its going to keep people coming back if youve been able to help them but simply your title itself says Oh you must have explanations that will help us here

Nevertheless final authority remains in the hands of de iure administrators One

ofthe technology coordinators explains

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And another thing too is that the administrator has the authority and theres a lot of things that I can see like I see we need to be doing training and that sort of thing but I dont have the authority in order to make that happen But until you get these administrators that are you know technologically oriented you know its hard to make things like that happen

This same technology coordinator feels fhistrated with trying to get teachers to use

technology and insists that those in leadership need to take charge and lead

Weve got these people at that level like the administrative level who have to provide the leadership that have the authority to make things happen and its like convincing someone you know youve got to convince them ofthe fact that it needs to be done Theyre too comfortable with you know getting the basketball games arranged and all this sort of thing and making sure a teachers in a certain classroom but boy when it comes to technology unless that person has used a computer its foreign to them

Student Leaming

The educational leadership literature points us to student learning as the ultimate

goal in any educational enterprise These informants unanimously echoed that concem

Unless the school staff perceive that the technology hardware is adequate to provide

quality educational experiences for the students the hardware is of little value Larry a

superintendent wonders why anyone would think otherwise

(Conceming his site-based committee) And then let them kind of I guess decipher what it is that they can use what it is that we need for our students how its going to benefit the kids whenever we get this stuff Whats going to be the benefit for the kids Are we going to teach them how to use it or are we just going to put it in the comer

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Because he perceives that both students and staff are using the machinery effectively

Larry is more encouraged to plan for an increase in hardware for his district

Renee has been enmeshed in the technology for so long and has seen so much

progress with her students that they find technology use as normal

The kids who are in the tenth grade this year started school with computers They started kindergarten in Sawtooth with computers theyre the first class And when they hit my eighth grade class in computer literacy two years ago all I had to do was say Heres the program I want you to go to the menus at the top ofthe screen and see whats under each menu and get an idea of where things are Now I want you to create a PowerPoint presentation with these elements and I promise you other than probably a four or five minute demonstration on the program how it operated I did not have to tell those kids a thing It was OK where you expect them

Because of implementation of technology teachers are not only expected to use it

and thereby improve their teaching but also to increase student leaming Stephen a

secondary principal noticed the difference almost immediately

When we became connected and we put our computer labs online and when we got computers that are interfaced with televisions that are hooked into the Intemet and also to cable in the classroom Then automatically the teachers saw the convenience and the usefulness of using technology in what they do It sort of served as a catalyst to move fi-om traditional lecture instmction to student self-directed leaming To me thats the biggest change

Stephen considers technology as the catalyst in many areas of education He

integrates his technology concems with more global interests

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Technology is proving to be a wonderful thing and a wonderfijl instmctional aid and in a large sense in my mind its the thing thats driving the conversations we have in the political realms regarding charter schools home schools private school vouchers because we dont have the monopoly on education any more and I think thats a good thing I think students and their parents are going to look for the most bang for their buck and theyre going to look for education thats provided to them opportunities and experiences thats provided to them in a non-encumbering way To me the biggest question is in relation to technology is how to predict where were going

If indeed the quality of teaching is critical toward student leaming technology is

not always believed to be a positive factor in such progress David a superintendent is

not happy with some ofthe pervasiveness of technology in the classroom

I may be totally wrong but probably thats going to be the biggest area of change is the way we deliver instmction to students other than one-on-one in the classroom I see the day that the kids here at Woodlake schools will be watching the TV monitor

As a traditional administrator in a traditional school James has reservations on

how well teaching quality is exhibited when mixed with various technologies and

instmctional arrangements Traditional school procedures such as homework could be

modified or even made obsolete through technology James even suggests that his

teachers may never have the time nor the physical space in their rooms to handle all the

information fi-om the new technologies He senses a foreboding dread of technology

having the potential to replace the teacher

I see tremendous change and I think its going to continue and grow by leaps and bounds whether its laser discs or computers And I dont know where all its going but I see it coming And I dont think

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the teachers ever going to be replaced I hope they dont try because itll our quality of teaching is going to diminish I think if they do but I do see more and more technology involved in the classroom by these various kinds of things that weve been talking about

Informants have had varying amounts of time to measure the effectiveness of their

technology implementation Some of these districts have had over a decade to consider

increases in student leaming through computer technology David elaborated about what

his students at Woodlake have accomplished due to their years of experience with

technology

I feel like our students will be very prepared when they leave here to go on to college in the area of technology Woodlake has been fortunate to have (had) technology a lot longer than many other schools and weve had kiddos that have been able to use technology that they leamed here to work their way through college based on what theyve leamed and the exposure they got right here on technology

Mike McCoy Sawtooth Superintendent also has had highly advanced hardware

in his building for years and remarks how Sawtooth students at every level are integrating

technology into the curriculum

The students are just so extremely comfortable with technology I mean its just second nature with them almost You know we have computers in kindergarten you know all the way through twelfth grade and theyre in every classroom Our kindergarteners have no trouble with just going in sitting at the computer and you know being able to by themselves you know pull up a game or whatever it could be Every one of our elementary kids know that the information is available to them and they know how to get it off the Intemet They know where to go

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Renee cautions that the changes that have been made and the progress achieved are

not just ends in themselves Despite piles of advanced technology in the classroom

Renee interjects

I still have to teach students to write I still have to teach students grammar I still have to teach students how to understand what they read I still have to get them to read I have to get them to write And I think this is tme generally technology is only a tool Its not the end result Were trying to teach students reading writing and arithmetic The 3 Rs The tools have changed the concepts have not Youre still trying to teach kids to think so they can move out into the world and be citizens ofthe greater society

Some administrators admittedly traditional in orientation have concems that

technology will dismpt the orderly progress that they have endeavored to produce in their

buildings They assume that discipline will lead to better student leaming James wonders

what effects distance leaming and Intemet use will have on both instmction and student

research when discussing the new interactive video delivered foreign languages classes

his school might offer

And to go the advanced (diploma) route its almost a necessary part of our curriculum As far as liking it I dont I think they do a poor job of teaching the course I think its just not a good way for students to leam

As for the interactive class James does not think it represents the best teaching method

He would prefer to have a live teacher in the classroom one that will be more proactive

in maintaining discipline and standard teaching activities

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Vemon also expressed concem over intemal discipline in the use ofthe e-mail

function ofthe system

My concem is consistency on the discipline ofthe e-mail of students in our school We try not to let them use it personally and I dont think its consistently enforced throughout our school and its very hard to supervise e-mail The e-mails a problem here that I have some teachers that watch it close and some teachers that dont

Indeed while discussing student leaming all of these informants expressed

specific concems over distance leaming and about its effects on their jobs and their

leamers As a result an additional concems theme distance emerged fi-om the data

Distance

Because the Consortium is implementing an advanced distance leaming center in

each of its member schools each informant volunteered concems over its

implementation use and outcomes The very concept of distance however is not

simply limited to distance leaming but also to the significant distances Consortium

educators have between their schools and sources of school improvement

These informants perceive improvement for their school districts by being able to

bring a greater variety of activities and services to their districts Larry a superintendent

jumps at the chance to use distance leaming in his district He sees benefits in distance

leaming to both professional and student progress as well as it being a cost-cutting

measure

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I think its going to be extremely beneficial especially to schools out here like we are that you know were an hour and a half away fi-om the Service Center or fi-om Center City or Tech or anywhere like that and itll be extremely beneficial to our students You know we can pick up some college classes We can get them some dual-credit classes Ive got some people here that want to take some classes and want to work on some graduate work and so forth that maybe we can pick up School board training and in-service training through the Service Center will save us lots of dollars and lots of time because if we dont have to travel all the way to Center City to get our in-service and even if its a half-a-day deal you spend a whole day by the time you drive over there and drive back

Mike agrees with Larrys concem over hteral distance fi-om school to service

center When staff have to do as much travel as do these school leaders distance becomes

a significant factor in what they can accomplish

Were so isolated Were a hundred miles from Center City which is where our Service Center is Instead of travel time you know because any teacher who leaves here loses a full day even if its an hour workshop

Renee echoes Mikes concems She experiences the presure ofthe distance cmnch

as she budgets her time and resources

We live a hundred miles fi-om any kind of technical support and we pay $10000 an hour for somebody to come out and fix it so you think twice before you even ask to have (a computer) looked at Can I work around this

Nevertheless there is a sense of concem registered by each informant over distance

leaming implementation As discussed in the previous section there is a fear of

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technology supplanting the teachers role David sees distance leaming in his professional

future but also makes this prediction

My first instinct is to say that probably distance education is going to have effect particularly on mral America Im not real sure Im ready to buy that yet It may but Im not totally yet sold on distance leaming as a tool for replacing the teacher in the classroom There may come a day that that might be the only way that we can deliver some instmction to our students If and when that day comes I think thats going to be a shame and I think thats going to be a step back in education

Previous efforts with distance leaming were fi-ustrating at some informants

schools David registers his experiences

And (distance learning) wasnt that well received either fi-om the students or the parents And I know that distance leaming will be better than that because youll have two-way interactive audio and video at all times But I still have reservations and Ill have to see it work well to change my mind on it I probably cant stop it fi-om coming

Ronnie having been a distance leaming facilitator also remembers problems with

this teaching format for students and facilitator alike

But it was all these schools even as far away as Kansas that were viewing this at the same time And its hard to get through on the telephone line because you had all these people trying to get through to ask a question

When asked about the net effects of all this Ronnie explained

We had a lot of I guess youd say disillusioned parents and kids because they were expecting to get you know they thought What a

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wonderfiil way to be in touch with computers and what have you And you know if we did work we had to bundle that work up send it to San Antonio Well by the time the guy got it graded and got it back you know it might be a week or two And at the same time we were under no pass no play mles And you had athletes that you know at three-weeks reporting period didnt know if they were passing or not And then some of them would wind up failing at the end and they didnt even really know why they were failing And so you know we had a bunch of kids that were like ineligible

Fmstrations registered by the aduh facilitators were received clearly but students

responses to the distance experience were even worse Ronnie elaborated in detail about

the legwork done on-site to facilitate distance leaming As is axiomatic in instmctional

design inadequate feedback does not promote leaming

The kids never really knew for sure if what they were doing was what he wanted or what was acceptable or till he had a chance to mark it and write notes on it and what have you And a lot of times by the time they did get feedback on it well it was too late

Renee also experienced first-hand the details of distance leaming Conceming the

possibilities of interactive video Renee questions

I guess the biggest concem has been teachers who are afi-aid that they will get dumped on How many students are you going to expect me to teach for this class that I have the same prep time that I had when I had seven kids And then all of a sudden Im teaching an interactive video classroom where I have kids fi-om Woodlake and from Dellwood and fi-om Beaverdam and fi-om Sawtooth and all of a sudden I have fifty kids instead of fifteen Im given the same amount of prep time or maybe Im given a second hour of prep I still have the logistics of having to be ready for however many my school district decides to contract for And I have to be eminently more prepared that I ever thought about having to be prepared in a normal classroom Because I cant go on the air and expect to freestyle it you

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Renee a technology coordinator as well as a classroom teacher brings distance

leaming down to earth with her practical concems Contrasting with the concems of

teachers over the years distance leaming is bringing in new heretofore unanticipated

concems and challenges Renee relates

You know when we just had textbooks the worst problem you had to deal with was with the student who showed up in class without their books or you ran out of chalk and you sent somebody down to the office to get chalk But when you start using these levels of technology where the bugs are not quite as worked out then you not only run into you run into problems using the technology that really can cmsh your class time and cmsh your prep time

James is adamant in his dislike for distance leaming Earlier he indicated that

distance leaming might not be a good way to leam James augments this with more

mundane administrative concems Since James perceives the teacher role in a traditional

manner he has concem over classroom discipline in a distance leaming format

Well I dont think youre going to have any kind of classroom without discipline in the class And the only person that can do that is the one that is supposedly in charge the one thats taking care of grades etc So that teacher has almost got to see her classroom

Training

Unless teachers administrators and other school staff are appropriately trained to

use the new technology hardware and software will be of little use Continuous staff

training goes on in this Consortium but Vemon expressed dismay over some ofthe

preparations for early technology implementation

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I dont think we did enough preplanning before we got involved with the computers We just sort of put them in and it became a hit-and-miss thing you understand If I had to do it over again I would want lots and lots of preplanning to see how we could do it better how to install how to implement and so forth how we wanted to use it for our curriculum

Other informants quipped that the limits of whatever training they had for some

technology applications simply consisted of Heres the computer Heres the box Theres

the desk Put it there Larry has jumped right in to get his staff trained through a variety

of sources He is looking forward to all the training perks his district will receive from

this present technology implementation and the workshops he has set up

Theres so much information and so many different benefits that can come over that that its just mind-boggling that everything that we can possibly pick up out here And so were going to get plenty of training before we ever jump in there and you know put a room full of equipment in there and then it sits there and gathers dust If we cant use it theres no need for it being out here

Larry affirms the benefits of leaming by doing

I guess I would say that probably about ninety percent of my training has basically come through the Service Center and the other ten percent is just hands-on getting one there and doing it You know I guess Ive leamed Ive leamed a lot by you know just by using it because if you dont well going to all the classes is not going to help you a bit anyway

Stephen realized a concem for the format of much of staff training He found the

typical training arrangements useless and intimidating for his staff Smaller traming

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groups where more personal assistance can be given seems to be preferable to the mass

training activities so common to staff development

We dont herd thirty people in a room and have one person standing at a computer in front ofthe room and telling them how it can happen I mean we put five or six in the room and have somebody with knowledge about it there and then everybody has their hands on that tool They get to make their own mistakes so they get to correct their own mistakes and real leaming happens then

Now that Bill has a key role in training Camden staff in technology he realizes

that the increasing quantity of hardware possessed by the district carries with it the need

for increasing quality of staff straining

We had a bunch of stuff in quotes stuff but nobody knew anything about it you know And we got this stuff in We got it hooked up And then nobody knew how to maintain it There wasnt any training I mean you know yeah you look out here at Camden Oh boy Weve got computers But nobody knew how to tum them on and of course that wasnt where the emphasis was Wed met a requirement by having so many computers and that sort of thing and maybe doing a paper drill saying that people could do things but in reality that just wasnt there

Bill finds the attitudes of some of his colleagues fiiistrating If the computers are

seen as nothing more than expensive video games the implementation of technology

seems useless The teachers have yet to realize just what these computers can do for their

instmction

Its going to be easier there but we still have to train these people as to How do you use this thing See and most ofthe teachers dont have the time and the creativeness I guess or we dont give them the time you know to sit down and say Look at this thing You know

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they dont go home like I used to and sit down and play with it because I enjoyed it see Id go home and play with it and say A-ha Man I can use this in my classroom

But as Bill has discovered some ofthe technology training ultimately takes hold

and teachers eventually intemahze new skills

But anything to get them to use those things You know if they just stumble on it like one of our Enghsh teachers has found all this stuff on Shakespeare and Macbeth you know and all this sort of thing Shes just going through the ceiling But thats just a little bitty part of things out there that you can find and these people dont know how to look for this stuff So weve got a lot of training (to do)

Ronnie concurs noting how his colleagues at Dellwood have been trained and

then apply the new technology

Well once they realized that this thing that got placed in their room was a tool that could be used for their benefit and could actually help them and their students you know they were ready to jump in there and start trying stuff

Unfortunately some Dellwood staff do indeed balk at modifications to their

training Citing the example of changing the district-adopted electronic gradebooks

Ronnie concluded

And some of them say Oh I just now leamed how to use the other one and here you are wanting to (change it) You know that type of change People get used to doing something and they dont want you to change them around but I think its human nature in anything

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Infi-astmcture

With ever-advancing technological strides the infrastmcture needed to

successfully implement new curricular mandates has to also increase Our informants

pride themselves in their personal involvement in ensuring a topflight technology

infi-astmcture for their school districts

David describes himself as a pioneer in implementing new concepts in his district

When the challenge first came for implementing a computer network David relates

The maintenance guy and I sat down and said You know we can do this So we designed it ourselves and ran the wire and made the connections and totally put in the network system ourselves We did not hire it done which has helped from the standpoint of troubleshooting We put it in we know how it works and we can fix it

Mike also has rolled up his sleeves to keep hardware in Sawtooth working

efficiently If the technology coordinator is busy Mike has no qualms about getting

things fixed

We just had a problem this morning I was dealing with I went dovra there I can do the hardware things a whole lot easier than software but you know there were just two wires out of place I just kind of happened to notice it plug them back in the right places and we were back in business

Indeed Mike has stayed current with technology and maintenance

I have to stay a little more up here because if anything happens Im the guy they holler at so first I mean to fix it not just holler at Ive leamed a lot the last few years Just been forced to I guess

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Bill laments the lack of foresight on the part of some administrators in keeping the

hardware maintained

That one-shot deal We got the computers That cost is out ofthe way We can forget about technology now weve got our X number of computers And then all of a sudden like you say weve got to have a hard drive here you know and a floppy drive went out there and a monitor goes out here well good-ness man whats the problem

Bill wonders if his leadership personnel were misled by various sales

representatives whose goals for sales were not always congment with school needs

Before I got into this our superintendent relied on a salesman and we bought a bunch of stuff we didnt need and it didnt fit in the overall plan It was like buying a Dodge engine and wed buy a Chevrolet body and all of a sudden these things werent compatible So we wasted a lot of money and Im sure school districts all over the state of Texas did This is a small community here Id like every shekel to count Theres not too many people around here that really realize that I dont guess

Stephen is concemed with making reasonable forecasts for what future

technologies he will need for his building He demonstrates that he has thought through

practical technology management issues

To me the biggest question is in relation to technology is how to predict where were going I mean just a little bit because were dropping tons of money on the hardware on the software on the training But even little issues I mean twenty years ago Woodlake was out in fi-ont on technology because they bought a bunch of Apple He computers And then they used them for eighteen years which put them way behind the leaming curve you know and then what computer do you buy Do you buy it with upgradable service contracts What kind of software are you looking for How is distance leaming going to

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impact all this How does it impact your scheduling on a day-to-day basis How does it impact your school calendar How does it impact the people you hire

Stephen is looking squarely at the future needs of his staff and students

If we knew where it was headed we could be much more effective in our long-range planning But as it is in my mind its hard to plan beyond two years because theres no way of knowing where were going to be Weve had numerous conversations in my faculty meetings about individual laptops for students as opposed to the big stand-alone units in a big lab Theres discussions about the use of software versus hard-copy textbooks And I think were moving that way I just dont know how quickly And I dont know to what degree and thats the most perplexing thing as far as Im concemed

Money

As this present study is conducted significant changes are occurring in the

petroleum industry Since there has been a drop in petroleum prices some Chapter 41

(see Chapter Two) school districts have realized a significant drop in ad valorem

revenues Remembering that much ofthe financing for the Consortium comes fi-om two

Chapter 41 districts there exists some cause for concem Because these informants

represent both Chapter 41 and Chapter 42 districts none of these informants will be

identified by name in this section

One Chapter 41 superintendent related to us the situation regarding a loss of

funding for that superintendents district

Probably the biggest reason this last year we were able to put several million dollars of recapture money into the technology consortium Unfortunately being that most ofthe Chapter 41 districts

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in our area are highly dependent on oil and mineral value and we lost 25 percent of our value last year Probably well lose at least that and maybe even more

Another Chapter 41 superintendent has noticed a drop of revenue but slants the

situation differently

It doesnt affect us that much believe it or not I mean it affects us some definitely but you know the higher the price of oil the more money we have to give away The lower the price the less we have to give away Because you only get to keep a certain value per student

All ofthe Chapter 41 informants indicated that they were glad to participate with

less property-wealthy districts in maintaining fimding for the Consortium

In dealing with school funding there is also the attendant concem with dealing

with government entities A Chapter 41 superintendent explains the situation as the

potential purchasing of more hardware is considered

(Conceming hardware purchasing) If this legislative session the Legislature does away with the hold harmless for Chapter 41 schools (See Chapter 2) well be in a whole different situation and well be saying Well do that when we can afford it I guarantee you

Because there are restrictions on where Chapter 41 districts can expend their

fiinds a Chapter 41 principal explains some creative strategies for retaining funds

Because the hang-up was that those monies that came out of these wealthy districts So in other words we could send our money to the Region(al Service) Center to be used for those purposes but we couldnt reap the benefit of i t (Dr Sarah McCullough) wrote grants specifically targeted at those of us that were putting money in the pot to help us get distance leaming labs up and running So its just been a

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maze of dancing with the bear which anytime you deal with the government thats the way it is

As this is written a Chapter 41 superintendent hopes that the Texas Legislattire

will allow the legal stmcttires that made the Consortium a reality and function at its peak

to continue to exist

Now we would hope that the Legislature will realize that and possibly rewrite the current law to allow us to divert possibly more than ten percent into the technology consortium or change the way that we do it altogether to where the technology consortium can continue to benefit in the same arena of money that weve benefited for the last year or two

A Chapter 42 school leader looking at the Consortium as a whole sums up the

attitude of each of our informants

Well this consortium has been a good thing for us because I think by coming together you know I think this is people who have ideas and also have monies that they want to use for telecommunications and technology want to see that people in rural areas like ours are making an effort to pool their resources and thoughts and what have you When they see that you got seven schools that are working together to try to share ideas and help work through problems and even go so far as to share teaching personnel things like that I think thats something that people who have monies are kind of wanting they want to see that Because thats the whole idea behind you know trying to get reach some of our goals by the year 2000

Summary of Interview Data

All nine ofthe informants in this study provided candid assessments of their

individual roles in implementing technology in their districts the improvement of student

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leaming and the training of staff to use the technology These latter points are also

suggested in the literature on staff development (Joyce amp Showers 1988) Concems over

infi-astmcture and finance were also supported in several other studies (Bailey 1997

Becker 1998 Kwajewski 1997 Maddux 1997 Texas Association of School

Administrators 1998)

New insights fi-om this study included the heavy apprehension over distance

leaming and the intensity ofthe power shift within the school system The fluctuation in

petroleum prices that occurred during this study did not completely take these leaders by

surprise but are concems with which Chapter 41 superintendents will continue to

contend

I l l

CHAPTER V

SUMMARY CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Summary of Research

As described in Chapter III quantitative data was in the form of Change

Facilitator Stages of Concem Questionnaire (CFSoC) profiles evaluated according to

Hall et al (1991) with hypothesized points on the Stages of Concem continuum for each

participant Conversations with nine informants fi-om the Consortium leadership cadre

formed a series of interviews that were analyzed and evaluated for emerging themes

Seven themes grew fi-om the data analysis and were discussed

CFSoC Profiles

Hall et al (1991) suggest that the Stage of Concem for any given innovation

varies with the change facilitator registering the array of concems Borrowing fi-om Fuller

(1969) Hall et al suggest that concems for the innovation within the individual change

facilitator begin at the level of Awareness progressing to Self concems then Task

concems and finally to Impact concems This researcher was able to hypothesize a

general stage of concem for each ofthe informants based on the methods of profile

interpretation defined by Hall et al (pp 29-42) The initial research question referred to

Stages of Concem placement for each informant

Where do these school leaders fall on the Concems-based Adoption Model (CBAM) continuum regarding TEKS technology implementation

112

The initial goal was to ascertain the position of each of these informants on

CBAM Table 5-1 provides a breakdown of this studys informants their job roles and

their hypothesized Stage of Concem

Table 5-1 Study Informants and CBAM Stages of Concem District Comparison

District

Camden

Tipllwor4H

North Prairie

Sawtooth

Woodlake

Superintendent

TASK

TASK

IMPACT

Principal

SELF

TASK

TASK

Technology Coordinator

SELF

SELFTASK

TASK

The table suggests that those in more well-defined administrative roles tended to

be more task oriented about their concems whereas those whose job descriptions are

inclusive ofthe classroom and who are also designated as change agents tended to be

more oriented to self and personal issues despite their abilities or expertise

As Hall et al (1991) have previously hypothesized the more experienced a

change facilitator is in the change facilitator process the more advanced that change

facilitator will be on the CFSoC profile The stages of concem of these informants in this

sample appear to concur with CFSoC projected norms Indeed if tiie stages of concem

are arranged in descending order (Impact Task Self Awareness) as in Table 5-2 there

113

appears to be a greater advancement along the Stages of Concem continuum based on the

more advanced job role

Table 5-2 Study Informants and CBAM Stages of Concem Concem Stage Comparison

Informant Stage of Concem

Woodlake Superintendent IMPACT

North Prairie Superintendent TASK

Sawtooth Superintendent TASK

Sawtooth Principal TASK

Woodlake Principal TASK

Sawtooth Technology Coordinator TASK

Dellwood Technology Coordinator TASKSELF

Camden Principal SELF

Camden Technology Coordinator SELF

These change facilitators fi-om the Sah Fork Consortium seem to manifest stages

of concem similar to those of other change facilitators studied through the CFSoC Two

ofthe technology coordinators seem to be more TASK oriented than a principal and one

technology coordinator is more SELF oriented The two task-oriented coordinators have

many years of experience in either office machinery electronics or staff training They

both suggested to this researcher greater confidence in their abilities to provide input to

their administrators conceming their schools technology requirements Such

114

competencies suggest that the greater stage of concem is based in part on the

individuals greater level of experience

Interview Themes

The hesitancy of new users to use new technologies is repeated with every

generation of innovation (Cuban 1984 1986 1993) Changes this extensive in

technology naturally bring about changes in how we teach and how we perceive our roles

as educators (Becker 1998 Berg Benz Lasley amp Raisch 1997 Braun 1993 Fullan

1990 Fullan amp Stiegelbauer 1991 Hope 1993) This sttidys informants repeatedly

expressed the desire to ensure that their staffs become as competent as possible in using

new technology to improve student leaming In tum these leaders affirmed that their

teachers would have it incumbent upon themselves to avail themselves of this training

As we appreciate the greater empowerment of educators who in tum empower

leamers we reahze that greater access to technology has played a major role in

developing this spirit of empowerment (Bailey 1997) Tmly continued control of

technology signifies continued power ofthe educational system These informants were

unanimous in marveling over the great things that have occurred in their schools as their

teachers adopted greater technology expertise Review of AEIS data since 1994 before

the establishment ofthe Consortium suggests improvements in TAAS scores and other

AEIS indicators (see Chapter I TEA 1995 1996 1997a 1998)

As a result schools become different places for leamers (Armstrong Davis amp

Young 1996 Mecklenburger 1989) Instead ofthe school as one-way insttiiction with

115

passive leamers the focus is now on schools led by leaming facilitators who guide the

leamer toward constmcting personal leaming (Joyce amp Showers 1988) It appears that

the wise change facilitator will recognize this power shift In the main Consortium

change facihtators certainly appeared eager to share that power

If we are not using the improved technology to improve student leaming then we

might be needing to be examine a different iimovation for improving student leaming

(Berg et al 1997 Bumiske 1998 Hope 1993 Joyce amp Showers 1988 National Staff

Development Council 1995) These informants were adamant about the power of

technology not only to foster greater leaming capabihties for students but also to provide

a heightened awareness for those charged with facilitating that leaming (Barr 1990

Hadley amp Sheingold 1993 Maddux 1997 Maddux amp Johnson 1997 Meltzer amp

Sherman 1997 Ragsdale 1997) As a resuh these school leaders and their school

boards will have more solid foundation to continue upgrading their technology Such a

massive influx of equipment as is happening now will not be needed but rather

technology purchasing with a view toward greater student achievement will not be

considered unique by other similarly situated school districts

The notion that technology could bring about needed opportunities and services to

remote sites by distance leaming has been discussed for some time and is now standard

for evaluating a schools technology program (Becker 1998 Texas Association of School

Administrators 1998) Nevertheless there appears to be a need for a semblance of

balance as the positive elements of distance leaming (services teaching physical distance

needs etc) are weighed against the pitfalls (teaching method changes impersonal

116

relationships) of these new technologies (Berg Benz Lasley amp Raisch 1997 Dillon amp

Walsh 1997) The apprehensions of Consortium change facilitators toward the

impending interactive video system were quite real They saw potential for some yet

unknown distracting factor causing havoc with the leaming process as a result of distance

leaming At least one informant voiced active disagreement with distance as a viable

means of teaching and leaming

If training activities are only instituted to meet extemally mandated directives it

seems pointless to expend so much effort in training faculty in technology (Becker 1991

1998 Dede 1997) The concept that technology remains a more advanced means of

game playing is still latent in many educators School leaders need to tmly be leaders

(Office of Technology Assessment 1995 Ritchie 1996) and should provide appropriate

training activities for their staffs (Bradshaw 1997 Davidson amp Maurer 1995 Joyce amp

Showers 1988) Because these school leaders describe the influx of interactive video

hardware as helpfiil in providing for a variety of training opportunities (school board

training college classes etc) this Consortium demonstrates a strong proactive

commitment to ensuring that the entire school community is kept up-to-date with

technology

As to funding and infi-astmcture acquisition a We can do it spirit is still found

in educators when they plan for and purchase their computer machinery Schools in this

Consortium as well as in other locales continue to demonstt-ate creative ways to provide

technology support with the resultant spirit of ownership possessed by all segments ofthe

educational community (Carroll amp Carroll 1994 McDaniel Mclnemey amp Armstrong

117

1993 Office of Technology Assessment 1995) The fact that a superintendent would be

involved in wiring his school for network capability or would do repairs on classroom

hardware suggests genuine committnent Principals with decades of experience in the

classroom and in the office in this rural area are taking the time to leam new computer

skills

Conclusions and Reflections

Because this present study is primarily qualitative it is appropriate that the

researcher does not (and really should not) know in advance all ofthe insights that might

possibly be gleaned fi-om a pending study Although this is a limited sampling of change

facilitators their CFSoC profiles confirmed that the greater the experience level ofthe

change facilitator interacting with the innovation the more advanced Stage of Concem

The Woodlake administrators with Stages of Concems ratings in IMPACT and TASK

stages for example have had the benefit of both performing hands-on technology

implementation (including wiring) and also developing technology programs fi-om Apple

computers in classrooms to vocational training over a twenty-year period

The specifics ofthe second research question require some discussion over the

importance and application ofthe concems of rural educators toward technology

implementation Three clusters of conclusions emerged fi-om the interview data

Personal concems are important in the professional lives of these informants

There is urgency for the educator to leam to use technology and to develop stt-ategies for

incorporating technology use in insttiiction Nevertheless the educator is never to forget

118

that there are still basic instmctional outcomes to be accomplished Leamers still have to

be proficient in reading writing and mathematics Day-to-day activities (lesson planning

teacher paperwork etc) cannot be neglected These informants did not allow this

researcher to overlook this fact All three technology coordinators who served as

informants emphasized their classroom duties with one in particular reminding me that

the computer is simply a tool in teaching basic educational concepts Each principal

interviewed related their technology concems in the context of administrative duties and

concems

In addition leadership personnel are to function as leaders and lead their staffs

Despite the hardware and capabilities schools are still schools Schools are having to

change their stmcture and technology seems to be key in fostering that change The very

use ofthe computer as a personal tool remains a challenge in these informants schools

Bill Potter Camden Technology Coordinator related that he continues to see his fellow

teachers using the computer as nothing more than a game machine The Sawtooth

informants noted that a few older more seasoned teachers are still not yet using

technology as a tool

As opposed to personal concems corporate concems registered by these

informants dealt with building district or Consortium issues Among these informants

there is a genuine sense of Where we are against Where we were in regard to

technology use Each superintendent interviewed expressed his satisfaction with the

improved productivity among his students as a result of technology Now more than ever

is a need to stay abreast of pedagogical as well as technological trends Stephen Greer

119

Woodlake Principal emphasized the need for him to know about technology and its

implementation in teacher practice These informants also indicated a generational trend

in that some educators eyeing retirement realize a lesser interest in leaming new

technologies Younger more recently trained educators are more conversant with new

technologies These informants indicated that the new teachers they hire come prepared to

use technology in the classroom

The informants also indicated a sense of owoiership toward technology

implementation For example several informants have trained themselves to do more

advanced troubleshooting and maintenance certainly more than is in their job

descriptions The Woodlake and Sawtooth superintendents are both adept with the

hardware These individuals want to know more and not just save their district some

funds All three ofthe technology coordinators have a history of leaming by doing

They enjoy reputations as being competent and the person to tum to when expertise is

needed

Cultural concems transcend the immediate short-term issues and are future-

oriented The change in our previously mral agrarian society to a worid filled with data

has had a heady effect on these informants North Prairie superintendent Larry Beckman

for example continues to marvel at all the activities the North Prairie educational

community can now avail themselves of because of technology Technology has assisted

in shifting genuine leaming power fi-om the educator to the student The resultant greater

ownership by students of their leaming is opening up greater avenues for insttaiction

120

There is constant uncertainty ofthe legal political and economic factors in

financing and establishing new technologies at schools The net result hinders these

informants fi-om reliably predicting what technologies might be needed in the future

Indeed it is impossible to predict what new gadgets will be invented or how fast a

computer will process ten years from now Neither ofthe Chapter 41 superintendents

believed their distticts finances were in jeopardy due to the changing pett-oleum prices

but each expressed the concem that the Legislature could modify the mles on finances

possibly making their underwriting of Consortium costs more difficult

Recommendations for Further Study

As this present research was being considered there was considerable concem for

the fact that very little research data existed for the CFSoC instmment This Consortium

had an insufficient number of participants to do a quantitative study of this instrument

with adequate factor analysis Indeed Hall et al (1991) cite themselves as those who

conducted reliability and validity studies of their own instrument A more thorough

validity study with adequate N should be conducted

The original thmst for this research was focused on staff development and teacher

training Because that initial idea was so broad it was abandoned early in this study

However since each informant referred to the teacher traming programs ofthe

Consortium it would be appropriate at a later date to review how teacher tt-aining is

planned and executed in a similarly situated technology cooperative

121

Personal impressions which emerged fi-om both the data collection and data

analysis also suggested additional avenues of study At no time and in no way were either

Consortium school distticts or school staff identified as to their Chapter 41 (Equalized

Wealth Level) or Chapter 42 (Minimum Foundation Program) stattis Nevertheless this

writer recognizes a difference in economic status for these districts that was impossible to

fully ignore and suggests that the differences in funding abilities of school districts be

explored as new technologies become de rigueur for even the smallest and most remote

school district

Also unexamined in this present study was any comparison on a rural-urban axis

Although each ofthe participating school districts was mral with a combined enrolhnent

smaller than one urban high school the available technology was up-to-date and with

more anticipated advanced technology yet to be implemented A similar study of larger

urban school technology programs dealing with identical TEKS constraints could be

instituted to ascertain concems of urban-oriented change facilitators

The professional experience aspect of each ofthe informants was never identified

as a factor in this present research The CFSoC form itself had blanks for data conceming

the number of years experience on the job in the present position etc Indeed the least

number of total years of school experience was nine years The question remains if

simply the amount of time in grade is a factor in the informants position on the CFSoC

continuum This researcher noted a trend in those in stated administrative roles being

more oriented to TASK and IMPACT concems as opposed to the technology

coordinators who by and large had duties more inclusive ofthe classroom and who were

122

more oriented to SELF concems and their personal status This could lead one to ponder

whether the role and the job title are influencing factors in a change facilitators Stage of

Concem

Moreover because ofthe contemporary trends toward school-based

management and greater empowerment of classroom personnel in decision-making it is

likely that those in change faciUtator roles would be more closely aligned to the

classroom ie more teachers may be in leadership roles We might expect the higher the

level of change facilitator position and experience the higher the level of concem (eg

IMPACT) It would be interesting to explore the possibifities and consequences for those

at the classroom level functioning as change facilitators in technology

123

REFERENCES

American Psychological Association (1994) Publication manual ofthe American Psychological Association (4th ed) Washington DC Author

Armstrong D Davis R amp Young G (1996) Technology integration at the middle and high school levels A model for staff development NASSP Bulletin 80(582) 81-88

Bailey G D (1997) What technology leaders need to know The essential top 10 concepts for technology integration in the 21st century Leaming and Leading With Technology 250) 57-62

Bailey D B amp Palsha S A (1992) Qualities ofthe Stages of Concem questionnaire and implications for educational innovations Joumal of Educational Research 85(4) 226-232

Barr D (1990) A solution in search of a problem The role of technology in educational reform Joumal for the Education ofthe Gifted 14(1) 79-95

Becker H J (1991) How computers are used in United States schools Basic data fi-om the 1989 I E A Computers in Education survey Joumal of Educational Computing Research 7(4) 385-406

Becker H J (1998) Running to catch a moving train Schools and information technologies Theory Into Practice 37(1) 20-30

Berg S Benz C Lasley T laquofe Raisch D (1997) The coordinators and the teachers A description of exemplary use of technology in elementary classrooms Paper presented at the Midwestem Educational Research Association Annual Meeting Chicago IL

Bogdan R C amp Biklen S K (1992) Qualitative research for education An introduction tn theory and methods (2nd ed) Boston Allyn amp Bacon

Bradshaw L K (1997) Technology-supported change A staff development opportunity NASSP Bulletin 81(593) 86-92

Braun L (1993) Educational technology Help for all the kids The Computing Teacher 20(8) 11-15

124

Brekhus T R (1997) The SeverNet project-assessment Antiquated systems without curriculum integration The Educational Graveyard of Unfulfilled Promise [Online] URL httpwwwseyemschoolcomsevemetsevemet_assesshtml

Bristol v amp Jechow M (1998) Guidelines on interlocal agreements fi-om the Texas Government Code Texas case law and Texas attomev general opinions [online] URL httpwwwbickerstaff comarticlesinter98htm

Bumiske R W (1998) The shadow play How the integration of technology annihilates debate in our schools Phi Delta Kappan 80(2) 155-157

Campbell T (1997) Technology multimedia and qualitative research in education Joumal of Research on Computing in Education 30(2) 122-132

Carroll S R amp Carroll D (1994) How smart schools get and keep community support Bloomington IN National Educational Service

Chisolm I M (1996) Computer use in a multicultural classroom Joumal of Research on Computing in Education 28(2) 162-174

CicchelH T amp Baecher R (1985) Intt-oducing microcomputers into the classroom A study of teacher concems Joumal of Educational Computing Research 1(1) 55-65

CiccheUi T amp Baecher R E (1987) The use of concems theory in inservice ttaining for computer education Computers amp Education 11(2) 85-93

Clark R E (1983) Reconsidering research on leaming fi-om media Review of Educational Research 53(4) 445-459

Clouse R W amp Garrett L N (1995) Case analysis An insttiictional tool Joumal of Educational Technology Systems 23(1) 39-51

Coffey A amp Atkinson P (1996) Making sense of qualitative data Complementary research strategies Thousand Oaks CA Sage

Crawford D K Bodine R J amp Hoglund R G (1993) The school for quality leaming Managing the school and the classroom the Deming way Champaign IL Research Press

Cuban L (1984) How teachers taupht Constancy and change in American classrooms -1980-1980 New York Longman

125

Mr John Bethune Lead Teacher and my colleagues at the Homebound unit of

the Lubbock Independent School District are to be thanked for their encouragement I

leamed so much fi-om them and fi-om the students that I was assigned

A special thanks must go to my informants both at the Educational Service

Center Region J and to those superintendents principals and technology coordinators

who spoke so fi-ankly to this stranger about technology implementation in their districts

After the data analysis I felt like Id known these folks for years

Dr Gene Hall Dean of the College of Education at the University of Nevada at

Las Vegas and whose works play a prominent role in the development of this study

granted his permission to reprint the Change Facilitator Stages of Concem instniment

Thanks also to folks at Comerstone Bible Church in LubbockTexas particularly

Richard Gmbbs and Wayne and Rosita Moore

This document did not publish itself Many thanks are in order for the staffs at the

Texas Tech University Library the Porter Henderson Library at Angelo State University

and the tireless and patient folks at the Tom Green County Library in San Angelo Texas

who had never seen several drafts of a dissertation published before

Our children Michael Mark and Melanie have had to endure two uprootings to

get this project accomplished They are certainly glad that Im finished and can get back

to work My wife Michelle has had to patiently endure the most toward producing this

product Her personal and financial support has made this document a reality

Ill

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT vii

LIST OF TABLES ix

LIST OF FIGURES x

CHAPTER

I STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Introduction 1 Problem Statement and Research Questions 3 Rationale 4 Changes in Constraints 13 Research Participants 16 Study Significance 20 Delimitations 22 Term Definitions 23 Organization of the Study 26

n REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Introduction 27 Technology Consortium Development 27 Collaboration 29 The Change Process 30 Difftision of Innovations 31 Concems Theory 34 The Role of CBAM 36 Applications of CB AM 41 The Change Facilitator SoC 42 The CFSoC Instniment 43 Summary and Reflection 46

III METHODOLOGY

Study Design 48 Grand Tour Question 48 Rationale 49 Context for the Study 52

iv

Informant Selection 56 Data Collection 57 Data Analysis 60 Verification Strategies 63 Study Limitations 66

IV RESULTS OF THE STUDY

Informant and CFSoC Profiles 67 Summary of CFSoC 83 Informant Concems 83 Summary of Interview Data 110

V SUMMARY CONCLUSIONS AND REFLECTIONS

Summary of Research 112 CFSoC Profiles 112 Interview Themes 115 Conclusions and Reflections 118 Recommendations for Further Study 121

REFERENCES 124

APPENDIX

A STAGES OF CONCERN ABOUT THE INNOVATION 133

B CHANGE FACILITATOR STAGES OF CONCERN 135

C CHANGE FACILITATOR STAGES OF CONCERN QUESTIONNAIRE 137

D SEMISTRUCTURED INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR INFORMANTS 141

E INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR DR SARAH McCULLOUGH ESC REGION J 142

F LETTER OF INTRODUCTION TO CONSORTIUM SUPERINTENDENTS 143

G PROJECT CONSENT FORMS 145

H THEMES AND SUB-THEMES FOR DATA ANALYSIS 147

I COMPARISON OF TECHNOLOGY IMPLEMENTATION IN STATE CURRICULA 148

VI

ABSTRACT

Although there has been a progression of technological improvements in the tools

available for educators to improve instmction there will always be the need for leamers

to master fimdamental skills and for educators to facilitate that learning Nevertheless the

implementation of innovative technology programs continues to be a priority of educators

in both urban and mral settings Texas educators are now under new Texas Essential

Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) curricular requirements a comprehensive document with

specific learner outcomes particularly with technology embedded into every grade level

Because of these extemal constraints even small rural school districts have to

provide advanced technology capabilities for their leamers This current study

investigated personal and professional concems of change facilitators in a seven-district

technology consortium as these requirements are implemented

This consortium was developed with assistance fiom both the local telephone

service provider and the regional Educational Service Center (ESC) These districts range

a distance of 70 to 125 miles fi^om their ESC Two of the participating school districts

are considered property-wealthy and provide the bulk of the fiinding for the other five

districts through special legislative mles

This exploratory case study used the Concems-based Adoption Model (CBAM)

for evaluating these concems Nine informants three each of superintendents principals

and technology coordinators responded to a 35-item Likert scale which placed the

informant on a Stage of Concem either SELF TASK or IMPACT Informants

vu

concems were rated largely at the TASK level In general an informants stage of

concem increased with a higher status within the school system

These informants were also interviewed on their personal concems toward

technology implementation Seven general themes emerged through the interview

process Informants articulated concems over attitudes power student learning distance

learning staff training infi-astmcture and finances These informants consistently

expressed concem for the prospects of implementing instmctional video and its

instmctional and disciplinary implications Each informant expressed optimism over the

educational and administrative possibilities modem computer technology brought to their

districts

Vlll

LIST OF TABLES

1-1 Teachers Use of Computers Hadley and Sheingold (1993) N=608 9

1-2 Instmcfional Software Use Hadley and Sheingold (1993) N=608 9

1 -3 Full Time Equivalent Staff for TechnologyComputer Operations 21

2-1 Coefficients of Intemal Reliability for the Stages of Concem Questionnaire N=830 39

2-2 Test-Retest Correlations on the Stages of Concem Questionnaire N=132 40

2-3 Means Standard Deviations and Alpha Coefficients for the CFSoC (N=589) 45

2-4 Means Standard Deviations and Alpha Coefficients for the CFSoC

(N=750) 45

2-5 Intercorrelations of the Scale Scores on the CFSoC (N=589) 46

5-1 Study Informants and CBAM Stages of Concem District Comparison 113

5-2 Study Informants and CBAM Stages of Concem Concem Stage Comparison 114

IX

LIST OF FIGURES

4-1 CFSoC Profile of James Petty Camden Principal 68

4-2 CFSoC Profile of Bill Potter Camden Technology Coordinator 70

4-3 CFSoC Profile of Ronnie Bennett Dellwood Technology Coordinator 72

4-4 CFSoC Profile of Larry Beckman North Prairie Superintendent 74

4-5 CFSoC Profile of Mike McCoy Sawtooth Superintendent 76

4-6 CFSoC Profile of Vemon Russell Sawtooth Principal 78

4-7 CFSoC Profile of Renee White Sawtooth Technology Coordinator 79

4-8 CFSoC Profile of David Jackson Woodlake Superintendent 81

4-9 CFSoC Profile of Stephen Greer Woodlake Principal 82

CHAPTER I

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Mr Edison says That the radio will supplant the teacher Already one may leam languages by means of Victrola records The moving picture will visualize What the radio fails to get across Teachers will be relegated to the backwoods With fire-horses And long-haired women Or perhaps shown in museums Education will become a matter Of pressing the button Perhaps I can get a position at the switchboard

(Church cf Cuban 1986 pp 4-5)

Introduction

Virginia Churchs 1925 poem entitled Antiquated probably sounds pessimistic

but facetiously demonstrates her concems of possibly being out of a job with the

approaching array of innovations heralded at that time Our teachers and administrators in

educational institutions at all levels continue to exhibit concems as new innovations are

proffered (Cuban 1986)

Certainly innovations designed to improve instmction have been utilized for

centuries Cuban (1986 pp 3-4) would suggest technology innovation goes back at least

to the invention of the lectem chalk and chalkboards books and pictures with fihn

radio television tape recorders video and computers as more recent examples of

teaching tools Cuban wryly describes how these most recent technologies were at first

lauded as the latest thing for schools how instmction would dramatically improve and

how disillusioned teachers became when the technology did not live up to its predicted

expectations

Bringing all schools up to maximum speed in technology is currently quite

fashionable Rescigno (1988) using his own school district as the example envisioned

the so-called smart classroom with state of the art technology as having the ability to

precisely measure student skill objectives and promote more positive student attitudes

and lower instances of discipline problems

Rescignos school does not seem to have been greatly replicated however

Nevertheless greater technology implementation remains a key element of both

educational and political rhetoric Chris Dede asserts For politicians the Intemet in

every classroom has become the modem equivalent of the promised chicken in every

pot (Dede 1997 p 13) Dede decries such first-generation thinking by those who

would make technology the panacea for magically transforming schools

Yet decades of experience with technological innovations based on first-generation thinking have demonstrated that this viewpoint is misguided Unless other simultaneous innovations occur in pedagogy curriculum assessment and school organization the time and effort expended on instmctional technology produce few improvements in educational outcomes ~ a result that reinforces many educators cynicism about fads based on magical machines (p 13)

Cuban (1984) concurs emphasizing that teachers technology use in the classroom

is just one of a great many factors in how teachers teach with the lions share of factors

related to the extemal constraints of school organization Hodas (1993) reminds us that

the culture and norms of schools are profoundly conservative that the stmcture of

schools have remained unchanged for hundreds of years and that there exists in the

popular mind a definite conservative conception of what schools should be like a

template fi-om which schools stray only at their peril (p 10)

Problem Statement and Research Ouestions

Several factors were considered in formulating a problem for this study There

was the consideration of finding out how schools particularly small ones were

implementing fimding and evaluating technology in their districts Moreover standard

principles of staff development particularly the ascertaining of personal and professional

concems of school leaders were prominent in the literature Finally at the time of

searching for a research topic the State of Texas was developing broad curricular

standards which included extensive instmctional technology components

The problem under study is the concems of three levels of change facilitators

implementing the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) for Technology

Applications The research questions for this study are outlined in the form of a grand

tour question followed by sub-questions (Gay 1997 Spradley 1979)

Grand Tour Ouestion

What are the concems of leadership personnel as the TEKS technology

requirements are implemented in their school districts

Sub-questions

1 Where do these school leaders fall on the Concems-based Adoption Model

(CBAM) continuum regarding TEKS technology implementation

2 What are the specific concems of these school leaders as the TEKS are

implemented and why are these concems important

Rationale

The concept of educational change with technology is not a novel idea despite

those concems that Dede (1997) registered Larry Cuban has written extensively on the

topic of technological change fi-om the perspectives of administration and of educational

history Cuban quotes fi-om a prominent American technology leader who often had much

to say about things

I believe that the motion picture is destined to revolutionize our educational system and that in a few years it will supplant largely if not entirely the use of textbooks I should say that on the average we get about two percent efficiency out of schoolbooks as they are written today The education of the fixture as I see it will be conducted through the medium of the motion picture where it should be possible to obtain one hundred percent efficiency (p 187)

These words came in 1922 fi-om Thomas Alva Edison the inventor of the motion

picture phonograph and other devices at their time thought to be the zenith in

technology Except for the media described many could envision computers as the

subject of that quote Cuban suggests that such entrepreneurs who publicly make broad

educational claims for their products may have more of a profit motive than of student

performance

McDaniel Mclnemey and Armstrong (1993) recognize a shift in classroom

pedagogy fiom those classrooms merely transmitting information to processing

information They assert that computers will play a significant role in how leamers

acquire question and evaluate information Moreover McDaniel et al describe a

changed learning community breaking down the traditional school walls to a classroom

that literally can be the whole world They do not doubt that new programs will continue

to make an impact on how we teach and how students leam

Bumiske (1998) concurs with this shift but tempers it with repeated questioning

of our reasonings and expectations conceming educational technology

Its no longer a question of whether we should introduce computer technology into our classrooms Im afi-aid that choice has already been made for us The question now is how we should make use of this technology for educational purposes The consequence of this is the stifling of essential debates and the repression of significant questions such as At what age should we introduce children to computers What impact will computers have on the social emotional and psychological development of our children And how will computers aUer the dynamics of a classroom and school (p 157)

Cuban (1993) suggests three reasons for the perceived need to implement

technology in the classroom

First there is the drive to bring schools technologically in step with the work place because of the fear that students will be unprepared both to compete in the job market and to adjust to the changing marketplace A second impulse has come fi-om a diverse coalition of academics educators and foundation officials who have

5

neoprogressive values including that of self-directed leaming for children Finally there is the impulse for productivity (pp 189-190)

Unfortunately Cuban pessimistically concludes that despite the use of

technological innovations those innovations have not been central to school reforms

Likewise the marginal use of computers in classrooms is less due to funding teacher

preparation or administrative support but more related to dominant cultural beliefs

about what teaching leaming and proper knowledge are and how schools are organized

for instmction (p 206)

Low administrative support is but one part of the overall picture Poor

infi-astmcture remains in place at many schools The United States Department of

Education (USDE) in its report Getting Americas Students Readv for the 21st Century

(USDE 1996) cited statistics where only four percent of schools had as many as one

computer for five students and only nine percent with Intemet connectivity Yet this

same study asserts 80 percent of Americans believing that teaching computer skills is

absolutely essential 75 percent encouraging a child to use a computer and 86 percent

believing that a computer is the most beneficial product available to increase childrens

opportunities

Why if most educators believe that technology can improve the educational

process is it so difficult to implement and integrate Kwajewski (1997) ponders this

question as he considers the value educators place on technology acceptance

The plain tmth is that technology still confuses the educational establishment It is not an art or a science It is not a curriculum or a

subject It is not a vocation or a college requirement It is not an activity a goal or an objective It is not a course or a program If it were any of these items it might have a fighting chance in the difficult arena of change But it isnt therefore its success is in jeopardy (p 54)

Hodas (1993) suggests that educators require a modicum of comfort before expanding

their intellectual horizons to achieve skill with new technology

There is lively discussion over the extent of how technology can restmcture the

school Schools are finding in diverse ways that the use of technology modifies the

existing school stmcture Braun (1993) points out that investment in technology makes

working with at-risk youth more cost-effective It appears better to pmdently allocate

fimds on high-technology instmction than on the costs involved with dropouts and other

at-risk problems Maddux and Johnson (1997) suggest that the existing stmcture of

schools will be modified by Intemet use but only after the surrounding culture first

makes the change

Addressing new technologies Clark (1983) boldly asserted that the medium of

instmction was no more involved in how well students leam than the tmck that delivers

our groceries causes changes in our nutrition (p 445) and that only the content of

instmction influences student achievement Kozma (1991) aggressively challenges

Clarks position pointing out the distinctives of certain technologies and how they can

help leamers constmct knowledge Chishohn (1996) would go so far as to insist that the

implementation of technology modifies the very social stmcture

Like any human artifact computers are an expression of the people and culture that created them Likewise computer software incorporates the programmers cultural assumptions heuristics and epistemology Even seemingly impartial applications such as

7

databases and word processing programs demonstrate a cultural preference for analytic linear thinking compartmentalization of information and culture-specific logic mles and organization (p 163)

Educational leaders who are comfortable with technology should be primed to

lead the way in facilitating change in schools (Office of Technology Assessment 1995)

Differing somewhat fi-om Cuban Ritchie (1996) notes that a lack of administrative

support leading toward inadequate staff development and inadequate funding continues

to lead the reasons that technology has yet to take hold in some school districts Ritchie

cites Mecklenburger who asserts

Administrators must understand the capabilities and limitations of technology Only then can they plan for budget for purchase carefiiUy install properly maintain dutifiilly schedule adequately distribute appropriately and replace systematically the electronic technology best suited for their needs (Mecklenburger 1989 p 7)

Yet principals and superintendents in the main received their education and

training at a time when computers were not yet part of the educational scene Whatever

training many school leaders have had simply focused on using the technology rather

than focusing on how the technology could be used to augment student leaming (Bailey

1997)

Since 98 percent of the elementary and secondary schools in the United States

have microcomputers (Ely 1993) it is important to analyze how they have been used In

an early pre-Intemet study of typical teacher practice Hadley and Sheingold (1993)

investigated how teachers integrated software into classroom practice In surveying 608

teachers they discovered that teachers used computer software as shown in Table 1-1

Table 1-1 Teachers Use of Computers Hadley and Sheingold (1993) N=608

Software

Text processing tools 95 Instmctional software 89 Analytic and information tools 87 Programming and operating systems 84 Games and simulations 81 Graphics and operating tools 81 Communications 49 Multimedia 25

(Hadley amp Sheingold 1993)

Teachers instmctional software use was fiirther broken down as shown

in Table 1-2

Table 1-2 Instmctional Software Use Hadley and Sheingold (1993) N=608

Software

Problem solving programs 75 Tutorial programs 73 Drill and practice programs 72 Software accompanying a textbook 37 Conceptual tools 30

(Hadley amp Sheingold 1993)

By contrast instead of querying teacher computer usage more current surveys

(eg Texas Association of School Administrators 1998) focus on the classroom

building and district hardware configurations and Intemet use of computers

Teachers obviously embraced the computer as a significant tool in teaching

practice As these researchers gathered data for their study the above activities were

indeed the cutting edge uses of computers just before Windows the World Wide Web

or America Online became household words

Radical educational change is no stranger to technology educators The practices

delineated in the literature have metamorphosed fi-om the above to a listing more

reflective of school Intemet use connectivity and the use of multimedia Echoing Cuban

Becker (1998) notes several generations of the advice of experts conceming change in

computer technology pedagogy each of which reflected conventional wisdom in its time

and underscoring the adage The more things change the more they stay the same

Teachers were first urged to have students program computers in BASIC (1982 Its the language that comes with your computer) then to have them program in Logo (1984 Teach students to think not just program) then to use integrated drill-and-practice systems (1986 Use networked systems that individualize instruction and focus on increasing test scores) then to do word processing (1988 Use computers as tools like adults do) then to use curriculum-specific tools such as history databases and science stimulators and data acquisition probes (1990 Integrate the computers with the existing curriculum) then to do multimedia hypertext programming (1992 Change the curriculum - students leam best by creating products for an audience) then to use electronic mail (1994 Let students be part of the real world) and currently to publish their students work to a worldwide audience via the World Wide Web (1996) Using computers in these respective ways would have generally required teachers to have access to the newest computer equipment being sold at that time (p 25)

Becker fiirther suggests that survey-based data reflects a more conservative and

traditional array of instmctional practices among teachers than what is reported in the

popular press which tends to be more reflective of the more innovative techniques

10

(Becker 1998) Moreover he suggests such survey data was needed to balance the

overly enthusiastic reports in the news media about the generalizability of pioneering

efforts in unusual schools with hard-to-replicate amounts of computer equipment teacher

expertise and family resources (Becker 1991 p 386) It remained to be seen if the

average school district or school board had the financial foresight to establish a similar

facility

Contrasting with pre-Intemet surveys more recent studies reflect surveys of

changing computer use Berg Benz Lasley and Raisch (1997) surveyed teachers about

technology use at school and found that teachers rated student motivation and a change

fi-om the traditional classroom stmcture as the most fi-equent purposes of technology

Concurring with Beckers (1998) conclusions on technology use Berg et al list these as

their most important school computer uses

To motivate students To change fi-om traditional classroom CD-ROMs for research Computers in writing process Using variety of resources (books CD-ROM Web etc) Desktop publishing software To integrate subject matter Intemet to do research Enhance communication with parents Tailor curriculum to individual student needs

(Berg Benz Lasley amp Raisch 1997 p 8)

Curiously Berg et al found distance leaming and video conferencing rated 38th of 39

instmctional purposes as rated by teachers

The Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) executed a survey in

September 1998 to ascertain the levels of technology available in Texas public schools

11

Rather than display teacher use statistics as in previous studies (Becker 1998 Berg et al

1997 Hadley amp Sheingold 1993) this survey is heavily skewed toward Intemet use in

the classroom showing percentages of connectivity fimding sources and resources

(service center technology consortium etc) There are no listings of specific teacher

activities such as word processing graphics or gradebooks Indeed the TASA survey

appears at this writing to be updated at fi-equent intervals (TASA 1998)

Willis (1993) concedes that educational change using technology is difficult to

pull off He identifies barriers to wider technology use including teacher isolation

ownership time and administrative support very similar to concems in much of the staff

development literature (Joyce amp Showers 1988 Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1991)

Recent literature on school technology implementation has raised questions

conceming just how well new programs will be implemented or indeed how extensive

technology implementation has been Maddux (1997) describes a gap in schools between

the increasing sophistication of technology and the ability of teachers to use such

technology Maddux contends that much of the negative reaction conceming the Intemet

the World Wide Web Windows 95982000 and other innovative technologies stems

fi-om just such a gap between the hardware the schools may have on hand and the

systemic requirements of new software purchased Schools by and large often have older

hardware incapable of accepting Windows 95-level software Indeed computer speed

modem speed and hard drive storage (with or without zip drives) in many school-owned

computers remain inadequate Maddux cites Brekhus (1997) who suggests that 80

percent of all computer hardware purchased for schools was obsolete at the time of

12

purchase (p 7) Maddux fiirther maintains that much of this gap is related to educational

fiscal tradition stemming fi-om a lack of acknowledgment that more sophisticated

technology had to be replaced every three to five years

Becker (1998) sounds even more alarming He estimates that the average

cumulative per pupil investment in computers over a typical school lifetime a 13-year

span was only $150 025 percent of the total of what was spent on a pupil in that time

span Only 20 percent of school computers had a hard drive with a similar percentage

having any network access Only 10 percent had CD-ROM capability Very few then of

available school computers were capable of using multimedia the World Wide Web

Windows 9598 or most CD-based software As this dissertation is written computers

with speeds of 500 to 600 megahertz are being offered at discount stores (Micro Center

1999) along with appropriate software Although many schools continue to upgrade the

computing power of their hardware and the regional educational service centers still

provide leadership in bringing up-to-date technology to every remote district

nevertheless many educational institutions remain using outmoded machinery due to

well-felt budgetary restrictions and fluctuating property values

Changes in Constraints

Against this backdrop of confiision over technology implementation overall

educators fi-om coast to coast have had extemally mandated constraints In Texas those

mandates were codified in the Texas Essential Elements (Texas Education Agency

1991) with specific competencies for each subject listed and more recently with the

13

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) standards (Texas Education Agency

1997b) Unlike the Essential Elements which simply specified the subject components

for the teacher to cover in each area the TEKS mandates a much broader array of

performance-based skills to be exhibited by the leamer The emphasis is now on what the

leamer can do over what skills the teacher exhibits School districts in Texas are

obhgated to follow the TEKS in designing curriculum and instmction Evaluation

procedures for Texas educators include the use of technology in the lesson cycle

The TEKS for Technology Applications delineates knowledge and skill

requirements for specific computer applications for grade levels K-8 and specific high

school classes with this common philosophy

(1) The technology applications curriculum has four strands foundations information acquisition work in solving problems and communication

(2) Through the study of technology applications foundations including technology-related terms concepts and data input strategies students leam to make informed decisions about technologies and their applications The efficient acquisition of information includes the identification of task requirements the plan for using search strategies and the use of technology to access analyze and evaluate the acquired information By using technology as a tool that supports the work of individuals and groups in solving problems students will select the technology appropriate for the task synthesize knowledge create a solution and evaluate the results Students communicate information in different formats and to diverse audiences A variety of technologies will be used Students will analyze and evaluate the resuUs (Texas Education Agency 1997b p 1)

Chapter 126 of the TEKS specifies standards for leaming activities under these

four strands in Technology Applications for all Texas leamers This chapter is restricted

14

to instmctional applications excluding curricula that would be better placed in chapters

dealing with Career and Technology Business Applications etc

Chapter 126 Subchapter A delineates skill requirements for leamers as early as

kindergarten Among the skills to be acquired by leamers at that early date include

networking creating naming and saving files keyword searching muhimedia design

and portfolio selection It does not end there Subchapter A spells out a broad outline of

technology activities fi-om kindergarten through fifth grade Subchapter B retains much of

the earlier Essential Elements for middle schools conceming keyboarding and computer

literacy Subchapter C defines requirements for eight specific courses for high school-

level Carnegie-unit credit The minimum hardware for just one of these courses requires

the capability to do local networking Intemet access video production and Web page

production and storage Because of these curricular standards virtually every school in

Texas had to purchase materials appropriate for these activities

These standards went into effect September 1 1998 (Texas Education Agency

1997b) providing impetus for school leaders to recognize and articulate concems over

the implementation of these standards An additional document The Technology

Applications Companion (K-12) (Texas Center for Educational Technology 1998)

containing a comprehensive program entitled Sharing Technology Applications

Resources with Teachers (START) has been distributed on CD-ROM to each public

school building in Texas to provide curricular assistance and resources for TEKS

implementation

15

Research Participants

The informants for this research are among the leadership staff at five school

districts in rural Texas Each would be described as a change facilitator as defined in a

subsequent paragraph The role of the change facilitator is ascribed to a variety of

professionals Three specific roles in the school system are examined in this present

study Each is a change faciUtator but each facilitates change in a unique way

Superintendent~The general superintendent is a certified school employee and is

charged with overseeing all of a school districts operations particularly those related to

supervision and finance This role in the United States was instituted and developed

during nineteenth century bureaucratic changes where centralization of school efforts was

found more economical and where the need was seen for one person to be at the top of

the school stmcture (Urban amp Wagoner 1996)

Lutz and Merz (1992) define the superintendent in three roles manager

politician and teacher The Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) establishes

competencies for school leaders and suggested curricula for their training Superintendent

courses (Texas Education Agency 1991) mostly relegate this role either to be a manager

what with the emphasis on business techniques and school law for school management

or to be the instmctional leader because of specialized expertise in special and

compensatory education and because of recent advancements in school change which

demand that change facilitators already excel as instmctional and curricular leaders

SBOE mles also reinforce the role of politician with a broad array of social science

electives for the prospective school leader

16

The combination of concems over financial matters political pressures and

extemal curricular constramts exclusively laden upon the district superintendent makes

this role particularly important to the proposed research If there is any new technology to

be implemented the superintendent will have to be the first person on deck to secure

community approval particularly that of the school board so that the community has the

opportunity to buy into the new program especially its fiinding It will be necessary to

describe specific concems of superintendents

PrincipalmdashThe principal is a certified school employee who is charged with

leading teachers Unlike the superintendent the principal is generally responsible for only

one building narrowing this persons focus The role developed during the nineteenth

century in urban schools where a beginning teacher would begin teaching at a low grade

level and move up through the system becoming a principal teacher leading the others

(Urban amp Wagoner 1996)

The literature is replete with suggestions for middle management to increase

knowledge of how to implement technology Ritchie (1996) fists vendors school district

personnel technology consultants technology classes and self-instmction as sources of

information for becoming more effective as a change facilitator

Hall Rutherford and Griffin (1982) recognize three distinct change facilitator

styles which largely fit the principals role Responders put heavy emphasis on

empowering teachers and giving them opportunity to take the lead but tend to make

decisions in terms of immediate situations rather than long-term goals Managers tend to

see that things get done but do not normally go beyond the basics of implementing an

17

innovation Initiators take the lead and make things happen having strong beliefs about

what schools should be Nevertheless Hall et al agree that no change faciUtator

completely fits into one of these compartments Much more than the superintendent the

building principals style sets the leadership tone for the students and staff

Hall et al apply these contrasting styles in leadership to applying innovation

implementation

Another apphcation of the ideas proposed in this paper could be in planning school level and district wide implementation efforts Perhaps implementation game plans should be adopted to different schools depending on the change facilitator style of the principal and the assistant principal In a Manager school implementation will likely proceed rather routinely once what is to be done is understood by the principal In a Responders school more encouragement fi-om the outside and more district personnel time spent in the school working with teachers would probably be necessary While in an Initiators school a certain amount of push might be necessary to get implementation of the innovation on the list of the principals priorities On the other hand if the innovation is already a priority for that principal all the central office staff developer may have to do is stand out of the way (pp 19-20)

Middle management concems are a second component of the proposed research

because these individuals provide day-to-day leadership of educators They are

responsible for every detail in their respective buildings including staff development

Although site-based management is ahnost standard in contemporary schools the

principal remains a key force in change

Technology Coordinator-This role is not as clearly defined as principal or

superintendent nor does it have a lengthy historical base but exists nevertheless An

early study by Stmdler and Gall (1988) reported a growing number of individuals with

18

the title of technology coordinator mainly fi-om the ranks of classroom teachers Bailey

(1997) points out that although the role of the technology coordinator is important in

school improvement activities very little recent literature exists that describes the specific

roles and responsibilities of the technology coordinator

Despite variations in the local job title the person recognized as the technology

coordinator will also have concems worth noting in this proposed research As Stmdler

and Gall (1988) reported earlier this person is eighty percent Hkely to come fi-om the

classroom reflecting classroom teacher concems yet will have to assume a leadership

role

Smith (1997) extensively lists qualities and competencies expected of a

technology coordinator under these headings

1 Technical expertise 2 Understanding of technology use in the instmctional environment 3 Professional development 4 Intemet knowledge and experience (p 56)

Jewell (1999) adds the interpersonal skills of vision and diplomacy along with the

ability to find solutions for a diverse group of technology users fi-om a hmited array of

resources Jewell reminds us that

Technology leadership is not for the timid An effective technology leader must be able to navigate the sea of ever-increasing information and equipment as well as the changes in education that comes fi-om technology use What happens with technology and schools will change our world and technology coordinators will have an important role in that outcome (p 57)

19

The Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) annually commission a

survey (TASA 1998) conceming technology usage The 1998 survey specifically

ascertained the availability of on-site technology support Table 1-3 describes the

fi-equency of technology support for a variety of school configurations in Texas

Study Significance

As a major population center and as a resuU a major purchaser of educational materials

(textbooks workbooks etc) Texas has the potential to lead the way with an innovative

array of technology related courses but with new technology changes will be necessary

in how teachers will teach Already school districts are writing funding grants

purchasing more advanced technology and designating an individual with a title

congment to technology coordinator

Administrators will now have to allow for changes in how they do their jobs

Superintendents are already realizing that budgetary planning for technology has to be for

shorter periods that both technology hardware and software will require firequent

upgrades and school policies will need to address technological issues particularly with

legal matters Building principals will not only require a change in their budgetary

procedures but will also need to include technology concems in dealing with both

curriculum and evaluation Having served unofficially as the building technology

computer coordinator this writer observes that these individuals will have concems over

not only keeping current with the technology but also the array of systemic bugs each

piece of hardware and software displays resulting in the attendant complaints expressed

by staff

20

Table 1-3 Full Time Equivalent Staff for TechnologyComputer Operations

Level

Elementary

Middle

High School

Central Office

Other ISD Service

One-campus

N

479

410

470

N

489

N

484

191

No FTEs on campus

()

382

385

362

None ()

595

0 ()

506

335

Vi FTE per campus

()

192

98

104

1 ()

282

1 ()

277

565

i d i lt IFTE ner campus

()

88

12

117

2-3 ()

7

2 ()

97

68

1 FTE or more per campus

()

338

398

417

More than 3 ()

53

3-4 5-6 () ()

52 19

1 0

(TASA 1998 Question 10)

Because of the major changes in what is expected of educators through the

transition fi-om implementing the Essential Elements to TEKS standards these new

regulations should be applicable and flexible enough for at least the next decade

considering that it replaces a document used for 13 years TEKS will be of necessity

21

applicable for implementing innovations that have yet to be invented and for change

strategies not yet imagined

Delimitations

This study focused on technology implementation concems of change facilitators

of school districts in rural Texas limiting the representativeness of the study Any

findings yielded reflected the comments of those interviewed at the time of the study The

constraints of TEKS are not specifically applicable to educational entities in other states

or countries Curricular documents in states other than Texas were surveyed to compare

TEKS requirements for technology with technology expectations for leamers in those

states States bordering Texas as well as the top 15 states in population were considered

(World Almanac 1999) Appendix I contains a listing of these individual states

standards and how much technology usage impacts these standards

This present study is undertaken during the first year of TEKS standards Those

interviewed will not have as much familiarity with TEKS standards as they might in later

years As the researcher involved in compiling this data this writer must recognize

various biases he might have in eliciting comments fi-om these individuals Such

comments will reflect subjective distinctions individuals have about different schools

extemally mandated policies personal expectations of themselves or product

preferences In short this researcher made every effort to allow the respondents to

accurately present themselves

22

Term Definitions

The literature in this study uses terms germane to change instmctional

technology and to applications of the TEKS In addition terms readily known and used

by Texas educators are described

Academic Excellence Indicator System (AEIS) The AEIS (Texas Education

Agency 1999) is a systematic accountability report delivered annually of each school

and school district in Texas Prior to the estabhshment of the AEIS districts were

evaluated for accountability based on mles and procedures With the advent of the AEIS

schools are now evaluated principally on student performance AEIS indicators include

Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) performance attendance and dropout

rates students participating in advanced courses and scores on college entrance

examinations

Change Fullan and Stiegelbauer (1991) suggest that educational change involves

change in practice and indeed is evident at many levels In implementing change three

components are at stake

(1) The possible use of new or revised materials (direct instmctional resources such as curriculum materials or technologies) (2) the possible use of new teaching approaches (i e new teaching strategies or activities) and (3) the possible alteration of beliefs (e g pedagogical assumptions and theories underlying particular new policies and programs) (p 37)

Change Facilitator The role of change facilitator is defined to include not only

superintendents curriculum speciahsts and building principals but also the diverse set

of persons within and outside of organizations who have the formal or informal role to

23

aid those involved in leaming to use innovations (Hall Newlove George Rutherford amp

Hord 1991piii)

Concems Based on the work of Fuller (1969) Hall and his associates expand on

what constitutes concem

The composite representation of these feelings preoccupations thoughts and considerations about a particular issue or task is called concems The mental activity composed of questioning analyzing and re-analyzing considering altemative actions and reactions and anticipating consequences is concem An aroused state of personal feelings and thought about an issue phenomenon or condition as it is perceived is concem To be concemed means to be in a mentally aroused state about something (Hall Newlove George Rutherford amp Hord 1991 p5)

Innovation Loucks-Horsley and Stiegelbauer (1991) include a variety of school

programs as being innovations including school change school mission and goals

shared leadership as well as implementation of new technology Hall and his associates

define innovation as the issue idea or thing that is the center of attention (Hall

George and Rutherford 1977) Hall et als work in ascertaining concems over

educational innovations as will be demonstrated in greater detail in Chapter 2 can be

used to describe a wide variety of school implementations but within this current study is

strictly limited to instmctional technology implementation

Technology Rogers (1983) defines a technology as

A design for instrumental action that reduces the uncertainty in the cause-effect relationships involved in achieving a desired outcome A technology usually has two components (1) a hardware aspect consisting of the tool that embodies the technology as material or physical objects and (2) a software aspect consisting of the information base for the tool (p 12)

24

Technology Applications Chapter 126 of the TEKS for Technology Applications

(Texas Education Agency 1997b) defines what technology applications are in a

common introduction to each subchapter Among competencies at various grade levels

technology applications include the use of several word processing competencies

keyboarding strategies knowledge of a variety of input devices such as mouse modem

disk drive scanner digital video CD-ROM or touch screen database and spreadsheet

usage Intemet intranet and World Wide Web usage formal training in computer

programming languages and guided independent study Certainly a wide variety of

contemporary applications that meet these requirements can fiilfill these guidelines

However these guidelines are so broadly drawn that technologies not yet imagined

constmcted marketed or researched can be effectively implemented for instmctional

purposes

Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) The TAAS is a criterion-

referenced assessment instrument administered to Texas students The core instrument

assesses students skills in writing reading and mathematics at several grade levels At

present TAAS information taken fi-om students in the fourth and eighth grades and fi-om

an exit examination first administered in the tenth grade with multiple opportunities for

mastery Except for a special education exemption given by the Admission Review and

Dismissal (ARD) team for certain special education students Texas students are required

to have successfiilly passed each of the TAAS areas before a high school diploma may be

granted

25

Organization of the Study

This study follows the format and style of the Publication Manual of the

American Psychological Association (APA 1994) in terms of stmcture and organization

for dissertations This present chapter presents introductory material and a statement of

the problem for study Chapter II is a review of related literature tying the postulates of

this study to the established literature base Chapter III describes the research

methodology to be employed along with the context for the study Chapter IV describes

the data analysis for both of the research sub-questions Chapter V provides a summary of

the research its implications and suggestions for fiirther study

26

CHAPTER n

REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Introduction

Fullan and Stiegelbauer (1991) suggest that there will always be the need to make

educational changes as societies become more complex Three broad mechanisms for

effecting these changes include

1 natural disasters

2 extemal forces such as technology values and immigration and

3 intemal contradictions such as changes in technology leading to new social

patterns and needs (Fullan amp Stiegelbauer 1991 p 17)

Innovations then tend to be devised through both political and educational

motives Since technology implementation is included in this list our examination of

technology implementation concems will first discuss the legal foundations of technology

consortium development reasons for collaboration the theory behind change and

diffiision of innovations collaboration then to discuss the theory supporting concems

and finally to discuss some of the means of assessing and evaluating concems of change

facilitators

Technology Consortium Development

The research site for this present study is a technology consortium comprised of

several school districts This consortium will be described fimctionally in Chapter HI but

27

the controlling legal foundations of how this consortium was developed are herein

described fi-om the literature base

A technology consortium is considered an example of an agreement between

state governmental agencies Such an interlocal agreement is defined by the 1971

Interiocal Cooperation Act (the Act) (Vemons Texas Codes Annotated (VTCA)

1991) At present this Act is codified as Chapter 791 of the Texas Government Code

The Act authorizes local governmental agencies to contract with each other or with the

state to provide services to each other Independent school districts are classified as

other governmental fimction as described in sect 791003

Interlocal agreements are required to be authorized by the goveming bodies of

each governmental entity in this case by each member school board sect 791011 provides

for financial cooperation while sect 791013 allows the consortium to designate

administrative personnel to provide services (Bristol amp Jechow 1998)

Hudson (1997) describes the need for interlocal agreements as either being

required by the intensive capital needed for poohng financial resources or requiring a

high degree of special skills such as public utility specialists This technology

consortium requires both capital and technical expertise Resources for purchasing

significant amounts of computer hardware are pooled under sect 791025

Funds for the technology consortium are derived by legal authority in the Texas

Education Code (TEC) Most school districts in Texas are financed under the Minimum

Foundation Program under Chapter 42 of the TEC (VTCA 1996a) Locally generated

28

ftinds are combined with State fimds to provide for the regular education program of

school districts

However certain school districts that are considered property-wealthy have

different financial considerations The value-added nature of such districts may be due to

industry land values or as in this present study mineral wealth specifically petroleum

Chapter 41 of the TEC specifies means to limit the local property wealth per student to

$280000 (sect 41002) Monies in excess of that amount are surrendered to the State

sect 41099 allows for such districts to recapture some of these fimds to support a

technology initiative (VTCA 1996b) Two of the seven districts in this technology

consortium are considered property-rich and serve as financiers for the purchase of

technology for the remaining five districts

Fowler (1998) describes various ways technology consortia have to plan for nuts-

and-bolts administrative details including preparing state and federal reports asset

distribution litigation inclusion into and withdrawl from the consortium and

determining credentials for consortium board membership Chapters III and IV will

describe in greater detail the practical educational applications of this consortium in

operation

Collaboration

A significant part of the innerworkings of a technology consortium is that those in

leadership have mastered the ability to successfiilly collaborate Indeed collaboration

could be considered an innovation in and of itself (Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer

29

1993) Mattessich and Monsey (1992) have identified factors indicative of outstanding

collaborative groups

1 The politicalsocial environment along with a history of previous cooperative

efforts (pp 16-18)

2 Group membership is based on mutual tmst personal self-interest

compromise and a cross-section of the organizations involved (pp 19-22)

3 Group members have a stake in both the process and outcome of decision

making Clear roles and policies must be developed (pp 22-26)

4 Frequent and open communication links should be established (pp 26-28)

5 Reahstic goals and shared vision leading to a unique purpose (pp 28-30)

6 Both financial and human resources should be considered (pp 30-31)

The Change Process

Fullan and Stiegelbauer (1991) identify educational change as developed through

three phases In the initiation (or readiness) phase change leaders establish a need to

make improvements and to assist in the development of vision and planning At this

level intended outcomes of change are identified During the implementation phase

plans are activated to achieve those outcomes Both individuals and organizations

experience change as the result of new leaming experiences and support through follow

up The institutionalization phase stresses the integration of new practices into school

policies budgets routines etc As new needs and plans are identified stmctures are

30

developed to ensure that the newly institutionalized procedures continue to be maintained

(Fullan amp Stiegelbauer 1991 National Staff Development Council 1995)

Diffusion of Innovations

Concems toward innovations have been noted for some time Knowledge of

change is of littie value unless its solutions are diffiised to the level of the practitioner

(Guba 1968) Guba cites Everett Rogers (1955) who describes five stages of diffiision of

innovations

1 Awareness The individual leams of the existence of the innovation

2 Interest The individual seeks more information and considers the merits of

the innovation

3 Evaluation The individual makes a mental application of the innovation and

weighs its merit for his particular situation

4 Trial The individual applies the innovation on a small scale

5 Adoption The individual apphes the innovation for continued use on the basis

of a previous trial (Guba 1968 p 292)

Rogers (1983) builds on his earlier conclusions and adds a description of

characteristics of innovations which explain the differing rates of adoption among groups

1 Relative advantage is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as better

than the idea it supersedes The greater the perceived relative advantage of an

innovation the more rapid its rate of adoption is going to be

31

2 Compatibility is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as being

consistent with the existing values past experiences and needs of potential adopters An

idea that is not compatible with the prevalent values and norms of a social system will not

be adopted as rapidly as an innovation that is compatible

3 Complexity is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as difficult to

understand and use

4 Trialibility is the degree to which an innovation may be experimented with on a

limited basis An innovation that is trialable represents less uncertainty to the

individual who is considering it for adoption as it is possible to leam by doing

5 Observability is the degree to which the results of an innovation are visible to

others The easier it is for individuals to see the results of an innovation the more likely

they are to adopt (Rogers 1983 pp 15-16)

Rogers (1983) describes five categories of individuals accepting irmovations

along a continuum under a normal fi-equency distribution (p 247)

1 Innovators (2 CT below mean) These individuals are described as venturesome

eager to try new ideas desiring the hazardous daring and risky While an innovator

may not be respected by the other members of a social system the innovator plays an

important role in the diffiision process that of launching the new idea in the social system

by importing the innovation fi-om outside of the systems boundaries (p 248)

2 Early Adopters (between 1 and 2 a below the mean) This adopter category

more than any other has the greatest degree of opinion leadership in most social systems

32

(p 249) These are individuals that are the ones to check in with before trying out new

ideas They are the one who enjoy the greatest respect fi-om their associates

3 Early Majority (fi-om mean to 1 CT below mean) These individuals require more

time to deliberate before adopting an iimovation They eventually follow willingly into

the innovation but seldom take the initiative

4 Late Majority (fi-om mean to 1 a above mean) These individuals approach

innovation with caution and skepticism They are not convinced about the innovation

until the social system norms are in place before they will adopt the innovation

5 Laggards (above 1 a above mean) These individuals are the last in the social

system to adopt an innovation They tend to be suspicious of any changes to the social

system and require absolute certainty that new ideas will work

Finally Rogers (1983) suggests that opinion leaders in a social system are the

individuals who lead the group into innovation adoption Rogers identifies generalized

characteristics of opinion leaders that distinguish them fi-om their followers

1 Opinion leaders have greater exposure to mass media than their followers

2 Opinion leaders are more cosmopolite than their followers

3 Opinion leaders have greater change agent contact than their followers

4 Opinion leaders have greater social participation than their followers

5 Opinion leaders have higher economic status than their followers

6 Opinion leaders are more innovative than their followers

33

7 When a social systems norms favor change opinion leaders are more

innovative but when the norms do not favor change opinion leaders are not especially

innovative (Rogers 1983 pp 282-284)

This present research relies heavily on the relative opinion leader status of those

change facilitators fi-om whom data was gathered Because the informants are change

facilitators and their input on technology implementation is considered authoritative

Rogers insights on change facilitators are appropriate here

Concems Theory

In her role as an observer of novice teachers at the University of Texas Frances

Fuller (1969) noted that there were perceptible differences in how experienced and non-

experienced teachers observed their profession

Are typically inexperienced undergraduates not yet ready to benefit fi-om a conventional teacher preparation program What are they ready to leam What does concem them Can we discover regularities in the interests of beginning education students regularities which might fiimish guides to educators in choosing course content and experiences for teacher education programs (Fuller 1969 p 208)

Fuller reviewed the available literature related to the concems of beginning

teachers Her study concluded that their concems primarily centered on classroom

management and perceptions of evaluations She was surprised not only with how

consistently the varied concems were reported but also with what these authors left out

the absence of concems about topics which are usually included in education courses

34

I instmctional design methods of presenting subject matter assessment of pupil leaming

dynamics of child behavior and so on (p 210)

Fullers subsequent research concluded that a developmental conceptualization of

teacher concems was most appropriate

Pre-teaching phase Non-concem ~ During this time before actual contact with

children concems articulated by pre-service teachers were amorphous and vague

Many did not know what to actually be concemed about Much of what these novices

reported could be regarded as hearsay rumors about teaching etc (p 219)

Early Teaching Phase Concem with Self- As the novice educator begins

service concems with Where do I stand and How am I doing were most dominant

(p 220)

Late concems Concems with Pupils - Scant data with experienced educators was

available to Fuller but mature concems appeared to focus on pupil gains and self-

evaluation as opposed to personal gains and evaluations by others (p 221)

Fullers groundbreaking article began the basis for the development of concems

theory She posited significant research implications that were expanded upon by later

researchers

1 Is the concem sequence complete or are there more tasks with specific

competencies to be defined and resequenced

2 Is concem a fimction of the person of the situation of both or of

neither

35

3 Do individuals as well as groups go through these phases Can a

phase be skipped returned to or be in muhiple phases

4 Can these stages be generalized to other groups such as

administrators college professors and non-teaching staff

5 Are concems more related to teaching behavior teacher competency

or student leaming

6 Are these concems measurable Can they be manipulated by

intervention (Fuller 1969 pp 222-223)

With Fullers article the stage was then set for the development of a more

comprehensive method of measuring concems of educators as they deal with innovations

The Role of CBAM

During the period Fuller was conducting her research Gene Hall and his

associates at the University of Texas were also researching teacher needs and concems

initially with a view toward providing relevant staff development activities Their

conceptual fi-amework for ascertaining concems during school change became the

Concems-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) (Hall Wallace amp Dossett 1973)

The CBAM describes feelings perspectives and attitudes of individuals while

they are considering the use of an innovation (Hall 1979) It is a people-oriented model

anticipating what change agents might discover during the change process and generally

used with staff development (Hope 1995) These assumptions undergird the CBAM

36

1 Change is a process not an event Change takes time and is accomplished in

stages

2 The individual is the primary target of interventions designed to facilitate

change in the classroom Institutions cannot change until individuals within them change

3 Change is a highly personal experience The personal satisfactions concems

motivations and perceptions play roles in determining the success or failure of an

innovation

4 The change process is developmental Individuals go through stages in feelings

and perceptions about the innovation as well as in skill of use of the innovation

5 Staff development can be best facilitated by a client-centered diagnostic-

prescriptive model Staff developers must discover what level participants are in the

change process and design activities congment with that level

6 Staff developers need to work in an adaptive yet systemic way They must be

able to assess the change process and adapt training methods to address those changes

(Hall amp Loucks 1978 Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1991)

Within CBAM three aspects of change form the basic fi-ame of reference of the

model

1 the concem that users have about the innovation

2 how the innovation is used and

3 the ways that the innovation can be adapted to meet the needs of individuals

(Hope 1995)

37

This current study focused only on this first strand-concems Using Fullers

research Hall et al redefined Fullers three stages of concem into concems unrelated to

teaching concems about self concems about the task and concems about impact

(Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1991) Seven Stages of Concem (SoC) about the

innovation have been identified (see Appendix A) Hall and his associates have

demonstrated that individuals move through these seven levels in a consistent manner

(Hall 1979 Hall 1985 Hall George amp Rutherford 1977 Hall amp Loucks 1978 Hall

Wallace amp Dossett 1973 Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1991) Stage 0 represents no

concem over the innovation Stages 1 and 2 reflect concems based on self stage 3

represents concem with the task and stages 4 through 6 mirror concems based on pupil

impact

The Stages of Concem Questionnaire the most precise measure of the SoC is a

35-item Likert scale where respondents indicate their present degree of concem about the

topic in an item (Hall George amp Rutherford 1979) Hall et al hypothesize that

individuals will normally flow fi-om the stages in consecutive order and that a scored

profile should place an individual somewhere along the concems continuum It is highly

rigorous and can be used effectively for research for large groups of people and for

tracking groups of people over time

George (1977) provided rehability and validity figures for this instrument

Intemal reliability was shown to be high Table 2-1 shows intemal reliability coefficients

for a 1974 sample (N=830) of teachers and professors A later subsample of teachers

38

Modifications to the content of the SoC have been done (Bailey amp Palsha 1992

Shotsberger amp Crawford 1996) with varying reliability In the main these researchers

concur that teacher concems do indeed occur in stages but differ in the number of stages

they detect

Table 2-1 Coefficients of Intemal Reliability for the Stages of Concem Questionnaire N = 830

Stage Alphas

0 64 1 78 2 83 3 75 4 76 5 82 6 71

(George 1977)

(N=132) was asked to complete the SoC a second time with test-retest correlations

shown in Table 2-2

As an adjunct to the SoC questionnaire the opportunity is presented for the

respondent to provide a written response with an open-ended statement along the lines of

When you think about [the innovation] what are you concemed about An collection

of open-ended statements can give the researcher opportunity to get a quick feeling for

39

Table 2-2 Test-Retest Correlations on the Stages of Concem Questionnaire N=132

Stage Pearson-r

0 65 1 86 2 82 3 81 4 76 5 84 6 71

(George 1977)

the concems of a group Moreover it can ascertain specific issues germane to a particular

group (Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1991) An altemate version of the SoC geared

principally to change facilitators contains an open-ended blank

43 Use this space (and back of this page) to express any concems you have not been able to indicate in the questionnaire (Hall Newlove George Rutherford amp Hord 1991 p 48)

A third means of gaining information is the one-legged interview which can be

done by simply having a conversation with a respondent about the innovation It is called

one-legged because it can be conducted on the mn or brief enough to do while standing

on one leg While not so rigorous as quantitative instruments this format allows for more

simplicity and rapport with chents (Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1991)

40

AppUcations of CBAM

CBAM has been used in a variety of educational situations Malone (1984) used

CBAM to determine concems of pre-service elementary teachers in teaching science

James and Hall (1981) evaluated concems of veteran teachers in implementing new

science curricula

CiccheUi and Baecher (1985 1987) used the CBAM model to study teacher

computer training They found that the level of concems of novice computer-using

teachers was a factor in how staff development was scheduled Their research questions

are similar to this present study

1 What specific concems will teachers have about using microcomputers in the

classroom

2 Do these concems vary and if so to what extent among elementary junior high

and senior high school teachers

3 Are there different concems between male and female teachers

4 In what ways can data yielded fi-om the SoCQ help teacher educators design

effective inservicing (Cicchelli amp Baecher 1985)

Wesley and Franks (1996) observed the voluntary adoption activities of teachers

using computer-assisted instmction (CAI) and multimedia through a variety of staff

development strategies most notably collegiality (Joyce amp Showers 1988) CBAM

developmental stmctures were positively linked to the increasing complexity of

technologies adopted by these teachers As they progress through the SoC teachers

voluntarily adopt technologies toward better leaming in the classroom Hope (1995)

41

examined teachers concems as they gained greater facility with computers in an

elementary school setting

Wells and Anderson (1997) performed studies comparing intemal concems

(stages 0 to 3) and extemal concems (stages 4 to 6) on a variety of computer appUcations

utilized by students in a graduate telecommunications course Prior computer usage in

eight separate skill areas along with general computing experiences was evaluated on the

SoC Ragsdale (1997) used CBAM to research the unexpected reactions of teachers and

students as they work in a variety of technologies Through CBAM Todd (1993) studied

university faculty concems in teacher preparation programs

CBAM is even used in non-scholastic situations Hall and Hord (1987) report

CBAM and SoC used to research nurse training Air Force cadet leadership training

health behavior and textbook sales and service CBAM has been used intemationally

with extensive studies in Belgium the Netherlands and Australia and has been piloted in

Indonesia Venezuela and Thailand (Hall Newlove George Rutherford amp Hord 1991)

The Change Facilitator SoC

The SoC questionnaire was shown to be adequate in determining the concems of

classroom teachers but did not work as well with administrators staff developers and

others who were charged with implementing change (Hall Newlove George Rutherford

amp Hord 1991) Not only were many of the SoC statements often inappropriate for change

facilitators but also scores elicited fi-om change facilitators yielded values skewed higher

in the Impact stages 4 through 6 particularly stage 5 (Collaboration) which is logical

42

considering the definition of stage 5 and the role of the change facilitator (Hall et al

1991 p 15) Earlier studies with change facilitators and CBAM gave impetus for a more

role-related instrument for assessing concems

The net result of this research yielded a set of Change Facilitator Stages of Concem

(CFSoC) The sequence of concems in the CFSoC (unrelated self task impact) is given

in Appendix B As with the SoC the CFSoC again contains 35 Likert-style statements

but each statement is expressed with a more leadership oriented spin Again as in the

earlier SoC Questionnaire Hall et al hypothesize that change facilitators will move along

the same path fi-om one stage to the next in consecutive order

The CFSoC Instrument

This specific instrument formed a significant portion of the data for this present

study and consequently requires more detailed reporting of its development Hall et al

(1991) have prepared a detailed manual describing the development of the instrument

scoring procedures methods of interpretation and reliability and validity data Appendix

C provides the current CFSoC instrument as used in this present study

CFSoC Development

As stated earlier those who had roles as change facilitators exhibited a different

pattem of responses to the SoC questionnaire because the SoC statements are phrased for

users of the innovation (p 15) Hall et al reported that they had to strike a balance

between innovation-related concems and change-facilitator role concems (p 16)

43

Because of this felt need for such a balance in May and June of 1979 Hall et al

instituted a pilot study of a potential change facilitator version of the well-used SoC This

pilot study indicated the need to wholly change the concems statements to reflect change

facilitator roles Additionally they found that the questionnaire items had to reflect the

facilitation of others use of the innovation rather its use per se (p 18) Questionnaire

items for the Impact stages (4-6) had to focus on efforts and concems on revising the

facilitation process rather than personal use of the innovation

Hall et al (1991) describe their later piloting efforts

Pilot data were collected at CBAM workshops for change facilitators in August 1979 in Texas (N=29) and New Mexico (N=23) Item analyses indicated that the intemal reliability of the scales were good (alphas greater than 65 on all scales) but Stages 1 and 2 (Informational and Personal) were too highly correlated This led to fiirther examination of the CFSoC definitions and a new draft of items for Stages 0 12 and 3

In May 1980 a sample of 219 CFSoC Questionnaires was collected by sending the measure to all change facilitators who had participated in Concems-Based Consulting Skills Workshops in 1979 and 1980 Analyses of these responses indicated good reliability and scale intercorrelations for all but Stage 6 (Refocusing) After carefiil analysis of the Stage 6 concept several new Stage 6 items were written and incorporated into the CFSoC

During the summer and fall 1980 an additional set of 288 CFSoC Questionnaires was collected fi-om a variety of workshops and mailings to change facilitators With these data factor analyses and other item analyses were used to select the five items for each stage on the final questionnaire (Hall et al 1991 p 18-19)

Reliability and Validity

Hall et al (1991) report two intemal rehability studies for the CFSoC A 1981

study (N=589) administered the current 35-item scale to a sample group that included a

44

variety of innovations examined job titles and years of experience Table 2-3 shows the

intemal reliability data for each stage Subsequent studies have produced virtually

identical data Another set of CFSoC responses (N=750) yielded the data in Table 2-4

Table 2-3 Means Standard Deviations and Alpha Coefficients for the CFSoC (N=589)

Stage Mean SD Alpha

0 1199 594 61 1 1691 949 85 2 1304 632 62 3 1790 730 72 4 2588 634 70 5 2586 699 77 6 907 652 81

(Halletal 1991p 19)

Table 2-4 Means Standard Deviations and Alpha Coefficients for the CFSoC (N=750)

Stage Mean SD Alpha

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

1320 1920 1140 1766 2477 2499

840

593 925 622 718 672 704 618

63

86

65

73

74

79

81

(Halletal 1991 p 19)

Hall et al conclude These statistics indicate that the scales have adequate

intemal reliability and the scales are consistent across various innovations (p 20) 45

The 1981 study yielded relatively low intercorrelations between stages Such low

intercorrelations indicate that these scales are measuring different concepts Table 2-5

provides a display of the intercorrelations of scale scores

Table 2-5 Intercorrelations of the Scale Scores on the CFSoC (N=589)

Scale 1 2 3 4 5 6

0 15 19 23 -15 -21 22

i 24 09 23

2 37 19

3 32

4

5

18

05

20

67

05

34

09

-06

-15

(Halletal 1991 p 20)

As is noticable in the table most stage correlations are small except for the correlation of

Consequence and Collaboration

Summary and Reflection

To summarize we know a great deal about how schools change fi-om the available

literature Fullan and Stiegelbauer (1991) point out famihar pattems of change and how

individuals adjust through those changes Rogers (1955 1983) insights into the diffiision

of innovations in a social system have expanded and matured with time Rogers points

46

out that those who facilitate change most effectively are those who in the social system

are most effective in social effectiveness Those who would dare to facilitate

technological change would normally reflect Rogers maxims conceming opinion leaders

The concepts of collaborative strategies appear usefiil for a variety of contexts

particularly for cooperative groups of school districts The original Stages of Concem

(SoC) survey continues to be utilized extensively but little hterature exists for the more

restrictive Change Facilitator Stages of Concem (CFSoC) instrument CFSoC authors

appear enthusiastic about its use (Hall amp Hord 1987 Hall Newlove George Rutherford

amp Hord 1991) but as this present research is conducted only one recent article advocates

its use (Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1993)

In communicating with CFSoC personnel they had no direct knowledge of

extensive recent literature on the CFSoC G Hall (personal communication November 2

1998) referred this writer to the original CBAM staff A George (personal

communication November 6 1998) was unable to find extemal validity studies of the

CFSoC There appears a need for this instmment to be used and reported upon

The legal stmctures which provide foundation for establishing a technology

consortium are solidly found in Texas legal literature Because they are based on legal

statutes they could be modified or deleted by subsequent legislatures Moreover the

changing fortunes of Chapter 41 school districts with fluctuating mineral wealth will

make it difficuh to reliably predict the fiiture of such technology consortia

47

CHAPTER m

METHODOLOGY

Study Design

Yin (1994) asserts that the type of research design to be used in any study must be

bounded by (a) the type of research question posed (b) the extent of control an

investigator has over actual behavioral events and (c) the degree of focus on

contemporary as opposed to historical events (p 4)

This present study used the case study method Yin (1993) specifically addressed

and described studies of educational partnerships or consortia as good examples of case

study research The research questions reiterated below are how and why oriented

(Yin 1994) They are presented in the form of a grand tour question what concems the

technology consortium exhibits as a group and sub-questions what concems individuals

(Spradley 1979)

Grand Tour Ouestion

What are the concems of leadership personnel as the TEKS technology

requirements are implemented in their school districts

Sub-questions

1 Where do these school leaders fall on the Concems-based Adoption Model

(CBAM) continuum regarding TEKS technology implementation

48

2 What are the specific concems of these school leaders as these TEKS are

implemented and why are these concems important

Rationale

This research examined details particularly interviewees responses which were

out of this writers direct control This study also focused on contemporary events in a

technology consortium in rural Texas Therefore Yins standards (Yin 1994 p 6) for

applying a case study method were justified

This present study was exploratory As such Yin (1994 p 21) would assert that

specific propositions or underlying assumptions about what we might discover in the

course of the inquiry should not be defined Assumptions tend to interfere with defining

issues they also constmct personal biases to both data gathering and interpretation

Rather Yin suggested that an exploratory study should reflect the purpose of the study

and the criteria by which an explanation will be judged successfiil (p 21) Levine

(1990) concurs that explorations into educational computer use often lack propositions

Many of the published qualitative studies are deemed exploratory by their authors reflecting researchers quandaries about what should be the subject of the inquiry in this new field and of equal importance the lack of any guiding theory against which to cast the qualitative data In general most of the extant models of quahtative investigation into classroom computer use tend to be atheoretical and largely positivist rather than interpretive in their orientation (p 464)

The criteria forjudging an explorations success will be discussed in the later section

dealing with validity and reliability

The unit of analysis for this study was a technology consortium the combined and

49

cooperative efforts of seven school districts to provide instmctional technology leadership

toward better serving their students Such a partnership has collective activities and

outcomes and as a distinct unit represents something greater than activities and

outcomes of member school districts (Yin 1993) Those change facilitators whose

concems were examined were all employed by the individual school districts and were

recognized as leaders within their respective districts Each of these individuals was

asked a set of similar questions Their responses were considered as representative of the

leadership of their individual districts Appendix D provides the list of questions that

were asked

Yin (1993) suggests that topical relevance and access can contribute to the

appropriateness of this research design The consideration of TEKS technology

implementation efforts is being effected during this present academic year and is certainly

current

For linking the data to the research questions the specific analysis strategy used

was the pattem-matching model Those concems registered by the interview participants

were compared with pattems of CBAM data particularly the typical and hypothesized

profiles of school change facilitators as manifested on the Change Facilitator Stages of

Concem (CFSoC) protocol (Hall Newlove George Rutherford amp Hord 1991)

Informants were asked to fill out the brief CFSoC survey The CFSoC manual presented

typical profiles and gave suggested interpretations of representative profiles These were

used to determine the concems rankings of these informants

Yin (1994) admits that there are no precisely set criteria for interpreting findings

In discussing a study by an author named herein Jones Yin made these observations

50

Jones data matched one pattem better than they matched the other But how close does a match have to be so as to be considered a match Note that Jones did not do any statistical test to make the comparison Nor would a statistical test have been possible because each data point in the pattem was a single number for which one could not calculate a variance and could not conduct any statistical test One hopes that the different pattems are sufficiently contrasting that the findings can be interpreted in terms of comparing at least two rival propositions (p 26)

The concems of school change facilitators as they implement new models of

curriculum were studied through the mode of exploratory case study a qualitative study

design Because this current study desired to know the current concems of sitting school

leaders a case study paradigm was used because the events in the study cannot be

manipulated Campbell (1997) suggests that a qualitative design is appropriate when

ascertaining the insiders point of view and the informants personal involvement A

research protocol of examining documents and artifacts and conducting interviews

provided a wide variety of data Moreover as Levine (1990) asserted case study research

could be accomplished relatively quickly Levine suggested that a case study design

appears to be the method of choice for those investigating different facets of educational

uses of computer technology

Clouse and Garrett (1994) suggest more theoretical reasons for utilizing case

study with adult change facilitators Borrowing fi-om Piagetian concepts the stage of

formal operations which forms the basis of case study is well-developed by adulthood

Moreover case study is grounded in the needs of adult leamers because of the

51

meaningfiilness of problems to the aduh and the responsibility they take toward their

own personal development

Stake (1995) describes defining characteristics of case study research that are

apphcable for this present study

1 It is holistic its contextuality is well developed it is case oriented

2 It is empirical it is field oriented its emphasis is on observables including the observations by informants it strives to be naturalistic noninterventionistic and there is a relative preference for natural language description

3 It is interpretive its researchers rely on intuition with many important criteria not specified it is attimed to the fact that research is a researcher-subject interaction

4 It is empathetic although plaimed its design is emergent responsive its reporting provides vicarious experience

(Stake 1995 pp 47-48)

Context for the Study

This study site was selected in consultation with a consultant who had knowledge

of and had worked with this organization I was directed toward one of the Consortiums

superintendents to secure access This superintendent in tum directed me toward a

person at the Educational Service Center who would be able to assist me

This technology consortium was comprised of seven school districts with two

districts declining to participate in this research These districts were rural and agrarian

yet possessed school leaders who tmly wanted to bring their communities up to date with

52

technology These school sites were given pseudonyms which were generated by random

selection of cities fi-om states other than Texas in a current road atlas Names of

participants were given pseudonyms Those names were those of students fi-om my high

school yearbook and were drawn by lot

In general each of the five school districts were in Texas counties which have

declined in population since 1990 The combined population of these districts is 7306

(Texas Almanac 1998) Each districts economy was based on agriculture and varying

amounts of mineral wealth resulting in substantial variance in property values Each

county boasts a relatively low crime rate

More important than minute details this present study is focused on the big

picture the ways and means utiHzed to make this technology consortium a reality In

initial contacts with consortium leadership this researcher was directed toward Dr Sarah

McCuUough a program specialist of the Educational Service Center Region J located in

Center City Texas Dr McCullough was instmmental in establishing this technology

consortium and providing this researcher with the history and innerworkings of this

consortium Interview questions for Dr McCullough are in Appendix E The following

narrative of the foundation and fimctioning of this consortium is based on this

researchers interview with Dr McCullough (personal communication December 9

1998)

The Sah Fork Educational Technology Consortium (the Consortium) is comprised

of seven independent school districts all of which have akeady worked together as a

special education cooperative Six of these districts are members of Educational Service

Center (ESC) Region J while one is actually in the territory of ESC Region K As also

53

with special education cooperatives a technology consortium is an interlocal agreement

by Texas law and has a management board comprised of district superintendents one

district designated as fiscal agent and a chair authorized to speak and act for the group

The Salt Fork Telephone Company (SFTC) headquartered in Dellwood Texas

provides rural telephone service for several counties in Texas All of the school districts

in these counties depend on this provider for both telephone service and the possibihty of

Intemet connectivity In 1995 the SFTC invited school leaders fi-om their service area to

a demonstration in Dellwood to show off a variety of new technologies that they were

excited to announce particularly their new capabiHty for two-way interactive video

Because these districts had worked together before had a common telephone carrier and

had common interests these school leaders concluded it logical and practical to combine

together for technology improvement in their schools

Prior to the Consortiums establishment member districts were limited to only the

computers they currently had in the classroom Almost all of their computers were

stand-alone units Each district also had a satellite dish for the state network materials

but were using them poorly and inefficiently

Dr McCullough was initially hired to work with this group to get a two-way

interactive video setup organized Later she was deeply involved with authoring several

grants for this group Her subsequent work with the Consortium was to conduct an array

of custom-designed technology needs assessments for each of several job descriptions

(teacher counselor administrator etc) with the emphasis on what do you want that you

do not have with the view that technology was the means to fiilfill those needs She now

54

meets regularly with these superintendents as they hold Consortium management board

meetings

Dr McCullough describes the interrelationships of Consortium members

positively She notes very little dissention as they discuss procedures that most decisions

are made by consensus What serves one serves all of them she emphasizes as the

Consortium moves toward better technology use Each board member realizes that they

are at different point toward reaching group goals They realize the benefits of

collaborative planning a hard lesson for everyone to leam

The Consortium keeps operating fiinds in a bank account separate fi-om general

operating fiinds administered by the business manager of the fiscal agent To date

fimding has come fi-om grants and fi-om monies generated fi-om the two member districts

designated as property-wealthy under Chapter 41 of the Texas Education Code These

districts recapture a certain percentage of excess property wealth normally surrendered to

the State and assign those fiinds to the Consortium (see Chapter II) These districts have

voluntarily chosen to redistribute their fiinds in this manner

Because these districts have formed this consortium they not only have more

technology but also more capabilities As a whole there is improved student

performance and better trained teachers with a rise in Academic Excellence Indicator

System (AEIS) scores (see Chapter I) Most importantly these school leaders fimction as

a group They actively seek ways to collaborate

A recent example of this improved outlook on technology concems teachers use

of the Accelerated Reader (AR) program Heretofore it had been difficult to get teachers

to travel all the way to Center City for training for AR but with a high-quality technology

55

center in Dellwood closer to the other Consortium member schools there was high and

enthusiastic tumout for the training sessions

Informant Selection

This researcher invited each of the seven school districts in the technology

consortium to participate in this study In August 1998 a letter was sent to each of the

district superintendents of the Consortium introducing me the goals of the prospective

research how they might participate^ etc A copy of this letter is provided in Appendix F

Within two weeks of the initial invitation a letter was received fi-om one

superintendent stating that in consultation with his districts site-based team they would

decline to participate in this present study That same week this researcher received a

telephone call fi-om the Dellwood ISD superintendent who had been authorized by the

Consortium board to grant permission to use their districts for this study

After securing approval of the Universitys Institutional Review Board these

superintendents were again contacted and consent forms instmctions and CFSoC

surveys were mailed to superintendents building principals and technology coordinators

of the six remaining districts This mailing was in November 1998 Eighteen completed

CFSoC surveys would be the potential maximum Appendix G contains a copy of the

consent forms and instmctions for taking the surveys

Concurrent with mailing queries to Consortium staff this researcher made initial

contact with Dr McCullough of the ESC and conducted an interview with her in

December 1998

56

The mailings yielded only eleven retumed surveys fi-om the maximum eighteen

possible informants However two of those with completed surveys were deleted fi-om

the pool during the pre-interview stage due to lack of fiirther response to interview

queries The net pool yielded exactly three each of superintendents building principals

and technology coordinators representing five school districts These nine informants are

those whose CFSoC profiles and interviews will be discussed in Chapter IV

Data Collection

A variety of data collection methods congment with the case study method was

used leading to the development of converging lines of inquiry allowing triangulation

ofthe data leading to improved validity and reliability of this study (Yin 1994)

Survey The CFSoC instmment contained 35 Likert-style statements which were

grouped into seven stages of concem Each ofthe statements received a score of 0

through 7 The statement scores were added up to provide a raw score for each stage

That raw score was in tum evaluated by a percentile score chart For the given raw

score there was a corresponding percentile score Percentile scores were then encircled

on a CFSoC protocol Interpretation ofthe CFSoC was based on the profile yielded

from the administration ofthe instrument

Hall et al (1991) insist that their instrument must not be used to make a definitive

analysis of a respondent but rather all interpretations must be treated as hypotheses (p

29) They discuss three methods of examining the CFSoC protocol to generate

hypotheses Interpretations can be made either by examining the stage which shows the

highest degree of concem based on percentile score by examining the percentile scores

57

ofthe highest and the second-highest stages or by examining the fiill array of stage

percentile scores Hall et al point out

As individuals move fi-om little concem about facilitating use of an innovation into actively becoming involved with users as a facilitator it is hypothesized that their concems develop fi-om being most intense at Stages 0 1 and 2 to most intense at Stage 3 and uhimately to most intense at Stages 4 5 and 6 This is most likely to occur if the innovation is a positive one and there is administrative support for its implementation However reality has a way of intervening on this idealized trend which results in different and interesting profiles Where an individual is in this change process can best be assessed through interpretation of a complete concems profile Analyzing both the tabular fisting of percentile scores and the plots of these percentile scores as a graph provides the most complete clinical interpretationassessment (Hall et al pp 33-34)

The profiles accuued as part ofthe data collection are thus examined according to

fiill-profile examples given in the CFSoC manual (Hall et al pp 34-42) Additionally

specific information given by the respondents conceming their change facilitator roles is

considered in establishing these hypotheses Scores are interpreted on the shape ofthe

profile and not necessarily on the numerical score of each concem stage

Interviews There were semistmctured interviews with district superintendents

building principals and persons designated within the school community as the

technology coordinator those whom teachers and administrators rely upon when

computer savvy is needed As opposed to the more open-ended interview I made the

interview more focused as Yin (1994 pp 84-85) puts it The informants were busy

educators and administrators and their time was perceived as limited Interviews were

oriented toward ascertaining the informants knowledge and use of technology with a

58

view toward discovering concems they had as new curricular guidelines and concurrent

hardware implementation was instituted Interviews were conducted by telephone tape

recorded and transcribed for review Interview queries were based on the CFSoC

questionnaire (Hall et al 1991) and questions used in a similar dissertation project

(Nagy 1996) This researcher noticed that several questions as listed in Appendix D

would be commented on by the informants without being asked When each ofthe

questions were answered by the informant the interview ceased Any discussion of non-

germane issues (local school politics vocational programs etc) or school activities not

included in Chapter 126 ofthe TEKS were not evaluated

Documentation Merriam (1988) defines documents as just about anything in

existence prior to the research at hand (p 105) but cautions whether it contains

information or insights relevant to the research question and whether it can be acquired in

a reasonably practical yet systematic manner (p 105)

I wanted to review a wide variety of recent public records in the fiirtherance of

technology implementation for this Consortium including but not limited to school

board minutes technology consortium records established policy statements grant

applications tabular data and evaluations Not all of these documents were available

fi-om Dr McCullough or fi-om Consortium members What was available included the

initial grant applications needs assessment surveys and technology plan The Academic

Excellence Indicator System (AEIS) reports for the 1997-98 school year for each district

were retrieved fi-om the TEA web site (TEA 1999) During the course of informant

interviews certain legal documents were alluded to found in Vemons Texas Codes

Annotated and were useful in verifying interview data A current survey (September

59

1998) ofthe Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) provided a comparison

of similarly situated school districts for technology use Cumulative accountability data

conceming these districts was found in pubhc records (TEA 1995 1996 1997a 1998)

Standardized indicators of district performance could thus be obtained as evidence of

progress

Merriam (1988) suggests that the use of these documents assists in grounding a

study into the context ofthe problem that is under investigation A further purpose of

reviewing documentation is that such records present not only the history ofthe

technology program but also the sense of ownership and commitment that the leadership

exerts and the staff reflect in their service to their leaming communities We also seek

independent objective means to determine if these technology implementations yield any

progress thus avoiding halo effects fi-om those most intimately involved with the

organization

Data Analysis

Since data collection and data analysis drive one another (Gay 1997) the data

was organized to reflect pattems or themes which emerged fi-om the data (Bogdan amp

Biklen 1992) As they discuss evaluating data they affirm that a method of finding a

focus is to look over your coding categories and see which have yielded the greatest

amount of data (p 186)

The interview transcripts were read and reread to gamer a sense ofthe concems

manifested by the informants The analysis had to be germane to the viewpoint ofthe

informant (Tashakkori amp Teddlie 1998) Coding categories emerging fi-om the interview

60

data included student leaming distance leaming power attitudes training infrastmcture

and finance The relevant narrative fi-om the hard copies ofthe transcripts were color

coded by crayon By using the cut-and-paste editing method with the word processor

color coded text fi-om individuals transcripts were collated into listings of specific

concems

Bogdan and Biklen (1992) suggest that this method of sorting piles of coded

material helps the researcher in not only making better sense ofthe data but also

communicating the results to others Appendix H shows the broad categories or themes

along with the sub-categories which comprised each theme

Since both quantitative and qualitative data were used in this present research it

becomes vital to justify the use of each paradigm and how the data is analyzed within that

paradigm Tashakkori and Teddlie (1998) wholeheartedly affirm that the two paradigms

can be successfully fused into one study They suggest that researchers deemed

pragmatic do not necessarily have to be doctrinaire about research paradigms Among

the various research models they describe is included a mixed-model study which

includes a research design that calls for a field experiment and extensive ethnographic

interviewing to occur simultaneously and in an integrated manner (p 19)

The CFSoC survey (Hall et al 1991) was analyzed as per the instmctions given

and the examples displayed in Section IV of their instruments manual Since each

informant could be considered at an individual position on the CFSoC concems

continuum a hypothesized profile was made for each informant based on the relative

extremes in percentile ranks derived fi-om the raw scores ofthe seven concem stages on

61

the CFSoC protocol (pp 33-34) Hall et al took pains to remind CFSoC users that the

quantitative results could only be considered data to generate hypotheses (p 43)

The examples given in the CFSoC manual make comparisons ofthe various high

stages that informants exhibit For example a high raw score in Stage 3-Management

would reflect that the informant may have significant concems toward logistics time and

management in fulfilling professional duties vis-a-vis implementing the discussed

innovation A high raw score at Stage 0-Awareness uniquely and specifically indicates

that the informant may have many other concems in addition to the innovation currently

in question These extemal concems could be any other activities that vie for a change

facilitators limited attention that outweigh the immediate concem for the stated

innovation Hall et al describe a variety of combinations and relative positioning of those

concems that are most prominent in the informants thinking Data reporting of

informants CFSoC profiles in Chapter IV will reflect analysis strategies described by

Hall et al in their manual (Hall et al 1991 pp 34-42)

Tashakkori and Teddlie (1998) assert that the qualitative field material (notes

interviews etc) be evaluated on two dimensions a) whether the themes or categories

were established a priori or emerged during the analysis and b) the degree of complexity

ofthe qualitative analysis scheme (ranging fi-om simple to complex) (p 117) They note

that through this process of emerging themes six to eight categories or themes emerge

when no a priori mle is imposed on informants

Because the data would be analyzed using recurring themes (Glesne amp Peshkin

1992 Howard 1994 Miles amp Huberman 1984) emerging fi-om the course of

interviewing the technique of latent content analysis was used As opposed to manifest

62

content the surface meaning of a text latent content refers to determining the underlying

meaning of a narrative and is determined by a subjective evaluation ofthe overall

content ofthe narrative (Tashakkori amp Teddhe 1998 p 122)

The text ofthe interviews was read several times for topics that the informants

found important Those topics which appeared most fi-equently emerged as the themes

Tashakkori and Teddlie point out that this analysis scheme makes it more appropriate for

the phenomenon being studied (p 123)

Verification Strategies

Maxwell (1996) insists that validity in a quahtative study is not acquired simply

by applying boilerplate techniques and strategies but by describing specific ways and

means of mling out possible altematives to our interpretations and conclusions Maxwell

insists that validity is a goal rather than a product it is never something that can be

proven or taken for granted (p 86) Moreover validity must be determined within the

context ofthe research and not merely a property independent ofthe context For each of

three principal means of understanding Maxwell describes a specific method that I was

able to use to better ensure validity

1 Description Since the main threat to description is inaccuracy the informant

interviews were recorded on cassette tape and transcribed Each ofthe informants was

sent a copy ofthe transcribed conversation for review verification and suggestions

2 Interpretation The principal threat to interpretation is imposing my own

meanings to the informants words To combat this validity threat consistent member

checks were made during the course ofthe interviews to ensure that I was getting the

63

correct information from the informant It was important to allow each informant to

express himself or herself in their own words Several methods of eliminating personal

bias are described below

3 Theory Not paying adequate attention to altemative propositions becomes the

most serious threat to theoretical validity (Maxwell 1996 p 89-90) Altemative

propositions can be masked by researcher bias and reactivity

Elimination of researcher bias is based on understanding how my personal biases

could affect the informants and their comments and my conclusions subsequently

derived Maxwell declares that is virtually impossible to totally eliminate my personal

thinking and values from the study (p 91) By asking similar questions of informants by

allowing these informants to candidly express themselves and by consistent member

checking I controlled for personal bias

Reactivity the influence ofthe researcher on the informants is likewise

impossible to totally remove from the research as Maxwell insists

For interviews in contrast reactivity is a powerful and inescapable influence what the informant says is always a function of the interviewer and interview situation What is important is to understand how you are influencing what the informant says and how this affects the validity ofthe inferences you can draw fi-om the interview (p 91)

Lists of what to do to combat reactivity have been compiled (Marshall amp

Rossman 1989 Maxwell 1996) but all of these suggestions (triangulation member

checks audits etc) are simply the usual methods in qualitative research Since there are

64

virtually no qualitative studies ofthe research instrument available for comparison I have

relied on these procedures to control for biases

1 Feedback Maxwell (1996) encourages the use of a variety of outside observers

to examine the data analysis and give their comments to critique my logic and methods

Two individuals with experience with both technology and research methods have agreed

to assist me with this and evaluate the data analysis

a Mr Jack P Stell instmctional design manager Fairfax VA and b Dr C L Wayne Moore Assistant Professor University of Tennessee Knoxville

With differing perspectives and biases these reviewers indicated agreement that

the research methodology proposed was indeed followed and that the research questions

were answered They pointed out grammatical and spelling errors writing style concems

adherence to APA requirements etc

2 Member Checks Although informants were given repeated opportunities to

clarify themselves in the interviews informants were given the opportunity to respond to

the data analysis specifically identifying themselves

3 Rich Data Maxwell (1996) considers rich data to be detailed and complete

enough that they provide a full and revealing picture of what is going on (p 95) This

generally includes verbatim transcripts of interviews which were compiled for each of

the Consortium informants As the data was read and considered themes emerged fi-om

the data

4 Numerical Report Data This researcher used numerical and normally

quantitative data to add to the confidence level of what my informants were saying

There was particular concem with whether the efforts ofthe Consortium were making

65

any progress over the time period from its establishment to the time ofthe interviews

Publicly available data was gamered from AEIS and TAAS reports to ascertain progress

in school performance

Study Limitations

This study focused on technology implementation concems of change facilitators

of a single technology consortium limiting the representativeness ofthe study The

combined student population of these five districts is smaller than many urban high

schools Interview responses reflected a rural attitude Findings yielded reflect the

comments of those interviewed at the time ofthe study There may be a variety of future

long-range plans pending that might modify present policies These would include grants

bond issues school board elections or even newer state mandates

Nevertheless this study must transcend these limitations in order to be of interest

and find applicability by other scholars Yin (1994) hastens to point out that the case

study paradigm relies on analytical generalization not experimental statistical

generalization to generalize the results to a broader theory (p 36) Yin suggests

replication of a case study with similar sites before a general theory can gain wider

acceptance

There is also the problem of apphcability to school settings markedly different

from those studied However issues that are common to school districts in general could

be expressed by these informants (eg concems over funding student leaming staff

development or transfer of power)

66

CHAPTER IV

RESULTS OF THE STUDY

Informant and CFSoC Profiles

As discussed in Chapter III Consortium informants were sent a copy ofthe

CFSoC questionnaire and those protocols were retumed to this researcher These

informants responses have been evaluated according to guidelines established by Hall et

al (1991) This instmment does not consign each informant to each ofthe seven stages of

concem but rather categorizes the informant in a broader category of CBAM either

Awareness Self Task or Impact as was discussed in Chapter II Consequently each

informant will be designated by the general category based on their individual CFSoC

profile TheCFSoC protocols for each ofthe informants are included as figures in this

chapter

James

James Petty is the high school principal at Camden a position he has held for over

fifteen years James considers himself a practical person and professes a rather traditional

attitude toward his administrative duties The interview with James repeatedly mentioned

school discipline and teacher control ofthe classroom He readily admitted to relying on

other persons to inform him on technological issues rather than researching the data

himself

James CFSoC profile (Figure 4-1) exhibited extremely high levels of concem

with Awareness Management and Personal stages with percentile scores over 90 The

67

0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage 0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score 99 69 99 96 13 21 68

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-1 CFSoC Profile of James Petty Camden Principal

68

high Personal score suggests a concem for personal position and standing while the high

Awareness score indicates a diversity of issues facing him which to him are of greater

importance particularly classroom management Also a high Management score implies

time logistical and managerial concems The moderately high Refocusing score

indicates James has thought about altematives to the innovation and would be exhibiting

definite ideas and opinions over the technology implementation This profile suggests

James is not as likely to be involved in the change process as others might be Attempts

to intervene could intensify his current levels of concem Because ofthe high scores in

the Self array of stages I would hypothesize James to be in the SELF stage of concem

Bill

Bill Potter is the technology coordinator for the Camden schools although he

continues to teach math for much of his school day Bill leamed his present trade largely

by doing it Although relatively new to computers (less than fifteen years) Bill considers

himself to have been oriented toward technology from his military days as an Army pilot

during the 1960s to the present His formal computer training has only been in a few

junior college classes and some inservice training Bill credits his technology reputation

to being the one who knew how to operate the computer at an earlier date than his peers

Although in the technology coordinator role Bills highest CFSoC profile (Figure

4-2) score was in Awareness This is most likely attributable to having many other

professional concems at present particularly since he remains a classroom teacher for

69

0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

91 56 62 60

5 12 18

2 3 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-2 CFSoC Profile of Bill Potter Camden Technology Coordinator

70

much ofthe school day as well as his increaseingly greater role in his school district He

may also just now be beginning to envision himself as a change facilitator

Information Personal and Management scores are no more than six percentile

points apart suggesting personal status and time logistical and managerial concems are

also important to Bill An increased Refocusing score also indicates Bill has some

definite ideas about the innovation that warrant consideration Bill manifests a SELF

stage of concem for this iimovation based on his CFSoC profile

Ronnie

Ronnie Bennett has been technology coordinator at Dellwood for just a few years

but has a long reputation and a deep pioneering attitude not only toward computers but to

a wide array of technology Ronnie was the first at his school to use a computer first with

a VCR first with a CD player and first to tinker with quadrophonic sound Like Bill

Ronnie first leamed computing by doing it In addition Ronnie observed and later

worked with the various private vendors and technicians who provided technology

services to his building

Ronnies CFSoC profile (Figure 4-3) indicates several areas of concem High

Awareness and Personal scores indicate many concems other than the present technology

implementation Ronnie also considers his personal position and role in the school

organization to be important The similar scores in Management and Refocusing reflect

his concem for time and managerial issues and his definite additional ideas toward the

71

0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

99 76 97 91 39 40 92

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-3 CFSoC Profile of Ronnie Bennett Dellwood Technology Coordinator

72

innovation that might warrant consideration Ronnie appears to border between the SELF

and TASK stages of concem

Larry

Larry Beckman a former agriculture teacher has been the superintendent at

North Prairie for a few years Larry realizes his mral attitudes and folksy manner but

demonstrates by his proactive approach to leadership that advancing technology in his

district is in the best interests of his students and staff He has had little formal training

intechnology except for several workshops However Larry credits a hands-on

technology approach as most effective for himself

Larry had relatively high percentile scores for each ofthe seven stages of concem

with a low of 68 in Consequence Larrys highest CFSoC profile (Figure 4-4) score was

Management suggesting that the physical nuts and bolts and managerial concems

were most important Information scoring higher than Awareness indicates a better

understanding ofthe details ofthe innovation Larrys lowest scores in Personal

Consequence and Collaboration were only five percentile points apart suggesting

relatively lower concem for interpersonal interests He also scored high in Refocusing

suggesting that he is considering additional ideas about the iimovation that should be

considered Because ofthe high degree of management concems Larry would be best

described as being in the TASK stage of concem

73

0

100

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

87 89 73 94 68 72 92

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-4 CFSoC Profile of Larry Beckman North Prairie Superintendent

74

Mike

Mike McCoy has spent almost a decade at Sawtooth as superintendent Like

several others Mike is perceived as a doer having leamed a great deal about

technology through practical application Mike has a more direct responsibility with his

staff doing teacher evaluations and performing first-line maintenance with his buildings

technology He credits both a number of technology workshops and reading of

technology periodicals as being great sources of information

Mike as superintendent has many concems on his mind as his CFSoC profile

(Figure 4-5) indicates with a high score in Awareness His second highest score

Management suggests that he feels the cmnch of managerial and material concems for

his district Low Information and Personal scores could suggest that he feels secure in his

position and understanding ofthe innovation implementation A slight increase in

Refocusing fi-om Collaboration suggests that Mike is considering some ideas in addition

to the innovation implementation Because more personal concems are lower and the

managerial concems are high Mike appears to be in the TASK stage of concem

Vemon

Vemon Russell has well over three decades of public school service currently

finding himself as principal ofthe Sawtooth school Indeed he still teaches some science

classes and has even coached football while still an administrator Vemon is relatively

new to technology but indicates his willingness to leam by studiously reading the

manuals and attending workshops Vemon quips Ive leamed more from it in the last

three years than all the other years put together

75

0 100

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

96 43 34 82 9

18 31

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-5 CFSoC Profile of Mike McCoy Sawtooth Superintendent

76

Vemons CFSoC profile (Figure 4-6) shows him interested and positive about the

innovation with the higher Information score but the high Management score shows

Vemon still concemed over his day-to-day details Low Personal and even lower

Consequence and Collaboration scores and both raw and percentile scores of zero for

Refocusing indicate little concem over his facilitative role his personal status nor his

interest in exploring altematives toward this innovation At this late stage of career

Vemon appears comfortable in his knowledge ofthe innovation Vemon also appears to

be in the TASK stage of concem based on the high Management score

Renee

Renee White a mid-career educator occupies the technology coordinator

designation at Sawtooth schools Having been a secretary for twenty years Renee

considers herself adept at any technology thrown at her Describing herself as the chief

distributor of information Renee considers herself glad not to have a computer in her

home because she would play with it indefinitely

Renee exhibits similarly high percentile scores in Awareness and Management on

her CFSoC profile (Figure 4-7) These scores imply Renee has both a variety of concems

in addition to the innovation implementation and also concems over time logistics and

management of her responsibilities Similarly low percentile scores in Information

Personal Consequence and Collaboration suggest lesser concem for personal position

and collaboration needs A slight upswing in the Refocusing score suggests a concem for

articulating altemative ideas Renee seems to exhibit a TASK stage of concem

77

0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

69 81 30 78 16 4 0

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-6 CFSoC Profile of Vemon Russell Sawtooth Principal

78

0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

91 18 30 86 2 3

18

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-7 CFSoC Profile of Renee White Sawtooth Technology Coordinator

79

David

David Jackson has been an administrator for decades and is the superintendent at

Woodlake David recognized the potential of computers and technology as soon as

computers became widely available to schools He enjoys being involved with the nuts

and bolts details of technology implementation even to the point of being involved with

the wiring for hardware implementation

David shows the same percentile score for both Awareness and Information on his

CFSoC profile (Figure 4-8) This impHes Davids concem for a variety of issues at

present and a desire to leam more about the innovation A relatively high Management

score suggests physical and managerial concems Lower scores in Personal and

Consequence imply that personal position and impact are not as important to David

Nevertheless Davids higher scores in Collaboration and Refocusing suggest a desire to

work together with others to make an impact on their leamers and to consider

altematives to innovation implementation David appears to be in the IMPACT stage of

concem very much concemed with how well he facilitates change with his staff

Stephen

Stephen Greer has been secondary principal at Woodlake for several years He has

always been interested in technology but attributes his current increased level of interest

to his rising to his present administrative post Stephen describes himself as a leamer

enjoying researching a problem and its solution A former math teacher and coach

Stephen considers himself an innovator

80

100

0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness I- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

87 87 30 74 13 60 68

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-8 CFSoC Profile of David Jackson Woodlake Superintendent

81

0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1 - Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

81 61 73 93 62 60 13

2 3 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-9 CFSoC Profile of Stephen Greer Woodlake Principal

82

Stephens highest percentile score on his CFSoC profile (Figure 4-9) was in

Management implying greatest concem with logistical and managerial concems A

somewhat lower score in Awareness suggests concems over other issues at present

Similar percentile scores in Personal Consequence and Collaboration could be

interpreted as concem for his impact for his facilitative and collaborative styles A very

low Refocusing score implies that Stephen is not considering altematives to the

innovation at this time Stephens profile best reflects the TASK stage of concem

Summary of CFSoC Data

To summarize these school change facilitators demonstrate a variety of change

facilitator strengths and had at least one individual in each ofthe CBAM stages (SELF

TASK IMPACT) Most of them score relatively high in Awareness suggesting that there

are other competing issues for that individuals time Management also scores

consistently high suggesting the day-to-day managerial and logistical details of the job is

of major importance to each informant Individuals appeared to be on a higher CBAM

stage as they held a higher position in the school district although there were some

differences which could be due to experience with the innovation

Informant Concems

Informant concems were also collected as described in Chapter III Each

informants interview was tape recorded and transcribed Copies ofthe transcriptions

were sent to each informant for confirmation prior to data analysis

83

Seven overriding themes emerged across these interviews These were topics that

appeared to be important to these informants as they implemented new technologies in

their school districts in relation to the TEKS for technology applications The informants

registered strong opinions over these themes To reiterate these themes are discussed in

regard to the Consortium as a whole since the focus ofthe study was not on inter-role

relationships

Attitudes

The informants collectively expressed concems over the attitudes of themselves

their peers and their staffs There was high concem over the prevailing desire to keep

current with the technology David Jackson Woodlake Superintendent was a pioneer in

his district with implementing computer use and describes those early days

When we got our first network and put computers in the classroom that is the first keyboard many of our teachers had ever touched in their life as far as a computer keyboard Had no idea how to tum it on Had no idea how to apply software Knew nothing Scared them to death Still have a few that are very reluctant to use a computer or Intemet or any type of technology of that sort in the classroom

David feels that his some of his staff still manifest a degree of reluctance to use

technology

So the biggest challenge that Ive had is getting teachers to acquaint themselves with computer technology and cable technology all the technologies that have been made available to them You know its not going to do any good if they dont know how to use it

84

Larry Beckman North Prairie Superintendent recognizes the need to keep his

district current with new technology

And I think a part of that is that a lot of us out here we know well I dont know whether we know or whatever but anyway we feel like maybe that weve got to try and stay on top of it as much as we can because we are so far away from anything And if we dont we dont stay on top of it were basically hurting our kids because you know if they graduate fi-om here and go over to Tech or to AampM or somewhere like that then they run into these situations you know theyve never seen any kind of this kind of equipment then theyre already two years behind everybody

Stephen Greer Woodlake Principal believes he is indeed on the fi-ont edge of

the curve at this point in time but credits his rising to an administrative post as a turning

point in his attitudes toward technology

Really up until the time I became an administrator we were the kind of on the back end ofthe curve there for a while but I feel were comfortable where we are right now technology wise

So much ofthe difficulty in implementing technology has centered on the fear of

change These informants encounter these fears daily both within themselves and their

staffs There appears to be a generational gap in acceptance of technology James Petty

Camden Principal considered his teachers and noted

I definitely see a difference in the age groups Those that are five years away from retiring are more difficult to get into use ofthe computer maybe a lot of times And probably the younger ones its just much easier for them to accept and to use a computer right off

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Similarly Vemon Russell Sawtooth Principal chalks it up to age and experience

level

We have one or two teachers who use it but use it sparingly you know what Im saying But we have other teachers I think that use it a lot Probably our primary grades its used less in K through 1 than anywheres But then they are traditional teachers Theyve been teaching a long time

Concurring David Jackson correctly noted

Because many of our teachers are intimidated by the fact that the students in their classroom know a whole lot more about the technology available in the classroom than they do Which is not uncommon I think in many schools

Bill Potter Camden Technology Coordinator marvels at the older teachers lack

of desire to advance in technology

Its like the older teachers you know they put that thing over in the comer and dust it off just like that F-16 out in front ofthe park you know Nobody knows how to fly it but boy we maintain it and it stays shiny Thats they way a lot of these older teachers treat their computers Theyre afraid to tum them on see so weve got to overcome that fear

Bill suggests that some ofthe more sophisticated technologies now in homes

might influence younger educators greater acceptance of technology

Of course as these people retire and theyre going to get here pretty quick I imagine in our school system and the younger ones take to more technology and the younger they get the better theyre going to be because theyve all grown up with VCRs and your microwaves

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Renee White Sawtooth Technology Coordinator would add that teachers

purchasing of personal computers improves their attitudes toward technology

A lot ofthe teachers own personal computers and so increasingly at our school theres a higher comfort level with using them and with experimenting and trying to figure things out than there was just two years ago I dont know if its a change in personnel or it its simply the exposure has increased the comfort level Maybe some of both

Larry Beckman as a district leader strongly realizes that m the face of change

positive efforts to make change happen is preferable to ignoring the need for change

It forces you you know its kind of like you can either get on the boat and help paddle or you can get off and swim Id rather be in the boat paddling and trying to stay up with it because I dont swim very fast

Ronnie Bennett Dellwood Technology Coordinator strongly rejects the notion

that change is bad After decades in the classroom and office Ronnie is aware how

attitudes shape teaching activity

A long time ago I leamed that change is not always bad And I guess back there when I first decided you know I told myself there were a lot of people that said Computers are not for me I remember that and I told myself I thought I could either leam how to do this or Im going to fall by the wayside And having always been interested in technology and all change has never been a problem for me And it is for a lot of folks People that have taught school a certam way for twenty or twenty-five years and suddenly you interject this new thing called technology or computers and some people just say Now wait a minute I didnt think what I was doing was all that bad

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Ronnie suggests that some teachers might be blinded to their own attitudes about

their teaching practices

As a regular classroom teacher I know that the way I present things and the way the kids I dont present things anything like I did when I first started teaching at all And thats because kids change times change You cant stay the same Things dont stay the same You have to be willing to you know if theres a better way to do something you know what we have is we have a lot of people that have been in this profession for twenty twenty-five some of them nearly thirty years and they taught the same lesson wrong for thirty years Just because youve done it over and over and over doesnt mean that its right

Power

In addition to changes in attitudes changes in school curricula educational

methods extemal mandates etc also bring about changes in power Who has the

authority Who decides what to do Who calls the shots These issues were on the minds

ofthe informants

Crawford Bodine and Hoglund (1993) distinguish attributes of recognized power

by de iure school leaders from perceived powerment of classroom personnel Power for

the sitting administrator is the fi-eedom fi-om being told by others what to do (p 143)

The classroom person being empowered to leadership is instead acknowledged their

power and receives fi-eedom to exercise that responsibility with a minimum of

bureaucratic or managerial constraints (p 232)

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Technology appears to be a key means of providing teachers the empowerment to

collaborate Ronnie Bennetts early vision of computers manifested prescience

I remember thinking you know This is a way for teachers to share things I remember thinking that you know that teachers had access to a machine that would allow them to communicate back and forth with teachers at other schools then would share all this information Of course now with e-mail and the Intemet thats what they want everybody to do

Not only does technology empower the teacher but also the leamer Stephen a

secondary principal would hope that his teachers realize the need to surrender some of

their perceived power with a view toward improving instmction

I have tried to push for change away fi-om lecturelisten and readtake notes multiple choice assessment And I have pushed for learner-centered self directed leaming What I couldnt achieve through preaching and bullying technology has almost single-handedly achieved for me in that area

Renee noted that often her students were akeady prepped to use the technology

She had no quahns over accepting a more facilitative role with her students

Now the fact was you know the computers were there and the kids were going to leam about them whether I helped them or not because thats the nature of children They like that technology theyll figure it out with you or without you

Not only direct instmction but also day-to-day teacher practices are being

changed due to technology Stephen related anecdotes about the changes technology

made in unbalancing teachers perceived status and power

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Ive witnessed the evolution of one of our teachers in particular that happens to be a coach that when he and I both appeared on this campus ten years ago he was strictly a traditional instmctor But Ill tell you right now its hard for him or has been hard for him but hes making the move successfully to give up the stmcture to give up the power and tum the power of leaming over to the students rather than the power being wielded by the teacher Thats been a hard stretch and technology it helps it gives you a venue to shift that power but at the same time there are sticky issues Obviously fi-ee speech issues obscenity issues those kind of things that are introduced with the advent of technology

Just getting traditional teachers to use a simple software package has tumed into

virtual showdowns in the administrative office Stephen gives an example from a

colleagues experience that echoes his own understanding

I think of an administrator fiiend of mine in a school in the Panhandle and theyre trying to move the rank-and-file in that direction And they are to the point where grades are submitted on disk at the end ofthe semester And they just have one math teacher as it tums out thats refiised you know just-was-not-going-to-do-it you know and finally his principal after two directives the third time he went down there and said Look you will tum your gradebook in on disk in May or you will not be working here in August That simple Step out But there are a lot of people that are nervous and I think its fear mostly I think its fear

The imposition of new ideas and new procedures can have an intimidating effect

on traditional teachers and administrators a relinquishing of power James admittedly a

traditional administrator relates that some of his teachers might be following his lead in

leaming new things

Its like making them do something that you know theyre required to do and theyre only doing it because they have to Maybe

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Im like them or theyre like me in that some of us older dogs its a bit more difficuh to teach us something new or change

If leaming technology is merely a requirement for continuing teacher development

and not something that is perceived as needed then teachers will exhibit reluctance in

adoption of new technologies

As new technologies are implemented in schools there is the need for immediate

assistance in using the technology Those persons designated as technology coordinator

of a building or a district have had a modicum of perceived power bestowed on them

although each of these coordinators who have acted as informants still spends a

significant portion of their day in the classroom

Ronnie Bennett relates that his experiences with a number of superintendents

have tacitly acknowledged his expertise

Ive always been the kind of person that if something is broke that somehow ends up in my hands

Often they would say to Ronnie You tell me what you want or what to do

Ronnie appreciated one superintendent that was particularly supportive

(Conceming administrative support) but Buster (the superintendent) was like you know he wanted in there boy But he just about anything I ever wanted or needed you know he was just he was ready And he knew what I was talking about above all whereas a lot ofthe others had no idea what I was talking about

Bill found himself stumbling into his role as technology coordinator

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But as far as being specifically trained for this Im not I just picked it up as I went and I was the guy that knew how to tum the computer on so I got the job you know as the Computer Gum You know the people the powers that be many of them ofthe teachers looked at me as having expertise really that I didnt have I just had one at home and knew how to tum it on they didnt They just thought I was genius you know so thats how I inherited this job

Later Bill found himself besieged by folks wanting his specialized knowledge

As kids leam more and more of this (computers) then we have people I have people you know that call and want to What kind of computer do I need to buy Of course you know thats like trying to recommend the type of automobile (they need to buy) and you dont want to get into that

Renee would chalk up her perceived expertise to her job title She has been skilled

with computers for years but has not always had people wanting her knowledge about

computers while she officially taught another subject at another school

So anyway I knew a lot about computers before other people but (because I taught home economics) no one ever asked me anything about computers at that school The whole year I was there no one had a question about computers All of a sudden because I teach computers I am the computer gum the shift in the role simply came with the title So I think what Im trying to say is is it the title itself dictating your role Not so much at first your knowledge so thats helpful and certainly its going to keep people coming back if youve been able to help them but simply your title itself says Oh you must have explanations that will help us here

Nevertheless final authority remains in the hands of de iure administrators One

ofthe technology coordinators explains

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And another thing too is that the administrator has the authority and theres a lot of things that I can see like I see we need to be doing training and that sort of thing but I dont have the authority in order to make that happen But until you get these administrators that are you know technologically oriented you know its hard to make things like that happen

This same technology coordinator feels fhistrated with trying to get teachers to use

technology and insists that those in leadership need to take charge and lead

Weve got these people at that level like the administrative level who have to provide the leadership that have the authority to make things happen and its like convincing someone you know youve got to convince them ofthe fact that it needs to be done Theyre too comfortable with you know getting the basketball games arranged and all this sort of thing and making sure a teachers in a certain classroom but boy when it comes to technology unless that person has used a computer its foreign to them

Student Leaming

The educational leadership literature points us to student learning as the ultimate

goal in any educational enterprise These informants unanimously echoed that concem

Unless the school staff perceive that the technology hardware is adequate to provide

quality educational experiences for the students the hardware is of little value Larry a

superintendent wonders why anyone would think otherwise

(Conceming his site-based committee) And then let them kind of I guess decipher what it is that they can use what it is that we need for our students how its going to benefit the kids whenever we get this stuff Whats going to be the benefit for the kids Are we going to teach them how to use it or are we just going to put it in the comer

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Because he perceives that both students and staff are using the machinery effectively

Larry is more encouraged to plan for an increase in hardware for his district

Renee has been enmeshed in the technology for so long and has seen so much

progress with her students that they find technology use as normal

The kids who are in the tenth grade this year started school with computers They started kindergarten in Sawtooth with computers theyre the first class And when they hit my eighth grade class in computer literacy two years ago all I had to do was say Heres the program I want you to go to the menus at the top ofthe screen and see whats under each menu and get an idea of where things are Now I want you to create a PowerPoint presentation with these elements and I promise you other than probably a four or five minute demonstration on the program how it operated I did not have to tell those kids a thing It was OK where you expect them

Because of implementation of technology teachers are not only expected to use it

and thereby improve their teaching but also to increase student leaming Stephen a

secondary principal noticed the difference almost immediately

When we became connected and we put our computer labs online and when we got computers that are interfaced with televisions that are hooked into the Intemet and also to cable in the classroom Then automatically the teachers saw the convenience and the usefulness of using technology in what they do It sort of served as a catalyst to move fi-om traditional lecture instmction to student self-directed leaming To me thats the biggest change

Stephen considers technology as the catalyst in many areas of education He

integrates his technology concems with more global interests

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Technology is proving to be a wonderful thing and a wonderfijl instmctional aid and in a large sense in my mind its the thing thats driving the conversations we have in the political realms regarding charter schools home schools private school vouchers because we dont have the monopoly on education any more and I think thats a good thing I think students and their parents are going to look for the most bang for their buck and theyre going to look for education thats provided to them opportunities and experiences thats provided to them in a non-encumbering way To me the biggest question is in relation to technology is how to predict where were going

If indeed the quality of teaching is critical toward student leaming technology is

not always believed to be a positive factor in such progress David a superintendent is

not happy with some ofthe pervasiveness of technology in the classroom

I may be totally wrong but probably thats going to be the biggest area of change is the way we deliver instmction to students other than one-on-one in the classroom I see the day that the kids here at Woodlake schools will be watching the TV monitor

As a traditional administrator in a traditional school James has reservations on

how well teaching quality is exhibited when mixed with various technologies and

instmctional arrangements Traditional school procedures such as homework could be

modified or even made obsolete through technology James even suggests that his

teachers may never have the time nor the physical space in their rooms to handle all the

information fi-om the new technologies He senses a foreboding dread of technology

having the potential to replace the teacher

I see tremendous change and I think its going to continue and grow by leaps and bounds whether its laser discs or computers And I dont know where all its going but I see it coming And I dont think

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the teachers ever going to be replaced I hope they dont try because itll our quality of teaching is going to diminish I think if they do but I do see more and more technology involved in the classroom by these various kinds of things that weve been talking about

Informants have had varying amounts of time to measure the effectiveness of their

technology implementation Some of these districts have had over a decade to consider

increases in student leaming through computer technology David elaborated about what

his students at Woodlake have accomplished due to their years of experience with

technology

I feel like our students will be very prepared when they leave here to go on to college in the area of technology Woodlake has been fortunate to have (had) technology a lot longer than many other schools and weve had kiddos that have been able to use technology that they leamed here to work their way through college based on what theyve leamed and the exposure they got right here on technology

Mike McCoy Sawtooth Superintendent also has had highly advanced hardware

in his building for years and remarks how Sawtooth students at every level are integrating

technology into the curriculum

The students are just so extremely comfortable with technology I mean its just second nature with them almost You know we have computers in kindergarten you know all the way through twelfth grade and theyre in every classroom Our kindergarteners have no trouble with just going in sitting at the computer and you know being able to by themselves you know pull up a game or whatever it could be Every one of our elementary kids know that the information is available to them and they know how to get it off the Intemet They know where to go

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Renee cautions that the changes that have been made and the progress achieved are

not just ends in themselves Despite piles of advanced technology in the classroom

Renee interjects

I still have to teach students to write I still have to teach students grammar I still have to teach students how to understand what they read I still have to get them to read I have to get them to write And I think this is tme generally technology is only a tool Its not the end result Were trying to teach students reading writing and arithmetic The 3 Rs The tools have changed the concepts have not Youre still trying to teach kids to think so they can move out into the world and be citizens ofthe greater society

Some administrators admittedly traditional in orientation have concems that

technology will dismpt the orderly progress that they have endeavored to produce in their

buildings They assume that discipline will lead to better student leaming James wonders

what effects distance leaming and Intemet use will have on both instmction and student

research when discussing the new interactive video delivered foreign languages classes

his school might offer

And to go the advanced (diploma) route its almost a necessary part of our curriculum As far as liking it I dont I think they do a poor job of teaching the course I think its just not a good way for students to leam

As for the interactive class James does not think it represents the best teaching method

He would prefer to have a live teacher in the classroom one that will be more proactive

in maintaining discipline and standard teaching activities

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Vemon also expressed concem over intemal discipline in the use ofthe e-mail

function ofthe system

My concem is consistency on the discipline ofthe e-mail of students in our school We try not to let them use it personally and I dont think its consistently enforced throughout our school and its very hard to supervise e-mail The e-mails a problem here that I have some teachers that watch it close and some teachers that dont

Indeed while discussing student leaming all of these informants expressed

specific concems over distance leaming and about its effects on their jobs and their

leamers As a result an additional concems theme distance emerged fi-om the data

Distance

Because the Consortium is implementing an advanced distance leaming center in

each of its member schools each informant volunteered concems over its

implementation use and outcomes The very concept of distance however is not

simply limited to distance leaming but also to the significant distances Consortium

educators have between their schools and sources of school improvement

These informants perceive improvement for their school districts by being able to

bring a greater variety of activities and services to their districts Larry a superintendent

jumps at the chance to use distance leaming in his district He sees benefits in distance

leaming to both professional and student progress as well as it being a cost-cutting

measure

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I think its going to be extremely beneficial especially to schools out here like we are that you know were an hour and a half away fi-om the Service Center or fi-om Center City or Tech or anywhere like that and itll be extremely beneficial to our students You know we can pick up some college classes We can get them some dual-credit classes Ive got some people here that want to take some classes and want to work on some graduate work and so forth that maybe we can pick up School board training and in-service training through the Service Center will save us lots of dollars and lots of time because if we dont have to travel all the way to Center City to get our in-service and even if its a half-a-day deal you spend a whole day by the time you drive over there and drive back

Mike agrees with Larrys concem over hteral distance fi-om school to service

center When staff have to do as much travel as do these school leaders distance becomes

a significant factor in what they can accomplish

Were so isolated Were a hundred miles from Center City which is where our Service Center is Instead of travel time you know because any teacher who leaves here loses a full day even if its an hour workshop

Renee echoes Mikes concems She experiences the presure ofthe distance cmnch

as she budgets her time and resources

We live a hundred miles fi-om any kind of technical support and we pay $10000 an hour for somebody to come out and fix it so you think twice before you even ask to have (a computer) looked at Can I work around this

Nevertheless there is a sense of concem registered by each informant over distance

leaming implementation As discussed in the previous section there is a fear of

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technology supplanting the teachers role David sees distance leaming in his professional

future but also makes this prediction

My first instinct is to say that probably distance education is going to have effect particularly on mral America Im not real sure Im ready to buy that yet It may but Im not totally yet sold on distance leaming as a tool for replacing the teacher in the classroom There may come a day that that might be the only way that we can deliver some instmction to our students If and when that day comes I think thats going to be a shame and I think thats going to be a step back in education

Previous efforts with distance leaming were fi-ustrating at some informants

schools David registers his experiences

And (distance learning) wasnt that well received either fi-om the students or the parents And I know that distance leaming will be better than that because youll have two-way interactive audio and video at all times But I still have reservations and Ill have to see it work well to change my mind on it I probably cant stop it fi-om coming

Ronnie having been a distance leaming facilitator also remembers problems with

this teaching format for students and facilitator alike

But it was all these schools even as far away as Kansas that were viewing this at the same time And its hard to get through on the telephone line because you had all these people trying to get through to ask a question

When asked about the net effects of all this Ronnie explained

We had a lot of I guess youd say disillusioned parents and kids because they were expecting to get you know they thought What a

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wonderfiil way to be in touch with computers and what have you And you know if we did work we had to bundle that work up send it to San Antonio Well by the time the guy got it graded and got it back you know it might be a week or two And at the same time we were under no pass no play mles And you had athletes that you know at three-weeks reporting period didnt know if they were passing or not And then some of them would wind up failing at the end and they didnt even really know why they were failing And so you know we had a bunch of kids that were like ineligible

Fmstrations registered by the aduh facilitators were received clearly but students

responses to the distance experience were even worse Ronnie elaborated in detail about

the legwork done on-site to facilitate distance leaming As is axiomatic in instmctional

design inadequate feedback does not promote leaming

The kids never really knew for sure if what they were doing was what he wanted or what was acceptable or till he had a chance to mark it and write notes on it and what have you And a lot of times by the time they did get feedback on it well it was too late

Renee also experienced first-hand the details of distance leaming Conceming the

possibilities of interactive video Renee questions

I guess the biggest concem has been teachers who are afi-aid that they will get dumped on How many students are you going to expect me to teach for this class that I have the same prep time that I had when I had seven kids And then all of a sudden Im teaching an interactive video classroom where I have kids fi-om Woodlake and from Dellwood and fi-om Beaverdam and fi-om Sawtooth and all of a sudden I have fifty kids instead of fifteen Im given the same amount of prep time or maybe Im given a second hour of prep I still have the logistics of having to be ready for however many my school district decides to contract for And I have to be eminently more prepared that I ever thought about having to be prepared in a normal classroom Because I cant go on the air and expect to freestyle it you

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Renee a technology coordinator as well as a classroom teacher brings distance

leaming down to earth with her practical concems Contrasting with the concems of

teachers over the years distance leaming is bringing in new heretofore unanticipated

concems and challenges Renee relates

You know when we just had textbooks the worst problem you had to deal with was with the student who showed up in class without their books or you ran out of chalk and you sent somebody down to the office to get chalk But when you start using these levels of technology where the bugs are not quite as worked out then you not only run into you run into problems using the technology that really can cmsh your class time and cmsh your prep time

James is adamant in his dislike for distance leaming Earlier he indicated that

distance leaming might not be a good way to leam James augments this with more

mundane administrative concems Since James perceives the teacher role in a traditional

manner he has concem over classroom discipline in a distance leaming format

Well I dont think youre going to have any kind of classroom without discipline in the class And the only person that can do that is the one that is supposedly in charge the one thats taking care of grades etc So that teacher has almost got to see her classroom

Training

Unless teachers administrators and other school staff are appropriately trained to

use the new technology hardware and software will be of little use Continuous staff

training goes on in this Consortium but Vemon expressed dismay over some ofthe

preparations for early technology implementation

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I dont think we did enough preplanning before we got involved with the computers We just sort of put them in and it became a hit-and-miss thing you understand If I had to do it over again I would want lots and lots of preplanning to see how we could do it better how to install how to implement and so forth how we wanted to use it for our curriculum

Other informants quipped that the limits of whatever training they had for some

technology applications simply consisted of Heres the computer Heres the box Theres

the desk Put it there Larry has jumped right in to get his staff trained through a variety

of sources He is looking forward to all the training perks his district will receive from

this present technology implementation and the workshops he has set up

Theres so much information and so many different benefits that can come over that that its just mind-boggling that everything that we can possibly pick up out here And so were going to get plenty of training before we ever jump in there and you know put a room full of equipment in there and then it sits there and gathers dust If we cant use it theres no need for it being out here

Larry affirms the benefits of leaming by doing

I guess I would say that probably about ninety percent of my training has basically come through the Service Center and the other ten percent is just hands-on getting one there and doing it You know I guess Ive leamed Ive leamed a lot by you know just by using it because if you dont well going to all the classes is not going to help you a bit anyway

Stephen realized a concem for the format of much of staff training He found the

typical training arrangements useless and intimidating for his staff Smaller traming

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groups where more personal assistance can be given seems to be preferable to the mass

training activities so common to staff development

We dont herd thirty people in a room and have one person standing at a computer in front ofthe room and telling them how it can happen I mean we put five or six in the room and have somebody with knowledge about it there and then everybody has their hands on that tool They get to make their own mistakes so they get to correct their own mistakes and real leaming happens then

Now that Bill has a key role in training Camden staff in technology he realizes

that the increasing quantity of hardware possessed by the district carries with it the need

for increasing quality of staff straining

We had a bunch of stuff in quotes stuff but nobody knew anything about it you know And we got this stuff in We got it hooked up And then nobody knew how to maintain it There wasnt any training I mean you know yeah you look out here at Camden Oh boy Weve got computers But nobody knew how to tum them on and of course that wasnt where the emphasis was Wed met a requirement by having so many computers and that sort of thing and maybe doing a paper drill saying that people could do things but in reality that just wasnt there

Bill finds the attitudes of some of his colleagues fiiistrating If the computers are

seen as nothing more than expensive video games the implementation of technology

seems useless The teachers have yet to realize just what these computers can do for their

instmction

Its going to be easier there but we still have to train these people as to How do you use this thing See and most ofthe teachers dont have the time and the creativeness I guess or we dont give them the time you know to sit down and say Look at this thing You know

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they dont go home like I used to and sit down and play with it because I enjoyed it see Id go home and play with it and say A-ha Man I can use this in my classroom

But as Bill has discovered some ofthe technology training ultimately takes hold

and teachers eventually intemahze new skills

But anything to get them to use those things You know if they just stumble on it like one of our Enghsh teachers has found all this stuff on Shakespeare and Macbeth you know and all this sort of thing Shes just going through the ceiling But thats just a little bitty part of things out there that you can find and these people dont know how to look for this stuff So weve got a lot of training (to do)

Ronnie concurs noting how his colleagues at Dellwood have been trained and

then apply the new technology

Well once they realized that this thing that got placed in their room was a tool that could be used for their benefit and could actually help them and their students you know they were ready to jump in there and start trying stuff

Unfortunately some Dellwood staff do indeed balk at modifications to their

training Citing the example of changing the district-adopted electronic gradebooks

Ronnie concluded

And some of them say Oh I just now leamed how to use the other one and here you are wanting to (change it) You know that type of change People get used to doing something and they dont want you to change them around but I think its human nature in anything

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Infi-astmcture

With ever-advancing technological strides the infrastmcture needed to

successfully implement new curricular mandates has to also increase Our informants

pride themselves in their personal involvement in ensuring a topflight technology

infi-astmcture for their school districts

David describes himself as a pioneer in implementing new concepts in his district

When the challenge first came for implementing a computer network David relates

The maintenance guy and I sat down and said You know we can do this So we designed it ourselves and ran the wire and made the connections and totally put in the network system ourselves We did not hire it done which has helped from the standpoint of troubleshooting We put it in we know how it works and we can fix it

Mike also has rolled up his sleeves to keep hardware in Sawtooth working

efficiently If the technology coordinator is busy Mike has no qualms about getting

things fixed

We just had a problem this morning I was dealing with I went dovra there I can do the hardware things a whole lot easier than software but you know there were just two wires out of place I just kind of happened to notice it plug them back in the right places and we were back in business

Indeed Mike has stayed current with technology and maintenance

I have to stay a little more up here because if anything happens Im the guy they holler at so first I mean to fix it not just holler at Ive leamed a lot the last few years Just been forced to I guess

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Bill laments the lack of foresight on the part of some administrators in keeping the

hardware maintained

That one-shot deal We got the computers That cost is out ofthe way We can forget about technology now weve got our X number of computers And then all of a sudden like you say weve got to have a hard drive here you know and a floppy drive went out there and a monitor goes out here well good-ness man whats the problem

Bill wonders if his leadership personnel were misled by various sales

representatives whose goals for sales were not always congment with school needs

Before I got into this our superintendent relied on a salesman and we bought a bunch of stuff we didnt need and it didnt fit in the overall plan It was like buying a Dodge engine and wed buy a Chevrolet body and all of a sudden these things werent compatible So we wasted a lot of money and Im sure school districts all over the state of Texas did This is a small community here Id like every shekel to count Theres not too many people around here that really realize that I dont guess

Stephen is concemed with making reasonable forecasts for what future

technologies he will need for his building He demonstrates that he has thought through

practical technology management issues

To me the biggest question is in relation to technology is how to predict where were going I mean just a little bit because were dropping tons of money on the hardware on the software on the training But even little issues I mean twenty years ago Woodlake was out in fi-ont on technology because they bought a bunch of Apple He computers And then they used them for eighteen years which put them way behind the leaming curve you know and then what computer do you buy Do you buy it with upgradable service contracts What kind of software are you looking for How is distance leaming going to

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impact all this How does it impact your scheduling on a day-to-day basis How does it impact your school calendar How does it impact the people you hire

Stephen is looking squarely at the future needs of his staff and students

If we knew where it was headed we could be much more effective in our long-range planning But as it is in my mind its hard to plan beyond two years because theres no way of knowing where were going to be Weve had numerous conversations in my faculty meetings about individual laptops for students as opposed to the big stand-alone units in a big lab Theres discussions about the use of software versus hard-copy textbooks And I think were moving that way I just dont know how quickly And I dont know to what degree and thats the most perplexing thing as far as Im concemed

Money

As this present study is conducted significant changes are occurring in the

petroleum industry Since there has been a drop in petroleum prices some Chapter 41

(see Chapter Two) school districts have realized a significant drop in ad valorem

revenues Remembering that much ofthe financing for the Consortium comes fi-om two

Chapter 41 districts there exists some cause for concem Because these informants

represent both Chapter 41 and Chapter 42 districts none of these informants will be

identified by name in this section

One Chapter 41 superintendent related to us the situation regarding a loss of

funding for that superintendents district

Probably the biggest reason this last year we were able to put several million dollars of recapture money into the technology consortium Unfortunately being that most ofthe Chapter 41 districts

108

in our area are highly dependent on oil and mineral value and we lost 25 percent of our value last year Probably well lose at least that and maybe even more

Another Chapter 41 superintendent has noticed a drop of revenue but slants the

situation differently

It doesnt affect us that much believe it or not I mean it affects us some definitely but you know the higher the price of oil the more money we have to give away The lower the price the less we have to give away Because you only get to keep a certain value per student

All ofthe Chapter 41 informants indicated that they were glad to participate with

less property-wealthy districts in maintaining fimding for the Consortium

In dealing with school funding there is also the attendant concem with dealing

with government entities A Chapter 41 superintendent explains the situation as the

potential purchasing of more hardware is considered

(Conceming hardware purchasing) If this legislative session the Legislature does away with the hold harmless for Chapter 41 schools (See Chapter 2) well be in a whole different situation and well be saying Well do that when we can afford it I guarantee you

Because there are restrictions on where Chapter 41 districts can expend their

fiinds a Chapter 41 principal explains some creative strategies for retaining funds

Because the hang-up was that those monies that came out of these wealthy districts So in other words we could send our money to the Region(al Service) Center to be used for those purposes but we couldnt reap the benefit of i t (Dr Sarah McCullough) wrote grants specifically targeted at those of us that were putting money in the pot to help us get distance leaming labs up and running So its just been a

109

maze of dancing with the bear which anytime you deal with the government thats the way it is

As this is written a Chapter 41 superintendent hopes that the Texas Legislattire

will allow the legal stmcttires that made the Consortium a reality and function at its peak

to continue to exist

Now we would hope that the Legislature will realize that and possibly rewrite the current law to allow us to divert possibly more than ten percent into the technology consortium or change the way that we do it altogether to where the technology consortium can continue to benefit in the same arena of money that weve benefited for the last year or two

A Chapter 42 school leader looking at the Consortium as a whole sums up the

attitude of each of our informants

Well this consortium has been a good thing for us because I think by coming together you know I think this is people who have ideas and also have monies that they want to use for telecommunications and technology want to see that people in rural areas like ours are making an effort to pool their resources and thoughts and what have you When they see that you got seven schools that are working together to try to share ideas and help work through problems and even go so far as to share teaching personnel things like that I think thats something that people who have monies are kind of wanting they want to see that Because thats the whole idea behind you know trying to get reach some of our goals by the year 2000

Summary of Interview Data

All nine ofthe informants in this study provided candid assessments of their

individual roles in implementing technology in their districts the improvement of student

110

leaming and the training of staff to use the technology These latter points are also

suggested in the literature on staff development (Joyce amp Showers 1988) Concems over

infi-astmcture and finance were also supported in several other studies (Bailey 1997

Becker 1998 Kwajewski 1997 Maddux 1997 Texas Association of School

Administrators 1998)

New insights fi-om this study included the heavy apprehension over distance

leaming and the intensity ofthe power shift within the school system The fluctuation in

petroleum prices that occurred during this study did not completely take these leaders by

surprise but are concems with which Chapter 41 superintendents will continue to

contend

I l l

CHAPTER V

SUMMARY CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Summary of Research

As described in Chapter III quantitative data was in the form of Change

Facilitator Stages of Concem Questionnaire (CFSoC) profiles evaluated according to

Hall et al (1991) with hypothesized points on the Stages of Concem continuum for each

participant Conversations with nine informants fi-om the Consortium leadership cadre

formed a series of interviews that were analyzed and evaluated for emerging themes

Seven themes grew fi-om the data analysis and were discussed

CFSoC Profiles

Hall et al (1991) suggest that the Stage of Concem for any given innovation

varies with the change facilitator registering the array of concems Borrowing fi-om Fuller

(1969) Hall et al suggest that concems for the innovation within the individual change

facilitator begin at the level of Awareness progressing to Self concems then Task

concems and finally to Impact concems This researcher was able to hypothesize a

general stage of concem for each ofthe informants based on the methods of profile

interpretation defined by Hall et al (pp 29-42) The initial research question referred to

Stages of Concem placement for each informant

Where do these school leaders fall on the Concems-based Adoption Model (CBAM) continuum regarding TEKS technology implementation

112

The initial goal was to ascertain the position of each of these informants on

CBAM Table 5-1 provides a breakdown of this studys informants their job roles and

their hypothesized Stage of Concem

Table 5-1 Study Informants and CBAM Stages of Concem District Comparison

District

Camden

Tipllwor4H

North Prairie

Sawtooth

Woodlake

Superintendent

TASK

TASK

IMPACT

Principal

SELF

TASK

TASK

Technology Coordinator

SELF

SELFTASK

TASK

The table suggests that those in more well-defined administrative roles tended to

be more task oriented about their concems whereas those whose job descriptions are

inclusive ofthe classroom and who are also designated as change agents tended to be

more oriented to self and personal issues despite their abilities or expertise

As Hall et al (1991) have previously hypothesized the more experienced a

change facilitator is in the change facilitator process the more advanced that change

facilitator will be on the CFSoC profile The stages of concem of these informants in this

sample appear to concur with CFSoC projected norms Indeed if tiie stages of concem

are arranged in descending order (Impact Task Self Awareness) as in Table 5-2 there

113

appears to be a greater advancement along the Stages of Concem continuum based on the

more advanced job role

Table 5-2 Study Informants and CBAM Stages of Concem Concem Stage Comparison

Informant Stage of Concem

Woodlake Superintendent IMPACT

North Prairie Superintendent TASK

Sawtooth Superintendent TASK

Sawtooth Principal TASK

Woodlake Principal TASK

Sawtooth Technology Coordinator TASK

Dellwood Technology Coordinator TASKSELF

Camden Principal SELF

Camden Technology Coordinator SELF

These change facilitators fi-om the Sah Fork Consortium seem to manifest stages

of concem similar to those of other change facilitators studied through the CFSoC Two

ofthe technology coordinators seem to be more TASK oriented than a principal and one

technology coordinator is more SELF oriented The two task-oriented coordinators have

many years of experience in either office machinery electronics or staff training They

both suggested to this researcher greater confidence in their abilities to provide input to

their administrators conceming their schools technology requirements Such

114

competencies suggest that the greater stage of concem is based in part on the

individuals greater level of experience

Interview Themes

The hesitancy of new users to use new technologies is repeated with every

generation of innovation (Cuban 1984 1986 1993) Changes this extensive in

technology naturally bring about changes in how we teach and how we perceive our roles

as educators (Becker 1998 Berg Benz Lasley amp Raisch 1997 Braun 1993 Fullan

1990 Fullan amp Stiegelbauer 1991 Hope 1993) This sttidys informants repeatedly

expressed the desire to ensure that their staffs become as competent as possible in using

new technology to improve student leaming In tum these leaders affirmed that their

teachers would have it incumbent upon themselves to avail themselves of this training

As we appreciate the greater empowerment of educators who in tum empower

leamers we reahze that greater access to technology has played a major role in

developing this spirit of empowerment (Bailey 1997) Tmly continued control of

technology signifies continued power ofthe educational system These informants were

unanimous in marveling over the great things that have occurred in their schools as their

teachers adopted greater technology expertise Review of AEIS data since 1994 before

the establishment ofthe Consortium suggests improvements in TAAS scores and other

AEIS indicators (see Chapter I TEA 1995 1996 1997a 1998)

As a result schools become different places for leamers (Armstrong Davis amp

Young 1996 Mecklenburger 1989) Instead ofthe school as one-way insttiiction with

115

passive leamers the focus is now on schools led by leaming facilitators who guide the

leamer toward constmcting personal leaming (Joyce amp Showers 1988) It appears that

the wise change facilitator will recognize this power shift In the main Consortium

change facihtators certainly appeared eager to share that power

If we are not using the improved technology to improve student leaming then we

might be needing to be examine a different iimovation for improving student leaming

(Berg et al 1997 Bumiske 1998 Hope 1993 Joyce amp Showers 1988 National Staff

Development Council 1995) These informants were adamant about the power of

technology not only to foster greater leaming capabihties for students but also to provide

a heightened awareness for those charged with facilitating that leaming (Barr 1990

Hadley amp Sheingold 1993 Maddux 1997 Maddux amp Johnson 1997 Meltzer amp

Sherman 1997 Ragsdale 1997) As a resuh these school leaders and their school

boards will have more solid foundation to continue upgrading their technology Such a

massive influx of equipment as is happening now will not be needed but rather

technology purchasing with a view toward greater student achievement will not be

considered unique by other similarly situated school districts

The notion that technology could bring about needed opportunities and services to

remote sites by distance leaming has been discussed for some time and is now standard

for evaluating a schools technology program (Becker 1998 Texas Association of School

Administrators 1998) Nevertheless there appears to be a need for a semblance of

balance as the positive elements of distance leaming (services teaching physical distance

needs etc) are weighed against the pitfalls (teaching method changes impersonal

116

relationships) of these new technologies (Berg Benz Lasley amp Raisch 1997 Dillon amp

Walsh 1997) The apprehensions of Consortium change facilitators toward the

impending interactive video system were quite real They saw potential for some yet

unknown distracting factor causing havoc with the leaming process as a result of distance

leaming At least one informant voiced active disagreement with distance as a viable

means of teaching and leaming

If training activities are only instituted to meet extemally mandated directives it

seems pointless to expend so much effort in training faculty in technology (Becker 1991

1998 Dede 1997) The concept that technology remains a more advanced means of

game playing is still latent in many educators School leaders need to tmly be leaders

(Office of Technology Assessment 1995 Ritchie 1996) and should provide appropriate

training activities for their staffs (Bradshaw 1997 Davidson amp Maurer 1995 Joyce amp

Showers 1988) Because these school leaders describe the influx of interactive video

hardware as helpfiil in providing for a variety of training opportunities (school board

training college classes etc) this Consortium demonstrates a strong proactive

commitment to ensuring that the entire school community is kept up-to-date with

technology

As to funding and infi-astmcture acquisition a We can do it spirit is still found

in educators when they plan for and purchase their computer machinery Schools in this

Consortium as well as in other locales continue to demonstt-ate creative ways to provide

technology support with the resultant spirit of ownership possessed by all segments ofthe

educational community (Carroll amp Carroll 1994 McDaniel Mclnemey amp Armstrong

117

1993 Office of Technology Assessment 1995) The fact that a superintendent would be

involved in wiring his school for network capability or would do repairs on classroom

hardware suggests genuine committnent Principals with decades of experience in the

classroom and in the office in this rural area are taking the time to leam new computer

skills

Conclusions and Reflections

Because this present study is primarily qualitative it is appropriate that the

researcher does not (and really should not) know in advance all ofthe insights that might

possibly be gleaned fi-om a pending study Although this is a limited sampling of change

facilitators their CFSoC profiles confirmed that the greater the experience level ofthe

change facilitator interacting with the innovation the more advanced Stage of Concem

The Woodlake administrators with Stages of Concems ratings in IMPACT and TASK

stages for example have had the benefit of both performing hands-on technology

implementation (including wiring) and also developing technology programs fi-om Apple

computers in classrooms to vocational training over a twenty-year period

The specifics ofthe second research question require some discussion over the

importance and application ofthe concems of rural educators toward technology

implementation Three clusters of conclusions emerged fi-om the interview data

Personal concems are important in the professional lives of these informants

There is urgency for the educator to leam to use technology and to develop stt-ategies for

incorporating technology use in insttiiction Nevertheless the educator is never to forget

118

that there are still basic instmctional outcomes to be accomplished Leamers still have to

be proficient in reading writing and mathematics Day-to-day activities (lesson planning

teacher paperwork etc) cannot be neglected These informants did not allow this

researcher to overlook this fact All three technology coordinators who served as

informants emphasized their classroom duties with one in particular reminding me that

the computer is simply a tool in teaching basic educational concepts Each principal

interviewed related their technology concems in the context of administrative duties and

concems

In addition leadership personnel are to function as leaders and lead their staffs

Despite the hardware and capabilities schools are still schools Schools are having to

change their stmcture and technology seems to be key in fostering that change The very

use ofthe computer as a personal tool remains a challenge in these informants schools

Bill Potter Camden Technology Coordinator related that he continues to see his fellow

teachers using the computer as nothing more than a game machine The Sawtooth

informants noted that a few older more seasoned teachers are still not yet using

technology as a tool

As opposed to personal concems corporate concems registered by these

informants dealt with building district or Consortium issues Among these informants

there is a genuine sense of Where we are against Where we were in regard to

technology use Each superintendent interviewed expressed his satisfaction with the

improved productivity among his students as a result of technology Now more than ever

is a need to stay abreast of pedagogical as well as technological trends Stephen Greer

119

Woodlake Principal emphasized the need for him to know about technology and its

implementation in teacher practice These informants also indicated a generational trend

in that some educators eyeing retirement realize a lesser interest in leaming new

technologies Younger more recently trained educators are more conversant with new

technologies These informants indicated that the new teachers they hire come prepared to

use technology in the classroom

The informants also indicated a sense of owoiership toward technology

implementation For example several informants have trained themselves to do more

advanced troubleshooting and maintenance certainly more than is in their job

descriptions The Woodlake and Sawtooth superintendents are both adept with the

hardware These individuals want to know more and not just save their district some

funds All three ofthe technology coordinators have a history of leaming by doing

They enjoy reputations as being competent and the person to tum to when expertise is

needed

Cultural concems transcend the immediate short-term issues and are future-

oriented The change in our previously mral agrarian society to a worid filled with data

has had a heady effect on these informants North Prairie superintendent Larry Beckman

for example continues to marvel at all the activities the North Prairie educational

community can now avail themselves of because of technology Technology has assisted

in shifting genuine leaming power fi-om the educator to the student The resultant greater

ownership by students of their leaming is opening up greater avenues for insttaiction

120

There is constant uncertainty ofthe legal political and economic factors in

financing and establishing new technologies at schools The net result hinders these

informants fi-om reliably predicting what technologies might be needed in the future

Indeed it is impossible to predict what new gadgets will be invented or how fast a

computer will process ten years from now Neither ofthe Chapter 41 superintendents

believed their distticts finances were in jeopardy due to the changing pett-oleum prices

but each expressed the concem that the Legislature could modify the mles on finances

possibly making their underwriting of Consortium costs more difficult

Recommendations for Further Study

As this present research was being considered there was considerable concem for

the fact that very little research data existed for the CFSoC instmment This Consortium

had an insufficient number of participants to do a quantitative study of this instrument

with adequate factor analysis Indeed Hall et al (1991) cite themselves as those who

conducted reliability and validity studies of their own instrument A more thorough

validity study with adequate N should be conducted

The original thmst for this research was focused on staff development and teacher

training Because that initial idea was so broad it was abandoned early in this study

However since each informant referred to the teacher traming programs ofthe

Consortium it would be appropriate at a later date to review how teacher tt-aining is

planned and executed in a similarly situated technology cooperative

121

Personal impressions which emerged fi-om both the data collection and data

analysis also suggested additional avenues of study At no time and in no way were either

Consortium school distticts or school staff identified as to their Chapter 41 (Equalized

Wealth Level) or Chapter 42 (Minimum Foundation Program) stattis Nevertheless this

writer recognizes a difference in economic status for these districts that was impossible to

fully ignore and suggests that the differences in funding abilities of school districts be

explored as new technologies become de rigueur for even the smallest and most remote

school district

Also unexamined in this present study was any comparison on a rural-urban axis

Although each ofthe participating school districts was mral with a combined enrolhnent

smaller than one urban high school the available technology was up-to-date and with

more anticipated advanced technology yet to be implemented A similar study of larger

urban school technology programs dealing with identical TEKS constraints could be

instituted to ascertain concems of urban-oriented change facilitators

The professional experience aspect of each ofthe informants was never identified

as a factor in this present research The CFSoC form itself had blanks for data conceming

the number of years experience on the job in the present position etc Indeed the least

number of total years of school experience was nine years The question remains if

simply the amount of time in grade is a factor in the informants position on the CFSoC

continuum This researcher noted a trend in those in stated administrative roles being

more oriented to TASK and IMPACT concems as opposed to the technology

coordinators who by and large had duties more inclusive ofthe classroom and who were

122

more oriented to SELF concems and their personal status This could lead one to ponder

whether the role and the job title are influencing factors in a change facilitators Stage of

Concem

Moreover because ofthe contemporary trends toward school-based

management and greater empowerment of classroom personnel in decision-making it is

likely that those in change faciUtator roles would be more closely aligned to the

classroom ie more teachers may be in leadership roles We might expect the higher the

level of change facilitator position and experience the higher the level of concem (eg

IMPACT) It would be interesting to explore the possibifities and consequences for those

at the classroom level functioning as change facilitators in technology

123

REFERENCES

American Psychological Association (1994) Publication manual ofthe American Psychological Association (4th ed) Washington DC Author

Armstrong D Davis R amp Young G (1996) Technology integration at the middle and high school levels A model for staff development NASSP Bulletin 80(582) 81-88

Bailey G D (1997) What technology leaders need to know The essential top 10 concepts for technology integration in the 21st century Leaming and Leading With Technology 250) 57-62

Bailey D B amp Palsha S A (1992) Qualities ofthe Stages of Concem questionnaire and implications for educational innovations Joumal of Educational Research 85(4) 226-232

Barr D (1990) A solution in search of a problem The role of technology in educational reform Joumal for the Education ofthe Gifted 14(1) 79-95

Becker H J (1991) How computers are used in United States schools Basic data fi-om the 1989 I E A Computers in Education survey Joumal of Educational Computing Research 7(4) 385-406

Becker H J (1998) Running to catch a moving train Schools and information technologies Theory Into Practice 37(1) 20-30

Berg S Benz C Lasley T laquofe Raisch D (1997) The coordinators and the teachers A description of exemplary use of technology in elementary classrooms Paper presented at the Midwestem Educational Research Association Annual Meeting Chicago IL

Bogdan R C amp Biklen S K (1992) Qualitative research for education An introduction tn theory and methods (2nd ed) Boston Allyn amp Bacon

Bradshaw L K (1997) Technology-supported change A staff development opportunity NASSP Bulletin 81(593) 86-92

Braun L (1993) Educational technology Help for all the kids The Computing Teacher 20(8) 11-15

124

Brekhus T R (1997) The SeverNet project-assessment Antiquated systems without curriculum integration The Educational Graveyard of Unfulfilled Promise [Online] URL httpwwwseyemschoolcomsevemetsevemet_assesshtml

Bristol v amp Jechow M (1998) Guidelines on interlocal agreements fi-om the Texas Government Code Texas case law and Texas attomev general opinions [online] URL httpwwwbickerstaff comarticlesinter98htm

Bumiske R W (1998) The shadow play How the integration of technology annihilates debate in our schools Phi Delta Kappan 80(2) 155-157

Campbell T (1997) Technology multimedia and qualitative research in education Joumal of Research on Computing in Education 30(2) 122-132

Carroll S R amp Carroll D (1994) How smart schools get and keep community support Bloomington IN National Educational Service

Chisolm I M (1996) Computer use in a multicultural classroom Joumal of Research on Computing in Education 28(2) 162-174

CicchelH T amp Baecher R (1985) Intt-oducing microcomputers into the classroom A study of teacher concems Joumal of Educational Computing Research 1(1) 55-65

CiccheUi T amp Baecher R E (1987) The use of concems theory in inservice ttaining for computer education Computers amp Education 11(2) 85-93

Clark R E (1983) Reconsidering research on leaming fi-om media Review of Educational Research 53(4) 445-459

Clouse R W amp Garrett L N (1995) Case analysis An insttiictional tool Joumal of Educational Technology Systems 23(1) 39-51

Coffey A amp Atkinson P (1996) Making sense of qualitative data Complementary research strategies Thousand Oaks CA Sage

Crawford D K Bodine R J amp Hoglund R G (1993) The school for quality leaming Managing the school and the classroom the Deming way Champaign IL Research Press

Cuban L (1984) How teachers taupht Constancy and change in American classrooms -1980-1980 New York Longman

125

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT vii

LIST OF TABLES ix

LIST OF FIGURES x

CHAPTER

I STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Introduction 1 Problem Statement and Research Questions 3 Rationale 4 Changes in Constraints 13 Research Participants 16 Study Significance 20 Delimitations 22 Term Definitions 23 Organization of the Study 26

n REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Introduction 27 Technology Consortium Development 27 Collaboration 29 The Change Process 30 Difftision of Innovations 31 Concems Theory 34 The Role of CBAM 36 Applications of CB AM 41 The Change Facilitator SoC 42 The CFSoC Instniment 43 Summary and Reflection 46

III METHODOLOGY

Study Design 48 Grand Tour Question 48 Rationale 49 Context for the Study 52

iv

Informant Selection 56 Data Collection 57 Data Analysis 60 Verification Strategies 63 Study Limitations 66

IV RESULTS OF THE STUDY

Informant and CFSoC Profiles 67 Summary of CFSoC 83 Informant Concems 83 Summary of Interview Data 110

V SUMMARY CONCLUSIONS AND REFLECTIONS

Summary of Research 112 CFSoC Profiles 112 Interview Themes 115 Conclusions and Reflections 118 Recommendations for Further Study 121

REFERENCES 124

APPENDIX

A STAGES OF CONCERN ABOUT THE INNOVATION 133

B CHANGE FACILITATOR STAGES OF CONCERN 135

C CHANGE FACILITATOR STAGES OF CONCERN QUESTIONNAIRE 137

D SEMISTRUCTURED INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR INFORMANTS 141

E INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR DR SARAH McCULLOUGH ESC REGION J 142

F LETTER OF INTRODUCTION TO CONSORTIUM SUPERINTENDENTS 143

G PROJECT CONSENT FORMS 145

H THEMES AND SUB-THEMES FOR DATA ANALYSIS 147

I COMPARISON OF TECHNOLOGY IMPLEMENTATION IN STATE CURRICULA 148

VI

ABSTRACT

Although there has been a progression of technological improvements in the tools

available for educators to improve instmction there will always be the need for leamers

to master fimdamental skills and for educators to facilitate that learning Nevertheless the

implementation of innovative technology programs continues to be a priority of educators

in both urban and mral settings Texas educators are now under new Texas Essential

Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) curricular requirements a comprehensive document with

specific learner outcomes particularly with technology embedded into every grade level

Because of these extemal constraints even small rural school districts have to

provide advanced technology capabilities for their leamers This current study

investigated personal and professional concems of change facilitators in a seven-district

technology consortium as these requirements are implemented

This consortium was developed with assistance fiom both the local telephone

service provider and the regional Educational Service Center (ESC) These districts range

a distance of 70 to 125 miles fi^om their ESC Two of the participating school districts

are considered property-wealthy and provide the bulk of the fiinding for the other five

districts through special legislative mles

This exploratory case study used the Concems-based Adoption Model (CBAM)

for evaluating these concems Nine informants three each of superintendents principals

and technology coordinators responded to a 35-item Likert scale which placed the

informant on a Stage of Concem either SELF TASK or IMPACT Informants

vu

concems were rated largely at the TASK level In general an informants stage of

concem increased with a higher status within the school system

These informants were also interviewed on their personal concems toward

technology implementation Seven general themes emerged through the interview

process Informants articulated concems over attitudes power student learning distance

learning staff training infi-astmcture and finances These informants consistently

expressed concem for the prospects of implementing instmctional video and its

instmctional and disciplinary implications Each informant expressed optimism over the

educational and administrative possibilities modem computer technology brought to their

districts

Vlll

LIST OF TABLES

1-1 Teachers Use of Computers Hadley and Sheingold (1993) N=608 9

1-2 Instmcfional Software Use Hadley and Sheingold (1993) N=608 9

1 -3 Full Time Equivalent Staff for TechnologyComputer Operations 21

2-1 Coefficients of Intemal Reliability for the Stages of Concem Questionnaire N=830 39

2-2 Test-Retest Correlations on the Stages of Concem Questionnaire N=132 40

2-3 Means Standard Deviations and Alpha Coefficients for the CFSoC (N=589) 45

2-4 Means Standard Deviations and Alpha Coefficients for the CFSoC

(N=750) 45

2-5 Intercorrelations of the Scale Scores on the CFSoC (N=589) 46

5-1 Study Informants and CBAM Stages of Concem District Comparison 113

5-2 Study Informants and CBAM Stages of Concem Concem Stage Comparison 114

IX

LIST OF FIGURES

4-1 CFSoC Profile of James Petty Camden Principal 68

4-2 CFSoC Profile of Bill Potter Camden Technology Coordinator 70

4-3 CFSoC Profile of Ronnie Bennett Dellwood Technology Coordinator 72

4-4 CFSoC Profile of Larry Beckman North Prairie Superintendent 74

4-5 CFSoC Profile of Mike McCoy Sawtooth Superintendent 76

4-6 CFSoC Profile of Vemon Russell Sawtooth Principal 78

4-7 CFSoC Profile of Renee White Sawtooth Technology Coordinator 79

4-8 CFSoC Profile of David Jackson Woodlake Superintendent 81

4-9 CFSoC Profile of Stephen Greer Woodlake Principal 82

CHAPTER I

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Mr Edison says That the radio will supplant the teacher Already one may leam languages by means of Victrola records The moving picture will visualize What the radio fails to get across Teachers will be relegated to the backwoods With fire-horses And long-haired women Or perhaps shown in museums Education will become a matter Of pressing the button Perhaps I can get a position at the switchboard

(Church cf Cuban 1986 pp 4-5)

Introduction

Virginia Churchs 1925 poem entitled Antiquated probably sounds pessimistic

but facetiously demonstrates her concems of possibly being out of a job with the

approaching array of innovations heralded at that time Our teachers and administrators in

educational institutions at all levels continue to exhibit concems as new innovations are

proffered (Cuban 1986)

Certainly innovations designed to improve instmction have been utilized for

centuries Cuban (1986 pp 3-4) would suggest technology innovation goes back at least

to the invention of the lectem chalk and chalkboards books and pictures with fihn

radio television tape recorders video and computers as more recent examples of

teaching tools Cuban wryly describes how these most recent technologies were at first

lauded as the latest thing for schools how instmction would dramatically improve and

how disillusioned teachers became when the technology did not live up to its predicted

expectations

Bringing all schools up to maximum speed in technology is currently quite

fashionable Rescigno (1988) using his own school district as the example envisioned

the so-called smart classroom with state of the art technology as having the ability to

precisely measure student skill objectives and promote more positive student attitudes

and lower instances of discipline problems

Rescignos school does not seem to have been greatly replicated however

Nevertheless greater technology implementation remains a key element of both

educational and political rhetoric Chris Dede asserts For politicians the Intemet in

every classroom has become the modem equivalent of the promised chicken in every

pot (Dede 1997 p 13) Dede decries such first-generation thinking by those who

would make technology the panacea for magically transforming schools

Yet decades of experience with technological innovations based on first-generation thinking have demonstrated that this viewpoint is misguided Unless other simultaneous innovations occur in pedagogy curriculum assessment and school organization the time and effort expended on instmctional technology produce few improvements in educational outcomes ~ a result that reinforces many educators cynicism about fads based on magical machines (p 13)

Cuban (1984) concurs emphasizing that teachers technology use in the classroom

is just one of a great many factors in how teachers teach with the lions share of factors

related to the extemal constraints of school organization Hodas (1993) reminds us that

the culture and norms of schools are profoundly conservative that the stmcture of

schools have remained unchanged for hundreds of years and that there exists in the

popular mind a definite conservative conception of what schools should be like a

template fi-om which schools stray only at their peril (p 10)

Problem Statement and Research Ouestions

Several factors were considered in formulating a problem for this study There

was the consideration of finding out how schools particularly small ones were

implementing fimding and evaluating technology in their districts Moreover standard

principles of staff development particularly the ascertaining of personal and professional

concems of school leaders were prominent in the literature Finally at the time of

searching for a research topic the State of Texas was developing broad curricular

standards which included extensive instmctional technology components

The problem under study is the concems of three levels of change facilitators

implementing the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) for Technology

Applications The research questions for this study are outlined in the form of a grand

tour question followed by sub-questions (Gay 1997 Spradley 1979)

Grand Tour Ouestion

What are the concems of leadership personnel as the TEKS technology

requirements are implemented in their school districts

Sub-questions

1 Where do these school leaders fall on the Concems-based Adoption Model

(CBAM) continuum regarding TEKS technology implementation

2 What are the specific concems of these school leaders as the TEKS are

implemented and why are these concems important

Rationale

The concept of educational change with technology is not a novel idea despite

those concems that Dede (1997) registered Larry Cuban has written extensively on the

topic of technological change fi-om the perspectives of administration and of educational

history Cuban quotes fi-om a prominent American technology leader who often had much

to say about things

I believe that the motion picture is destined to revolutionize our educational system and that in a few years it will supplant largely if not entirely the use of textbooks I should say that on the average we get about two percent efficiency out of schoolbooks as they are written today The education of the fixture as I see it will be conducted through the medium of the motion picture where it should be possible to obtain one hundred percent efficiency (p 187)

These words came in 1922 fi-om Thomas Alva Edison the inventor of the motion

picture phonograph and other devices at their time thought to be the zenith in

technology Except for the media described many could envision computers as the

subject of that quote Cuban suggests that such entrepreneurs who publicly make broad

educational claims for their products may have more of a profit motive than of student

performance

McDaniel Mclnemey and Armstrong (1993) recognize a shift in classroom

pedagogy fiom those classrooms merely transmitting information to processing

information They assert that computers will play a significant role in how leamers

acquire question and evaluate information Moreover McDaniel et al describe a

changed learning community breaking down the traditional school walls to a classroom

that literally can be the whole world They do not doubt that new programs will continue

to make an impact on how we teach and how students leam

Bumiske (1998) concurs with this shift but tempers it with repeated questioning

of our reasonings and expectations conceming educational technology

Its no longer a question of whether we should introduce computer technology into our classrooms Im afi-aid that choice has already been made for us The question now is how we should make use of this technology for educational purposes The consequence of this is the stifling of essential debates and the repression of significant questions such as At what age should we introduce children to computers What impact will computers have on the social emotional and psychological development of our children And how will computers aUer the dynamics of a classroom and school (p 157)

Cuban (1993) suggests three reasons for the perceived need to implement

technology in the classroom

First there is the drive to bring schools technologically in step with the work place because of the fear that students will be unprepared both to compete in the job market and to adjust to the changing marketplace A second impulse has come fi-om a diverse coalition of academics educators and foundation officials who have

5

neoprogressive values including that of self-directed leaming for children Finally there is the impulse for productivity (pp 189-190)

Unfortunately Cuban pessimistically concludes that despite the use of

technological innovations those innovations have not been central to school reforms

Likewise the marginal use of computers in classrooms is less due to funding teacher

preparation or administrative support but more related to dominant cultural beliefs

about what teaching leaming and proper knowledge are and how schools are organized

for instmction (p 206)

Low administrative support is but one part of the overall picture Poor

infi-astmcture remains in place at many schools The United States Department of

Education (USDE) in its report Getting Americas Students Readv for the 21st Century

(USDE 1996) cited statistics where only four percent of schools had as many as one

computer for five students and only nine percent with Intemet connectivity Yet this

same study asserts 80 percent of Americans believing that teaching computer skills is

absolutely essential 75 percent encouraging a child to use a computer and 86 percent

believing that a computer is the most beneficial product available to increase childrens

opportunities

Why if most educators believe that technology can improve the educational

process is it so difficult to implement and integrate Kwajewski (1997) ponders this

question as he considers the value educators place on technology acceptance

The plain tmth is that technology still confuses the educational establishment It is not an art or a science It is not a curriculum or a

subject It is not a vocation or a college requirement It is not an activity a goal or an objective It is not a course or a program If it were any of these items it might have a fighting chance in the difficult arena of change But it isnt therefore its success is in jeopardy (p 54)

Hodas (1993) suggests that educators require a modicum of comfort before expanding

their intellectual horizons to achieve skill with new technology

There is lively discussion over the extent of how technology can restmcture the

school Schools are finding in diverse ways that the use of technology modifies the

existing school stmcture Braun (1993) points out that investment in technology makes

working with at-risk youth more cost-effective It appears better to pmdently allocate

fimds on high-technology instmction than on the costs involved with dropouts and other

at-risk problems Maddux and Johnson (1997) suggest that the existing stmcture of

schools will be modified by Intemet use but only after the surrounding culture first

makes the change

Addressing new technologies Clark (1983) boldly asserted that the medium of

instmction was no more involved in how well students leam than the tmck that delivers

our groceries causes changes in our nutrition (p 445) and that only the content of

instmction influences student achievement Kozma (1991) aggressively challenges

Clarks position pointing out the distinctives of certain technologies and how they can

help leamers constmct knowledge Chishohn (1996) would go so far as to insist that the

implementation of technology modifies the very social stmcture

Like any human artifact computers are an expression of the people and culture that created them Likewise computer software incorporates the programmers cultural assumptions heuristics and epistemology Even seemingly impartial applications such as

7

databases and word processing programs demonstrate a cultural preference for analytic linear thinking compartmentalization of information and culture-specific logic mles and organization (p 163)

Educational leaders who are comfortable with technology should be primed to

lead the way in facilitating change in schools (Office of Technology Assessment 1995)

Differing somewhat fi-om Cuban Ritchie (1996) notes that a lack of administrative

support leading toward inadequate staff development and inadequate funding continues

to lead the reasons that technology has yet to take hold in some school districts Ritchie

cites Mecklenburger who asserts

Administrators must understand the capabilities and limitations of technology Only then can they plan for budget for purchase carefiiUy install properly maintain dutifiilly schedule adequately distribute appropriately and replace systematically the electronic technology best suited for their needs (Mecklenburger 1989 p 7)

Yet principals and superintendents in the main received their education and

training at a time when computers were not yet part of the educational scene Whatever

training many school leaders have had simply focused on using the technology rather

than focusing on how the technology could be used to augment student leaming (Bailey

1997)

Since 98 percent of the elementary and secondary schools in the United States

have microcomputers (Ely 1993) it is important to analyze how they have been used In

an early pre-Intemet study of typical teacher practice Hadley and Sheingold (1993)

investigated how teachers integrated software into classroom practice In surveying 608

teachers they discovered that teachers used computer software as shown in Table 1-1

Table 1-1 Teachers Use of Computers Hadley and Sheingold (1993) N=608

Software

Text processing tools 95 Instmctional software 89 Analytic and information tools 87 Programming and operating systems 84 Games and simulations 81 Graphics and operating tools 81 Communications 49 Multimedia 25

(Hadley amp Sheingold 1993)

Teachers instmctional software use was fiirther broken down as shown

in Table 1-2

Table 1-2 Instmctional Software Use Hadley and Sheingold (1993) N=608

Software

Problem solving programs 75 Tutorial programs 73 Drill and practice programs 72 Software accompanying a textbook 37 Conceptual tools 30

(Hadley amp Sheingold 1993)

By contrast instead of querying teacher computer usage more current surveys

(eg Texas Association of School Administrators 1998) focus on the classroom

building and district hardware configurations and Intemet use of computers

Teachers obviously embraced the computer as a significant tool in teaching

practice As these researchers gathered data for their study the above activities were

indeed the cutting edge uses of computers just before Windows the World Wide Web

or America Online became household words

Radical educational change is no stranger to technology educators The practices

delineated in the literature have metamorphosed fi-om the above to a listing more

reflective of school Intemet use connectivity and the use of multimedia Echoing Cuban

Becker (1998) notes several generations of the advice of experts conceming change in

computer technology pedagogy each of which reflected conventional wisdom in its time

and underscoring the adage The more things change the more they stay the same

Teachers were first urged to have students program computers in BASIC (1982 Its the language that comes with your computer) then to have them program in Logo (1984 Teach students to think not just program) then to use integrated drill-and-practice systems (1986 Use networked systems that individualize instruction and focus on increasing test scores) then to do word processing (1988 Use computers as tools like adults do) then to use curriculum-specific tools such as history databases and science stimulators and data acquisition probes (1990 Integrate the computers with the existing curriculum) then to do multimedia hypertext programming (1992 Change the curriculum - students leam best by creating products for an audience) then to use electronic mail (1994 Let students be part of the real world) and currently to publish their students work to a worldwide audience via the World Wide Web (1996) Using computers in these respective ways would have generally required teachers to have access to the newest computer equipment being sold at that time (p 25)

Becker fiirther suggests that survey-based data reflects a more conservative and

traditional array of instmctional practices among teachers than what is reported in the

popular press which tends to be more reflective of the more innovative techniques

10

(Becker 1998) Moreover he suggests such survey data was needed to balance the

overly enthusiastic reports in the news media about the generalizability of pioneering

efforts in unusual schools with hard-to-replicate amounts of computer equipment teacher

expertise and family resources (Becker 1991 p 386) It remained to be seen if the

average school district or school board had the financial foresight to establish a similar

facility

Contrasting with pre-Intemet surveys more recent studies reflect surveys of

changing computer use Berg Benz Lasley and Raisch (1997) surveyed teachers about

technology use at school and found that teachers rated student motivation and a change

fi-om the traditional classroom stmcture as the most fi-equent purposes of technology

Concurring with Beckers (1998) conclusions on technology use Berg et al list these as

their most important school computer uses

To motivate students To change fi-om traditional classroom CD-ROMs for research Computers in writing process Using variety of resources (books CD-ROM Web etc) Desktop publishing software To integrate subject matter Intemet to do research Enhance communication with parents Tailor curriculum to individual student needs

(Berg Benz Lasley amp Raisch 1997 p 8)

Curiously Berg et al found distance leaming and video conferencing rated 38th of 39

instmctional purposes as rated by teachers

The Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) executed a survey in

September 1998 to ascertain the levels of technology available in Texas public schools

11

Rather than display teacher use statistics as in previous studies (Becker 1998 Berg et al

1997 Hadley amp Sheingold 1993) this survey is heavily skewed toward Intemet use in

the classroom showing percentages of connectivity fimding sources and resources

(service center technology consortium etc) There are no listings of specific teacher

activities such as word processing graphics or gradebooks Indeed the TASA survey

appears at this writing to be updated at fi-equent intervals (TASA 1998)

Willis (1993) concedes that educational change using technology is difficult to

pull off He identifies barriers to wider technology use including teacher isolation

ownership time and administrative support very similar to concems in much of the staff

development literature (Joyce amp Showers 1988 Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1991)

Recent literature on school technology implementation has raised questions

conceming just how well new programs will be implemented or indeed how extensive

technology implementation has been Maddux (1997) describes a gap in schools between

the increasing sophistication of technology and the ability of teachers to use such

technology Maddux contends that much of the negative reaction conceming the Intemet

the World Wide Web Windows 95982000 and other innovative technologies stems

fi-om just such a gap between the hardware the schools may have on hand and the

systemic requirements of new software purchased Schools by and large often have older

hardware incapable of accepting Windows 95-level software Indeed computer speed

modem speed and hard drive storage (with or without zip drives) in many school-owned

computers remain inadequate Maddux cites Brekhus (1997) who suggests that 80

percent of all computer hardware purchased for schools was obsolete at the time of

12

purchase (p 7) Maddux fiirther maintains that much of this gap is related to educational

fiscal tradition stemming fi-om a lack of acknowledgment that more sophisticated

technology had to be replaced every three to five years

Becker (1998) sounds even more alarming He estimates that the average

cumulative per pupil investment in computers over a typical school lifetime a 13-year

span was only $150 025 percent of the total of what was spent on a pupil in that time

span Only 20 percent of school computers had a hard drive with a similar percentage

having any network access Only 10 percent had CD-ROM capability Very few then of

available school computers were capable of using multimedia the World Wide Web

Windows 9598 or most CD-based software As this dissertation is written computers

with speeds of 500 to 600 megahertz are being offered at discount stores (Micro Center

1999) along with appropriate software Although many schools continue to upgrade the

computing power of their hardware and the regional educational service centers still

provide leadership in bringing up-to-date technology to every remote district

nevertheless many educational institutions remain using outmoded machinery due to

well-felt budgetary restrictions and fluctuating property values

Changes in Constraints

Against this backdrop of confiision over technology implementation overall

educators fi-om coast to coast have had extemally mandated constraints In Texas those

mandates were codified in the Texas Essential Elements (Texas Education Agency

1991) with specific competencies for each subject listed and more recently with the

13

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) standards (Texas Education Agency

1997b) Unlike the Essential Elements which simply specified the subject components

for the teacher to cover in each area the TEKS mandates a much broader array of

performance-based skills to be exhibited by the leamer The emphasis is now on what the

leamer can do over what skills the teacher exhibits School districts in Texas are

obhgated to follow the TEKS in designing curriculum and instmction Evaluation

procedures for Texas educators include the use of technology in the lesson cycle

The TEKS for Technology Applications delineates knowledge and skill

requirements for specific computer applications for grade levels K-8 and specific high

school classes with this common philosophy

(1) The technology applications curriculum has four strands foundations information acquisition work in solving problems and communication

(2) Through the study of technology applications foundations including technology-related terms concepts and data input strategies students leam to make informed decisions about technologies and their applications The efficient acquisition of information includes the identification of task requirements the plan for using search strategies and the use of technology to access analyze and evaluate the acquired information By using technology as a tool that supports the work of individuals and groups in solving problems students will select the technology appropriate for the task synthesize knowledge create a solution and evaluate the results Students communicate information in different formats and to diverse audiences A variety of technologies will be used Students will analyze and evaluate the resuUs (Texas Education Agency 1997b p 1)

Chapter 126 of the TEKS specifies standards for leaming activities under these

four strands in Technology Applications for all Texas leamers This chapter is restricted

14

to instmctional applications excluding curricula that would be better placed in chapters

dealing with Career and Technology Business Applications etc

Chapter 126 Subchapter A delineates skill requirements for leamers as early as

kindergarten Among the skills to be acquired by leamers at that early date include

networking creating naming and saving files keyword searching muhimedia design

and portfolio selection It does not end there Subchapter A spells out a broad outline of

technology activities fi-om kindergarten through fifth grade Subchapter B retains much of

the earlier Essential Elements for middle schools conceming keyboarding and computer

literacy Subchapter C defines requirements for eight specific courses for high school-

level Carnegie-unit credit The minimum hardware for just one of these courses requires

the capability to do local networking Intemet access video production and Web page

production and storage Because of these curricular standards virtually every school in

Texas had to purchase materials appropriate for these activities

These standards went into effect September 1 1998 (Texas Education Agency

1997b) providing impetus for school leaders to recognize and articulate concems over

the implementation of these standards An additional document The Technology

Applications Companion (K-12) (Texas Center for Educational Technology 1998)

containing a comprehensive program entitled Sharing Technology Applications

Resources with Teachers (START) has been distributed on CD-ROM to each public

school building in Texas to provide curricular assistance and resources for TEKS

implementation

15

Research Participants

The informants for this research are among the leadership staff at five school

districts in rural Texas Each would be described as a change facilitator as defined in a

subsequent paragraph The role of the change facilitator is ascribed to a variety of

professionals Three specific roles in the school system are examined in this present

study Each is a change faciUtator but each facilitates change in a unique way

Superintendent~The general superintendent is a certified school employee and is

charged with overseeing all of a school districts operations particularly those related to

supervision and finance This role in the United States was instituted and developed

during nineteenth century bureaucratic changes where centralization of school efforts was

found more economical and where the need was seen for one person to be at the top of

the school stmcture (Urban amp Wagoner 1996)

Lutz and Merz (1992) define the superintendent in three roles manager

politician and teacher The Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) establishes

competencies for school leaders and suggested curricula for their training Superintendent

courses (Texas Education Agency 1991) mostly relegate this role either to be a manager

what with the emphasis on business techniques and school law for school management

or to be the instmctional leader because of specialized expertise in special and

compensatory education and because of recent advancements in school change which

demand that change facilitators already excel as instmctional and curricular leaders

SBOE mles also reinforce the role of politician with a broad array of social science

electives for the prospective school leader

16

The combination of concems over financial matters political pressures and

extemal curricular constramts exclusively laden upon the district superintendent makes

this role particularly important to the proposed research If there is any new technology to

be implemented the superintendent will have to be the first person on deck to secure

community approval particularly that of the school board so that the community has the

opportunity to buy into the new program especially its fiinding It will be necessary to

describe specific concems of superintendents

PrincipalmdashThe principal is a certified school employee who is charged with

leading teachers Unlike the superintendent the principal is generally responsible for only

one building narrowing this persons focus The role developed during the nineteenth

century in urban schools where a beginning teacher would begin teaching at a low grade

level and move up through the system becoming a principal teacher leading the others

(Urban amp Wagoner 1996)

The literature is replete with suggestions for middle management to increase

knowledge of how to implement technology Ritchie (1996) fists vendors school district

personnel technology consultants technology classes and self-instmction as sources of

information for becoming more effective as a change facilitator

Hall Rutherford and Griffin (1982) recognize three distinct change facilitator

styles which largely fit the principals role Responders put heavy emphasis on

empowering teachers and giving them opportunity to take the lead but tend to make

decisions in terms of immediate situations rather than long-term goals Managers tend to

see that things get done but do not normally go beyond the basics of implementing an

17

innovation Initiators take the lead and make things happen having strong beliefs about

what schools should be Nevertheless Hall et al agree that no change faciUtator

completely fits into one of these compartments Much more than the superintendent the

building principals style sets the leadership tone for the students and staff

Hall et al apply these contrasting styles in leadership to applying innovation

implementation

Another apphcation of the ideas proposed in this paper could be in planning school level and district wide implementation efforts Perhaps implementation game plans should be adopted to different schools depending on the change facilitator style of the principal and the assistant principal In a Manager school implementation will likely proceed rather routinely once what is to be done is understood by the principal In a Responders school more encouragement fi-om the outside and more district personnel time spent in the school working with teachers would probably be necessary While in an Initiators school a certain amount of push might be necessary to get implementation of the innovation on the list of the principals priorities On the other hand if the innovation is already a priority for that principal all the central office staff developer may have to do is stand out of the way (pp 19-20)

Middle management concems are a second component of the proposed research

because these individuals provide day-to-day leadership of educators They are

responsible for every detail in their respective buildings including staff development

Although site-based management is ahnost standard in contemporary schools the

principal remains a key force in change

Technology Coordinator-This role is not as clearly defined as principal or

superintendent nor does it have a lengthy historical base but exists nevertheless An

early study by Stmdler and Gall (1988) reported a growing number of individuals with

18

the title of technology coordinator mainly fi-om the ranks of classroom teachers Bailey

(1997) points out that although the role of the technology coordinator is important in

school improvement activities very little recent literature exists that describes the specific

roles and responsibilities of the technology coordinator

Despite variations in the local job title the person recognized as the technology

coordinator will also have concems worth noting in this proposed research As Stmdler

and Gall (1988) reported earlier this person is eighty percent Hkely to come fi-om the

classroom reflecting classroom teacher concems yet will have to assume a leadership

role

Smith (1997) extensively lists qualities and competencies expected of a

technology coordinator under these headings

1 Technical expertise 2 Understanding of technology use in the instmctional environment 3 Professional development 4 Intemet knowledge and experience (p 56)

Jewell (1999) adds the interpersonal skills of vision and diplomacy along with the

ability to find solutions for a diverse group of technology users fi-om a hmited array of

resources Jewell reminds us that

Technology leadership is not for the timid An effective technology leader must be able to navigate the sea of ever-increasing information and equipment as well as the changes in education that comes fi-om technology use What happens with technology and schools will change our world and technology coordinators will have an important role in that outcome (p 57)

19

The Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) annually commission a

survey (TASA 1998) conceming technology usage The 1998 survey specifically

ascertained the availability of on-site technology support Table 1-3 describes the

fi-equency of technology support for a variety of school configurations in Texas

Study Significance

As a major population center and as a resuU a major purchaser of educational materials

(textbooks workbooks etc) Texas has the potential to lead the way with an innovative

array of technology related courses but with new technology changes will be necessary

in how teachers will teach Already school districts are writing funding grants

purchasing more advanced technology and designating an individual with a title

congment to technology coordinator

Administrators will now have to allow for changes in how they do their jobs

Superintendents are already realizing that budgetary planning for technology has to be for

shorter periods that both technology hardware and software will require firequent

upgrades and school policies will need to address technological issues particularly with

legal matters Building principals will not only require a change in their budgetary

procedures but will also need to include technology concems in dealing with both

curriculum and evaluation Having served unofficially as the building technology

computer coordinator this writer observes that these individuals will have concems over

not only keeping current with the technology but also the array of systemic bugs each

piece of hardware and software displays resulting in the attendant complaints expressed

by staff

20

Table 1-3 Full Time Equivalent Staff for TechnologyComputer Operations

Level

Elementary

Middle

High School

Central Office

Other ISD Service

One-campus

N

479

410

470

N

489

N

484

191

No FTEs on campus

()

382

385

362

None ()

595

0 ()

506

335

Vi FTE per campus

()

192

98

104

1 ()

282

1 ()

277

565

i d i lt IFTE ner campus

()

88

12

117

2-3 ()

7

2 ()

97

68

1 FTE or more per campus

()

338

398

417

More than 3 ()

53

3-4 5-6 () ()

52 19

1 0

(TASA 1998 Question 10)

Because of the major changes in what is expected of educators through the

transition fi-om implementing the Essential Elements to TEKS standards these new

regulations should be applicable and flexible enough for at least the next decade

considering that it replaces a document used for 13 years TEKS will be of necessity

21

applicable for implementing innovations that have yet to be invented and for change

strategies not yet imagined

Delimitations

This study focused on technology implementation concems of change facilitators

of school districts in rural Texas limiting the representativeness of the study Any

findings yielded reflected the comments of those interviewed at the time of the study The

constraints of TEKS are not specifically applicable to educational entities in other states

or countries Curricular documents in states other than Texas were surveyed to compare

TEKS requirements for technology with technology expectations for leamers in those

states States bordering Texas as well as the top 15 states in population were considered

(World Almanac 1999) Appendix I contains a listing of these individual states

standards and how much technology usage impacts these standards

This present study is undertaken during the first year of TEKS standards Those

interviewed will not have as much familiarity with TEKS standards as they might in later

years As the researcher involved in compiling this data this writer must recognize

various biases he might have in eliciting comments fi-om these individuals Such

comments will reflect subjective distinctions individuals have about different schools

extemally mandated policies personal expectations of themselves or product

preferences In short this researcher made every effort to allow the respondents to

accurately present themselves

22

Term Definitions

The literature in this study uses terms germane to change instmctional

technology and to applications of the TEKS In addition terms readily known and used

by Texas educators are described

Academic Excellence Indicator System (AEIS) The AEIS (Texas Education

Agency 1999) is a systematic accountability report delivered annually of each school

and school district in Texas Prior to the estabhshment of the AEIS districts were

evaluated for accountability based on mles and procedures With the advent of the AEIS

schools are now evaluated principally on student performance AEIS indicators include

Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) performance attendance and dropout

rates students participating in advanced courses and scores on college entrance

examinations

Change Fullan and Stiegelbauer (1991) suggest that educational change involves

change in practice and indeed is evident at many levels In implementing change three

components are at stake

(1) The possible use of new or revised materials (direct instmctional resources such as curriculum materials or technologies) (2) the possible use of new teaching approaches (i e new teaching strategies or activities) and (3) the possible alteration of beliefs (e g pedagogical assumptions and theories underlying particular new policies and programs) (p 37)

Change Facilitator The role of change facilitator is defined to include not only

superintendents curriculum speciahsts and building principals but also the diverse set

of persons within and outside of organizations who have the formal or informal role to

23

aid those involved in leaming to use innovations (Hall Newlove George Rutherford amp

Hord 1991piii)

Concems Based on the work of Fuller (1969) Hall and his associates expand on

what constitutes concem

The composite representation of these feelings preoccupations thoughts and considerations about a particular issue or task is called concems The mental activity composed of questioning analyzing and re-analyzing considering altemative actions and reactions and anticipating consequences is concem An aroused state of personal feelings and thought about an issue phenomenon or condition as it is perceived is concem To be concemed means to be in a mentally aroused state about something (Hall Newlove George Rutherford amp Hord 1991 p5)

Innovation Loucks-Horsley and Stiegelbauer (1991) include a variety of school

programs as being innovations including school change school mission and goals

shared leadership as well as implementation of new technology Hall and his associates

define innovation as the issue idea or thing that is the center of attention (Hall

George and Rutherford 1977) Hall et als work in ascertaining concems over

educational innovations as will be demonstrated in greater detail in Chapter 2 can be

used to describe a wide variety of school implementations but within this current study is

strictly limited to instmctional technology implementation

Technology Rogers (1983) defines a technology as

A design for instrumental action that reduces the uncertainty in the cause-effect relationships involved in achieving a desired outcome A technology usually has two components (1) a hardware aspect consisting of the tool that embodies the technology as material or physical objects and (2) a software aspect consisting of the information base for the tool (p 12)

24

Technology Applications Chapter 126 of the TEKS for Technology Applications

(Texas Education Agency 1997b) defines what technology applications are in a

common introduction to each subchapter Among competencies at various grade levels

technology applications include the use of several word processing competencies

keyboarding strategies knowledge of a variety of input devices such as mouse modem

disk drive scanner digital video CD-ROM or touch screen database and spreadsheet

usage Intemet intranet and World Wide Web usage formal training in computer

programming languages and guided independent study Certainly a wide variety of

contemporary applications that meet these requirements can fiilfill these guidelines

However these guidelines are so broadly drawn that technologies not yet imagined

constmcted marketed or researched can be effectively implemented for instmctional

purposes

Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) The TAAS is a criterion-

referenced assessment instrument administered to Texas students The core instrument

assesses students skills in writing reading and mathematics at several grade levels At

present TAAS information taken fi-om students in the fourth and eighth grades and fi-om

an exit examination first administered in the tenth grade with multiple opportunities for

mastery Except for a special education exemption given by the Admission Review and

Dismissal (ARD) team for certain special education students Texas students are required

to have successfiilly passed each of the TAAS areas before a high school diploma may be

granted

25

Organization of the Study

This study follows the format and style of the Publication Manual of the

American Psychological Association (APA 1994) in terms of stmcture and organization

for dissertations This present chapter presents introductory material and a statement of

the problem for study Chapter II is a review of related literature tying the postulates of

this study to the established literature base Chapter III describes the research

methodology to be employed along with the context for the study Chapter IV describes

the data analysis for both of the research sub-questions Chapter V provides a summary of

the research its implications and suggestions for fiirther study

26

CHAPTER n

REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Introduction

Fullan and Stiegelbauer (1991) suggest that there will always be the need to make

educational changes as societies become more complex Three broad mechanisms for

effecting these changes include

1 natural disasters

2 extemal forces such as technology values and immigration and

3 intemal contradictions such as changes in technology leading to new social

patterns and needs (Fullan amp Stiegelbauer 1991 p 17)

Innovations then tend to be devised through both political and educational

motives Since technology implementation is included in this list our examination of

technology implementation concems will first discuss the legal foundations of technology

consortium development reasons for collaboration the theory behind change and

diffiision of innovations collaboration then to discuss the theory supporting concems

and finally to discuss some of the means of assessing and evaluating concems of change

facilitators

Technology Consortium Development

The research site for this present study is a technology consortium comprised of

several school districts This consortium will be described fimctionally in Chapter HI but

27

the controlling legal foundations of how this consortium was developed are herein

described fi-om the literature base

A technology consortium is considered an example of an agreement between

state governmental agencies Such an interlocal agreement is defined by the 1971

Interiocal Cooperation Act (the Act) (Vemons Texas Codes Annotated (VTCA)

1991) At present this Act is codified as Chapter 791 of the Texas Government Code

The Act authorizes local governmental agencies to contract with each other or with the

state to provide services to each other Independent school districts are classified as

other governmental fimction as described in sect 791003

Interlocal agreements are required to be authorized by the goveming bodies of

each governmental entity in this case by each member school board sect 791011 provides

for financial cooperation while sect 791013 allows the consortium to designate

administrative personnel to provide services (Bristol amp Jechow 1998)

Hudson (1997) describes the need for interlocal agreements as either being

required by the intensive capital needed for poohng financial resources or requiring a

high degree of special skills such as public utility specialists This technology

consortium requires both capital and technical expertise Resources for purchasing

significant amounts of computer hardware are pooled under sect 791025

Funds for the technology consortium are derived by legal authority in the Texas

Education Code (TEC) Most school districts in Texas are financed under the Minimum

Foundation Program under Chapter 42 of the TEC (VTCA 1996a) Locally generated

28

ftinds are combined with State fimds to provide for the regular education program of

school districts

However certain school districts that are considered property-wealthy have

different financial considerations The value-added nature of such districts may be due to

industry land values or as in this present study mineral wealth specifically petroleum

Chapter 41 of the TEC specifies means to limit the local property wealth per student to

$280000 (sect 41002) Monies in excess of that amount are surrendered to the State

sect 41099 allows for such districts to recapture some of these fimds to support a

technology initiative (VTCA 1996b) Two of the seven districts in this technology

consortium are considered property-rich and serve as financiers for the purchase of

technology for the remaining five districts

Fowler (1998) describes various ways technology consortia have to plan for nuts-

and-bolts administrative details including preparing state and federal reports asset

distribution litigation inclusion into and withdrawl from the consortium and

determining credentials for consortium board membership Chapters III and IV will

describe in greater detail the practical educational applications of this consortium in

operation

Collaboration

A significant part of the innerworkings of a technology consortium is that those in

leadership have mastered the ability to successfiilly collaborate Indeed collaboration

could be considered an innovation in and of itself (Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer

29

1993) Mattessich and Monsey (1992) have identified factors indicative of outstanding

collaborative groups

1 The politicalsocial environment along with a history of previous cooperative

efforts (pp 16-18)

2 Group membership is based on mutual tmst personal self-interest

compromise and a cross-section of the organizations involved (pp 19-22)

3 Group members have a stake in both the process and outcome of decision

making Clear roles and policies must be developed (pp 22-26)

4 Frequent and open communication links should be established (pp 26-28)

5 Reahstic goals and shared vision leading to a unique purpose (pp 28-30)

6 Both financial and human resources should be considered (pp 30-31)

The Change Process

Fullan and Stiegelbauer (1991) identify educational change as developed through

three phases In the initiation (or readiness) phase change leaders establish a need to

make improvements and to assist in the development of vision and planning At this

level intended outcomes of change are identified During the implementation phase

plans are activated to achieve those outcomes Both individuals and organizations

experience change as the result of new leaming experiences and support through follow

up The institutionalization phase stresses the integration of new practices into school

policies budgets routines etc As new needs and plans are identified stmctures are

30

developed to ensure that the newly institutionalized procedures continue to be maintained

(Fullan amp Stiegelbauer 1991 National Staff Development Council 1995)

Diffusion of Innovations

Concems toward innovations have been noted for some time Knowledge of

change is of littie value unless its solutions are diffiised to the level of the practitioner

(Guba 1968) Guba cites Everett Rogers (1955) who describes five stages of diffiision of

innovations

1 Awareness The individual leams of the existence of the innovation

2 Interest The individual seeks more information and considers the merits of

the innovation

3 Evaluation The individual makes a mental application of the innovation and

weighs its merit for his particular situation

4 Trial The individual applies the innovation on a small scale

5 Adoption The individual apphes the innovation for continued use on the basis

of a previous trial (Guba 1968 p 292)

Rogers (1983) builds on his earlier conclusions and adds a description of

characteristics of innovations which explain the differing rates of adoption among groups

1 Relative advantage is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as better

than the idea it supersedes The greater the perceived relative advantage of an

innovation the more rapid its rate of adoption is going to be

31

2 Compatibility is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as being

consistent with the existing values past experiences and needs of potential adopters An

idea that is not compatible with the prevalent values and norms of a social system will not

be adopted as rapidly as an innovation that is compatible

3 Complexity is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as difficult to

understand and use

4 Trialibility is the degree to which an innovation may be experimented with on a

limited basis An innovation that is trialable represents less uncertainty to the

individual who is considering it for adoption as it is possible to leam by doing

5 Observability is the degree to which the results of an innovation are visible to

others The easier it is for individuals to see the results of an innovation the more likely

they are to adopt (Rogers 1983 pp 15-16)

Rogers (1983) describes five categories of individuals accepting irmovations

along a continuum under a normal fi-equency distribution (p 247)

1 Innovators (2 CT below mean) These individuals are described as venturesome

eager to try new ideas desiring the hazardous daring and risky While an innovator

may not be respected by the other members of a social system the innovator plays an

important role in the diffiision process that of launching the new idea in the social system

by importing the innovation fi-om outside of the systems boundaries (p 248)

2 Early Adopters (between 1 and 2 a below the mean) This adopter category

more than any other has the greatest degree of opinion leadership in most social systems

32

(p 249) These are individuals that are the ones to check in with before trying out new

ideas They are the one who enjoy the greatest respect fi-om their associates

3 Early Majority (fi-om mean to 1 CT below mean) These individuals require more

time to deliberate before adopting an iimovation They eventually follow willingly into

the innovation but seldom take the initiative

4 Late Majority (fi-om mean to 1 a above mean) These individuals approach

innovation with caution and skepticism They are not convinced about the innovation

until the social system norms are in place before they will adopt the innovation

5 Laggards (above 1 a above mean) These individuals are the last in the social

system to adopt an innovation They tend to be suspicious of any changes to the social

system and require absolute certainty that new ideas will work

Finally Rogers (1983) suggests that opinion leaders in a social system are the

individuals who lead the group into innovation adoption Rogers identifies generalized

characteristics of opinion leaders that distinguish them fi-om their followers

1 Opinion leaders have greater exposure to mass media than their followers

2 Opinion leaders are more cosmopolite than their followers

3 Opinion leaders have greater change agent contact than their followers

4 Opinion leaders have greater social participation than their followers

5 Opinion leaders have higher economic status than their followers

6 Opinion leaders are more innovative than their followers

33

7 When a social systems norms favor change opinion leaders are more

innovative but when the norms do not favor change opinion leaders are not especially

innovative (Rogers 1983 pp 282-284)

This present research relies heavily on the relative opinion leader status of those

change facilitators fi-om whom data was gathered Because the informants are change

facilitators and their input on technology implementation is considered authoritative

Rogers insights on change facilitators are appropriate here

Concems Theory

In her role as an observer of novice teachers at the University of Texas Frances

Fuller (1969) noted that there were perceptible differences in how experienced and non-

experienced teachers observed their profession

Are typically inexperienced undergraduates not yet ready to benefit fi-om a conventional teacher preparation program What are they ready to leam What does concem them Can we discover regularities in the interests of beginning education students regularities which might fiimish guides to educators in choosing course content and experiences for teacher education programs (Fuller 1969 p 208)

Fuller reviewed the available literature related to the concems of beginning

teachers Her study concluded that their concems primarily centered on classroom

management and perceptions of evaluations She was surprised not only with how

consistently the varied concems were reported but also with what these authors left out

the absence of concems about topics which are usually included in education courses

34

I instmctional design methods of presenting subject matter assessment of pupil leaming

dynamics of child behavior and so on (p 210)

Fullers subsequent research concluded that a developmental conceptualization of

teacher concems was most appropriate

Pre-teaching phase Non-concem ~ During this time before actual contact with

children concems articulated by pre-service teachers were amorphous and vague

Many did not know what to actually be concemed about Much of what these novices

reported could be regarded as hearsay rumors about teaching etc (p 219)

Early Teaching Phase Concem with Self- As the novice educator begins

service concems with Where do I stand and How am I doing were most dominant

(p 220)

Late concems Concems with Pupils - Scant data with experienced educators was

available to Fuller but mature concems appeared to focus on pupil gains and self-

evaluation as opposed to personal gains and evaluations by others (p 221)

Fullers groundbreaking article began the basis for the development of concems

theory She posited significant research implications that were expanded upon by later

researchers

1 Is the concem sequence complete or are there more tasks with specific

competencies to be defined and resequenced

2 Is concem a fimction of the person of the situation of both or of

neither

35

3 Do individuals as well as groups go through these phases Can a

phase be skipped returned to or be in muhiple phases

4 Can these stages be generalized to other groups such as

administrators college professors and non-teaching staff

5 Are concems more related to teaching behavior teacher competency

or student leaming

6 Are these concems measurable Can they be manipulated by

intervention (Fuller 1969 pp 222-223)

With Fullers article the stage was then set for the development of a more

comprehensive method of measuring concems of educators as they deal with innovations

The Role of CBAM

During the period Fuller was conducting her research Gene Hall and his

associates at the University of Texas were also researching teacher needs and concems

initially with a view toward providing relevant staff development activities Their

conceptual fi-amework for ascertaining concems during school change became the

Concems-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) (Hall Wallace amp Dossett 1973)

The CBAM describes feelings perspectives and attitudes of individuals while

they are considering the use of an innovation (Hall 1979) It is a people-oriented model

anticipating what change agents might discover during the change process and generally

used with staff development (Hope 1995) These assumptions undergird the CBAM

36

1 Change is a process not an event Change takes time and is accomplished in

stages

2 The individual is the primary target of interventions designed to facilitate

change in the classroom Institutions cannot change until individuals within them change

3 Change is a highly personal experience The personal satisfactions concems

motivations and perceptions play roles in determining the success or failure of an

innovation

4 The change process is developmental Individuals go through stages in feelings

and perceptions about the innovation as well as in skill of use of the innovation

5 Staff development can be best facilitated by a client-centered diagnostic-

prescriptive model Staff developers must discover what level participants are in the

change process and design activities congment with that level

6 Staff developers need to work in an adaptive yet systemic way They must be

able to assess the change process and adapt training methods to address those changes

(Hall amp Loucks 1978 Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1991)

Within CBAM three aspects of change form the basic fi-ame of reference of the

model

1 the concem that users have about the innovation

2 how the innovation is used and

3 the ways that the innovation can be adapted to meet the needs of individuals

(Hope 1995)

37

This current study focused only on this first strand-concems Using Fullers

research Hall et al redefined Fullers three stages of concem into concems unrelated to

teaching concems about self concems about the task and concems about impact

(Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1991) Seven Stages of Concem (SoC) about the

innovation have been identified (see Appendix A) Hall and his associates have

demonstrated that individuals move through these seven levels in a consistent manner

(Hall 1979 Hall 1985 Hall George amp Rutherford 1977 Hall amp Loucks 1978 Hall

Wallace amp Dossett 1973 Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1991) Stage 0 represents no

concem over the innovation Stages 1 and 2 reflect concems based on self stage 3

represents concem with the task and stages 4 through 6 mirror concems based on pupil

impact

The Stages of Concem Questionnaire the most precise measure of the SoC is a

35-item Likert scale where respondents indicate their present degree of concem about the

topic in an item (Hall George amp Rutherford 1979) Hall et al hypothesize that

individuals will normally flow fi-om the stages in consecutive order and that a scored

profile should place an individual somewhere along the concems continuum It is highly

rigorous and can be used effectively for research for large groups of people and for

tracking groups of people over time

George (1977) provided rehability and validity figures for this instrument

Intemal reliability was shown to be high Table 2-1 shows intemal reliability coefficients

for a 1974 sample (N=830) of teachers and professors A later subsample of teachers

38

Modifications to the content of the SoC have been done (Bailey amp Palsha 1992

Shotsberger amp Crawford 1996) with varying reliability In the main these researchers

concur that teacher concems do indeed occur in stages but differ in the number of stages

they detect

Table 2-1 Coefficients of Intemal Reliability for the Stages of Concem Questionnaire N = 830

Stage Alphas

0 64 1 78 2 83 3 75 4 76 5 82 6 71

(George 1977)

(N=132) was asked to complete the SoC a second time with test-retest correlations

shown in Table 2-2

As an adjunct to the SoC questionnaire the opportunity is presented for the

respondent to provide a written response with an open-ended statement along the lines of

When you think about [the innovation] what are you concemed about An collection

of open-ended statements can give the researcher opportunity to get a quick feeling for

39

Table 2-2 Test-Retest Correlations on the Stages of Concem Questionnaire N=132

Stage Pearson-r

0 65 1 86 2 82 3 81 4 76 5 84 6 71

(George 1977)

the concems of a group Moreover it can ascertain specific issues germane to a particular

group (Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1991) An altemate version of the SoC geared

principally to change facilitators contains an open-ended blank

43 Use this space (and back of this page) to express any concems you have not been able to indicate in the questionnaire (Hall Newlove George Rutherford amp Hord 1991 p 48)

A third means of gaining information is the one-legged interview which can be

done by simply having a conversation with a respondent about the innovation It is called

one-legged because it can be conducted on the mn or brief enough to do while standing

on one leg While not so rigorous as quantitative instruments this format allows for more

simplicity and rapport with chents (Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1991)

40

AppUcations of CBAM

CBAM has been used in a variety of educational situations Malone (1984) used

CBAM to determine concems of pre-service elementary teachers in teaching science

James and Hall (1981) evaluated concems of veteran teachers in implementing new

science curricula

CiccheUi and Baecher (1985 1987) used the CBAM model to study teacher

computer training They found that the level of concems of novice computer-using

teachers was a factor in how staff development was scheduled Their research questions

are similar to this present study

1 What specific concems will teachers have about using microcomputers in the

classroom

2 Do these concems vary and if so to what extent among elementary junior high

and senior high school teachers

3 Are there different concems between male and female teachers

4 In what ways can data yielded fi-om the SoCQ help teacher educators design

effective inservicing (Cicchelli amp Baecher 1985)

Wesley and Franks (1996) observed the voluntary adoption activities of teachers

using computer-assisted instmction (CAI) and multimedia through a variety of staff

development strategies most notably collegiality (Joyce amp Showers 1988) CBAM

developmental stmctures were positively linked to the increasing complexity of

technologies adopted by these teachers As they progress through the SoC teachers

voluntarily adopt technologies toward better leaming in the classroom Hope (1995)

41

examined teachers concems as they gained greater facility with computers in an

elementary school setting

Wells and Anderson (1997) performed studies comparing intemal concems

(stages 0 to 3) and extemal concems (stages 4 to 6) on a variety of computer appUcations

utilized by students in a graduate telecommunications course Prior computer usage in

eight separate skill areas along with general computing experiences was evaluated on the

SoC Ragsdale (1997) used CBAM to research the unexpected reactions of teachers and

students as they work in a variety of technologies Through CBAM Todd (1993) studied

university faculty concems in teacher preparation programs

CBAM is even used in non-scholastic situations Hall and Hord (1987) report

CBAM and SoC used to research nurse training Air Force cadet leadership training

health behavior and textbook sales and service CBAM has been used intemationally

with extensive studies in Belgium the Netherlands and Australia and has been piloted in

Indonesia Venezuela and Thailand (Hall Newlove George Rutherford amp Hord 1991)

The Change Facilitator SoC

The SoC questionnaire was shown to be adequate in determining the concems of

classroom teachers but did not work as well with administrators staff developers and

others who were charged with implementing change (Hall Newlove George Rutherford

amp Hord 1991) Not only were many of the SoC statements often inappropriate for change

facilitators but also scores elicited fi-om change facilitators yielded values skewed higher

in the Impact stages 4 through 6 particularly stage 5 (Collaboration) which is logical

42

considering the definition of stage 5 and the role of the change facilitator (Hall et al

1991 p 15) Earlier studies with change facilitators and CBAM gave impetus for a more

role-related instrument for assessing concems

The net result of this research yielded a set of Change Facilitator Stages of Concem

(CFSoC) The sequence of concems in the CFSoC (unrelated self task impact) is given

in Appendix B As with the SoC the CFSoC again contains 35 Likert-style statements

but each statement is expressed with a more leadership oriented spin Again as in the

earlier SoC Questionnaire Hall et al hypothesize that change facilitators will move along

the same path fi-om one stage to the next in consecutive order

The CFSoC Instrument

This specific instrument formed a significant portion of the data for this present

study and consequently requires more detailed reporting of its development Hall et al

(1991) have prepared a detailed manual describing the development of the instrument

scoring procedures methods of interpretation and reliability and validity data Appendix

C provides the current CFSoC instrument as used in this present study

CFSoC Development

As stated earlier those who had roles as change facilitators exhibited a different

pattem of responses to the SoC questionnaire because the SoC statements are phrased for

users of the innovation (p 15) Hall et al reported that they had to strike a balance

between innovation-related concems and change-facilitator role concems (p 16)

43

Because of this felt need for such a balance in May and June of 1979 Hall et al

instituted a pilot study of a potential change facilitator version of the well-used SoC This

pilot study indicated the need to wholly change the concems statements to reflect change

facilitator roles Additionally they found that the questionnaire items had to reflect the

facilitation of others use of the innovation rather its use per se (p 18) Questionnaire

items for the Impact stages (4-6) had to focus on efforts and concems on revising the

facilitation process rather than personal use of the innovation

Hall et al (1991) describe their later piloting efforts

Pilot data were collected at CBAM workshops for change facilitators in August 1979 in Texas (N=29) and New Mexico (N=23) Item analyses indicated that the intemal reliability of the scales were good (alphas greater than 65 on all scales) but Stages 1 and 2 (Informational and Personal) were too highly correlated This led to fiirther examination of the CFSoC definitions and a new draft of items for Stages 0 12 and 3

In May 1980 a sample of 219 CFSoC Questionnaires was collected by sending the measure to all change facilitators who had participated in Concems-Based Consulting Skills Workshops in 1979 and 1980 Analyses of these responses indicated good reliability and scale intercorrelations for all but Stage 6 (Refocusing) After carefiil analysis of the Stage 6 concept several new Stage 6 items were written and incorporated into the CFSoC

During the summer and fall 1980 an additional set of 288 CFSoC Questionnaires was collected fi-om a variety of workshops and mailings to change facilitators With these data factor analyses and other item analyses were used to select the five items for each stage on the final questionnaire (Hall et al 1991 p 18-19)

Reliability and Validity

Hall et al (1991) report two intemal rehability studies for the CFSoC A 1981

study (N=589) administered the current 35-item scale to a sample group that included a

44

variety of innovations examined job titles and years of experience Table 2-3 shows the

intemal reliability data for each stage Subsequent studies have produced virtually

identical data Another set of CFSoC responses (N=750) yielded the data in Table 2-4

Table 2-3 Means Standard Deviations and Alpha Coefficients for the CFSoC (N=589)

Stage Mean SD Alpha

0 1199 594 61 1 1691 949 85 2 1304 632 62 3 1790 730 72 4 2588 634 70 5 2586 699 77 6 907 652 81

(Halletal 1991p 19)

Table 2-4 Means Standard Deviations and Alpha Coefficients for the CFSoC (N=750)

Stage Mean SD Alpha

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

1320 1920 1140 1766 2477 2499

840

593 925 622 718 672 704 618

63

86

65

73

74

79

81

(Halletal 1991 p 19)

Hall et al conclude These statistics indicate that the scales have adequate

intemal reliability and the scales are consistent across various innovations (p 20) 45

The 1981 study yielded relatively low intercorrelations between stages Such low

intercorrelations indicate that these scales are measuring different concepts Table 2-5

provides a display of the intercorrelations of scale scores

Table 2-5 Intercorrelations of the Scale Scores on the CFSoC (N=589)

Scale 1 2 3 4 5 6

0 15 19 23 -15 -21 22

i 24 09 23

2 37 19

3 32

4

5

18

05

20

67

05

34

09

-06

-15

(Halletal 1991 p 20)

As is noticable in the table most stage correlations are small except for the correlation of

Consequence and Collaboration

Summary and Reflection

To summarize we know a great deal about how schools change fi-om the available

literature Fullan and Stiegelbauer (1991) point out famihar pattems of change and how

individuals adjust through those changes Rogers (1955 1983) insights into the diffiision

of innovations in a social system have expanded and matured with time Rogers points

46

out that those who facilitate change most effectively are those who in the social system

are most effective in social effectiveness Those who would dare to facilitate

technological change would normally reflect Rogers maxims conceming opinion leaders

The concepts of collaborative strategies appear usefiil for a variety of contexts

particularly for cooperative groups of school districts The original Stages of Concem

(SoC) survey continues to be utilized extensively but little hterature exists for the more

restrictive Change Facilitator Stages of Concem (CFSoC) instrument CFSoC authors

appear enthusiastic about its use (Hall amp Hord 1987 Hall Newlove George Rutherford

amp Hord 1991) but as this present research is conducted only one recent article advocates

its use (Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1993)

In communicating with CFSoC personnel they had no direct knowledge of

extensive recent literature on the CFSoC G Hall (personal communication November 2

1998) referred this writer to the original CBAM staff A George (personal

communication November 6 1998) was unable to find extemal validity studies of the

CFSoC There appears a need for this instmment to be used and reported upon

The legal stmctures which provide foundation for establishing a technology

consortium are solidly found in Texas legal literature Because they are based on legal

statutes they could be modified or deleted by subsequent legislatures Moreover the

changing fortunes of Chapter 41 school districts with fluctuating mineral wealth will

make it difficuh to reliably predict the fiiture of such technology consortia

47

CHAPTER m

METHODOLOGY

Study Design

Yin (1994) asserts that the type of research design to be used in any study must be

bounded by (a) the type of research question posed (b) the extent of control an

investigator has over actual behavioral events and (c) the degree of focus on

contemporary as opposed to historical events (p 4)

This present study used the case study method Yin (1993) specifically addressed

and described studies of educational partnerships or consortia as good examples of case

study research The research questions reiterated below are how and why oriented

(Yin 1994) They are presented in the form of a grand tour question what concems the

technology consortium exhibits as a group and sub-questions what concems individuals

(Spradley 1979)

Grand Tour Ouestion

What are the concems of leadership personnel as the TEKS technology

requirements are implemented in their school districts

Sub-questions

1 Where do these school leaders fall on the Concems-based Adoption Model

(CBAM) continuum regarding TEKS technology implementation

48

2 What are the specific concems of these school leaders as these TEKS are

implemented and why are these concems important

Rationale

This research examined details particularly interviewees responses which were

out of this writers direct control This study also focused on contemporary events in a

technology consortium in rural Texas Therefore Yins standards (Yin 1994 p 6) for

applying a case study method were justified

This present study was exploratory As such Yin (1994 p 21) would assert that

specific propositions or underlying assumptions about what we might discover in the

course of the inquiry should not be defined Assumptions tend to interfere with defining

issues they also constmct personal biases to both data gathering and interpretation

Rather Yin suggested that an exploratory study should reflect the purpose of the study

and the criteria by which an explanation will be judged successfiil (p 21) Levine

(1990) concurs that explorations into educational computer use often lack propositions

Many of the published qualitative studies are deemed exploratory by their authors reflecting researchers quandaries about what should be the subject of the inquiry in this new field and of equal importance the lack of any guiding theory against which to cast the qualitative data In general most of the extant models of quahtative investigation into classroom computer use tend to be atheoretical and largely positivist rather than interpretive in their orientation (p 464)

The criteria forjudging an explorations success will be discussed in the later section

dealing with validity and reliability

The unit of analysis for this study was a technology consortium the combined and

49

cooperative efforts of seven school districts to provide instmctional technology leadership

toward better serving their students Such a partnership has collective activities and

outcomes and as a distinct unit represents something greater than activities and

outcomes of member school districts (Yin 1993) Those change facilitators whose

concems were examined were all employed by the individual school districts and were

recognized as leaders within their respective districts Each of these individuals was

asked a set of similar questions Their responses were considered as representative of the

leadership of their individual districts Appendix D provides the list of questions that

were asked

Yin (1993) suggests that topical relevance and access can contribute to the

appropriateness of this research design The consideration of TEKS technology

implementation efforts is being effected during this present academic year and is certainly

current

For linking the data to the research questions the specific analysis strategy used

was the pattem-matching model Those concems registered by the interview participants

were compared with pattems of CBAM data particularly the typical and hypothesized

profiles of school change facilitators as manifested on the Change Facilitator Stages of

Concem (CFSoC) protocol (Hall Newlove George Rutherford amp Hord 1991)

Informants were asked to fill out the brief CFSoC survey The CFSoC manual presented

typical profiles and gave suggested interpretations of representative profiles These were

used to determine the concems rankings of these informants

Yin (1994) admits that there are no precisely set criteria for interpreting findings

In discussing a study by an author named herein Jones Yin made these observations

50

Jones data matched one pattem better than they matched the other But how close does a match have to be so as to be considered a match Note that Jones did not do any statistical test to make the comparison Nor would a statistical test have been possible because each data point in the pattem was a single number for which one could not calculate a variance and could not conduct any statistical test One hopes that the different pattems are sufficiently contrasting that the findings can be interpreted in terms of comparing at least two rival propositions (p 26)

The concems of school change facilitators as they implement new models of

curriculum were studied through the mode of exploratory case study a qualitative study

design Because this current study desired to know the current concems of sitting school

leaders a case study paradigm was used because the events in the study cannot be

manipulated Campbell (1997) suggests that a qualitative design is appropriate when

ascertaining the insiders point of view and the informants personal involvement A

research protocol of examining documents and artifacts and conducting interviews

provided a wide variety of data Moreover as Levine (1990) asserted case study research

could be accomplished relatively quickly Levine suggested that a case study design

appears to be the method of choice for those investigating different facets of educational

uses of computer technology

Clouse and Garrett (1994) suggest more theoretical reasons for utilizing case

study with adult change facilitators Borrowing fi-om Piagetian concepts the stage of

formal operations which forms the basis of case study is well-developed by adulthood

Moreover case study is grounded in the needs of adult leamers because of the

51

meaningfiilness of problems to the aduh and the responsibility they take toward their

own personal development

Stake (1995) describes defining characteristics of case study research that are

apphcable for this present study

1 It is holistic its contextuality is well developed it is case oriented

2 It is empirical it is field oriented its emphasis is on observables including the observations by informants it strives to be naturalistic noninterventionistic and there is a relative preference for natural language description

3 It is interpretive its researchers rely on intuition with many important criteria not specified it is attimed to the fact that research is a researcher-subject interaction

4 It is empathetic although plaimed its design is emergent responsive its reporting provides vicarious experience

(Stake 1995 pp 47-48)

Context for the Study

This study site was selected in consultation with a consultant who had knowledge

of and had worked with this organization I was directed toward one of the Consortiums

superintendents to secure access This superintendent in tum directed me toward a

person at the Educational Service Center who would be able to assist me

This technology consortium was comprised of seven school districts with two

districts declining to participate in this research These districts were rural and agrarian

yet possessed school leaders who tmly wanted to bring their communities up to date with

52

technology These school sites were given pseudonyms which were generated by random

selection of cities fi-om states other than Texas in a current road atlas Names of

participants were given pseudonyms Those names were those of students fi-om my high

school yearbook and were drawn by lot

In general each of the five school districts were in Texas counties which have

declined in population since 1990 The combined population of these districts is 7306

(Texas Almanac 1998) Each districts economy was based on agriculture and varying

amounts of mineral wealth resulting in substantial variance in property values Each

county boasts a relatively low crime rate

More important than minute details this present study is focused on the big

picture the ways and means utiHzed to make this technology consortium a reality In

initial contacts with consortium leadership this researcher was directed toward Dr Sarah

McCuUough a program specialist of the Educational Service Center Region J located in

Center City Texas Dr McCullough was instmmental in establishing this technology

consortium and providing this researcher with the history and innerworkings of this

consortium Interview questions for Dr McCullough are in Appendix E The following

narrative of the foundation and fimctioning of this consortium is based on this

researchers interview with Dr McCullough (personal communication December 9

1998)

The Sah Fork Educational Technology Consortium (the Consortium) is comprised

of seven independent school districts all of which have akeady worked together as a

special education cooperative Six of these districts are members of Educational Service

Center (ESC) Region J while one is actually in the territory of ESC Region K As also

53

with special education cooperatives a technology consortium is an interlocal agreement

by Texas law and has a management board comprised of district superintendents one

district designated as fiscal agent and a chair authorized to speak and act for the group

The Salt Fork Telephone Company (SFTC) headquartered in Dellwood Texas

provides rural telephone service for several counties in Texas All of the school districts

in these counties depend on this provider for both telephone service and the possibihty of

Intemet connectivity In 1995 the SFTC invited school leaders fi-om their service area to

a demonstration in Dellwood to show off a variety of new technologies that they were

excited to announce particularly their new capabiHty for two-way interactive video

Because these districts had worked together before had a common telephone carrier and

had common interests these school leaders concluded it logical and practical to combine

together for technology improvement in their schools

Prior to the Consortiums establishment member districts were limited to only the

computers they currently had in the classroom Almost all of their computers were

stand-alone units Each district also had a satellite dish for the state network materials

but were using them poorly and inefficiently

Dr McCullough was initially hired to work with this group to get a two-way

interactive video setup organized Later she was deeply involved with authoring several

grants for this group Her subsequent work with the Consortium was to conduct an array

of custom-designed technology needs assessments for each of several job descriptions

(teacher counselor administrator etc) with the emphasis on what do you want that you

do not have with the view that technology was the means to fiilfill those needs She now

54

meets regularly with these superintendents as they hold Consortium management board

meetings

Dr McCullough describes the interrelationships of Consortium members

positively She notes very little dissention as they discuss procedures that most decisions

are made by consensus What serves one serves all of them she emphasizes as the

Consortium moves toward better technology use Each board member realizes that they

are at different point toward reaching group goals They realize the benefits of

collaborative planning a hard lesson for everyone to leam

The Consortium keeps operating fiinds in a bank account separate fi-om general

operating fiinds administered by the business manager of the fiscal agent To date

fimding has come fi-om grants and fi-om monies generated fi-om the two member districts

designated as property-wealthy under Chapter 41 of the Texas Education Code These

districts recapture a certain percentage of excess property wealth normally surrendered to

the State and assign those fiinds to the Consortium (see Chapter II) These districts have

voluntarily chosen to redistribute their fiinds in this manner

Because these districts have formed this consortium they not only have more

technology but also more capabilities As a whole there is improved student

performance and better trained teachers with a rise in Academic Excellence Indicator

System (AEIS) scores (see Chapter I) Most importantly these school leaders fimction as

a group They actively seek ways to collaborate

A recent example of this improved outlook on technology concems teachers use

of the Accelerated Reader (AR) program Heretofore it had been difficult to get teachers

to travel all the way to Center City for training for AR but with a high-quality technology

55

center in Dellwood closer to the other Consortium member schools there was high and

enthusiastic tumout for the training sessions

Informant Selection

This researcher invited each of the seven school districts in the technology

consortium to participate in this study In August 1998 a letter was sent to each of the

district superintendents of the Consortium introducing me the goals of the prospective

research how they might participate^ etc A copy of this letter is provided in Appendix F

Within two weeks of the initial invitation a letter was received fi-om one

superintendent stating that in consultation with his districts site-based team they would

decline to participate in this present study That same week this researcher received a

telephone call fi-om the Dellwood ISD superintendent who had been authorized by the

Consortium board to grant permission to use their districts for this study

After securing approval of the Universitys Institutional Review Board these

superintendents were again contacted and consent forms instmctions and CFSoC

surveys were mailed to superintendents building principals and technology coordinators

of the six remaining districts This mailing was in November 1998 Eighteen completed

CFSoC surveys would be the potential maximum Appendix G contains a copy of the

consent forms and instmctions for taking the surveys

Concurrent with mailing queries to Consortium staff this researcher made initial

contact with Dr McCullough of the ESC and conducted an interview with her in

December 1998

56

The mailings yielded only eleven retumed surveys fi-om the maximum eighteen

possible informants However two of those with completed surveys were deleted fi-om

the pool during the pre-interview stage due to lack of fiirther response to interview

queries The net pool yielded exactly three each of superintendents building principals

and technology coordinators representing five school districts These nine informants are

those whose CFSoC profiles and interviews will be discussed in Chapter IV

Data Collection

A variety of data collection methods congment with the case study method was

used leading to the development of converging lines of inquiry allowing triangulation

ofthe data leading to improved validity and reliability of this study (Yin 1994)

Survey The CFSoC instmment contained 35 Likert-style statements which were

grouped into seven stages of concem Each ofthe statements received a score of 0

through 7 The statement scores were added up to provide a raw score for each stage

That raw score was in tum evaluated by a percentile score chart For the given raw

score there was a corresponding percentile score Percentile scores were then encircled

on a CFSoC protocol Interpretation ofthe CFSoC was based on the profile yielded

from the administration ofthe instrument

Hall et al (1991) insist that their instrument must not be used to make a definitive

analysis of a respondent but rather all interpretations must be treated as hypotheses (p

29) They discuss three methods of examining the CFSoC protocol to generate

hypotheses Interpretations can be made either by examining the stage which shows the

highest degree of concem based on percentile score by examining the percentile scores

57

ofthe highest and the second-highest stages or by examining the fiill array of stage

percentile scores Hall et al point out

As individuals move fi-om little concem about facilitating use of an innovation into actively becoming involved with users as a facilitator it is hypothesized that their concems develop fi-om being most intense at Stages 0 1 and 2 to most intense at Stage 3 and uhimately to most intense at Stages 4 5 and 6 This is most likely to occur if the innovation is a positive one and there is administrative support for its implementation However reality has a way of intervening on this idealized trend which results in different and interesting profiles Where an individual is in this change process can best be assessed through interpretation of a complete concems profile Analyzing both the tabular fisting of percentile scores and the plots of these percentile scores as a graph provides the most complete clinical interpretationassessment (Hall et al pp 33-34)

The profiles accuued as part ofthe data collection are thus examined according to

fiill-profile examples given in the CFSoC manual (Hall et al pp 34-42) Additionally

specific information given by the respondents conceming their change facilitator roles is

considered in establishing these hypotheses Scores are interpreted on the shape ofthe

profile and not necessarily on the numerical score of each concem stage

Interviews There were semistmctured interviews with district superintendents

building principals and persons designated within the school community as the

technology coordinator those whom teachers and administrators rely upon when

computer savvy is needed As opposed to the more open-ended interview I made the

interview more focused as Yin (1994 pp 84-85) puts it The informants were busy

educators and administrators and their time was perceived as limited Interviews were

oriented toward ascertaining the informants knowledge and use of technology with a

58

view toward discovering concems they had as new curricular guidelines and concurrent

hardware implementation was instituted Interviews were conducted by telephone tape

recorded and transcribed for review Interview queries were based on the CFSoC

questionnaire (Hall et al 1991) and questions used in a similar dissertation project

(Nagy 1996) This researcher noticed that several questions as listed in Appendix D

would be commented on by the informants without being asked When each ofthe

questions were answered by the informant the interview ceased Any discussion of non-

germane issues (local school politics vocational programs etc) or school activities not

included in Chapter 126 ofthe TEKS were not evaluated

Documentation Merriam (1988) defines documents as just about anything in

existence prior to the research at hand (p 105) but cautions whether it contains

information or insights relevant to the research question and whether it can be acquired in

a reasonably practical yet systematic manner (p 105)

I wanted to review a wide variety of recent public records in the fiirtherance of

technology implementation for this Consortium including but not limited to school

board minutes technology consortium records established policy statements grant

applications tabular data and evaluations Not all of these documents were available

fi-om Dr McCullough or fi-om Consortium members What was available included the

initial grant applications needs assessment surveys and technology plan The Academic

Excellence Indicator System (AEIS) reports for the 1997-98 school year for each district

were retrieved fi-om the TEA web site (TEA 1999) During the course of informant

interviews certain legal documents were alluded to found in Vemons Texas Codes

Annotated and were useful in verifying interview data A current survey (September

59

1998) ofthe Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) provided a comparison

of similarly situated school districts for technology use Cumulative accountability data

conceming these districts was found in pubhc records (TEA 1995 1996 1997a 1998)

Standardized indicators of district performance could thus be obtained as evidence of

progress

Merriam (1988) suggests that the use of these documents assists in grounding a

study into the context ofthe problem that is under investigation A further purpose of

reviewing documentation is that such records present not only the history ofthe

technology program but also the sense of ownership and commitment that the leadership

exerts and the staff reflect in their service to their leaming communities We also seek

independent objective means to determine if these technology implementations yield any

progress thus avoiding halo effects fi-om those most intimately involved with the

organization

Data Analysis

Since data collection and data analysis drive one another (Gay 1997) the data

was organized to reflect pattems or themes which emerged fi-om the data (Bogdan amp

Biklen 1992) As they discuss evaluating data they affirm that a method of finding a

focus is to look over your coding categories and see which have yielded the greatest

amount of data (p 186)

The interview transcripts were read and reread to gamer a sense ofthe concems

manifested by the informants The analysis had to be germane to the viewpoint ofthe

informant (Tashakkori amp Teddlie 1998) Coding categories emerging fi-om the interview

60

data included student leaming distance leaming power attitudes training infrastmcture

and finance The relevant narrative fi-om the hard copies ofthe transcripts were color

coded by crayon By using the cut-and-paste editing method with the word processor

color coded text fi-om individuals transcripts were collated into listings of specific

concems

Bogdan and Biklen (1992) suggest that this method of sorting piles of coded

material helps the researcher in not only making better sense ofthe data but also

communicating the results to others Appendix H shows the broad categories or themes

along with the sub-categories which comprised each theme

Since both quantitative and qualitative data were used in this present research it

becomes vital to justify the use of each paradigm and how the data is analyzed within that

paradigm Tashakkori and Teddlie (1998) wholeheartedly affirm that the two paradigms

can be successfully fused into one study They suggest that researchers deemed

pragmatic do not necessarily have to be doctrinaire about research paradigms Among

the various research models they describe is included a mixed-model study which

includes a research design that calls for a field experiment and extensive ethnographic

interviewing to occur simultaneously and in an integrated manner (p 19)

The CFSoC survey (Hall et al 1991) was analyzed as per the instmctions given

and the examples displayed in Section IV of their instruments manual Since each

informant could be considered at an individual position on the CFSoC concems

continuum a hypothesized profile was made for each informant based on the relative

extremes in percentile ranks derived fi-om the raw scores ofthe seven concem stages on

61

the CFSoC protocol (pp 33-34) Hall et al took pains to remind CFSoC users that the

quantitative results could only be considered data to generate hypotheses (p 43)

The examples given in the CFSoC manual make comparisons ofthe various high

stages that informants exhibit For example a high raw score in Stage 3-Management

would reflect that the informant may have significant concems toward logistics time and

management in fulfilling professional duties vis-a-vis implementing the discussed

innovation A high raw score at Stage 0-Awareness uniquely and specifically indicates

that the informant may have many other concems in addition to the innovation currently

in question These extemal concems could be any other activities that vie for a change

facilitators limited attention that outweigh the immediate concem for the stated

innovation Hall et al describe a variety of combinations and relative positioning of those

concems that are most prominent in the informants thinking Data reporting of

informants CFSoC profiles in Chapter IV will reflect analysis strategies described by

Hall et al in their manual (Hall et al 1991 pp 34-42)

Tashakkori and Teddlie (1998) assert that the qualitative field material (notes

interviews etc) be evaluated on two dimensions a) whether the themes or categories

were established a priori or emerged during the analysis and b) the degree of complexity

ofthe qualitative analysis scheme (ranging fi-om simple to complex) (p 117) They note

that through this process of emerging themes six to eight categories or themes emerge

when no a priori mle is imposed on informants

Because the data would be analyzed using recurring themes (Glesne amp Peshkin

1992 Howard 1994 Miles amp Huberman 1984) emerging fi-om the course of

interviewing the technique of latent content analysis was used As opposed to manifest

62

content the surface meaning of a text latent content refers to determining the underlying

meaning of a narrative and is determined by a subjective evaluation ofthe overall

content ofthe narrative (Tashakkori amp Teddhe 1998 p 122)

The text ofthe interviews was read several times for topics that the informants

found important Those topics which appeared most fi-equently emerged as the themes

Tashakkori and Teddlie point out that this analysis scheme makes it more appropriate for

the phenomenon being studied (p 123)

Verification Strategies

Maxwell (1996) insists that validity in a quahtative study is not acquired simply

by applying boilerplate techniques and strategies but by describing specific ways and

means of mling out possible altematives to our interpretations and conclusions Maxwell

insists that validity is a goal rather than a product it is never something that can be

proven or taken for granted (p 86) Moreover validity must be determined within the

context ofthe research and not merely a property independent ofthe context For each of

three principal means of understanding Maxwell describes a specific method that I was

able to use to better ensure validity

1 Description Since the main threat to description is inaccuracy the informant

interviews were recorded on cassette tape and transcribed Each ofthe informants was

sent a copy ofthe transcribed conversation for review verification and suggestions

2 Interpretation The principal threat to interpretation is imposing my own

meanings to the informants words To combat this validity threat consistent member

checks were made during the course ofthe interviews to ensure that I was getting the

63

correct information from the informant It was important to allow each informant to

express himself or herself in their own words Several methods of eliminating personal

bias are described below

3 Theory Not paying adequate attention to altemative propositions becomes the

most serious threat to theoretical validity (Maxwell 1996 p 89-90) Altemative

propositions can be masked by researcher bias and reactivity

Elimination of researcher bias is based on understanding how my personal biases

could affect the informants and their comments and my conclusions subsequently

derived Maxwell declares that is virtually impossible to totally eliminate my personal

thinking and values from the study (p 91) By asking similar questions of informants by

allowing these informants to candidly express themselves and by consistent member

checking I controlled for personal bias

Reactivity the influence ofthe researcher on the informants is likewise

impossible to totally remove from the research as Maxwell insists

For interviews in contrast reactivity is a powerful and inescapable influence what the informant says is always a function of the interviewer and interview situation What is important is to understand how you are influencing what the informant says and how this affects the validity ofthe inferences you can draw fi-om the interview (p 91)

Lists of what to do to combat reactivity have been compiled (Marshall amp

Rossman 1989 Maxwell 1996) but all of these suggestions (triangulation member

checks audits etc) are simply the usual methods in qualitative research Since there are

64

virtually no qualitative studies ofthe research instrument available for comparison I have

relied on these procedures to control for biases

1 Feedback Maxwell (1996) encourages the use of a variety of outside observers

to examine the data analysis and give their comments to critique my logic and methods

Two individuals with experience with both technology and research methods have agreed

to assist me with this and evaluate the data analysis

a Mr Jack P Stell instmctional design manager Fairfax VA and b Dr C L Wayne Moore Assistant Professor University of Tennessee Knoxville

With differing perspectives and biases these reviewers indicated agreement that

the research methodology proposed was indeed followed and that the research questions

were answered They pointed out grammatical and spelling errors writing style concems

adherence to APA requirements etc

2 Member Checks Although informants were given repeated opportunities to

clarify themselves in the interviews informants were given the opportunity to respond to

the data analysis specifically identifying themselves

3 Rich Data Maxwell (1996) considers rich data to be detailed and complete

enough that they provide a full and revealing picture of what is going on (p 95) This

generally includes verbatim transcripts of interviews which were compiled for each of

the Consortium informants As the data was read and considered themes emerged fi-om

the data

4 Numerical Report Data This researcher used numerical and normally

quantitative data to add to the confidence level of what my informants were saying

There was particular concem with whether the efforts ofthe Consortium were making

65

any progress over the time period from its establishment to the time ofthe interviews

Publicly available data was gamered from AEIS and TAAS reports to ascertain progress

in school performance

Study Limitations

This study focused on technology implementation concems of change facilitators

of a single technology consortium limiting the representativeness ofthe study The

combined student population of these five districts is smaller than many urban high

schools Interview responses reflected a rural attitude Findings yielded reflect the

comments of those interviewed at the time ofthe study There may be a variety of future

long-range plans pending that might modify present policies These would include grants

bond issues school board elections or even newer state mandates

Nevertheless this study must transcend these limitations in order to be of interest

and find applicability by other scholars Yin (1994) hastens to point out that the case

study paradigm relies on analytical generalization not experimental statistical

generalization to generalize the results to a broader theory (p 36) Yin suggests

replication of a case study with similar sites before a general theory can gain wider

acceptance

There is also the problem of apphcability to school settings markedly different

from those studied However issues that are common to school districts in general could

be expressed by these informants (eg concems over funding student leaming staff

development or transfer of power)

66

CHAPTER IV

RESULTS OF THE STUDY

Informant and CFSoC Profiles

As discussed in Chapter III Consortium informants were sent a copy ofthe

CFSoC questionnaire and those protocols were retumed to this researcher These

informants responses have been evaluated according to guidelines established by Hall et

al (1991) This instmment does not consign each informant to each ofthe seven stages of

concem but rather categorizes the informant in a broader category of CBAM either

Awareness Self Task or Impact as was discussed in Chapter II Consequently each

informant will be designated by the general category based on their individual CFSoC

profile TheCFSoC protocols for each ofthe informants are included as figures in this

chapter

James

James Petty is the high school principal at Camden a position he has held for over

fifteen years James considers himself a practical person and professes a rather traditional

attitude toward his administrative duties The interview with James repeatedly mentioned

school discipline and teacher control ofthe classroom He readily admitted to relying on

other persons to inform him on technological issues rather than researching the data

himself

James CFSoC profile (Figure 4-1) exhibited extremely high levels of concem

with Awareness Management and Personal stages with percentile scores over 90 The

67

0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage 0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score 99 69 99 96 13 21 68

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-1 CFSoC Profile of James Petty Camden Principal

68

high Personal score suggests a concem for personal position and standing while the high

Awareness score indicates a diversity of issues facing him which to him are of greater

importance particularly classroom management Also a high Management score implies

time logistical and managerial concems The moderately high Refocusing score

indicates James has thought about altematives to the innovation and would be exhibiting

definite ideas and opinions over the technology implementation This profile suggests

James is not as likely to be involved in the change process as others might be Attempts

to intervene could intensify his current levels of concem Because ofthe high scores in

the Self array of stages I would hypothesize James to be in the SELF stage of concem

Bill

Bill Potter is the technology coordinator for the Camden schools although he

continues to teach math for much of his school day Bill leamed his present trade largely

by doing it Although relatively new to computers (less than fifteen years) Bill considers

himself to have been oriented toward technology from his military days as an Army pilot

during the 1960s to the present His formal computer training has only been in a few

junior college classes and some inservice training Bill credits his technology reputation

to being the one who knew how to operate the computer at an earlier date than his peers

Although in the technology coordinator role Bills highest CFSoC profile (Figure

4-2) score was in Awareness This is most likely attributable to having many other

professional concems at present particularly since he remains a classroom teacher for

69

0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

91 56 62 60

5 12 18

2 3 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-2 CFSoC Profile of Bill Potter Camden Technology Coordinator

70

much ofthe school day as well as his increaseingly greater role in his school district He

may also just now be beginning to envision himself as a change facilitator

Information Personal and Management scores are no more than six percentile

points apart suggesting personal status and time logistical and managerial concems are

also important to Bill An increased Refocusing score also indicates Bill has some

definite ideas about the innovation that warrant consideration Bill manifests a SELF

stage of concem for this iimovation based on his CFSoC profile

Ronnie

Ronnie Bennett has been technology coordinator at Dellwood for just a few years

but has a long reputation and a deep pioneering attitude not only toward computers but to

a wide array of technology Ronnie was the first at his school to use a computer first with

a VCR first with a CD player and first to tinker with quadrophonic sound Like Bill

Ronnie first leamed computing by doing it In addition Ronnie observed and later

worked with the various private vendors and technicians who provided technology

services to his building

Ronnies CFSoC profile (Figure 4-3) indicates several areas of concem High

Awareness and Personal scores indicate many concems other than the present technology

implementation Ronnie also considers his personal position and role in the school

organization to be important The similar scores in Management and Refocusing reflect

his concem for time and managerial issues and his definite additional ideas toward the

71

0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

99 76 97 91 39 40 92

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-3 CFSoC Profile of Ronnie Bennett Dellwood Technology Coordinator

72

innovation that might warrant consideration Ronnie appears to border between the SELF

and TASK stages of concem

Larry

Larry Beckman a former agriculture teacher has been the superintendent at

North Prairie for a few years Larry realizes his mral attitudes and folksy manner but

demonstrates by his proactive approach to leadership that advancing technology in his

district is in the best interests of his students and staff He has had little formal training

intechnology except for several workshops However Larry credits a hands-on

technology approach as most effective for himself

Larry had relatively high percentile scores for each ofthe seven stages of concem

with a low of 68 in Consequence Larrys highest CFSoC profile (Figure 4-4) score was

Management suggesting that the physical nuts and bolts and managerial concems

were most important Information scoring higher than Awareness indicates a better

understanding ofthe details ofthe innovation Larrys lowest scores in Personal

Consequence and Collaboration were only five percentile points apart suggesting

relatively lower concem for interpersonal interests He also scored high in Refocusing

suggesting that he is considering additional ideas about the iimovation that should be

considered Because ofthe high degree of management concems Larry would be best

described as being in the TASK stage of concem

73

0

100

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

87 89 73 94 68 72 92

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-4 CFSoC Profile of Larry Beckman North Prairie Superintendent

74

Mike

Mike McCoy has spent almost a decade at Sawtooth as superintendent Like

several others Mike is perceived as a doer having leamed a great deal about

technology through practical application Mike has a more direct responsibility with his

staff doing teacher evaluations and performing first-line maintenance with his buildings

technology He credits both a number of technology workshops and reading of

technology periodicals as being great sources of information

Mike as superintendent has many concems on his mind as his CFSoC profile

(Figure 4-5) indicates with a high score in Awareness His second highest score

Management suggests that he feels the cmnch of managerial and material concems for

his district Low Information and Personal scores could suggest that he feels secure in his

position and understanding ofthe innovation implementation A slight increase in

Refocusing fi-om Collaboration suggests that Mike is considering some ideas in addition

to the innovation implementation Because more personal concems are lower and the

managerial concems are high Mike appears to be in the TASK stage of concem

Vemon

Vemon Russell has well over three decades of public school service currently

finding himself as principal ofthe Sawtooth school Indeed he still teaches some science

classes and has even coached football while still an administrator Vemon is relatively

new to technology but indicates his willingness to leam by studiously reading the

manuals and attending workshops Vemon quips Ive leamed more from it in the last

three years than all the other years put together

75

0 100

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

96 43 34 82 9

18 31

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-5 CFSoC Profile of Mike McCoy Sawtooth Superintendent

76

Vemons CFSoC profile (Figure 4-6) shows him interested and positive about the

innovation with the higher Information score but the high Management score shows

Vemon still concemed over his day-to-day details Low Personal and even lower

Consequence and Collaboration scores and both raw and percentile scores of zero for

Refocusing indicate little concem over his facilitative role his personal status nor his

interest in exploring altematives toward this innovation At this late stage of career

Vemon appears comfortable in his knowledge ofthe innovation Vemon also appears to

be in the TASK stage of concem based on the high Management score

Renee

Renee White a mid-career educator occupies the technology coordinator

designation at Sawtooth schools Having been a secretary for twenty years Renee

considers herself adept at any technology thrown at her Describing herself as the chief

distributor of information Renee considers herself glad not to have a computer in her

home because she would play with it indefinitely

Renee exhibits similarly high percentile scores in Awareness and Management on

her CFSoC profile (Figure 4-7) These scores imply Renee has both a variety of concems

in addition to the innovation implementation and also concems over time logistics and

management of her responsibilities Similarly low percentile scores in Information

Personal Consequence and Collaboration suggest lesser concem for personal position

and collaboration needs A slight upswing in the Refocusing score suggests a concem for

articulating altemative ideas Renee seems to exhibit a TASK stage of concem

77

0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

69 81 30 78 16 4 0

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-6 CFSoC Profile of Vemon Russell Sawtooth Principal

78

0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

91 18 30 86 2 3

18

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-7 CFSoC Profile of Renee White Sawtooth Technology Coordinator

79

David

David Jackson has been an administrator for decades and is the superintendent at

Woodlake David recognized the potential of computers and technology as soon as

computers became widely available to schools He enjoys being involved with the nuts

and bolts details of technology implementation even to the point of being involved with

the wiring for hardware implementation

David shows the same percentile score for both Awareness and Information on his

CFSoC profile (Figure 4-8) This impHes Davids concem for a variety of issues at

present and a desire to leam more about the innovation A relatively high Management

score suggests physical and managerial concems Lower scores in Personal and

Consequence imply that personal position and impact are not as important to David

Nevertheless Davids higher scores in Collaboration and Refocusing suggest a desire to

work together with others to make an impact on their leamers and to consider

altematives to innovation implementation David appears to be in the IMPACT stage of

concem very much concemed with how well he facilitates change with his staff

Stephen

Stephen Greer has been secondary principal at Woodlake for several years He has

always been interested in technology but attributes his current increased level of interest

to his rising to his present administrative post Stephen describes himself as a leamer

enjoying researching a problem and its solution A former math teacher and coach

Stephen considers himself an innovator

80

100

0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness I- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

87 87 30 74 13 60 68

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-8 CFSoC Profile of David Jackson Woodlake Superintendent

81

0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1 - Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

81 61 73 93 62 60 13

2 3 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-9 CFSoC Profile of Stephen Greer Woodlake Principal

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Stephens highest percentile score on his CFSoC profile (Figure 4-9) was in

Management implying greatest concem with logistical and managerial concems A

somewhat lower score in Awareness suggests concems over other issues at present

Similar percentile scores in Personal Consequence and Collaboration could be

interpreted as concem for his impact for his facilitative and collaborative styles A very

low Refocusing score implies that Stephen is not considering altematives to the

innovation at this time Stephens profile best reflects the TASK stage of concem

Summary of CFSoC Data

To summarize these school change facilitators demonstrate a variety of change

facilitator strengths and had at least one individual in each ofthe CBAM stages (SELF

TASK IMPACT) Most of them score relatively high in Awareness suggesting that there

are other competing issues for that individuals time Management also scores

consistently high suggesting the day-to-day managerial and logistical details of the job is

of major importance to each informant Individuals appeared to be on a higher CBAM

stage as they held a higher position in the school district although there were some

differences which could be due to experience with the innovation

Informant Concems

Informant concems were also collected as described in Chapter III Each

informants interview was tape recorded and transcribed Copies ofthe transcriptions

were sent to each informant for confirmation prior to data analysis

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Seven overriding themes emerged across these interviews These were topics that

appeared to be important to these informants as they implemented new technologies in

their school districts in relation to the TEKS for technology applications The informants

registered strong opinions over these themes To reiterate these themes are discussed in

regard to the Consortium as a whole since the focus ofthe study was not on inter-role

relationships

Attitudes

The informants collectively expressed concems over the attitudes of themselves

their peers and their staffs There was high concem over the prevailing desire to keep

current with the technology David Jackson Woodlake Superintendent was a pioneer in

his district with implementing computer use and describes those early days

When we got our first network and put computers in the classroom that is the first keyboard many of our teachers had ever touched in their life as far as a computer keyboard Had no idea how to tum it on Had no idea how to apply software Knew nothing Scared them to death Still have a few that are very reluctant to use a computer or Intemet or any type of technology of that sort in the classroom

David feels that his some of his staff still manifest a degree of reluctance to use

technology

So the biggest challenge that Ive had is getting teachers to acquaint themselves with computer technology and cable technology all the technologies that have been made available to them You know its not going to do any good if they dont know how to use it

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Larry Beckman North Prairie Superintendent recognizes the need to keep his

district current with new technology

And I think a part of that is that a lot of us out here we know well I dont know whether we know or whatever but anyway we feel like maybe that weve got to try and stay on top of it as much as we can because we are so far away from anything And if we dont we dont stay on top of it were basically hurting our kids because you know if they graduate fi-om here and go over to Tech or to AampM or somewhere like that then they run into these situations you know theyve never seen any kind of this kind of equipment then theyre already two years behind everybody

Stephen Greer Woodlake Principal believes he is indeed on the fi-ont edge of

the curve at this point in time but credits his rising to an administrative post as a turning

point in his attitudes toward technology

Really up until the time I became an administrator we were the kind of on the back end ofthe curve there for a while but I feel were comfortable where we are right now technology wise

So much ofthe difficulty in implementing technology has centered on the fear of

change These informants encounter these fears daily both within themselves and their

staffs There appears to be a generational gap in acceptance of technology James Petty

Camden Principal considered his teachers and noted

I definitely see a difference in the age groups Those that are five years away from retiring are more difficult to get into use ofthe computer maybe a lot of times And probably the younger ones its just much easier for them to accept and to use a computer right off

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Similarly Vemon Russell Sawtooth Principal chalks it up to age and experience

level

We have one or two teachers who use it but use it sparingly you know what Im saying But we have other teachers I think that use it a lot Probably our primary grades its used less in K through 1 than anywheres But then they are traditional teachers Theyve been teaching a long time

Concurring David Jackson correctly noted

Because many of our teachers are intimidated by the fact that the students in their classroom know a whole lot more about the technology available in the classroom than they do Which is not uncommon I think in many schools

Bill Potter Camden Technology Coordinator marvels at the older teachers lack

of desire to advance in technology

Its like the older teachers you know they put that thing over in the comer and dust it off just like that F-16 out in front ofthe park you know Nobody knows how to fly it but boy we maintain it and it stays shiny Thats they way a lot of these older teachers treat their computers Theyre afraid to tum them on see so weve got to overcome that fear

Bill suggests that some ofthe more sophisticated technologies now in homes

might influence younger educators greater acceptance of technology

Of course as these people retire and theyre going to get here pretty quick I imagine in our school system and the younger ones take to more technology and the younger they get the better theyre going to be because theyve all grown up with VCRs and your microwaves

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Renee White Sawtooth Technology Coordinator would add that teachers

purchasing of personal computers improves their attitudes toward technology

A lot ofthe teachers own personal computers and so increasingly at our school theres a higher comfort level with using them and with experimenting and trying to figure things out than there was just two years ago I dont know if its a change in personnel or it its simply the exposure has increased the comfort level Maybe some of both

Larry Beckman as a district leader strongly realizes that m the face of change

positive efforts to make change happen is preferable to ignoring the need for change

It forces you you know its kind of like you can either get on the boat and help paddle or you can get off and swim Id rather be in the boat paddling and trying to stay up with it because I dont swim very fast

Ronnie Bennett Dellwood Technology Coordinator strongly rejects the notion

that change is bad After decades in the classroom and office Ronnie is aware how

attitudes shape teaching activity

A long time ago I leamed that change is not always bad And I guess back there when I first decided you know I told myself there were a lot of people that said Computers are not for me I remember that and I told myself I thought I could either leam how to do this or Im going to fall by the wayside And having always been interested in technology and all change has never been a problem for me And it is for a lot of folks People that have taught school a certam way for twenty or twenty-five years and suddenly you interject this new thing called technology or computers and some people just say Now wait a minute I didnt think what I was doing was all that bad

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Ronnie suggests that some teachers might be blinded to their own attitudes about

their teaching practices

As a regular classroom teacher I know that the way I present things and the way the kids I dont present things anything like I did when I first started teaching at all And thats because kids change times change You cant stay the same Things dont stay the same You have to be willing to you know if theres a better way to do something you know what we have is we have a lot of people that have been in this profession for twenty twenty-five some of them nearly thirty years and they taught the same lesson wrong for thirty years Just because youve done it over and over and over doesnt mean that its right

Power

In addition to changes in attitudes changes in school curricula educational

methods extemal mandates etc also bring about changes in power Who has the

authority Who decides what to do Who calls the shots These issues were on the minds

ofthe informants

Crawford Bodine and Hoglund (1993) distinguish attributes of recognized power

by de iure school leaders from perceived powerment of classroom personnel Power for

the sitting administrator is the fi-eedom fi-om being told by others what to do (p 143)

The classroom person being empowered to leadership is instead acknowledged their

power and receives fi-eedom to exercise that responsibility with a minimum of

bureaucratic or managerial constraints (p 232)

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Technology appears to be a key means of providing teachers the empowerment to

collaborate Ronnie Bennetts early vision of computers manifested prescience

I remember thinking you know This is a way for teachers to share things I remember thinking that you know that teachers had access to a machine that would allow them to communicate back and forth with teachers at other schools then would share all this information Of course now with e-mail and the Intemet thats what they want everybody to do

Not only does technology empower the teacher but also the leamer Stephen a

secondary principal would hope that his teachers realize the need to surrender some of

their perceived power with a view toward improving instmction

I have tried to push for change away fi-om lecturelisten and readtake notes multiple choice assessment And I have pushed for learner-centered self directed leaming What I couldnt achieve through preaching and bullying technology has almost single-handedly achieved for me in that area

Renee noted that often her students were akeady prepped to use the technology

She had no quahns over accepting a more facilitative role with her students

Now the fact was you know the computers were there and the kids were going to leam about them whether I helped them or not because thats the nature of children They like that technology theyll figure it out with you or without you

Not only direct instmction but also day-to-day teacher practices are being

changed due to technology Stephen related anecdotes about the changes technology

made in unbalancing teachers perceived status and power

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Ive witnessed the evolution of one of our teachers in particular that happens to be a coach that when he and I both appeared on this campus ten years ago he was strictly a traditional instmctor But Ill tell you right now its hard for him or has been hard for him but hes making the move successfully to give up the stmcture to give up the power and tum the power of leaming over to the students rather than the power being wielded by the teacher Thats been a hard stretch and technology it helps it gives you a venue to shift that power but at the same time there are sticky issues Obviously fi-ee speech issues obscenity issues those kind of things that are introduced with the advent of technology

Just getting traditional teachers to use a simple software package has tumed into

virtual showdowns in the administrative office Stephen gives an example from a

colleagues experience that echoes his own understanding

I think of an administrator fiiend of mine in a school in the Panhandle and theyre trying to move the rank-and-file in that direction And they are to the point where grades are submitted on disk at the end ofthe semester And they just have one math teacher as it tums out thats refiised you know just-was-not-going-to-do-it you know and finally his principal after two directives the third time he went down there and said Look you will tum your gradebook in on disk in May or you will not be working here in August That simple Step out But there are a lot of people that are nervous and I think its fear mostly I think its fear

The imposition of new ideas and new procedures can have an intimidating effect

on traditional teachers and administrators a relinquishing of power James admittedly a

traditional administrator relates that some of his teachers might be following his lead in

leaming new things

Its like making them do something that you know theyre required to do and theyre only doing it because they have to Maybe

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Im like them or theyre like me in that some of us older dogs its a bit more difficuh to teach us something new or change

If leaming technology is merely a requirement for continuing teacher development

and not something that is perceived as needed then teachers will exhibit reluctance in

adoption of new technologies

As new technologies are implemented in schools there is the need for immediate

assistance in using the technology Those persons designated as technology coordinator

of a building or a district have had a modicum of perceived power bestowed on them

although each of these coordinators who have acted as informants still spends a

significant portion of their day in the classroom

Ronnie Bennett relates that his experiences with a number of superintendents

have tacitly acknowledged his expertise

Ive always been the kind of person that if something is broke that somehow ends up in my hands

Often they would say to Ronnie You tell me what you want or what to do

Ronnie appreciated one superintendent that was particularly supportive

(Conceming administrative support) but Buster (the superintendent) was like you know he wanted in there boy But he just about anything I ever wanted or needed you know he was just he was ready And he knew what I was talking about above all whereas a lot ofthe others had no idea what I was talking about

Bill found himself stumbling into his role as technology coordinator

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But as far as being specifically trained for this Im not I just picked it up as I went and I was the guy that knew how to tum the computer on so I got the job you know as the Computer Gum You know the people the powers that be many of them ofthe teachers looked at me as having expertise really that I didnt have I just had one at home and knew how to tum it on they didnt They just thought I was genius you know so thats how I inherited this job

Later Bill found himself besieged by folks wanting his specialized knowledge

As kids leam more and more of this (computers) then we have people I have people you know that call and want to What kind of computer do I need to buy Of course you know thats like trying to recommend the type of automobile (they need to buy) and you dont want to get into that

Renee would chalk up her perceived expertise to her job title She has been skilled

with computers for years but has not always had people wanting her knowledge about

computers while she officially taught another subject at another school

So anyway I knew a lot about computers before other people but (because I taught home economics) no one ever asked me anything about computers at that school The whole year I was there no one had a question about computers All of a sudden because I teach computers I am the computer gum the shift in the role simply came with the title So I think what Im trying to say is is it the title itself dictating your role Not so much at first your knowledge so thats helpful and certainly its going to keep people coming back if youve been able to help them but simply your title itself says Oh you must have explanations that will help us here

Nevertheless final authority remains in the hands of de iure administrators One

ofthe technology coordinators explains

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And another thing too is that the administrator has the authority and theres a lot of things that I can see like I see we need to be doing training and that sort of thing but I dont have the authority in order to make that happen But until you get these administrators that are you know technologically oriented you know its hard to make things like that happen

This same technology coordinator feels fhistrated with trying to get teachers to use

technology and insists that those in leadership need to take charge and lead

Weve got these people at that level like the administrative level who have to provide the leadership that have the authority to make things happen and its like convincing someone you know youve got to convince them ofthe fact that it needs to be done Theyre too comfortable with you know getting the basketball games arranged and all this sort of thing and making sure a teachers in a certain classroom but boy when it comes to technology unless that person has used a computer its foreign to them

Student Leaming

The educational leadership literature points us to student learning as the ultimate

goal in any educational enterprise These informants unanimously echoed that concem

Unless the school staff perceive that the technology hardware is adequate to provide

quality educational experiences for the students the hardware is of little value Larry a

superintendent wonders why anyone would think otherwise

(Conceming his site-based committee) And then let them kind of I guess decipher what it is that they can use what it is that we need for our students how its going to benefit the kids whenever we get this stuff Whats going to be the benefit for the kids Are we going to teach them how to use it or are we just going to put it in the comer

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Because he perceives that both students and staff are using the machinery effectively

Larry is more encouraged to plan for an increase in hardware for his district

Renee has been enmeshed in the technology for so long and has seen so much

progress with her students that they find technology use as normal

The kids who are in the tenth grade this year started school with computers They started kindergarten in Sawtooth with computers theyre the first class And when they hit my eighth grade class in computer literacy two years ago all I had to do was say Heres the program I want you to go to the menus at the top ofthe screen and see whats under each menu and get an idea of where things are Now I want you to create a PowerPoint presentation with these elements and I promise you other than probably a four or five minute demonstration on the program how it operated I did not have to tell those kids a thing It was OK where you expect them

Because of implementation of technology teachers are not only expected to use it

and thereby improve their teaching but also to increase student leaming Stephen a

secondary principal noticed the difference almost immediately

When we became connected and we put our computer labs online and when we got computers that are interfaced with televisions that are hooked into the Intemet and also to cable in the classroom Then automatically the teachers saw the convenience and the usefulness of using technology in what they do It sort of served as a catalyst to move fi-om traditional lecture instmction to student self-directed leaming To me thats the biggest change

Stephen considers technology as the catalyst in many areas of education He

integrates his technology concems with more global interests

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Technology is proving to be a wonderful thing and a wonderfijl instmctional aid and in a large sense in my mind its the thing thats driving the conversations we have in the political realms regarding charter schools home schools private school vouchers because we dont have the monopoly on education any more and I think thats a good thing I think students and their parents are going to look for the most bang for their buck and theyre going to look for education thats provided to them opportunities and experiences thats provided to them in a non-encumbering way To me the biggest question is in relation to technology is how to predict where were going

If indeed the quality of teaching is critical toward student leaming technology is

not always believed to be a positive factor in such progress David a superintendent is

not happy with some ofthe pervasiveness of technology in the classroom

I may be totally wrong but probably thats going to be the biggest area of change is the way we deliver instmction to students other than one-on-one in the classroom I see the day that the kids here at Woodlake schools will be watching the TV monitor

As a traditional administrator in a traditional school James has reservations on

how well teaching quality is exhibited when mixed with various technologies and

instmctional arrangements Traditional school procedures such as homework could be

modified or even made obsolete through technology James even suggests that his

teachers may never have the time nor the physical space in their rooms to handle all the

information fi-om the new technologies He senses a foreboding dread of technology

having the potential to replace the teacher

I see tremendous change and I think its going to continue and grow by leaps and bounds whether its laser discs or computers And I dont know where all its going but I see it coming And I dont think

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the teachers ever going to be replaced I hope they dont try because itll our quality of teaching is going to diminish I think if they do but I do see more and more technology involved in the classroom by these various kinds of things that weve been talking about

Informants have had varying amounts of time to measure the effectiveness of their

technology implementation Some of these districts have had over a decade to consider

increases in student leaming through computer technology David elaborated about what

his students at Woodlake have accomplished due to their years of experience with

technology

I feel like our students will be very prepared when they leave here to go on to college in the area of technology Woodlake has been fortunate to have (had) technology a lot longer than many other schools and weve had kiddos that have been able to use technology that they leamed here to work their way through college based on what theyve leamed and the exposure they got right here on technology

Mike McCoy Sawtooth Superintendent also has had highly advanced hardware

in his building for years and remarks how Sawtooth students at every level are integrating

technology into the curriculum

The students are just so extremely comfortable with technology I mean its just second nature with them almost You know we have computers in kindergarten you know all the way through twelfth grade and theyre in every classroom Our kindergarteners have no trouble with just going in sitting at the computer and you know being able to by themselves you know pull up a game or whatever it could be Every one of our elementary kids know that the information is available to them and they know how to get it off the Intemet They know where to go

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Renee cautions that the changes that have been made and the progress achieved are

not just ends in themselves Despite piles of advanced technology in the classroom

Renee interjects

I still have to teach students to write I still have to teach students grammar I still have to teach students how to understand what they read I still have to get them to read I have to get them to write And I think this is tme generally technology is only a tool Its not the end result Were trying to teach students reading writing and arithmetic The 3 Rs The tools have changed the concepts have not Youre still trying to teach kids to think so they can move out into the world and be citizens ofthe greater society

Some administrators admittedly traditional in orientation have concems that

technology will dismpt the orderly progress that they have endeavored to produce in their

buildings They assume that discipline will lead to better student leaming James wonders

what effects distance leaming and Intemet use will have on both instmction and student

research when discussing the new interactive video delivered foreign languages classes

his school might offer

And to go the advanced (diploma) route its almost a necessary part of our curriculum As far as liking it I dont I think they do a poor job of teaching the course I think its just not a good way for students to leam

As for the interactive class James does not think it represents the best teaching method

He would prefer to have a live teacher in the classroom one that will be more proactive

in maintaining discipline and standard teaching activities

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Vemon also expressed concem over intemal discipline in the use ofthe e-mail

function ofthe system

My concem is consistency on the discipline ofthe e-mail of students in our school We try not to let them use it personally and I dont think its consistently enforced throughout our school and its very hard to supervise e-mail The e-mails a problem here that I have some teachers that watch it close and some teachers that dont

Indeed while discussing student leaming all of these informants expressed

specific concems over distance leaming and about its effects on their jobs and their

leamers As a result an additional concems theme distance emerged fi-om the data

Distance

Because the Consortium is implementing an advanced distance leaming center in

each of its member schools each informant volunteered concems over its

implementation use and outcomes The very concept of distance however is not

simply limited to distance leaming but also to the significant distances Consortium

educators have between their schools and sources of school improvement

These informants perceive improvement for their school districts by being able to

bring a greater variety of activities and services to their districts Larry a superintendent

jumps at the chance to use distance leaming in his district He sees benefits in distance

leaming to both professional and student progress as well as it being a cost-cutting

measure

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I think its going to be extremely beneficial especially to schools out here like we are that you know were an hour and a half away fi-om the Service Center or fi-om Center City or Tech or anywhere like that and itll be extremely beneficial to our students You know we can pick up some college classes We can get them some dual-credit classes Ive got some people here that want to take some classes and want to work on some graduate work and so forth that maybe we can pick up School board training and in-service training through the Service Center will save us lots of dollars and lots of time because if we dont have to travel all the way to Center City to get our in-service and even if its a half-a-day deal you spend a whole day by the time you drive over there and drive back

Mike agrees with Larrys concem over hteral distance fi-om school to service

center When staff have to do as much travel as do these school leaders distance becomes

a significant factor in what they can accomplish

Were so isolated Were a hundred miles from Center City which is where our Service Center is Instead of travel time you know because any teacher who leaves here loses a full day even if its an hour workshop

Renee echoes Mikes concems She experiences the presure ofthe distance cmnch

as she budgets her time and resources

We live a hundred miles fi-om any kind of technical support and we pay $10000 an hour for somebody to come out and fix it so you think twice before you even ask to have (a computer) looked at Can I work around this

Nevertheless there is a sense of concem registered by each informant over distance

leaming implementation As discussed in the previous section there is a fear of

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technology supplanting the teachers role David sees distance leaming in his professional

future but also makes this prediction

My first instinct is to say that probably distance education is going to have effect particularly on mral America Im not real sure Im ready to buy that yet It may but Im not totally yet sold on distance leaming as a tool for replacing the teacher in the classroom There may come a day that that might be the only way that we can deliver some instmction to our students If and when that day comes I think thats going to be a shame and I think thats going to be a step back in education

Previous efforts with distance leaming were fi-ustrating at some informants

schools David registers his experiences

And (distance learning) wasnt that well received either fi-om the students or the parents And I know that distance leaming will be better than that because youll have two-way interactive audio and video at all times But I still have reservations and Ill have to see it work well to change my mind on it I probably cant stop it fi-om coming

Ronnie having been a distance leaming facilitator also remembers problems with

this teaching format for students and facilitator alike

But it was all these schools even as far away as Kansas that were viewing this at the same time And its hard to get through on the telephone line because you had all these people trying to get through to ask a question

When asked about the net effects of all this Ronnie explained

We had a lot of I guess youd say disillusioned parents and kids because they were expecting to get you know they thought What a

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wonderfiil way to be in touch with computers and what have you And you know if we did work we had to bundle that work up send it to San Antonio Well by the time the guy got it graded and got it back you know it might be a week or two And at the same time we were under no pass no play mles And you had athletes that you know at three-weeks reporting period didnt know if they were passing or not And then some of them would wind up failing at the end and they didnt even really know why they were failing And so you know we had a bunch of kids that were like ineligible

Fmstrations registered by the aduh facilitators were received clearly but students

responses to the distance experience were even worse Ronnie elaborated in detail about

the legwork done on-site to facilitate distance leaming As is axiomatic in instmctional

design inadequate feedback does not promote leaming

The kids never really knew for sure if what they were doing was what he wanted or what was acceptable or till he had a chance to mark it and write notes on it and what have you And a lot of times by the time they did get feedback on it well it was too late

Renee also experienced first-hand the details of distance leaming Conceming the

possibilities of interactive video Renee questions

I guess the biggest concem has been teachers who are afi-aid that they will get dumped on How many students are you going to expect me to teach for this class that I have the same prep time that I had when I had seven kids And then all of a sudden Im teaching an interactive video classroom where I have kids fi-om Woodlake and from Dellwood and fi-om Beaverdam and fi-om Sawtooth and all of a sudden I have fifty kids instead of fifteen Im given the same amount of prep time or maybe Im given a second hour of prep I still have the logistics of having to be ready for however many my school district decides to contract for And I have to be eminently more prepared that I ever thought about having to be prepared in a normal classroom Because I cant go on the air and expect to freestyle it you

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Renee a technology coordinator as well as a classroom teacher brings distance

leaming down to earth with her practical concems Contrasting with the concems of

teachers over the years distance leaming is bringing in new heretofore unanticipated

concems and challenges Renee relates

You know when we just had textbooks the worst problem you had to deal with was with the student who showed up in class without their books or you ran out of chalk and you sent somebody down to the office to get chalk But when you start using these levels of technology where the bugs are not quite as worked out then you not only run into you run into problems using the technology that really can cmsh your class time and cmsh your prep time

James is adamant in his dislike for distance leaming Earlier he indicated that

distance leaming might not be a good way to leam James augments this with more

mundane administrative concems Since James perceives the teacher role in a traditional

manner he has concem over classroom discipline in a distance leaming format

Well I dont think youre going to have any kind of classroom without discipline in the class And the only person that can do that is the one that is supposedly in charge the one thats taking care of grades etc So that teacher has almost got to see her classroom

Training

Unless teachers administrators and other school staff are appropriately trained to

use the new technology hardware and software will be of little use Continuous staff

training goes on in this Consortium but Vemon expressed dismay over some ofthe

preparations for early technology implementation

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I dont think we did enough preplanning before we got involved with the computers We just sort of put them in and it became a hit-and-miss thing you understand If I had to do it over again I would want lots and lots of preplanning to see how we could do it better how to install how to implement and so forth how we wanted to use it for our curriculum

Other informants quipped that the limits of whatever training they had for some

technology applications simply consisted of Heres the computer Heres the box Theres

the desk Put it there Larry has jumped right in to get his staff trained through a variety

of sources He is looking forward to all the training perks his district will receive from

this present technology implementation and the workshops he has set up

Theres so much information and so many different benefits that can come over that that its just mind-boggling that everything that we can possibly pick up out here And so were going to get plenty of training before we ever jump in there and you know put a room full of equipment in there and then it sits there and gathers dust If we cant use it theres no need for it being out here

Larry affirms the benefits of leaming by doing

I guess I would say that probably about ninety percent of my training has basically come through the Service Center and the other ten percent is just hands-on getting one there and doing it You know I guess Ive leamed Ive leamed a lot by you know just by using it because if you dont well going to all the classes is not going to help you a bit anyway

Stephen realized a concem for the format of much of staff training He found the

typical training arrangements useless and intimidating for his staff Smaller traming

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groups where more personal assistance can be given seems to be preferable to the mass

training activities so common to staff development

We dont herd thirty people in a room and have one person standing at a computer in front ofthe room and telling them how it can happen I mean we put five or six in the room and have somebody with knowledge about it there and then everybody has their hands on that tool They get to make their own mistakes so they get to correct their own mistakes and real leaming happens then

Now that Bill has a key role in training Camden staff in technology he realizes

that the increasing quantity of hardware possessed by the district carries with it the need

for increasing quality of staff straining

We had a bunch of stuff in quotes stuff but nobody knew anything about it you know And we got this stuff in We got it hooked up And then nobody knew how to maintain it There wasnt any training I mean you know yeah you look out here at Camden Oh boy Weve got computers But nobody knew how to tum them on and of course that wasnt where the emphasis was Wed met a requirement by having so many computers and that sort of thing and maybe doing a paper drill saying that people could do things but in reality that just wasnt there

Bill finds the attitudes of some of his colleagues fiiistrating If the computers are

seen as nothing more than expensive video games the implementation of technology

seems useless The teachers have yet to realize just what these computers can do for their

instmction

Its going to be easier there but we still have to train these people as to How do you use this thing See and most ofthe teachers dont have the time and the creativeness I guess or we dont give them the time you know to sit down and say Look at this thing You know

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they dont go home like I used to and sit down and play with it because I enjoyed it see Id go home and play with it and say A-ha Man I can use this in my classroom

But as Bill has discovered some ofthe technology training ultimately takes hold

and teachers eventually intemahze new skills

But anything to get them to use those things You know if they just stumble on it like one of our Enghsh teachers has found all this stuff on Shakespeare and Macbeth you know and all this sort of thing Shes just going through the ceiling But thats just a little bitty part of things out there that you can find and these people dont know how to look for this stuff So weve got a lot of training (to do)

Ronnie concurs noting how his colleagues at Dellwood have been trained and

then apply the new technology

Well once they realized that this thing that got placed in their room was a tool that could be used for their benefit and could actually help them and their students you know they were ready to jump in there and start trying stuff

Unfortunately some Dellwood staff do indeed balk at modifications to their

training Citing the example of changing the district-adopted electronic gradebooks

Ronnie concluded

And some of them say Oh I just now leamed how to use the other one and here you are wanting to (change it) You know that type of change People get used to doing something and they dont want you to change them around but I think its human nature in anything

105

Infi-astmcture

With ever-advancing technological strides the infrastmcture needed to

successfully implement new curricular mandates has to also increase Our informants

pride themselves in their personal involvement in ensuring a topflight technology

infi-astmcture for their school districts

David describes himself as a pioneer in implementing new concepts in his district

When the challenge first came for implementing a computer network David relates

The maintenance guy and I sat down and said You know we can do this So we designed it ourselves and ran the wire and made the connections and totally put in the network system ourselves We did not hire it done which has helped from the standpoint of troubleshooting We put it in we know how it works and we can fix it

Mike also has rolled up his sleeves to keep hardware in Sawtooth working

efficiently If the technology coordinator is busy Mike has no qualms about getting

things fixed

We just had a problem this morning I was dealing with I went dovra there I can do the hardware things a whole lot easier than software but you know there were just two wires out of place I just kind of happened to notice it plug them back in the right places and we were back in business

Indeed Mike has stayed current with technology and maintenance

I have to stay a little more up here because if anything happens Im the guy they holler at so first I mean to fix it not just holler at Ive leamed a lot the last few years Just been forced to I guess

106

Bill laments the lack of foresight on the part of some administrators in keeping the

hardware maintained

That one-shot deal We got the computers That cost is out ofthe way We can forget about technology now weve got our X number of computers And then all of a sudden like you say weve got to have a hard drive here you know and a floppy drive went out there and a monitor goes out here well good-ness man whats the problem

Bill wonders if his leadership personnel were misled by various sales

representatives whose goals for sales were not always congment with school needs

Before I got into this our superintendent relied on a salesman and we bought a bunch of stuff we didnt need and it didnt fit in the overall plan It was like buying a Dodge engine and wed buy a Chevrolet body and all of a sudden these things werent compatible So we wasted a lot of money and Im sure school districts all over the state of Texas did This is a small community here Id like every shekel to count Theres not too many people around here that really realize that I dont guess

Stephen is concemed with making reasonable forecasts for what future

technologies he will need for his building He demonstrates that he has thought through

practical technology management issues

To me the biggest question is in relation to technology is how to predict where were going I mean just a little bit because were dropping tons of money on the hardware on the software on the training But even little issues I mean twenty years ago Woodlake was out in fi-ont on technology because they bought a bunch of Apple He computers And then they used them for eighteen years which put them way behind the leaming curve you know and then what computer do you buy Do you buy it with upgradable service contracts What kind of software are you looking for How is distance leaming going to

107

impact all this How does it impact your scheduling on a day-to-day basis How does it impact your school calendar How does it impact the people you hire

Stephen is looking squarely at the future needs of his staff and students

If we knew where it was headed we could be much more effective in our long-range planning But as it is in my mind its hard to plan beyond two years because theres no way of knowing where were going to be Weve had numerous conversations in my faculty meetings about individual laptops for students as opposed to the big stand-alone units in a big lab Theres discussions about the use of software versus hard-copy textbooks And I think were moving that way I just dont know how quickly And I dont know to what degree and thats the most perplexing thing as far as Im concemed

Money

As this present study is conducted significant changes are occurring in the

petroleum industry Since there has been a drop in petroleum prices some Chapter 41

(see Chapter Two) school districts have realized a significant drop in ad valorem

revenues Remembering that much ofthe financing for the Consortium comes fi-om two

Chapter 41 districts there exists some cause for concem Because these informants

represent both Chapter 41 and Chapter 42 districts none of these informants will be

identified by name in this section

One Chapter 41 superintendent related to us the situation regarding a loss of

funding for that superintendents district

Probably the biggest reason this last year we were able to put several million dollars of recapture money into the technology consortium Unfortunately being that most ofthe Chapter 41 districts

108

in our area are highly dependent on oil and mineral value and we lost 25 percent of our value last year Probably well lose at least that and maybe even more

Another Chapter 41 superintendent has noticed a drop of revenue but slants the

situation differently

It doesnt affect us that much believe it or not I mean it affects us some definitely but you know the higher the price of oil the more money we have to give away The lower the price the less we have to give away Because you only get to keep a certain value per student

All ofthe Chapter 41 informants indicated that they were glad to participate with

less property-wealthy districts in maintaining fimding for the Consortium

In dealing with school funding there is also the attendant concem with dealing

with government entities A Chapter 41 superintendent explains the situation as the

potential purchasing of more hardware is considered

(Conceming hardware purchasing) If this legislative session the Legislature does away with the hold harmless for Chapter 41 schools (See Chapter 2) well be in a whole different situation and well be saying Well do that when we can afford it I guarantee you

Because there are restrictions on where Chapter 41 districts can expend their

fiinds a Chapter 41 principal explains some creative strategies for retaining funds

Because the hang-up was that those monies that came out of these wealthy districts So in other words we could send our money to the Region(al Service) Center to be used for those purposes but we couldnt reap the benefit of i t (Dr Sarah McCullough) wrote grants specifically targeted at those of us that were putting money in the pot to help us get distance leaming labs up and running So its just been a

109

maze of dancing with the bear which anytime you deal with the government thats the way it is

As this is written a Chapter 41 superintendent hopes that the Texas Legislattire

will allow the legal stmcttires that made the Consortium a reality and function at its peak

to continue to exist

Now we would hope that the Legislature will realize that and possibly rewrite the current law to allow us to divert possibly more than ten percent into the technology consortium or change the way that we do it altogether to where the technology consortium can continue to benefit in the same arena of money that weve benefited for the last year or two

A Chapter 42 school leader looking at the Consortium as a whole sums up the

attitude of each of our informants

Well this consortium has been a good thing for us because I think by coming together you know I think this is people who have ideas and also have monies that they want to use for telecommunications and technology want to see that people in rural areas like ours are making an effort to pool their resources and thoughts and what have you When they see that you got seven schools that are working together to try to share ideas and help work through problems and even go so far as to share teaching personnel things like that I think thats something that people who have monies are kind of wanting they want to see that Because thats the whole idea behind you know trying to get reach some of our goals by the year 2000

Summary of Interview Data

All nine ofthe informants in this study provided candid assessments of their

individual roles in implementing technology in their districts the improvement of student

110

leaming and the training of staff to use the technology These latter points are also

suggested in the literature on staff development (Joyce amp Showers 1988) Concems over

infi-astmcture and finance were also supported in several other studies (Bailey 1997

Becker 1998 Kwajewski 1997 Maddux 1997 Texas Association of School

Administrators 1998)

New insights fi-om this study included the heavy apprehension over distance

leaming and the intensity ofthe power shift within the school system The fluctuation in

petroleum prices that occurred during this study did not completely take these leaders by

surprise but are concems with which Chapter 41 superintendents will continue to

contend

I l l

CHAPTER V

SUMMARY CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Summary of Research

As described in Chapter III quantitative data was in the form of Change

Facilitator Stages of Concem Questionnaire (CFSoC) profiles evaluated according to

Hall et al (1991) with hypothesized points on the Stages of Concem continuum for each

participant Conversations with nine informants fi-om the Consortium leadership cadre

formed a series of interviews that were analyzed and evaluated for emerging themes

Seven themes grew fi-om the data analysis and were discussed

CFSoC Profiles

Hall et al (1991) suggest that the Stage of Concem for any given innovation

varies with the change facilitator registering the array of concems Borrowing fi-om Fuller

(1969) Hall et al suggest that concems for the innovation within the individual change

facilitator begin at the level of Awareness progressing to Self concems then Task

concems and finally to Impact concems This researcher was able to hypothesize a

general stage of concem for each ofthe informants based on the methods of profile

interpretation defined by Hall et al (pp 29-42) The initial research question referred to

Stages of Concem placement for each informant

Where do these school leaders fall on the Concems-based Adoption Model (CBAM) continuum regarding TEKS technology implementation

112

The initial goal was to ascertain the position of each of these informants on

CBAM Table 5-1 provides a breakdown of this studys informants their job roles and

their hypothesized Stage of Concem

Table 5-1 Study Informants and CBAM Stages of Concem District Comparison

District

Camden

Tipllwor4H

North Prairie

Sawtooth

Woodlake

Superintendent

TASK

TASK

IMPACT

Principal

SELF

TASK

TASK

Technology Coordinator

SELF

SELFTASK

TASK

The table suggests that those in more well-defined administrative roles tended to

be more task oriented about their concems whereas those whose job descriptions are

inclusive ofthe classroom and who are also designated as change agents tended to be

more oriented to self and personal issues despite their abilities or expertise

As Hall et al (1991) have previously hypothesized the more experienced a

change facilitator is in the change facilitator process the more advanced that change

facilitator will be on the CFSoC profile The stages of concem of these informants in this

sample appear to concur with CFSoC projected norms Indeed if tiie stages of concem

are arranged in descending order (Impact Task Self Awareness) as in Table 5-2 there

113

appears to be a greater advancement along the Stages of Concem continuum based on the

more advanced job role

Table 5-2 Study Informants and CBAM Stages of Concem Concem Stage Comparison

Informant Stage of Concem

Woodlake Superintendent IMPACT

North Prairie Superintendent TASK

Sawtooth Superintendent TASK

Sawtooth Principal TASK

Woodlake Principal TASK

Sawtooth Technology Coordinator TASK

Dellwood Technology Coordinator TASKSELF

Camden Principal SELF

Camden Technology Coordinator SELF

These change facilitators fi-om the Sah Fork Consortium seem to manifest stages

of concem similar to those of other change facilitators studied through the CFSoC Two

ofthe technology coordinators seem to be more TASK oriented than a principal and one

technology coordinator is more SELF oriented The two task-oriented coordinators have

many years of experience in either office machinery electronics or staff training They

both suggested to this researcher greater confidence in their abilities to provide input to

their administrators conceming their schools technology requirements Such

114

competencies suggest that the greater stage of concem is based in part on the

individuals greater level of experience

Interview Themes

The hesitancy of new users to use new technologies is repeated with every

generation of innovation (Cuban 1984 1986 1993) Changes this extensive in

technology naturally bring about changes in how we teach and how we perceive our roles

as educators (Becker 1998 Berg Benz Lasley amp Raisch 1997 Braun 1993 Fullan

1990 Fullan amp Stiegelbauer 1991 Hope 1993) This sttidys informants repeatedly

expressed the desire to ensure that their staffs become as competent as possible in using

new technology to improve student leaming In tum these leaders affirmed that their

teachers would have it incumbent upon themselves to avail themselves of this training

As we appreciate the greater empowerment of educators who in tum empower

leamers we reahze that greater access to technology has played a major role in

developing this spirit of empowerment (Bailey 1997) Tmly continued control of

technology signifies continued power ofthe educational system These informants were

unanimous in marveling over the great things that have occurred in their schools as their

teachers adopted greater technology expertise Review of AEIS data since 1994 before

the establishment ofthe Consortium suggests improvements in TAAS scores and other

AEIS indicators (see Chapter I TEA 1995 1996 1997a 1998)

As a result schools become different places for leamers (Armstrong Davis amp

Young 1996 Mecklenburger 1989) Instead ofthe school as one-way insttiiction with

115

passive leamers the focus is now on schools led by leaming facilitators who guide the

leamer toward constmcting personal leaming (Joyce amp Showers 1988) It appears that

the wise change facilitator will recognize this power shift In the main Consortium

change facihtators certainly appeared eager to share that power

If we are not using the improved technology to improve student leaming then we

might be needing to be examine a different iimovation for improving student leaming

(Berg et al 1997 Bumiske 1998 Hope 1993 Joyce amp Showers 1988 National Staff

Development Council 1995) These informants were adamant about the power of

technology not only to foster greater leaming capabihties for students but also to provide

a heightened awareness for those charged with facilitating that leaming (Barr 1990

Hadley amp Sheingold 1993 Maddux 1997 Maddux amp Johnson 1997 Meltzer amp

Sherman 1997 Ragsdale 1997) As a resuh these school leaders and their school

boards will have more solid foundation to continue upgrading their technology Such a

massive influx of equipment as is happening now will not be needed but rather

technology purchasing with a view toward greater student achievement will not be

considered unique by other similarly situated school districts

The notion that technology could bring about needed opportunities and services to

remote sites by distance leaming has been discussed for some time and is now standard

for evaluating a schools technology program (Becker 1998 Texas Association of School

Administrators 1998) Nevertheless there appears to be a need for a semblance of

balance as the positive elements of distance leaming (services teaching physical distance

needs etc) are weighed against the pitfalls (teaching method changes impersonal

116

relationships) of these new technologies (Berg Benz Lasley amp Raisch 1997 Dillon amp

Walsh 1997) The apprehensions of Consortium change facilitators toward the

impending interactive video system were quite real They saw potential for some yet

unknown distracting factor causing havoc with the leaming process as a result of distance

leaming At least one informant voiced active disagreement with distance as a viable

means of teaching and leaming

If training activities are only instituted to meet extemally mandated directives it

seems pointless to expend so much effort in training faculty in technology (Becker 1991

1998 Dede 1997) The concept that technology remains a more advanced means of

game playing is still latent in many educators School leaders need to tmly be leaders

(Office of Technology Assessment 1995 Ritchie 1996) and should provide appropriate

training activities for their staffs (Bradshaw 1997 Davidson amp Maurer 1995 Joyce amp

Showers 1988) Because these school leaders describe the influx of interactive video

hardware as helpfiil in providing for a variety of training opportunities (school board

training college classes etc) this Consortium demonstrates a strong proactive

commitment to ensuring that the entire school community is kept up-to-date with

technology

As to funding and infi-astmcture acquisition a We can do it spirit is still found

in educators when they plan for and purchase their computer machinery Schools in this

Consortium as well as in other locales continue to demonstt-ate creative ways to provide

technology support with the resultant spirit of ownership possessed by all segments ofthe

educational community (Carroll amp Carroll 1994 McDaniel Mclnemey amp Armstrong

117

1993 Office of Technology Assessment 1995) The fact that a superintendent would be

involved in wiring his school for network capability or would do repairs on classroom

hardware suggests genuine committnent Principals with decades of experience in the

classroom and in the office in this rural area are taking the time to leam new computer

skills

Conclusions and Reflections

Because this present study is primarily qualitative it is appropriate that the

researcher does not (and really should not) know in advance all ofthe insights that might

possibly be gleaned fi-om a pending study Although this is a limited sampling of change

facilitators their CFSoC profiles confirmed that the greater the experience level ofthe

change facilitator interacting with the innovation the more advanced Stage of Concem

The Woodlake administrators with Stages of Concems ratings in IMPACT and TASK

stages for example have had the benefit of both performing hands-on technology

implementation (including wiring) and also developing technology programs fi-om Apple

computers in classrooms to vocational training over a twenty-year period

The specifics ofthe second research question require some discussion over the

importance and application ofthe concems of rural educators toward technology

implementation Three clusters of conclusions emerged fi-om the interview data

Personal concems are important in the professional lives of these informants

There is urgency for the educator to leam to use technology and to develop stt-ategies for

incorporating technology use in insttiiction Nevertheless the educator is never to forget

118

that there are still basic instmctional outcomes to be accomplished Leamers still have to

be proficient in reading writing and mathematics Day-to-day activities (lesson planning

teacher paperwork etc) cannot be neglected These informants did not allow this

researcher to overlook this fact All three technology coordinators who served as

informants emphasized their classroom duties with one in particular reminding me that

the computer is simply a tool in teaching basic educational concepts Each principal

interviewed related their technology concems in the context of administrative duties and

concems

In addition leadership personnel are to function as leaders and lead their staffs

Despite the hardware and capabilities schools are still schools Schools are having to

change their stmcture and technology seems to be key in fostering that change The very

use ofthe computer as a personal tool remains a challenge in these informants schools

Bill Potter Camden Technology Coordinator related that he continues to see his fellow

teachers using the computer as nothing more than a game machine The Sawtooth

informants noted that a few older more seasoned teachers are still not yet using

technology as a tool

As opposed to personal concems corporate concems registered by these

informants dealt with building district or Consortium issues Among these informants

there is a genuine sense of Where we are against Where we were in regard to

technology use Each superintendent interviewed expressed his satisfaction with the

improved productivity among his students as a result of technology Now more than ever

is a need to stay abreast of pedagogical as well as technological trends Stephen Greer

119

Woodlake Principal emphasized the need for him to know about technology and its

implementation in teacher practice These informants also indicated a generational trend

in that some educators eyeing retirement realize a lesser interest in leaming new

technologies Younger more recently trained educators are more conversant with new

technologies These informants indicated that the new teachers they hire come prepared to

use technology in the classroom

The informants also indicated a sense of owoiership toward technology

implementation For example several informants have trained themselves to do more

advanced troubleshooting and maintenance certainly more than is in their job

descriptions The Woodlake and Sawtooth superintendents are both adept with the

hardware These individuals want to know more and not just save their district some

funds All three ofthe technology coordinators have a history of leaming by doing

They enjoy reputations as being competent and the person to tum to when expertise is

needed

Cultural concems transcend the immediate short-term issues and are future-

oriented The change in our previously mral agrarian society to a worid filled with data

has had a heady effect on these informants North Prairie superintendent Larry Beckman

for example continues to marvel at all the activities the North Prairie educational

community can now avail themselves of because of technology Technology has assisted

in shifting genuine leaming power fi-om the educator to the student The resultant greater

ownership by students of their leaming is opening up greater avenues for insttaiction

120

There is constant uncertainty ofthe legal political and economic factors in

financing and establishing new technologies at schools The net result hinders these

informants fi-om reliably predicting what technologies might be needed in the future

Indeed it is impossible to predict what new gadgets will be invented or how fast a

computer will process ten years from now Neither ofthe Chapter 41 superintendents

believed their distticts finances were in jeopardy due to the changing pett-oleum prices

but each expressed the concem that the Legislature could modify the mles on finances

possibly making their underwriting of Consortium costs more difficult

Recommendations for Further Study

As this present research was being considered there was considerable concem for

the fact that very little research data existed for the CFSoC instmment This Consortium

had an insufficient number of participants to do a quantitative study of this instrument

with adequate factor analysis Indeed Hall et al (1991) cite themselves as those who

conducted reliability and validity studies of their own instrument A more thorough

validity study with adequate N should be conducted

The original thmst for this research was focused on staff development and teacher

training Because that initial idea was so broad it was abandoned early in this study

However since each informant referred to the teacher traming programs ofthe

Consortium it would be appropriate at a later date to review how teacher tt-aining is

planned and executed in a similarly situated technology cooperative

121

Personal impressions which emerged fi-om both the data collection and data

analysis also suggested additional avenues of study At no time and in no way were either

Consortium school distticts or school staff identified as to their Chapter 41 (Equalized

Wealth Level) or Chapter 42 (Minimum Foundation Program) stattis Nevertheless this

writer recognizes a difference in economic status for these districts that was impossible to

fully ignore and suggests that the differences in funding abilities of school districts be

explored as new technologies become de rigueur for even the smallest and most remote

school district

Also unexamined in this present study was any comparison on a rural-urban axis

Although each ofthe participating school districts was mral with a combined enrolhnent

smaller than one urban high school the available technology was up-to-date and with

more anticipated advanced technology yet to be implemented A similar study of larger

urban school technology programs dealing with identical TEKS constraints could be

instituted to ascertain concems of urban-oriented change facilitators

The professional experience aspect of each ofthe informants was never identified

as a factor in this present research The CFSoC form itself had blanks for data conceming

the number of years experience on the job in the present position etc Indeed the least

number of total years of school experience was nine years The question remains if

simply the amount of time in grade is a factor in the informants position on the CFSoC

continuum This researcher noted a trend in those in stated administrative roles being

more oriented to TASK and IMPACT concems as opposed to the technology

coordinators who by and large had duties more inclusive ofthe classroom and who were

122

more oriented to SELF concems and their personal status This could lead one to ponder

whether the role and the job title are influencing factors in a change facilitators Stage of

Concem

Moreover because ofthe contemporary trends toward school-based

management and greater empowerment of classroom personnel in decision-making it is

likely that those in change faciUtator roles would be more closely aligned to the

classroom ie more teachers may be in leadership roles We might expect the higher the

level of change facilitator position and experience the higher the level of concem (eg

IMPACT) It would be interesting to explore the possibifities and consequences for those

at the classroom level functioning as change facilitators in technology

123

REFERENCES

American Psychological Association (1994) Publication manual ofthe American Psychological Association (4th ed) Washington DC Author

Armstrong D Davis R amp Young G (1996) Technology integration at the middle and high school levels A model for staff development NASSP Bulletin 80(582) 81-88

Bailey G D (1997) What technology leaders need to know The essential top 10 concepts for technology integration in the 21st century Leaming and Leading With Technology 250) 57-62

Bailey D B amp Palsha S A (1992) Qualities ofthe Stages of Concem questionnaire and implications for educational innovations Joumal of Educational Research 85(4) 226-232

Barr D (1990) A solution in search of a problem The role of technology in educational reform Joumal for the Education ofthe Gifted 14(1) 79-95

Becker H J (1991) How computers are used in United States schools Basic data fi-om the 1989 I E A Computers in Education survey Joumal of Educational Computing Research 7(4) 385-406

Becker H J (1998) Running to catch a moving train Schools and information technologies Theory Into Practice 37(1) 20-30

Berg S Benz C Lasley T laquofe Raisch D (1997) The coordinators and the teachers A description of exemplary use of technology in elementary classrooms Paper presented at the Midwestem Educational Research Association Annual Meeting Chicago IL

Bogdan R C amp Biklen S K (1992) Qualitative research for education An introduction tn theory and methods (2nd ed) Boston Allyn amp Bacon

Bradshaw L K (1997) Technology-supported change A staff development opportunity NASSP Bulletin 81(593) 86-92

Braun L (1993) Educational technology Help for all the kids The Computing Teacher 20(8) 11-15

124

Brekhus T R (1997) The SeverNet project-assessment Antiquated systems without curriculum integration The Educational Graveyard of Unfulfilled Promise [Online] URL httpwwwseyemschoolcomsevemetsevemet_assesshtml

Bristol v amp Jechow M (1998) Guidelines on interlocal agreements fi-om the Texas Government Code Texas case law and Texas attomev general opinions [online] URL httpwwwbickerstaff comarticlesinter98htm

Bumiske R W (1998) The shadow play How the integration of technology annihilates debate in our schools Phi Delta Kappan 80(2) 155-157

Campbell T (1997) Technology multimedia and qualitative research in education Joumal of Research on Computing in Education 30(2) 122-132

Carroll S R amp Carroll D (1994) How smart schools get and keep community support Bloomington IN National Educational Service

Chisolm I M (1996) Computer use in a multicultural classroom Joumal of Research on Computing in Education 28(2) 162-174

CicchelH T amp Baecher R (1985) Intt-oducing microcomputers into the classroom A study of teacher concems Joumal of Educational Computing Research 1(1) 55-65

CiccheUi T amp Baecher R E (1987) The use of concems theory in inservice ttaining for computer education Computers amp Education 11(2) 85-93

Clark R E (1983) Reconsidering research on leaming fi-om media Review of Educational Research 53(4) 445-459

Clouse R W amp Garrett L N (1995) Case analysis An insttiictional tool Joumal of Educational Technology Systems 23(1) 39-51

Coffey A amp Atkinson P (1996) Making sense of qualitative data Complementary research strategies Thousand Oaks CA Sage

Crawford D K Bodine R J amp Hoglund R G (1993) The school for quality leaming Managing the school and the classroom the Deming way Champaign IL Research Press

Cuban L (1984) How teachers taupht Constancy and change in American classrooms -1980-1980 New York Longman

125

Informant Selection 56 Data Collection 57 Data Analysis 60 Verification Strategies 63 Study Limitations 66

IV RESULTS OF THE STUDY

Informant and CFSoC Profiles 67 Summary of CFSoC 83 Informant Concems 83 Summary of Interview Data 110

V SUMMARY CONCLUSIONS AND REFLECTIONS

Summary of Research 112 CFSoC Profiles 112 Interview Themes 115 Conclusions and Reflections 118 Recommendations for Further Study 121

REFERENCES 124

APPENDIX

A STAGES OF CONCERN ABOUT THE INNOVATION 133

B CHANGE FACILITATOR STAGES OF CONCERN 135

C CHANGE FACILITATOR STAGES OF CONCERN QUESTIONNAIRE 137

D SEMISTRUCTURED INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR INFORMANTS 141

E INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR DR SARAH McCULLOUGH ESC REGION J 142

F LETTER OF INTRODUCTION TO CONSORTIUM SUPERINTENDENTS 143

G PROJECT CONSENT FORMS 145

H THEMES AND SUB-THEMES FOR DATA ANALYSIS 147

I COMPARISON OF TECHNOLOGY IMPLEMENTATION IN STATE CURRICULA 148

VI

ABSTRACT

Although there has been a progression of technological improvements in the tools

available for educators to improve instmction there will always be the need for leamers

to master fimdamental skills and for educators to facilitate that learning Nevertheless the

implementation of innovative technology programs continues to be a priority of educators

in both urban and mral settings Texas educators are now under new Texas Essential

Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) curricular requirements a comprehensive document with

specific learner outcomes particularly with technology embedded into every grade level

Because of these extemal constraints even small rural school districts have to

provide advanced technology capabilities for their leamers This current study

investigated personal and professional concems of change facilitators in a seven-district

technology consortium as these requirements are implemented

This consortium was developed with assistance fiom both the local telephone

service provider and the regional Educational Service Center (ESC) These districts range

a distance of 70 to 125 miles fi^om their ESC Two of the participating school districts

are considered property-wealthy and provide the bulk of the fiinding for the other five

districts through special legislative mles

This exploratory case study used the Concems-based Adoption Model (CBAM)

for evaluating these concems Nine informants three each of superintendents principals

and technology coordinators responded to a 35-item Likert scale which placed the

informant on a Stage of Concem either SELF TASK or IMPACT Informants

vu

concems were rated largely at the TASK level In general an informants stage of

concem increased with a higher status within the school system

These informants were also interviewed on their personal concems toward

technology implementation Seven general themes emerged through the interview

process Informants articulated concems over attitudes power student learning distance

learning staff training infi-astmcture and finances These informants consistently

expressed concem for the prospects of implementing instmctional video and its

instmctional and disciplinary implications Each informant expressed optimism over the

educational and administrative possibilities modem computer technology brought to their

districts

Vlll

LIST OF TABLES

1-1 Teachers Use of Computers Hadley and Sheingold (1993) N=608 9

1-2 Instmcfional Software Use Hadley and Sheingold (1993) N=608 9

1 -3 Full Time Equivalent Staff for TechnologyComputer Operations 21

2-1 Coefficients of Intemal Reliability for the Stages of Concem Questionnaire N=830 39

2-2 Test-Retest Correlations on the Stages of Concem Questionnaire N=132 40

2-3 Means Standard Deviations and Alpha Coefficients for the CFSoC (N=589) 45

2-4 Means Standard Deviations and Alpha Coefficients for the CFSoC

(N=750) 45

2-5 Intercorrelations of the Scale Scores on the CFSoC (N=589) 46

5-1 Study Informants and CBAM Stages of Concem District Comparison 113

5-2 Study Informants and CBAM Stages of Concem Concem Stage Comparison 114

IX

LIST OF FIGURES

4-1 CFSoC Profile of James Petty Camden Principal 68

4-2 CFSoC Profile of Bill Potter Camden Technology Coordinator 70

4-3 CFSoC Profile of Ronnie Bennett Dellwood Technology Coordinator 72

4-4 CFSoC Profile of Larry Beckman North Prairie Superintendent 74

4-5 CFSoC Profile of Mike McCoy Sawtooth Superintendent 76

4-6 CFSoC Profile of Vemon Russell Sawtooth Principal 78

4-7 CFSoC Profile of Renee White Sawtooth Technology Coordinator 79

4-8 CFSoC Profile of David Jackson Woodlake Superintendent 81

4-9 CFSoC Profile of Stephen Greer Woodlake Principal 82

CHAPTER I

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Mr Edison says That the radio will supplant the teacher Already one may leam languages by means of Victrola records The moving picture will visualize What the radio fails to get across Teachers will be relegated to the backwoods With fire-horses And long-haired women Or perhaps shown in museums Education will become a matter Of pressing the button Perhaps I can get a position at the switchboard

(Church cf Cuban 1986 pp 4-5)

Introduction

Virginia Churchs 1925 poem entitled Antiquated probably sounds pessimistic

but facetiously demonstrates her concems of possibly being out of a job with the

approaching array of innovations heralded at that time Our teachers and administrators in

educational institutions at all levels continue to exhibit concems as new innovations are

proffered (Cuban 1986)

Certainly innovations designed to improve instmction have been utilized for

centuries Cuban (1986 pp 3-4) would suggest technology innovation goes back at least

to the invention of the lectem chalk and chalkboards books and pictures with fihn

radio television tape recorders video and computers as more recent examples of

teaching tools Cuban wryly describes how these most recent technologies were at first

lauded as the latest thing for schools how instmction would dramatically improve and

how disillusioned teachers became when the technology did not live up to its predicted

expectations

Bringing all schools up to maximum speed in technology is currently quite

fashionable Rescigno (1988) using his own school district as the example envisioned

the so-called smart classroom with state of the art technology as having the ability to

precisely measure student skill objectives and promote more positive student attitudes

and lower instances of discipline problems

Rescignos school does not seem to have been greatly replicated however

Nevertheless greater technology implementation remains a key element of both

educational and political rhetoric Chris Dede asserts For politicians the Intemet in

every classroom has become the modem equivalent of the promised chicken in every

pot (Dede 1997 p 13) Dede decries such first-generation thinking by those who

would make technology the panacea for magically transforming schools

Yet decades of experience with technological innovations based on first-generation thinking have demonstrated that this viewpoint is misguided Unless other simultaneous innovations occur in pedagogy curriculum assessment and school organization the time and effort expended on instmctional technology produce few improvements in educational outcomes ~ a result that reinforces many educators cynicism about fads based on magical machines (p 13)

Cuban (1984) concurs emphasizing that teachers technology use in the classroom

is just one of a great many factors in how teachers teach with the lions share of factors

related to the extemal constraints of school organization Hodas (1993) reminds us that

the culture and norms of schools are profoundly conservative that the stmcture of

schools have remained unchanged for hundreds of years and that there exists in the

popular mind a definite conservative conception of what schools should be like a

template fi-om which schools stray only at their peril (p 10)

Problem Statement and Research Ouestions

Several factors were considered in formulating a problem for this study There

was the consideration of finding out how schools particularly small ones were

implementing fimding and evaluating technology in their districts Moreover standard

principles of staff development particularly the ascertaining of personal and professional

concems of school leaders were prominent in the literature Finally at the time of

searching for a research topic the State of Texas was developing broad curricular

standards which included extensive instmctional technology components

The problem under study is the concems of three levels of change facilitators

implementing the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) for Technology

Applications The research questions for this study are outlined in the form of a grand

tour question followed by sub-questions (Gay 1997 Spradley 1979)

Grand Tour Ouestion

What are the concems of leadership personnel as the TEKS technology

requirements are implemented in their school districts

Sub-questions

1 Where do these school leaders fall on the Concems-based Adoption Model

(CBAM) continuum regarding TEKS technology implementation

2 What are the specific concems of these school leaders as the TEKS are

implemented and why are these concems important

Rationale

The concept of educational change with technology is not a novel idea despite

those concems that Dede (1997) registered Larry Cuban has written extensively on the

topic of technological change fi-om the perspectives of administration and of educational

history Cuban quotes fi-om a prominent American technology leader who often had much

to say about things

I believe that the motion picture is destined to revolutionize our educational system and that in a few years it will supplant largely if not entirely the use of textbooks I should say that on the average we get about two percent efficiency out of schoolbooks as they are written today The education of the fixture as I see it will be conducted through the medium of the motion picture where it should be possible to obtain one hundred percent efficiency (p 187)

These words came in 1922 fi-om Thomas Alva Edison the inventor of the motion

picture phonograph and other devices at their time thought to be the zenith in

technology Except for the media described many could envision computers as the

subject of that quote Cuban suggests that such entrepreneurs who publicly make broad

educational claims for their products may have more of a profit motive than of student

performance

McDaniel Mclnemey and Armstrong (1993) recognize a shift in classroom

pedagogy fiom those classrooms merely transmitting information to processing

information They assert that computers will play a significant role in how leamers

acquire question and evaluate information Moreover McDaniel et al describe a

changed learning community breaking down the traditional school walls to a classroom

that literally can be the whole world They do not doubt that new programs will continue

to make an impact on how we teach and how students leam

Bumiske (1998) concurs with this shift but tempers it with repeated questioning

of our reasonings and expectations conceming educational technology

Its no longer a question of whether we should introduce computer technology into our classrooms Im afi-aid that choice has already been made for us The question now is how we should make use of this technology for educational purposes The consequence of this is the stifling of essential debates and the repression of significant questions such as At what age should we introduce children to computers What impact will computers have on the social emotional and psychological development of our children And how will computers aUer the dynamics of a classroom and school (p 157)

Cuban (1993) suggests three reasons for the perceived need to implement

technology in the classroom

First there is the drive to bring schools technologically in step with the work place because of the fear that students will be unprepared both to compete in the job market and to adjust to the changing marketplace A second impulse has come fi-om a diverse coalition of academics educators and foundation officials who have

5

neoprogressive values including that of self-directed leaming for children Finally there is the impulse for productivity (pp 189-190)

Unfortunately Cuban pessimistically concludes that despite the use of

technological innovations those innovations have not been central to school reforms

Likewise the marginal use of computers in classrooms is less due to funding teacher

preparation or administrative support but more related to dominant cultural beliefs

about what teaching leaming and proper knowledge are and how schools are organized

for instmction (p 206)

Low administrative support is but one part of the overall picture Poor

infi-astmcture remains in place at many schools The United States Department of

Education (USDE) in its report Getting Americas Students Readv for the 21st Century

(USDE 1996) cited statistics where only four percent of schools had as many as one

computer for five students and only nine percent with Intemet connectivity Yet this

same study asserts 80 percent of Americans believing that teaching computer skills is

absolutely essential 75 percent encouraging a child to use a computer and 86 percent

believing that a computer is the most beneficial product available to increase childrens

opportunities

Why if most educators believe that technology can improve the educational

process is it so difficult to implement and integrate Kwajewski (1997) ponders this

question as he considers the value educators place on technology acceptance

The plain tmth is that technology still confuses the educational establishment It is not an art or a science It is not a curriculum or a

subject It is not a vocation or a college requirement It is not an activity a goal or an objective It is not a course or a program If it were any of these items it might have a fighting chance in the difficult arena of change But it isnt therefore its success is in jeopardy (p 54)

Hodas (1993) suggests that educators require a modicum of comfort before expanding

their intellectual horizons to achieve skill with new technology

There is lively discussion over the extent of how technology can restmcture the

school Schools are finding in diverse ways that the use of technology modifies the

existing school stmcture Braun (1993) points out that investment in technology makes

working with at-risk youth more cost-effective It appears better to pmdently allocate

fimds on high-technology instmction than on the costs involved with dropouts and other

at-risk problems Maddux and Johnson (1997) suggest that the existing stmcture of

schools will be modified by Intemet use but only after the surrounding culture first

makes the change

Addressing new technologies Clark (1983) boldly asserted that the medium of

instmction was no more involved in how well students leam than the tmck that delivers

our groceries causes changes in our nutrition (p 445) and that only the content of

instmction influences student achievement Kozma (1991) aggressively challenges

Clarks position pointing out the distinctives of certain technologies and how they can

help leamers constmct knowledge Chishohn (1996) would go so far as to insist that the

implementation of technology modifies the very social stmcture

Like any human artifact computers are an expression of the people and culture that created them Likewise computer software incorporates the programmers cultural assumptions heuristics and epistemology Even seemingly impartial applications such as

7

databases and word processing programs demonstrate a cultural preference for analytic linear thinking compartmentalization of information and culture-specific logic mles and organization (p 163)

Educational leaders who are comfortable with technology should be primed to

lead the way in facilitating change in schools (Office of Technology Assessment 1995)

Differing somewhat fi-om Cuban Ritchie (1996) notes that a lack of administrative

support leading toward inadequate staff development and inadequate funding continues

to lead the reasons that technology has yet to take hold in some school districts Ritchie

cites Mecklenburger who asserts

Administrators must understand the capabilities and limitations of technology Only then can they plan for budget for purchase carefiiUy install properly maintain dutifiilly schedule adequately distribute appropriately and replace systematically the electronic technology best suited for their needs (Mecklenburger 1989 p 7)

Yet principals and superintendents in the main received their education and

training at a time when computers were not yet part of the educational scene Whatever

training many school leaders have had simply focused on using the technology rather

than focusing on how the technology could be used to augment student leaming (Bailey

1997)

Since 98 percent of the elementary and secondary schools in the United States

have microcomputers (Ely 1993) it is important to analyze how they have been used In

an early pre-Intemet study of typical teacher practice Hadley and Sheingold (1993)

investigated how teachers integrated software into classroom practice In surveying 608

teachers they discovered that teachers used computer software as shown in Table 1-1

Table 1-1 Teachers Use of Computers Hadley and Sheingold (1993) N=608

Software

Text processing tools 95 Instmctional software 89 Analytic and information tools 87 Programming and operating systems 84 Games and simulations 81 Graphics and operating tools 81 Communications 49 Multimedia 25

(Hadley amp Sheingold 1993)

Teachers instmctional software use was fiirther broken down as shown

in Table 1-2

Table 1-2 Instmctional Software Use Hadley and Sheingold (1993) N=608

Software

Problem solving programs 75 Tutorial programs 73 Drill and practice programs 72 Software accompanying a textbook 37 Conceptual tools 30

(Hadley amp Sheingold 1993)

By contrast instead of querying teacher computer usage more current surveys

(eg Texas Association of School Administrators 1998) focus on the classroom

building and district hardware configurations and Intemet use of computers

Teachers obviously embraced the computer as a significant tool in teaching

practice As these researchers gathered data for their study the above activities were

indeed the cutting edge uses of computers just before Windows the World Wide Web

or America Online became household words

Radical educational change is no stranger to technology educators The practices

delineated in the literature have metamorphosed fi-om the above to a listing more

reflective of school Intemet use connectivity and the use of multimedia Echoing Cuban

Becker (1998) notes several generations of the advice of experts conceming change in

computer technology pedagogy each of which reflected conventional wisdom in its time

and underscoring the adage The more things change the more they stay the same

Teachers were first urged to have students program computers in BASIC (1982 Its the language that comes with your computer) then to have them program in Logo (1984 Teach students to think not just program) then to use integrated drill-and-practice systems (1986 Use networked systems that individualize instruction and focus on increasing test scores) then to do word processing (1988 Use computers as tools like adults do) then to use curriculum-specific tools such as history databases and science stimulators and data acquisition probes (1990 Integrate the computers with the existing curriculum) then to do multimedia hypertext programming (1992 Change the curriculum - students leam best by creating products for an audience) then to use electronic mail (1994 Let students be part of the real world) and currently to publish their students work to a worldwide audience via the World Wide Web (1996) Using computers in these respective ways would have generally required teachers to have access to the newest computer equipment being sold at that time (p 25)

Becker fiirther suggests that survey-based data reflects a more conservative and

traditional array of instmctional practices among teachers than what is reported in the

popular press which tends to be more reflective of the more innovative techniques

10

(Becker 1998) Moreover he suggests such survey data was needed to balance the

overly enthusiastic reports in the news media about the generalizability of pioneering

efforts in unusual schools with hard-to-replicate amounts of computer equipment teacher

expertise and family resources (Becker 1991 p 386) It remained to be seen if the

average school district or school board had the financial foresight to establish a similar

facility

Contrasting with pre-Intemet surveys more recent studies reflect surveys of

changing computer use Berg Benz Lasley and Raisch (1997) surveyed teachers about

technology use at school and found that teachers rated student motivation and a change

fi-om the traditional classroom stmcture as the most fi-equent purposes of technology

Concurring with Beckers (1998) conclusions on technology use Berg et al list these as

their most important school computer uses

To motivate students To change fi-om traditional classroom CD-ROMs for research Computers in writing process Using variety of resources (books CD-ROM Web etc) Desktop publishing software To integrate subject matter Intemet to do research Enhance communication with parents Tailor curriculum to individual student needs

(Berg Benz Lasley amp Raisch 1997 p 8)

Curiously Berg et al found distance leaming and video conferencing rated 38th of 39

instmctional purposes as rated by teachers

The Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) executed a survey in

September 1998 to ascertain the levels of technology available in Texas public schools

11

Rather than display teacher use statistics as in previous studies (Becker 1998 Berg et al

1997 Hadley amp Sheingold 1993) this survey is heavily skewed toward Intemet use in

the classroom showing percentages of connectivity fimding sources and resources

(service center technology consortium etc) There are no listings of specific teacher

activities such as word processing graphics or gradebooks Indeed the TASA survey

appears at this writing to be updated at fi-equent intervals (TASA 1998)

Willis (1993) concedes that educational change using technology is difficult to

pull off He identifies barriers to wider technology use including teacher isolation

ownership time and administrative support very similar to concems in much of the staff

development literature (Joyce amp Showers 1988 Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1991)

Recent literature on school technology implementation has raised questions

conceming just how well new programs will be implemented or indeed how extensive

technology implementation has been Maddux (1997) describes a gap in schools between

the increasing sophistication of technology and the ability of teachers to use such

technology Maddux contends that much of the negative reaction conceming the Intemet

the World Wide Web Windows 95982000 and other innovative technologies stems

fi-om just such a gap between the hardware the schools may have on hand and the

systemic requirements of new software purchased Schools by and large often have older

hardware incapable of accepting Windows 95-level software Indeed computer speed

modem speed and hard drive storage (with or without zip drives) in many school-owned

computers remain inadequate Maddux cites Brekhus (1997) who suggests that 80

percent of all computer hardware purchased for schools was obsolete at the time of

12

purchase (p 7) Maddux fiirther maintains that much of this gap is related to educational

fiscal tradition stemming fi-om a lack of acknowledgment that more sophisticated

technology had to be replaced every three to five years

Becker (1998) sounds even more alarming He estimates that the average

cumulative per pupil investment in computers over a typical school lifetime a 13-year

span was only $150 025 percent of the total of what was spent on a pupil in that time

span Only 20 percent of school computers had a hard drive with a similar percentage

having any network access Only 10 percent had CD-ROM capability Very few then of

available school computers were capable of using multimedia the World Wide Web

Windows 9598 or most CD-based software As this dissertation is written computers

with speeds of 500 to 600 megahertz are being offered at discount stores (Micro Center

1999) along with appropriate software Although many schools continue to upgrade the

computing power of their hardware and the regional educational service centers still

provide leadership in bringing up-to-date technology to every remote district

nevertheless many educational institutions remain using outmoded machinery due to

well-felt budgetary restrictions and fluctuating property values

Changes in Constraints

Against this backdrop of confiision over technology implementation overall

educators fi-om coast to coast have had extemally mandated constraints In Texas those

mandates were codified in the Texas Essential Elements (Texas Education Agency

1991) with specific competencies for each subject listed and more recently with the

13

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) standards (Texas Education Agency

1997b) Unlike the Essential Elements which simply specified the subject components

for the teacher to cover in each area the TEKS mandates a much broader array of

performance-based skills to be exhibited by the leamer The emphasis is now on what the

leamer can do over what skills the teacher exhibits School districts in Texas are

obhgated to follow the TEKS in designing curriculum and instmction Evaluation

procedures for Texas educators include the use of technology in the lesson cycle

The TEKS for Technology Applications delineates knowledge and skill

requirements for specific computer applications for grade levels K-8 and specific high

school classes with this common philosophy

(1) The technology applications curriculum has four strands foundations information acquisition work in solving problems and communication

(2) Through the study of technology applications foundations including technology-related terms concepts and data input strategies students leam to make informed decisions about technologies and their applications The efficient acquisition of information includes the identification of task requirements the plan for using search strategies and the use of technology to access analyze and evaluate the acquired information By using technology as a tool that supports the work of individuals and groups in solving problems students will select the technology appropriate for the task synthesize knowledge create a solution and evaluate the results Students communicate information in different formats and to diverse audiences A variety of technologies will be used Students will analyze and evaluate the resuUs (Texas Education Agency 1997b p 1)

Chapter 126 of the TEKS specifies standards for leaming activities under these

four strands in Technology Applications for all Texas leamers This chapter is restricted

14

to instmctional applications excluding curricula that would be better placed in chapters

dealing with Career and Technology Business Applications etc

Chapter 126 Subchapter A delineates skill requirements for leamers as early as

kindergarten Among the skills to be acquired by leamers at that early date include

networking creating naming and saving files keyword searching muhimedia design

and portfolio selection It does not end there Subchapter A spells out a broad outline of

technology activities fi-om kindergarten through fifth grade Subchapter B retains much of

the earlier Essential Elements for middle schools conceming keyboarding and computer

literacy Subchapter C defines requirements for eight specific courses for high school-

level Carnegie-unit credit The minimum hardware for just one of these courses requires

the capability to do local networking Intemet access video production and Web page

production and storage Because of these curricular standards virtually every school in

Texas had to purchase materials appropriate for these activities

These standards went into effect September 1 1998 (Texas Education Agency

1997b) providing impetus for school leaders to recognize and articulate concems over

the implementation of these standards An additional document The Technology

Applications Companion (K-12) (Texas Center for Educational Technology 1998)

containing a comprehensive program entitled Sharing Technology Applications

Resources with Teachers (START) has been distributed on CD-ROM to each public

school building in Texas to provide curricular assistance and resources for TEKS

implementation

15

Research Participants

The informants for this research are among the leadership staff at five school

districts in rural Texas Each would be described as a change facilitator as defined in a

subsequent paragraph The role of the change facilitator is ascribed to a variety of

professionals Three specific roles in the school system are examined in this present

study Each is a change faciUtator but each facilitates change in a unique way

Superintendent~The general superintendent is a certified school employee and is

charged with overseeing all of a school districts operations particularly those related to

supervision and finance This role in the United States was instituted and developed

during nineteenth century bureaucratic changes where centralization of school efforts was

found more economical and where the need was seen for one person to be at the top of

the school stmcture (Urban amp Wagoner 1996)

Lutz and Merz (1992) define the superintendent in three roles manager

politician and teacher The Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) establishes

competencies for school leaders and suggested curricula for their training Superintendent

courses (Texas Education Agency 1991) mostly relegate this role either to be a manager

what with the emphasis on business techniques and school law for school management

or to be the instmctional leader because of specialized expertise in special and

compensatory education and because of recent advancements in school change which

demand that change facilitators already excel as instmctional and curricular leaders

SBOE mles also reinforce the role of politician with a broad array of social science

electives for the prospective school leader

16

The combination of concems over financial matters political pressures and

extemal curricular constramts exclusively laden upon the district superintendent makes

this role particularly important to the proposed research If there is any new technology to

be implemented the superintendent will have to be the first person on deck to secure

community approval particularly that of the school board so that the community has the

opportunity to buy into the new program especially its fiinding It will be necessary to

describe specific concems of superintendents

PrincipalmdashThe principal is a certified school employee who is charged with

leading teachers Unlike the superintendent the principal is generally responsible for only

one building narrowing this persons focus The role developed during the nineteenth

century in urban schools where a beginning teacher would begin teaching at a low grade

level and move up through the system becoming a principal teacher leading the others

(Urban amp Wagoner 1996)

The literature is replete with suggestions for middle management to increase

knowledge of how to implement technology Ritchie (1996) fists vendors school district

personnel technology consultants technology classes and self-instmction as sources of

information for becoming more effective as a change facilitator

Hall Rutherford and Griffin (1982) recognize three distinct change facilitator

styles which largely fit the principals role Responders put heavy emphasis on

empowering teachers and giving them opportunity to take the lead but tend to make

decisions in terms of immediate situations rather than long-term goals Managers tend to

see that things get done but do not normally go beyond the basics of implementing an

17

innovation Initiators take the lead and make things happen having strong beliefs about

what schools should be Nevertheless Hall et al agree that no change faciUtator

completely fits into one of these compartments Much more than the superintendent the

building principals style sets the leadership tone for the students and staff

Hall et al apply these contrasting styles in leadership to applying innovation

implementation

Another apphcation of the ideas proposed in this paper could be in planning school level and district wide implementation efforts Perhaps implementation game plans should be adopted to different schools depending on the change facilitator style of the principal and the assistant principal In a Manager school implementation will likely proceed rather routinely once what is to be done is understood by the principal In a Responders school more encouragement fi-om the outside and more district personnel time spent in the school working with teachers would probably be necessary While in an Initiators school a certain amount of push might be necessary to get implementation of the innovation on the list of the principals priorities On the other hand if the innovation is already a priority for that principal all the central office staff developer may have to do is stand out of the way (pp 19-20)

Middle management concems are a second component of the proposed research

because these individuals provide day-to-day leadership of educators They are

responsible for every detail in their respective buildings including staff development

Although site-based management is ahnost standard in contemporary schools the

principal remains a key force in change

Technology Coordinator-This role is not as clearly defined as principal or

superintendent nor does it have a lengthy historical base but exists nevertheless An

early study by Stmdler and Gall (1988) reported a growing number of individuals with

18

the title of technology coordinator mainly fi-om the ranks of classroom teachers Bailey

(1997) points out that although the role of the technology coordinator is important in

school improvement activities very little recent literature exists that describes the specific

roles and responsibilities of the technology coordinator

Despite variations in the local job title the person recognized as the technology

coordinator will also have concems worth noting in this proposed research As Stmdler

and Gall (1988) reported earlier this person is eighty percent Hkely to come fi-om the

classroom reflecting classroom teacher concems yet will have to assume a leadership

role

Smith (1997) extensively lists qualities and competencies expected of a

technology coordinator under these headings

1 Technical expertise 2 Understanding of technology use in the instmctional environment 3 Professional development 4 Intemet knowledge and experience (p 56)

Jewell (1999) adds the interpersonal skills of vision and diplomacy along with the

ability to find solutions for a diverse group of technology users fi-om a hmited array of

resources Jewell reminds us that

Technology leadership is not for the timid An effective technology leader must be able to navigate the sea of ever-increasing information and equipment as well as the changes in education that comes fi-om technology use What happens with technology and schools will change our world and technology coordinators will have an important role in that outcome (p 57)

19

The Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) annually commission a

survey (TASA 1998) conceming technology usage The 1998 survey specifically

ascertained the availability of on-site technology support Table 1-3 describes the

fi-equency of technology support for a variety of school configurations in Texas

Study Significance

As a major population center and as a resuU a major purchaser of educational materials

(textbooks workbooks etc) Texas has the potential to lead the way with an innovative

array of technology related courses but with new technology changes will be necessary

in how teachers will teach Already school districts are writing funding grants

purchasing more advanced technology and designating an individual with a title

congment to technology coordinator

Administrators will now have to allow for changes in how they do their jobs

Superintendents are already realizing that budgetary planning for technology has to be for

shorter periods that both technology hardware and software will require firequent

upgrades and school policies will need to address technological issues particularly with

legal matters Building principals will not only require a change in their budgetary

procedures but will also need to include technology concems in dealing with both

curriculum and evaluation Having served unofficially as the building technology

computer coordinator this writer observes that these individuals will have concems over

not only keeping current with the technology but also the array of systemic bugs each

piece of hardware and software displays resulting in the attendant complaints expressed

by staff

20

Table 1-3 Full Time Equivalent Staff for TechnologyComputer Operations

Level

Elementary

Middle

High School

Central Office

Other ISD Service

One-campus

N

479

410

470

N

489

N

484

191

No FTEs on campus

()

382

385

362

None ()

595

0 ()

506

335

Vi FTE per campus

()

192

98

104

1 ()

282

1 ()

277

565

i d i lt IFTE ner campus

()

88

12

117

2-3 ()

7

2 ()

97

68

1 FTE or more per campus

()

338

398

417

More than 3 ()

53

3-4 5-6 () ()

52 19

1 0

(TASA 1998 Question 10)

Because of the major changes in what is expected of educators through the

transition fi-om implementing the Essential Elements to TEKS standards these new

regulations should be applicable and flexible enough for at least the next decade

considering that it replaces a document used for 13 years TEKS will be of necessity

21

applicable for implementing innovations that have yet to be invented and for change

strategies not yet imagined

Delimitations

This study focused on technology implementation concems of change facilitators

of school districts in rural Texas limiting the representativeness of the study Any

findings yielded reflected the comments of those interviewed at the time of the study The

constraints of TEKS are not specifically applicable to educational entities in other states

or countries Curricular documents in states other than Texas were surveyed to compare

TEKS requirements for technology with technology expectations for leamers in those

states States bordering Texas as well as the top 15 states in population were considered

(World Almanac 1999) Appendix I contains a listing of these individual states

standards and how much technology usage impacts these standards

This present study is undertaken during the first year of TEKS standards Those

interviewed will not have as much familiarity with TEKS standards as they might in later

years As the researcher involved in compiling this data this writer must recognize

various biases he might have in eliciting comments fi-om these individuals Such

comments will reflect subjective distinctions individuals have about different schools

extemally mandated policies personal expectations of themselves or product

preferences In short this researcher made every effort to allow the respondents to

accurately present themselves

22

Term Definitions

The literature in this study uses terms germane to change instmctional

technology and to applications of the TEKS In addition terms readily known and used

by Texas educators are described

Academic Excellence Indicator System (AEIS) The AEIS (Texas Education

Agency 1999) is a systematic accountability report delivered annually of each school

and school district in Texas Prior to the estabhshment of the AEIS districts were

evaluated for accountability based on mles and procedures With the advent of the AEIS

schools are now evaluated principally on student performance AEIS indicators include

Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) performance attendance and dropout

rates students participating in advanced courses and scores on college entrance

examinations

Change Fullan and Stiegelbauer (1991) suggest that educational change involves

change in practice and indeed is evident at many levels In implementing change three

components are at stake

(1) The possible use of new or revised materials (direct instmctional resources such as curriculum materials or technologies) (2) the possible use of new teaching approaches (i e new teaching strategies or activities) and (3) the possible alteration of beliefs (e g pedagogical assumptions and theories underlying particular new policies and programs) (p 37)

Change Facilitator The role of change facilitator is defined to include not only

superintendents curriculum speciahsts and building principals but also the diverse set

of persons within and outside of organizations who have the formal or informal role to

23

aid those involved in leaming to use innovations (Hall Newlove George Rutherford amp

Hord 1991piii)

Concems Based on the work of Fuller (1969) Hall and his associates expand on

what constitutes concem

The composite representation of these feelings preoccupations thoughts and considerations about a particular issue or task is called concems The mental activity composed of questioning analyzing and re-analyzing considering altemative actions and reactions and anticipating consequences is concem An aroused state of personal feelings and thought about an issue phenomenon or condition as it is perceived is concem To be concemed means to be in a mentally aroused state about something (Hall Newlove George Rutherford amp Hord 1991 p5)

Innovation Loucks-Horsley and Stiegelbauer (1991) include a variety of school

programs as being innovations including school change school mission and goals

shared leadership as well as implementation of new technology Hall and his associates

define innovation as the issue idea or thing that is the center of attention (Hall

George and Rutherford 1977) Hall et als work in ascertaining concems over

educational innovations as will be demonstrated in greater detail in Chapter 2 can be

used to describe a wide variety of school implementations but within this current study is

strictly limited to instmctional technology implementation

Technology Rogers (1983) defines a technology as

A design for instrumental action that reduces the uncertainty in the cause-effect relationships involved in achieving a desired outcome A technology usually has two components (1) a hardware aspect consisting of the tool that embodies the technology as material or physical objects and (2) a software aspect consisting of the information base for the tool (p 12)

24

Technology Applications Chapter 126 of the TEKS for Technology Applications

(Texas Education Agency 1997b) defines what technology applications are in a

common introduction to each subchapter Among competencies at various grade levels

technology applications include the use of several word processing competencies

keyboarding strategies knowledge of a variety of input devices such as mouse modem

disk drive scanner digital video CD-ROM or touch screen database and spreadsheet

usage Intemet intranet and World Wide Web usage formal training in computer

programming languages and guided independent study Certainly a wide variety of

contemporary applications that meet these requirements can fiilfill these guidelines

However these guidelines are so broadly drawn that technologies not yet imagined

constmcted marketed or researched can be effectively implemented for instmctional

purposes

Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) The TAAS is a criterion-

referenced assessment instrument administered to Texas students The core instrument

assesses students skills in writing reading and mathematics at several grade levels At

present TAAS information taken fi-om students in the fourth and eighth grades and fi-om

an exit examination first administered in the tenth grade with multiple opportunities for

mastery Except for a special education exemption given by the Admission Review and

Dismissal (ARD) team for certain special education students Texas students are required

to have successfiilly passed each of the TAAS areas before a high school diploma may be

granted

25

Organization of the Study

This study follows the format and style of the Publication Manual of the

American Psychological Association (APA 1994) in terms of stmcture and organization

for dissertations This present chapter presents introductory material and a statement of

the problem for study Chapter II is a review of related literature tying the postulates of

this study to the established literature base Chapter III describes the research

methodology to be employed along with the context for the study Chapter IV describes

the data analysis for both of the research sub-questions Chapter V provides a summary of

the research its implications and suggestions for fiirther study

26

CHAPTER n

REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Introduction

Fullan and Stiegelbauer (1991) suggest that there will always be the need to make

educational changes as societies become more complex Three broad mechanisms for

effecting these changes include

1 natural disasters

2 extemal forces such as technology values and immigration and

3 intemal contradictions such as changes in technology leading to new social

patterns and needs (Fullan amp Stiegelbauer 1991 p 17)

Innovations then tend to be devised through both political and educational

motives Since technology implementation is included in this list our examination of

technology implementation concems will first discuss the legal foundations of technology

consortium development reasons for collaboration the theory behind change and

diffiision of innovations collaboration then to discuss the theory supporting concems

and finally to discuss some of the means of assessing and evaluating concems of change

facilitators

Technology Consortium Development

The research site for this present study is a technology consortium comprised of

several school districts This consortium will be described fimctionally in Chapter HI but

27

the controlling legal foundations of how this consortium was developed are herein

described fi-om the literature base

A technology consortium is considered an example of an agreement between

state governmental agencies Such an interlocal agreement is defined by the 1971

Interiocal Cooperation Act (the Act) (Vemons Texas Codes Annotated (VTCA)

1991) At present this Act is codified as Chapter 791 of the Texas Government Code

The Act authorizes local governmental agencies to contract with each other or with the

state to provide services to each other Independent school districts are classified as

other governmental fimction as described in sect 791003

Interlocal agreements are required to be authorized by the goveming bodies of

each governmental entity in this case by each member school board sect 791011 provides

for financial cooperation while sect 791013 allows the consortium to designate

administrative personnel to provide services (Bristol amp Jechow 1998)

Hudson (1997) describes the need for interlocal agreements as either being

required by the intensive capital needed for poohng financial resources or requiring a

high degree of special skills such as public utility specialists This technology

consortium requires both capital and technical expertise Resources for purchasing

significant amounts of computer hardware are pooled under sect 791025

Funds for the technology consortium are derived by legal authority in the Texas

Education Code (TEC) Most school districts in Texas are financed under the Minimum

Foundation Program under Chapter 42 of the TEC (VTCA 1996a) Locally generated

28

ftinds are combined with State fimds to provide for the regular education program of

school districts

However certain school districts that are considered property-wealthy have

different financial considerations The value-added nature of such districts may be due to

industry land values or as in this present study mineral wealth specifically petroleum

Chapter 41 of the TEC specifies means to limit the local property wealth per student to

$280000 (sect 41002) Monies in excess of that amount are surrendered to the State

sect 41099 allows for such districts to recapture some of these fimds to support a

technology initiative (VTCA 1996b) Two of the seven districts in this technology

consortium are considered property-rich and serve as financiers for the purchase of

technology for the remaining five districts

Fowler (1998) describes various ways technology consortia have to plan for nuts-

and-bolts administrative details including preparing state and federal reports asset

distribution litigation inclusion into and withdrawl from the consortium and

determining credentials for consortium board membership Chapters III and IV will

describe in greater detail the practical educational applications of this consortium in

operation

Collaboration

A significant part of the innerworkings of a technology consortium is that those in

leadership have mastered the ability to successfiilly collaborate Indeed collaboration

could be considered an innovation in and of itself (Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer

29

1993) Mattessich and Monsey (1992) have identified factors indicative of outstanding

collaborative groups

1 The politicalsocial environment along with a history of previous cooperative

efforts (pp 16-18)

2 Group membership is based on mutual tmst personal self-interest

compromise and a cross-section of the organizations involved (pp 19-22)

3 Group members have a stake in both the process and outcome of decision

making Clear roles and policies must be developed (pp 22-26)

4 Frequent and open communication links should be established (pp 26-28)

5 Reahstic goals and shared vision leading to a unique purpose (pp 28-30)

6 Both financial and human resources should be considered (pp 30-31)

The Change Process

Fullan and Stiegelbauer (1991) identify educational change as developed through

three phases In the initiation (or readiness) phase change leaders establish a need to

make improvements and to assist in the development of vision and planning At this

level intended outcomes of change are identified During the implementation phase

plans are activated to achieve those outcomes Both individuals and organizations

experience change as the result of new leaming experiences and support through follow

up The institutionalization phase stresses the integration of new practices into school

policies budgets routines etc As new needs and plans are identified stmctures are

30

developed to ensure that the newly institutionalized procedures continue to be maintained

(Fullan amp Stiegelbauer 1991 National Staff Development Council 1995)

Diffusion of Innovations

Concems toward innovations have been noted for some time Knowledge of

change is of littie value unless its solutions are diffiised to the level of the practitioner

(Guba 1968) Guba cites Everett Rogers (1955) who describes five stages of diffiision of

innovations

1 Awareness The individual leams of the existence of the innovation

2 Interest The individual seeks more information and considers the merits of

the innovation

3 Evaluation The individual makes a mental application of the innovation and

weighs its merit for his particular situation

4 Trial The individual applies the innovation on a small scale

5 Adoption The individual apphes the innovation for continued use on the basis

of a previous trial (Guba 1968 p 292)

Rogers (1983) builds on his earlier conclusions and adds a description of

characteristics of innovations which explain the differing rates of adoption among groups

1 Relative advantage is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as better

than the idea it supersedes The greater the perceived relative advantage of an

innovation the more rapid its rate of adoption is going to be

31

2 Compatibility is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as being

consistent with the existing values past experiences and needs of potential adopters An

idea that is not compatible with the prevalent values and norms of a social system will not

be adopted as rapidly as an innovation that is compatible

3 Complexity is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as difficult to

understand and use

4 Trialibility is the degree to which an innovation may be experimented with on a

limited basis An innovation that is trialable represents less uncertainty to the

individual who is considering it for adoption as it is possible to leam by doing

5 Observability is the degree to which the results of an innovation are visible to

others The easier it is for individuals to see the results of an innovation the more likely

they are to adopt (Rogers 1983 pp 15-16)

Rogers (1983) describes five categories of individuals accepting irmovations

along a continuum under a normal fi-equency distribution (p 247)

1 Innovators (2 CT below mean) These individuals are described as venturesome

eager to try new ideas desiring the hazardous daring and risky While an innovator

may not be respected by the other members of a social system the innovator plays an

important role in the diffiision process that of launching the new idea in the social system

by importing the innovation fi-om outside of the systems boundaries (p 248)

2 Early Adopters (between 1 and 2 a below the mean) This adopter category

more than any other has the greatest degree of opinion leadership in most social systems

32

(p 249) These are individuals that are the ones to check in with before trying out new

ideas They are the one who enjoy the greatest respect fi-om their associates

3 Early Majority (fi-om mean to 1 CT below mean) These individuals require more

time to deliberate before adopting an iimovation They eventually follow willingly into

the innovation but seldom take the initiative

4 Late Majority (fi-om mean to 1 a above mean) These individuals approach

innovation with caution and skepticism They are not convinced about the innovation

until the social system norms are in place before they will adopt the innovation

5 Laggards (above 1 a above mean) These individuals are the last in the social

system to adopt an innovation They tend to be suspicious of any changes to the social

system and require absolute certainty that new ideas will work

Finally Rogers (1983) suggests that opinion leaders in a social system are the

individuals who lead the group into innovation adoption Rogers identifies generalized

characteristics of opinion leaders that distinguish them fi-om their followers

1 Opinion leaders have greater exposure to mass media than their followers

2 Opinion leaders are more cosmopolite than their followers

3 Opinion leaders have greater change agent contact than their followers

4 Opinion leaders have greater social participation than their followers

5 Opinion leaders have higher economic status than their followers

6 Opinion leaders are more innovative than their followers

33

7 When a social systems norms favor change opinion leaders are more

innovative but when the norms do not favor change opinion leaders are not especially

innovative (Rogers 1983 pp 282-284)

This present research relies heavily on the relative opinion leader status of those

change facilitators fi-om whom data was gathered Because the informants are change

facilitators and their input on technology implementation is considered authoritative

Rogers insights on change facilitators are appropriate here

Concems Theory

In her role as an observer of novice teachers at the University of Texas Frances

Fuller (1969) noted that there were perceptible differences in how experienced and non-

experienced teachers observed their profession

Are typically inexperienced undergraduates not yet ready to benefit fi-om a conventional teacher preparation program What are they ready to leam What does concem them Can we discover regularities in the interests of beginning education students regularities which might fiimish guides to educators in choosing course content and experiences for teacher education programs (Fuller 1969 p 208)

Fuller reviewed the available literature related to the concems of beginning

teachers Her study concluded that their concems primarily centered on classroom

management and perceptions of evaluations She was surprised not only with how

consistently the varied concems were reported but also with what these authors left out

the absence of concems about topics which are usually included in education courses

34

I instmctional design methods of presenting subject matter assessment of pupil leaming

dynamics of child behavior and so on (p 210)

Fullers subsequent research concluded that a developmental conceptualization of

teacher concems was most appropriate

Pre-teaching phase Non-concem ~ During this time before actual contact with

children concems articulated by pre-service teachers were amorphous and vague

Many did not know what to actually be concemed about Much of what these novices

reported could be regarded as hearsay rumors about teaching etc (p 219)

Early Teaching Phase Concem with Self- As the novice educator begins

service concems with Where do I stand and How am I doing were most dominant

(p 220)

Late concems Concems with Pupils - Scant data with experienced educators was

available to Fuller but mature concems appeared to focus on pupil gains and self-

evaluation as opposed to personal gains and evaluations by others (p 221)

Fullers groundbreaking article began the basis for the development of concems

theory She posited significant research implications that were expanded upon by later

researchers

1 Is the concem sequence complete or are there more tasks with specific

competencies to be defined and resequenced

2 Is concem a fimction of the person of the situation of both or of

neither

35

3 Do individuals as well as groups go through these phases Can a

phase be skipped returned to or be in muhiple phases

4 Can these stages be generalized to other groups such as

administrators college professors and non-teaching staff

5 Are concems more related to teaching behavior teacher competency

or student leaming

6 Are these concems measurable Can they be manipulated by

intervention (Fuller 1969 pp 222-223)

With Fullers article the stage was then set for the development of a more

comprehensive method of measuring concems of educators as they deal with innovations

The Role of CBAM

During the period Fuller was conducting her research Gene Hall and his

associates at the University of Texas were also researching teacher needs and concems

initially with a view toward providing relevant staff development activities Their

conceptual fi-amework for ascertaining concems during school change became the

Concems-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) (Hall Wallace amp Dossett 1973)

The CBAM describes feelings perspectives and attitudes of individuals while

they are considering the use of an innovation (Hall 1979) It is a people-oriented model

anticipating what change agents might discover during the change process and generally

used with staff development (Hope 1995) These assumptions undergird the CBAM

36

1 Change is a process not an event Change takes time and is accomplished in

stages

2 The individual is the primary target of interventions designed to facilitate

change in the classroom Institutions cannot change until individuals within them change

3 Change is a highly personal experience The personal satisfactions concems

motivations and perceptions play roles in determining the success or failure of an

innovation

4 The change process is developmental Individuals go through stages in feelings

and perceptions about the innovation as well as in skill of use of the innovation

5 Staff development can be best facilitated by a client-centered diagnostic-

prescriptive model Staff developers must discover what level participants are in the

change process and design activities congment with that level

6 Staff developers need to work in an adaptive yet systemic way They must be

able to assess the change process and adapt training methods to address those changes

(Hall amp Loucks 1978 Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1991)

Within CBAM three aspects of change form the basic fi-ame of reference of the

model

1 the concem that users have about the innovation

2 how the innovation is used and

3 the ways that the innovation can be adapted to meet the needs of individuals

(Hope 1995)

37

This current study focused only on this first strand-concems Using Fullers

research Hall et al redefined Fullers three stages of concem into concems unrelated to

teaching concems about self concems about the task and concems about impact

(Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1991) Seven Stages of Concem (SoC) about the

innovation have been identified (see Appendix A) Hall and his associates have

demonstrated that individuals move through these seven levels in a consistent manner

(Hall 1979 Hall 1985 Hall George amp Rutherford 1977 Hall amp Loucks 1978 Hall

Wallace amp Dossett 1973 Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1991) Stage 0 represents no

concem over the innovation Stages 1 and 2 reflect concems based on self stage 3

represents concem with the task and stages 4 through 6 mirror concems based on pupil

impact

The Stages of Concem Questionnaire the most precise measure of the SoC is a

35-item Likert scale where respondents indicate their present degree of concem about the

topic in an item (Hall George amp Rutherford 1979) Hall et al hypothesize that

individuals will normally flow fi-om the stages in consecutive order and that a scored

profile should place an individual somewhere along the concems continuum It is highly

rigorous and can be used effectively for research for large groups of people and for

tracking groups of people over time

George (1977) provided rehability and validity figures for this instrument

Intemal reliability was shown to be high Table 2-1 shows intemal reliability coefficients

for a 1974 sample (N=830) of teachers and professors A later subsample of teachers

38

Modifications to the content of the SoC have been done (Bailey amp Palsha 1992

Shotsberger amp Crawford 1996) with varying reliability In the main these researchers

concur that teacher concems do indeed occur in stages but differ in the number of stages

they detect

Table 2-1 Coefficients of Intemal Reliability for the Stages of Concem Questionnaire N = 830

Stage Alphas

0 64 1 78 2 83 3 75 4 76 5 82 6 71

(George 1977)

(N=132) was asked to complete the SoC a second time with test-retest correlations

shown in Table 2-2

As an adjunct to the SoC questionnaire the opportunity is presented for the

respondent to provide a written response with an open-ended statement along the lines of

When you think about [the innovation] what are you concemed about An collection

of open-ended statements can give the researcher opportunity to get a quick feeling for

39

Table 2-2 Test-Retest Correlations on the Stages of Concem Questionnaire N=132

Stage Pearson-r

0 65 1 86 2 82 3 81 4 76 5 84 6 71

(George 1977)

the concems of a group Moreover it can ascertain specific issues germane to a particular

group (Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1991) An altemate version of the SoC geared

principally to change facilitators contains an open-ended blank

43 Use this space (and back of this page) to express any concems you have not been able to indicate in the questionnaire (Hall Newlove George Rutherford amp Hord 1991 p 48)

A third means of gaining information is the one-legged interview which can be

done by simply having a conversation with a respondent about the innovation It is called

one-legged because it can be conducted on the mn or brief enough to do while standing

on one leg While not so rigorous as quantitative instruments this format allows for more

simplicity and rapport with chents (Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1991)

40

AppUcations of CBAM

CBAM has been used in a variety of educational situations Malone (1984) used

CBAM to determine concems of pre-service elementary teachers in teaching science

James and Hall (1981) evaluated concems of veteran teachers in implementing new

science curricula

CiccheUi and Baecher (1985 1987) used the CBAM model to study teacher

computer training They found that the level of concems of novice computer-using

teachers was a factor in how staff development was scheduled Their research questions

are similar to this present study

1 What specific concems will teachers have about using microcomputers in the

classroom

2 Do these concems vary and if so to what extent among elementary junior high

and senior high school teachers

3 Are there different concems between male and female teachers

4 In what ways can data yielded fi-om the SoCQ help teacher educators design

effective inservicing (Cicchelli amp Baecher 1985)

Wesley and Franks (1996) observed the voluntary adoption activities of teachers

using computer-assisted instmction (CAI) and multimedia through a variety of staff

development strategies most notably collegiality (Joyce amp Showers 1988) CBAM

developmental stmctures were positively linked to the increasing complexity of

technologies adopted by these teachers As they progress through the SoC teachers

voluntarily adopt technologies toward better leaming in the classroom Hope (1995)

41

examined teachers concems as they gained greater facility with computers in an

elementary school setting

Wells and Anderson (1997) performed studies comparing intemal concems

(stages 0 to 3) and extemal concems (stages 4 to 6) on a variety of computer appUcations

utilized by students in a graduate telecommunications course Prior computer usage in

eight separate skill areas along with general computing experiences was evaluated on the

SoC Ragsdale (1997) used CBAM to research the unexpected reactions of teachers and

students as they work in a variety of technologies Through CBAM Todd (1993) studied

university faculty concems in teacher preparation programs

CBAM is even used in non-scholastic situations Hall and Hord (1987) report

CBAM and SoC used to research nurse training Air Force cadet leadership training

health behavior and textbook sales and service CBAM has been used intemationally

with extensive studies in Belgium the Netherlands and Australia and has been piloted in

Indonesia Venezuela and Thailand (Hall Newlove George Rutherford amp Hord 1991)

The Change Facilitator SoC

The SoC questionnaire was shown to be adequate in determining the concems of

classroom teachers but did not work as well with administrators staff developers and

others who were charged with implementing change (Hall Newlove George Rutherford

amp Hord 1991) Not only were many of the SoC statements often inappropriate for change

facilitators but also scores elicited fi-om change facilitators yielded values skewed higher

in the Impact stages 4 through 6 particularly stage 5 (Collaboration) which is logical

42

considering the definition of stage 5 and the role of the change facilitator (Hall et al

1991 p 15) Earlier studies with change facilitators and CBAM gave impetus for a more

role-related instrument for assessing concems

The net result of this research yielded a set of Change Facilitator Stages of Concem

(CFSoC) The sequence of concems in the CFSoC (unrelated self task impact) is given

in Appendix B As with the SoC the CFSoC again contains 35 Likert-style statements

but each statement is expressed with a more leadership oriented spin Again as in the

earlier SoC Questionnaire Hall et al hypothesize that change facilitators will move along

the same path fi-om one stage to the next in consecutive order

The CFSoC Instrument

This specific instrument formed a significant portion of the data for this present

study and consequently requires more detailed reporting of its development Hall et al

(1991) have prepared a detailed manual describing the development of the instrument

scoring procedures methods of interpretation and reliability and validity data Appendix

C provides the current CFSoC instrument as used in this present study

CFSoC Development

As stated earlier those who had roles as change facilitators exhibited a different

pattem of responses to the SoC questionnaire because the SoC statements are phrased for

users of the innovation (p 15) Hall et al reported that they had to strike a balance

between innovation-related concems and change-facilitator role concems (p 16)

43

Because of this felt need for such a balance in May and June of 1979 Hall et al

instituted a pilot study of a potential change facilitator version of the well-used SoC This

pilot study indicated the need to wholly change the concems statements to reflect change

facilitator roles Additionally they found that the questionnaire items had to reflect the

facilitation of others use of the innovation rather its use per se (p 18) Questionnaire

items for the Impact stages (4-6) had to focus on efforts and concems on revising the

facilitation process rather than personal use of the innovation

Hall et al (1991) describe their later piloting efforts

Pilot data were collected at CBAM workshops for change facilitators in August 1979 in Texas (N=29) and New Mexico (N=23) Item analyses indicated that the intemal reliability of the scales were good (alphas greater than 65 on all scales) but Stages 1 and 2 (Informational and Personal) were too highly correlated This led to fiirther examination of the CFSoC definitions and a new draft of items for Stages 0 12 and 3

In May 1980 a sample of 219 CFSoC Questionnaires was collected by sending the measure to all change facilitators who had participated in Concems-Based Consulting Skills Workshops in 1979 and 1980 Analyses of these responses indicated good reliability and scale intercorrelations for all but Stage 6 (Refocusing) After carefiil analysis of the Stage 6 concept several new Stage 6 items were written and incorporated into the CFSoC

During the summer and fall 1980 an additional set of 288 CFSoC Questionnaires was collected fi-om a variety of workshops and mailings to change facilitators With these data factor analyses and other item analyses were used to select the five items for each stage on the final questionnaire (Hall et al 1991 p 18-19)

Reliability and Validity

Hall et al (1991) report two intemal rehability studies for the CFSoC A 1981

study (N=589) administered the current 35-item scale to a sample group that included a

44

variety of innovations examined job titles and years of experience Table 2-3 shows the

intemal reliability data for each stage Subsequent studies have produced virtually

identical data Another set of CFSoC responses (N=750) yielded the data in Table 2-4

Table 2-3 Means Standard Deviations and Alpha Coefficients for the CFSoC (N=589)

Stage Mean SD Alpha

0 1199 594 61 1 1691 949 85 2 1304 632 62 3 1790 730 72 4 2588 634 70 5 2586 699 77 6 907 652 81

(Halletal 1991p 19)

Table 2-4 Means Standard Deviations and Alpha Coefficients for the CFSoC (N=750)

Stage Mean SD Alpha

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

1320 1920 1140 1766 2477 2499

840

593 925 622 718 672 704 618

63

86

65

73

74

79

81

(Halletal 1991 p 19)

Hall et al conclude These statistics indicate that the scales have adequate

intemal reliability and the scales are consistent across various innovations (p 20) 45

The 1981 study yielded relatively low intercorrelations between stages Such low

intercorrelations indicate that these scales are measuring different concepts Table 2-5

provides a display of the intercorrelations of scale scores

Table 2-5 Intercorrelations of the Scale Scores on the CFSoC (N=589)

Scale 1 2 3 4 5 6

0 15 19 23 -15 -21 22

i 24 09 23

2 37 19

3 32

4

5

18

05

20

67

05

34

09

-06

-15

(Halletal 1991 p 20)

As is noticable in the table most stage correlations are small except for the correlation of

Consequence and Collaboration

Summary and Reflection

To summarize we know a great deal about how schools change fi-om the available

literature Fullan and Stiegelbauer (1991) point out famihar pattems of change and how

individuals adjust through those changes Rogers (1955 1983) insights into the diffiision

of innovations in a social system have expanded and matured with time Rogers points

46

out that those who facilitate change most effectively are those who in the social system

are most effective in social effectiveness Those who would dare to facilitate

technological change would normally reflect Rogers maxims conceming opinion leaders

The concepts of collaborative strategies appear usefiil for a variety of contexts

particularly for cooperative groups of school districts The original Stages of Concem

(SoC) survey continues to be utilized extensively but little hterature exists for the more

restrictive Change Facilitator Stages of Concem (CFSoC) instrument CFSoC authors

appear enthusiastic about its use (Hall amp Hord 1987 Hall Newlove George Rutherford

amp Hord 1991) but as this present research is conducted only one recent article advocates

its use (Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1993)

In communicating with CFSoC personnel they had no direct knowledge of

extensive recent literature on the CFSoC G Hall (personal communication November 2

1998) referred this writer to the original CBAM staff A George (personal

communication November 6 1998) was unable to find extemal validity studies of the

CFSoC There appears a need for this instmment to be used and reported upon

The legal stmctures which provide foundation for establishing a technology

consortium are solidly found in Texas legal literature Because they are based on legal

statutes they could be modified or deleted by subsequent legislatures Moreover the

changing fortunes of Chapter 41 school districts with fluctuating mineral wealth will

make it difficuh to reliably predict the fiiture of such technology consortia

47

CHAPTER m

METHODOLOGY

Study Design

Yin (1994) asserts that the type of research design to be used in any study must be

bounded by (a) the type of research question posed (b) the extent of control an

investigator has over actual behavioral events and (c) the degree of focus on

contemporary as opposed to historical events (p 4)

This present study used the case study method Yin (1993) specifically addressed

and described studies of educational partnerships or consortia as good examples of case

study research The research questions reiterated below are how and why oriented

(Yin 1994) They are presented in the form of a grand tour question what concems the

technology consortium exhibits as a group and sub-questions what concems individuals

(Spradley 1979)

Grand Tour Ouestion

What are the concems of leadership personnel as the TEKS technology

requirements are implemented in their school districts

Sub-questions

1 Where do these school leaders fall on the Concems-based Adoption Model

(CBAM) continuum regarding TEKS technology implementation

48

2 What are the specific concems of these school leaders as these TEKS are

implemented and why are these concems important

Rationale

This research examined details particularly interviewees responses which were

out of this writers direct control This study also focused on contemporary events in a

technology consortium in rural Texas Therefore Yins standards (Yin 1994 p 6) for

applying a case study method were justified

This present study was exploratory As such Yin (1994 p 21) would assert that

specific propositions or underlying assumptions about what we might discover in the

course of the inquiry should not be defined Assumptions tend to interfere with defining

issues they also constmct personal biases to both data gathering and interpretation

Rather Yin suggested that an exploratory study should reflect the purpose of the study

and the criteria by which an explanation will be judged successfiil (p 21) Levine

(1990) concurs that explorations into educational computer use often lack propositions

Many of the published qualitative studies are deemed exploratory by their authors reflecting researchers quandaries about what should be the subject of the inquiry in this new field and of equal importance the lack of any guiding theory against which to cast the qualitative data In general most of the extant models of quahtative investigation into classroom computer use tend to be atheoretical and largely positivist rather than interpretive in their orientation (p 464)

The criteria forjudging an explorations success will be discussed in the later section

dealing with validity and reliability

The unit of analysis for this study was a technology consortium the combined and

49

cooperative efforts of seven school districts to provide instmctional technology leadership

toward better serving their students Such a partnership has collective activities and

outcomes and as a distinct unit represents something greater than activities and

outcomes of member school districts (Yin 1993) Those change facilitators whose

concems were examined were all employed by the individual school districts and were

recognized as leaders within their respective districts Each of these individuals was

asked a set of similar questions Their responses were considered as representative of the

leadership of their individual districts Appendix D provides the list of questions that

were asked

Yin (1993) suggests that topical relevance and access can contribute to the

appropriateness of this research design The consideration of TEKS technology

implementation efforts is being effected during this present academic year and is certainly

current

For linking the data to the research questions the specific analysis strategy used

was the pattem-matching model Those concems registered by the interview participants

were compared with pattems of CBAM data particularly the typical and hypothesized

profiles of school change facilitators as manifested on the Change Facilitator Stages of

Concem (CFSoC) protocol (Hall Newlove George Rutherford amp Hord 1991)

Informants were asked to fill out the brief CFSoC survey The CFSoC manual presented

typical profiles and gave suggested interpretations of representative profiles These were

used to determine the concems rankings of these informants

Yin (1994) admits that there are no precisely set criteria for interpreting findings

In discussing a study by an author named herein Jones Yin made these observations

50

Jones data matched one pattem better than they matched the other But how close does a match have to be so as to be considered a match Note that Jones did not do any statistical test to make the comparison Nor would a statistical test have been possible because each data point in the pattem was a single number for which one could not calculate a variance and could not conduct any statistical test One hopes that the different pattems are sufficiently contrasting that the findings can be interpreted in terms of comparing at least two rival propositions (p 26)

The concems of school change facilitators as they implement new models of

curriculum were studied through the mode of exploratory case study a qualitative study

design Because this current study desired to know the current concems of sitting school

leaders a case study paradigm was used because the events in the study cannot be

manipulated Campbell (1997) suggests that a qualitative design is appropriate when

ascertaining the insiders point of view and the informants personal involvement A

research protocol of examining documents and artifacts and conducting interviews

provided a wide variety of data Moreover as Levine (1990) asserted case study research

could be accomplished relatively quickly Levine suggested that a case study design

appears to be the method of choice for those investigating different facets of educational

uses of computer technology

Clouse and Garrett (1994) suggest more theoretical reasons for utilizing case

study with adult change facilitators Borrowing fi-om Piagetian concepts the stage of

formal operations which forms the basis of case study is well-developed by adulthood

Moreover case study is grounded in the needs of adult leamers because of the

51

meaningfiilness of problems to the aduh and the responsibility they take toward their

own personal development

Stake (1995) describes defining characteristics of case study research that are

apphcable for this present study

1 It is holistic its contextuality is well developed it is case oriented

2 It is empirical it is field oriented its emphasis is on observables including the observations by informants it strives to be naturalistic noninterventionistic and there is a relative preference for natural language description

3 It is interpretive its researchers rely on intuition with many important criteria not specified it is attimed to the fact that research is a researcher-subject interaction

4 It is empathetic although plaimed its design is emergent responsive its reporting provides vicarious experience

(Stake 1995 pp 47-48)

Context for the Study

This study site was selected in consultation with a consultant who had knowledge

of and had worked with this organization I was directed toward one of the Consortiums

superintendents to secure access This superintendent in tum directed me toward a

person at the Educational Service Center who would be able to assist me

This technology consortium was comprised of seven school districts with two

districts declining to participate in this research These districts were rural and agrarian

yet possessed school leaders who tmly wanted to bring their communities up to date with

52

technology These school sites were given pseudonyms which were generated by random

selection of cities fi-om states other than Texas in a current road atlas Names of

participants were given pseudonyms Those names were those of students fi-om my high

school yearbook and were drawn by lot

In general each of the five school districts were in Texas counties which have

declined in population since 1990 The combined population of these districts is 7306

(Texas Almanac 1998) Each districts economy was based on agriculture and varying

amounts of mineral wealth resulting in substantial variance in property values Each

county boasts a relatively low crime rate

More important than minute details this present study is focused on the big

picture the ways and means utiHzed to make this technology consortium a reality In

initial contacts with consortium leadership this researcher was directed toward Dr Sarah

McCuUough a program specialist of the Educational Service Center Region J located in

Center City Texas Dr McCullough was instmmental in establishing this technology

consortium and providing this researcher with the history and innerworkings of this

consortium Interview questions for Dr McCullough are in Appendix E The following

narrative of the foundation and fimctioning of this consortium is based on this

researchers interview with Dr McCullough (personal communication December 9

1998)

The Sah Fork Educational Technology Consortium (the Consortium) is comprised

of seven independent school districts all of which have akeady worked together as a

special education cooperative Six of these districts are members of Educational Service

Center (ESC) Region J while one is actually in the territory of ESC Region K As also

53

with special education cooperatives a technology consortium is an interlocal agreement

by Texas law and has a management board comprised of district superintendents one

district designated as fiscal agent and a chair authorized to speak and act for the group

The Salt Fork Telephone Company (SFTC) headquartered in Dellwood Texas

provides rural telephone service for several counties in Texas All of the school districts

in these counties depend on this provider for both telephone service and the possibihty of

Intemet connectivity In 1995 the SFTC invited school leaders fi-om their service area to

a demonstration in Dellwood to show off a variety of new technologies that they were

excited to announce particularly their new capabiHty for two-way interactive video

Because these districts had worked together before had a common telephone carrier and

had common interests these school leaders concluded it logical and practical to combine

together for technology improvement in their schools

Prior to the Consortiums establishment member districts were limited to only the

computers they currently had in the classroom Almost all of their computers were

stand-alone units Each district also had a satellite dish for the state network materials

but were using them poorly and inefficiently

Dr McCullough was initially hired to work with this group to get a two-way

interactive video setup organized Later she was deeply involved with authoring several

grants for this group Her subsequent work with the Consortium was to conduct an array

of custom-designed technology needs assessments for each of several job descriptions

(teacher counselor administrator etc) with the emphasis on what do you want that you

do not have with the view that technology was the means to fiilfill those needs She now

54

meets regularly with these superintendents as they hold Consortium management board

meetings

Dr McCullough describes the interrelationships of Consortium members

positively She notes very little dissention as they discuss procedures that most decisions

are made by consensus What serves one serves all of them she emphasizes as the

Consortium moves toward better technology use Each board member realizes that they

are at different point toward reaching group goals They realize the benefits of

collaborative planning a hard lesson for everyone to leam

The Consortium keeps operating fiinds in a bank account separate fi-om general

operating fiinds administered by the business manager of the fiscal agent To date

fimding has come fi-om grants and fi-om monies generated fi-om the two member districts

designated as property-wealthy under Chapter 41 of the Texas Education Code These

districts recapture a certain percentage of excess property wealth normally surrendered to

the State and assign those fiinds to the Consortium (see Chapter II) These districts have

voluntarily chosen to redistribute their fiinds in this manner

Because these districts have formed this consortium they not only have more

technology but also more capabilities As a whole there is improved student

performance and better trained teachers with a rise in Academic Excellence Indicator

System (AEIS) scores (see Chapter I) Most importantly these school leaders fimction as

a group They actively seek ways to collaborate

A recent example of this improved outlook on technology concems teachers use

of the Accelerated Reader (AR) program Heretofore it had been difficult to get teachers

to travel all the way to Center City for training for AR but with a high-quality technology

55

center in Dellwood closer to the other Consortium member schools there was high and

enthusiastic tumout for the training sessions

Informant Selection

This researcher invited each of the seven school districts in the technology

consortium to participate in this study In August 1998 a letter was sent to each of the

district superintendents of the Consortium introducing me the goals of the prospective

research how they might participate^ etc A copy of this letter is provided in Appendix F

Within two weeks of the initial invitation a letter was received fi-om one

superintendent stating that in consultation with his districts site-based team they would

decline to participate in this present study That same week this researcher received a

telephone call fi-om the Dellwood ISD superintendent who had been authorized by the

Consortium board to grant permission to use their districts for this study

After securing approval of the Universitys Institutional Review Board these

superintendents were again contacted and consent forms instmctions and CFSoC

surveys were mailed to superintendents building principals and technology coordinators

of the six remaining districts This mailing was in November 1998 Eighteen completed

CFSoC surveys would be the potential maximum Appendix G contains a copy of the

consent forms and instmctions for taking the surveys

Concurrent with mailing queries to Consortium staff this researcher made initial

contact with Dr McCullough of the ESC and conducted an interview with her in

December 1998

56

The mailings yielded only eleven retumed surveys fi-om the maximum eighteen

possible informants However two of those with completed surveys were deleted fi-om

the pool during the pre-interview stage due to lack of fiirther response to interview

queries The net pool yielded exactly three each of superintendents building principals

and technology coordinators representing five school districts These nine informants are

those whose CFSoC profiles and interviews will be discussed in Chapter IV

Data Collection

A variety of data collection methods congment with the case study method was

used leading to the development of converging lines of inquiry allowing triangulation

ofthe data leading to improved validity and reliability of this study (Yin 1994)

Survey The CFSoC instmment contained 35 Likert-style statements which were

grouped into seven stages of concem Each ofthe statements received a score of 0

through 7 The statement scores were added up to provide a raw score for each stage

That raw score was in tum evaluated by a percentile score chart For the given raw

score there was a corresponding percentile score Percentile scores were then encircled

on a CFSoC protocol Interpretation ofthe CFSoC was based on the profile yielded

from the administration ofthe instrument

Hall et al (1991) insist that their instrument must not be used to make a definitive

analysis of a respondent but rather all interpretations must be treated as hypotheses (p

29) They discuss three methods of examining the CFSoC protocol to generate

hypotheses Interpretations can be made either by examining the stage which shows the

highest degree of concem based on percentile score by examining the percentile scores

57

ofthe highest and the second-highest stages or by examining the fiill array of stage

percentile scores Hall et al point out

As individuals move fi-om little concem about facilitating use of an innovation into actively becoming involved with users as a facilitator it is hypothesized that their concems develop fi-om being most intense at Stages 0 1 and 2 to most intense at Stage 3 and uhimately to most intense at Stages 4 5 and 6 This is most likely to occur if the innovation is a positive one and there is administrative support for its implementation However reality has a way of intervening on this idealized trend which results in different and interesting profiles Where an individual is in this change process can best be assessed through interpretation of a complete concems profile Analyzing both the tabular fisting of percentile scores and the plots of these percentile scores as a graph provides the most complete clinical interpretationassessment (Hall et al pp 33-34)

The profiles accuued as part ofthe data collection are thus examined according to

fiill-profile examples given in the CFSoC manual (Hall et al pp 34-42) Additionally

specific information given by the respondents conceming their change facilitator roles is

considered in establishing these hypotheses Scores are interpreted on the shape ofthe

profile and not necessarily on the numerical score of each concem stage

Interviews There were semistmctured interviews with district superintendents

building principals and persons designated within the school community as the

technology coordinator those whom teachers and administrators rely upon when

computer savvy is needed As opposed to the more open-ended interview I made the

interview more focused as Yin (1994 pp 84-85) puts it The informants were busy

educators and administrators and their time was perceived as limited Interviews were

oriented toward ascertaining the informants knowledge and use of technology with a

58

view toward discovering concems they had as new curricular guidelines and concurrent

hardware implementation was instituted Interviews were conducted by telephone tape

recorded and transcribed for review Interview queries were based on the CFSoC

questionnaire (Hall et al 1991) and questions used in a similar dissertation project

(Nagy 1996) This researcher noticed that several questions as listed in Appendix D

would be commented on by the informants without being asked When each ofthe

questions were answered by the informant the interview ceased Any discussion of non-

germane issues (local school politics vocational programs etc) or school activities not

included in Chapter 126 ofthe TEKS were not evaluated

Documentation Merriam (1988) defines documents as just about anything in

existence prior to the research at hand (p 105) but cautions whether it contains

information or insights relevant to the research question and whether it can be acquired in

a reasonably practical yet systematic manner (p 105)

I wanted to review a wide variety of recent public records in the fiirtherance of

technology implementation for this Consortium including but not limited to school

board minutes technology consortium records established policy statements grant

applications tabular data and evaluations Not all of these documents were available

fi-om Dr McCullough or fi-om Consortium members What was available included the

initial grant applications needs assessment surveys and technology plan The Academic

Excellence Indicator System (AEIS) reports for the 1997-98 school year for each district

were retrieved fi-om the TEA web site (TEA 1999) During the course of informant

interviews certain legal documents were alluded to found in Vemons Texas Codes

Annotated and were useful in verifying interview data A current survey (September

59

1998) ofthe Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) provided a comparison

of similarly situated school districts for technology use Cumulative accountability data

conceming these districts was found in pubhc records (TEA 1995 1996 1997a 1998)

Standardized indicators of district performance could thus be obtained as evidence of

progress

Merriam (1988) suggests that the use of these documents assists in grounding a

study into the context ofthe problem that is under investigation A further purpose of

reviewing documentation is that such records present not only the history ofthe

technology program but also the sense of ownership and commitment that the leadership

exerts and the staff reflect in their service to their leaming communities We also seek

independent objective means to determine if these technology implementations yield any

progress thus avoiding halo effects fi-om those most intimately involved with the

organization

Data Analysis

Since data collection and data analysis drive one another (Gay 1997) the data

was organized to reflect pattems or themes which emerged fi-om the data (Bogdan amp

Biklen 1992) As they discuss evaluating data they affirm that a method of finding a

focus is to look over your coding categories and see which have yielded the greatest

amount of data (p 186)

The interview transcripts were read and reread to gamer a sense ofthe concems

manifested by the informants The analysis had to be germane to the viewpoint ofthe

informant (Tashakkori amp Teddlie 1998) Coding categories emerging fi-om the interview

60

data included student leaming distance leaming power attitudes training infrastmcture

and finance The relevant narrative fi-om the hard copies ofthe transcripts were color

coded by crayon By using the cut-and-paste editing method with the word processor

color coded text fi-om individuals transcripts were collated into listings of specific

concems

Bogdan and Biklen (1992) suggest that this method of sorting piles of coded

material helps the researcher in not only making better sense ofthe data but also

communicating the results to others Appendix H shows the broad categories or themes

along with the sub-categories which comprised each theme

Since both quantitative and qualitative data were used in this present research it

becomes vital to justify the use of each paradigm and how the data is analyzed within that

paradigm Tashakkori and Teddlie (1998) wholeheartedly affirm that the two paradigms

can be successfully fused into one study They suggest that researchers deemed

pragmatic do not necessarily have to be doctrinaire about research paradigms Among

the various research models they describe is included a mixed-model study which

includes a research design that calls for a field experiment and extensive ethnographic

interviewing to occur simultaneously and in an integrated manner (p 19)

The CFSoC survey (Hall et al 1991) was analyzed as per the instmctions given

and the examples displayed in Section IV of their instruments manual Since each

informant could be considered at an individual position on the CFSoC concems

continuum a hypothesized profile was made for each informant based on the relative

extremes in percentile ranks derived fi-om the raw scores ofthe seven concem stages on

61

the CFSoC protocol (pp 33-34) Hall et al took pains to remind CFSoC users that the

quantitative results could only be considered data to generate hypotheses (p 43)

The examples given in the CFSoC manual make comparisons ofthe various high

stages that informants exhibit For example a high raw score in Stage 3-Management

would reflect that the informant may have significant concems toward logistics time and

management in fulfilling professional duties vis-a-vis implementing the discussed

innovation A high raw score at Stage 0-Awareness uniquely and specifically indicates

that the informant may have many other concems in addition to the innovation currently

in question These extemal concems could be any other activities that vie for a change

facilitators limited attention that outweigh the immediate concem for the stated

innovation Hall et al describe a variety of combinations and relative positioning of those

concems that are most prominent in the informants thinking Data reporting of

informants CFSoC profiles in Chapter IV will reflect analysis strategies described by

Hall et al in their manual (Hall et al 1991 pp 34-42)

Tashakkori and Teddlie (1998) assert that the qualitative field material (notes

interviews etc) be evaluated on two dimensions a) whether the themes or categories

were established a priori or emerged during the analysis and b) the degree of complexity

ofthe qualitative analysis scheme (ranging fi-om simple to complex) (p 117) They note

that through this process of emerging themes six to eight categories or themes emerge

when no a priori mle is imposed on informants

Because the data would be analyzed using recurring themes (Glesne amp Peshkin

1992 Howard 1994 Miles amp Huberman 1984) emerging fi-om the course of

interviewing the technique of latent content analysis was used As opposed to manifest

62

content the surface meaning of a text latent content refers to determining the underlying

meaning of a narrative and is determined by a subjective evaluation ofthe overall

content ofthe narrative (Tashakkori amp Teddhe 1998 p 122)

The text ofthe interviews was read several times for topics that the informants

found important Those topics which appeared most fi-equently emerged as the themes

Tashakkori and Teddlie point out that this analysis scheme makes it more appropriate for

the phenomenon being studied (p 123)

Verification Strategies

Maxwell (1996) insists that validity in a quahtative study is not acquired simply

by applying boilerplate techniques and strategies but by describing specific ways and

means of mling out possible altematives to our interpretations and conclusions Maxwell

insists that validity is a goal rather than a product it is never something that can be

proven or taken for granted (p 86) Moreover validity must be determined within the

context ofthe research and not merely a property independent ofthe context For each of

three principal means of understanding Maxwell describes a specific method that I was

able to use to better ensure validity

1 Description Since the main threat to description is inaccuracy the informant

interviews were recorded on cassette tape and transcribed Each ofthe informants was

sent a copy ofthe transcribed conversation for review verification and suggestions

2 Interpretation The principal threat to interpretation is imposing my own

meanings to the informants words To combat this validity threat consistent member

checks were made during the course ofthe interviews to ensure that I was getting the

63

correct information from the informant It was important to allow each informant to

express himself or herself in their own words Several methods of eliminating personal

bias are described below

3 Theory Not paying adequate attention to altemative propositions becomes the

most serious threat to theoretical validity (Maxwell 1996 p 89-90) Altemative

propositions can be masked by researcher bias and reactivity

Elimination of researcher bias is based on understanding how my personal biases

could affect the informants and their comments and my conclusions subsequently

derived Maxwell declares that is virtually impossible to totally eliminate my personal

thinking and values from the study (p 91) By asking similar questions of informants by

allowing these informants to candidly express themselves and by consistent member

checking I controlled for personal bias

Reactivity the influence ofthe researcher on the informants is likewise

impossible to totally remove from the research as Maxwell insists

For interviews in contrast reactivity is a powerful and inescapable influence what the informant says is always a function of the interviewer and interview situation What is important is to understand how you are influencing what the informant says and how this affects the validity ofthe inferences you can draw fi-om the interview (p 91)

Lists of what to do to combat reactivity have been compiled (Marshall amp

Rossman 1989 Maxwell 1996) but all of these suggestions (triangulation member

checks audits etc) are simply the usual methods in qualitative research Since there are

64

virtually no qualitative studies ofthe research instrument available for comparison I have

relied on these procedures to control for biases

1 Feedback Maxwell (1996) encourages the use of a variety of outside observers

to examine the data analysis and give their comments to critique my logic and methods

Two individuals with experience with both technology and research methods have agreed

to assist me with this and evaluate the data analysis

a Mr Jack P Stell instmctional design manager Fairfax VA and b Dr C L Wayne Moore Assistant Professor University of Tennessee Knoxville

With differing perspectives and biases these reviewers indicated agreement that

the research methodology proposed was indeed followed and that the research questions

were answered They pointed out grammatical and spelling errors writing style concems

adherence to APA requirements etc

2 Member Checks Although informants were given repeated opportunities to

clarify themselves in the interviews informants were given the opportunity to respond to

the data analysis specifically identifying themselves

3 Rich Data Maxwell (1996) considers rich data to be detailed and complete

enough that they provide a full and revealing picture of what is going on (p 95) This

generally includes verbatim transcripts of interviews which were compiled for each of

the Consortium informants As the data was read and considered themes emerged fi-om

the data

4 Numerical Report Data This researcher used numerical and normally

quantitative data to add to the confidence level of what my informants were saying

There was particular concem with whether the efforts ofthe Consortium were making

65

any progress over the time period from its establishment to the time ofthe interviews

Publicly available data was gamered from AEIS and TAAS reports to ascertain progress

in school performance

Study Limitations

This study focused on technology implementation concems of change facilitators

of a single technology consortium limiting the representativeness ofthe study The

combined student population of these five districts is smaller than many urban high

schools Interview responses reflected a rural attitude Findings yielded reflect the

comments of those interviewed at the time ofthe study There may be a variety of future

long-range plans pending that might modify present policies These would include grants

bond issues school board elections or even newer state mandates

Nevertheless this study must transcend these limitations in order to be of interest

and find applicability by other scholars Yin (1994) hastens to point out that the case

study paradigm relies on analytical generalization not experimental statistical

generalization to generalize the results to a broader theory (p 36) Yin suggests

replication of a case study with similar sites before a general theory can gain wider

acceptance

There is also the problem of apphcability to school settings markedly different

from those studied However issues that are common to school districts in general could

be expressed by these informants (eg concems over funding student leaming staff

development or transfer of power)

66

CHAPTER IV

RESULTS OF THE STUDY

Informant and CFSoC Profiles

As discussed in Chapter III Consortium informants were sent a copy ofthe

CFSoC questionnaire and those protocols were retumed to this researcher These

informants responses have been evaluated according to guidelines established by Hall et

al (1991) This instmment does not consign each informant to each ofthe seven stages of

concem but rather categorizes the informant in a broader category of CBAM either

Awareness Self Task or Impact as was discussed in Chapter II Consequently each

informant will be designated by the general category based on their individual CFSoC

profile TheCFSoC protocols for each ofthe informants are included as figures in this

chapter

James

James Petty is the high school principal at Camden a position he has held for over

fifteen years James considers himself a practical person and professes a rather traditional

attitude toward his administrative duties The interview with James repeatedly mentioned

school discipline and teacher control ofthe classroom He readily admitted to relying on

other persons to inform him on technological issues rather than researching the data

himself

James CFSoC profile (Figure 4-1) exhibited extremely high levels of concem

with Awareness Management and Personal stages with percentile scores over 90 The

67

0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage 0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score 99 69 99 96 13 21 68

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-1 CFSoC Profile of James Petty Camden Principal

68

high Personal score suggests a concem for personal position and standing while the high

Awareness score indicates a diversity of issues facing him which to him are of greater

importance particularly classroom management Also a high Management score implies

time logistical and managerial concems The moderately high Refocusing score

indicates James has thought about altematives to the innovation and would be exhibiting

definite ideas and opinions over the technology implementation This profile suggests

James is not as likely to be involved in the change process as others might be Attempts

to intervene could intensify his current levels of concem Because ofthe high scores in

the Self array of stages I would hypothesize James to be in the SELF stage of concem

Bill

Bill Potter is the technology coordinator for the Camden schools although he

continues to teach math for much of his school day Bill leamed his present trade largely

by doing it Although relatively new to computers (less than fifteen years) Bill considers

himself to have been oriented toward technology from his military days as an Army pilot

during the 1960s to the present His formal computer training has only been in a few

junior college classes and some inservice training Bill credits his technology reputation

to being the one who knew how to operate the computer at an earlier date than his peers

Although in the technology coordinator role Bills highest CFSoC profile (Figure

4-2) score was in Awareness This is most likely attributable to having many other

professional concems at present particularly since he remains a classroom teacher for

69

0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

91 56 62 60

5 12 18

2 3 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-2 CFSoC Profile of Bill Potter Camden Technology Coordinator

70

much ofthe school day as well as his increaseingly greater role in his school district He

may also just now be beginning to envision himself as a change facilitator

Information Personal and Management scores are no more than six percentile

points apart suggesting personal status and time logistical and managerial concems are

also important to Bill An increased Refocusing score also indicates Bill has some

definite ideas about the innovation that warrant consideration Bill manifests a SELF

stage of concem for this iimovation based on his CFSoC profile

Ronnie

Ronnie Bennett has been technology coordinator at Dellwood for just a few years

but has a long reputation and a deep pioneering attitude not only toward computers but to

a wide array of technology Ronnie was the first at his school to use a computer first with

a VCR first with a CD player and first to tinker with quadrophonic sound Like Bill

Ronnie first leamed computing by doing it In addition Ronnie observed and later

worked with the various private vendors and technicians who provided technology

services to his building

Ronnies CFSoC profile (Figure 4-3) indicates several areas of concem High

Awareness and Personal scores indicate many concems other than the present technology

implementation Ronnie also considers his personal position and role in the school

organization to be important The similar scores in Management and Refocusing reflect

his concem for time and managerial issues and his definite additional ideas toward the

71

0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

99 76 97 91 39 40 92

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-3 CFSoC Profile of Ronnie Bennett Dellwood Technology Coordinator

72

innovation that might warrant consideration Ronnie appears to border between the SELF

and TASK stages of concem

Larry

Larry Beckman a former agriculture teacher has been the superintendent at

North Prairie for a few years Larry realizes his mral attitudes and folksy manner but

demonstrates by his proactive approach to leadership that advancing technology in his

district is in the best interests of his students and staff He has had little formal training

intechnology except for several workshops However Larry credits a hands-on

technology approach as most effective for himself

Larry had relatively high percentile scores for each ofthe seven stages of concem

with a low of 68 in Consequence Larrys highest CFSoC profile (Figure 4-4) score was

Management suggesting that the physical nuts and bolts and managerial concems

were most important Information scoring higher than Awareness indicates a better

understanding ofthe details ofthe innovation Larrys lowest scores in Personal

Consequence and Collaboration were only five percentile points apart suggesting

relatively lower concem for interpersonal interests He also scored high in Refocusing

suggesting that he is considering additional ideas about the iimovation that should be

considered Because ofthe high degree of management concems Larry would be best

described as being in the TASK stage of concem

73

0

100

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

87 89 73 94 68 72 92

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-4 CFSoC Profile of Larry Beckman North Prairie Superintendent

74

Mike

Mike McCoy has spent almost a decade at Sawtooth as superintendent Like

several others Mike is perceived as a doer having leamed a great deal about

technology through practical application Mike has a more direct responsibility with his

staff doing teacher evaluations and performing first-line maintenance with his buildings

technology He credits both a number of technology workshops and reading of

technology periodicals as being great sources of information

Mike as superintendent has many concems on his mind as his CFSoC profile

(Figure 4-5) indicates with a high score in Awareness His second highest score

Management suggests that he feels the cmnch of managerial and material concems for

his district Low Information and Personal scores could suggest that he feels secure in his

position and understanding ofthe innovation implementation A slight increase in

Refocusing fi-om Collaboration suggests that Mike is considering some ideas in addition

to the innovation implementation Because more personal concems are lower and the

managerial concems are high Mike appears to be in the TASK stage of concem

Vemon

Vemon Russell has well over three decades of public school service currently

finding himself as principal ofthe Sawtooth school Indeed he still teaches some science

classes and has even coached football while still an administrator Vemon is relatively

new to technology but indicates his willingness to leam by studiously reading the

manuals and attending workshops Vemon quips Ive leamed more from it in the last

three years than all the other years put together

75

0 100

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

96 43 34 82 9

18 31

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-5 CFSoC Profile of Mike McCoy Sawtooth Superintendent

76

Vemons CFSoC profile (Figure 4-6) shows him interested and positive about the

innovation with the higher Information score but the high Management score shows

Vemon still concemed over his day-to-day details Low Personal and even lower

Consequence and Collaboration scores and both raw and percentile scores of zero for

Refocusing indicate little concem over his facilitative role his personal status nor his

interest in exploring altematives toward this innovation At this late stage of career

Vemon appears comfortable in his knowledge ofthe innovation Vemon also appears to

be in the TASK stage of concem based on the high Management score

Renee

Renee White a mid-career educator occupies the technology coordinator

designation at Sawtooth schools Having been a secretary for twenty years Renee

considers herself adept at any technology thrown at her Describing herself as the chief

distributor of information Renee considers herself glad not to have a computer in her

home because she would play with it indefinitely

Renee exhibits similarly high percentile scores in Awareness and Management on

her CFSoC profile (Figure 4-7) These scores imply Renee has both a variety of concems

in addition to the innovation implementation and also concems over time logistics and

management of her responsibilities Similarly low percentile scores in Information

Personal Consequence and Collaboration suggest lesser concem for personal position

and collaboration needs A slight upswing in the Refocusing score suggests a concem for

articulating altemative ideas Renee seems to exhibit a TASK stage of concem

77

0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

69 81 30 78 16 4 0

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-6 CFSoC Profile of Vemon Russell Sawtooth Principal

78

0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

91 18 30 86 2 3

18

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-7 CFSoC Profile of Renee White Sawtooth Technology Coordinator

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David

David Jackson has been an administrator for decades and is the superintendent at

Woodlake David recognized the potential of computers and technology as soon as

computers became widely available to schools He enjoys being involved with the nuts

and bolts details of technology implementation even to the point of being involved with

the wiring for hardware implementation

David shows the same percentile score for both Awareness and Information on his

CFSoC profile (Figure 4-8) This impHes Davids concem for a variety of issues at

present and a desire to leam more about the innovation A relatively high Management

score suggests physical and managerial concems Lower scores in Personal and

Consequence imply that personal position and impact are not as important to David

Nevertheless Davids higher scores in Collaboration and Refocusing suggest a desire to

work together with others to make an impact on their leamers and to consider

altematives to innovation implementation David appears to be in the IMPACT stage of

concem very much concemed with how well he facilitates change with his staff

Stephen

Stephen Greer has been secondary principal at Woodlake for several years He has

always been interested in technology but attributes his current increased level of interest

to his rising to his present administrative post Stephen describes himself as a leamer

enjoying researching a problem and its solution A former math teacher and coach

Stephen considers himself an innovator

80

100

0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness I- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

87 87 30 74 13 60 68

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-8 CFSoC Profile of David Jackson Woodlake Superintendent

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0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1 - Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

81 61 73 93 62 60 13

2 3 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-9 CFSoC Profile of Stephen Greer Woodlake Principal

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Stephens highest percentile score on his CFSoC profile (Figure 4-9) was in

Management implying greatest concem with logistical and managerial concems A

somewhat lower score in Awareness suggests concems over other issues at present

Similar percentile scores in Personal Consequence and Collaboration could be

interpreted as concem for his impact for his facilitative and collaborative styles A very

low Refocusing score implies that Stephen is not considering altematives to the

innovation at this time Stephens profile best reflects the TASK stage of concem

Summary of CFSoC Data

To summarize these school change facilitators demonstrate a variety of change

facilitator strengths and had at least one individual in each ofthe CBAM stages (SELF

TASK IMPACT) Most of them score relatively high in Awareness suggesting that there

are other competing issues for that individuals time Management also scores

consistently high suggesting the day-to-day managerial and logistical details of the job is

of major importance to each informant Individuals appeared to be on a higher CBAM

stage as they held a higher position in the school district although there were some

differences which could be due to experience with the innovation

Informant Concems

Informant concems were also collected as described in Chapter III Each

informants interview was tape recorded and transcribed Copies ofthe transcriptions

were sent to each informant for confirmation prior to data analysis

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Seven overriding themes emerged across these interviews These were topics that

appeared to be important to these informants as they implemented new technologies in

their school districts in relation to the TEKS for technology applications The informants

registered strong opinions over these themes To reiterate these themes are discussed in

regard to the Consortium as a whole since the focus ofthe study was not on inter-role

relationships

Attitudes

The informants collectively expressed concems over the attitudes of themselves

their peers and their staffs There was high concem over the prevailing desire to keep

current with the technology David Jackson Woodlake Superintendent was a pioneer in

his district with implementing computer use and describes those early days

When we got our first network and put computers in the classroom that is the first keyboard many of our teachers had ever touched in their life as far as a computer keyboard Had no idea how to tum it on Had no idea how to apply software Knew nothing Scared them to death Still have a few that are very reluctant to use a computer or Intemet or any type of technology of that sort in the classroom

David feels that his some of his staff still manifest a degree of reluctance to use

technology

So the biggest challenge that Ive had is getting teachers to acquaint themselves with computer technology and cable technology all the technologies that have been made available to them You know its not going to do any good if they dont know how to use it

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Larry Beckman North Prairie Superintendent recognizes the need to keep his

district current with new technology

And I think a part of that is that a lot of us out here we know well I dont know whether we know or whatever but anyway we feel like maybe that weve got to try and stay on top of it as much as we can because we are so far away from anything And if we dont we dont stay on top of it were basically hurting our kids because you know if they graduate fi-om here and go over to Tech or to AampM or somewhere like that then they run into these situations you know theyve never seen any kind of this kind of equipment then theyre already two years behind everybody

Stephen Greer Woodlake Principal believes he is indeed on the fi-ont edge of

the curve at this point in time but credits his rising to an administrative post as a turning

point in his attitudes toward technology

Really up until the time I became an administrator we were the kind of on the back end ofthe curve there for a while but I feel were comfortable where we are right now technology wise

So much ofthe difficulty in implementing technology has centered on the fear of

change These informants encounter these fears daily both within themselves and their

staffs There appears to be a generational gap in acceptance of technology James Petty

Camden Principal considered his teachers and noted

I definitely see a difference in the age groups Those that are five years away from retiring are more difficult to get into use ofthe computer maybe a lot of times And probably the younger ones its just much easier for them to accept and to use a computer right off

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Similarly Vemon Russell Sawtooth Principal chalks it up to age and experience

level

We have one or two teachers who use it but use it sparingly you know what Im saying But we have other teachers I think that use it a lot Probably our primary grades its used less in K through 1 than anywheres But then they are traditional teachers Theyve been teaching a long time

Concurring David Jackson correctly noted

Because many of our teachers are intimidated by the fact that the students in their classroom know a whole lot more about the technology available in the classroom than they do Which is not uncommon I think in many schools

Bill Potter Camden Technology Coordinator marvels at the older teachers lack

of desire to advance in technology

Its like the older teachers you know they put that thing over in the comer and dust it off just like that F-16 out in front ofthe park you know Nobody knows how to fly it but boy we maintain it and it stays shiny Thats they way a lot of these older teachers treat their computers Theyre afraid to tum them on see so weve got to overcome that fear

Bill suggests that some ofthe more sophisticated technologies now in homes

might influence younger educators greater acceptance of technology

Of course as these people retire and theyre going to get here pretty quick I imagine in our school system and the younger ones take to more technology and the younger they get the better theyre going to be because theyve all grown up with VCRs and your microwaves

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Renee White Sawtooth Technology Coordinator would add that teachers

purchasing of personal computers improves their attitudes toward technology

A lot ofthe teachers own personal computers and so increasingly at our school theres a higher comfort level with using them and with experimenting and trying to figure things out than there was just two years ago I dont know if its a change in personnel or it its simply the exposure has increased the comfort level Maybe some of both

Larry Beckman as a district leader strongly realizes that m the face of change

positive efforts to make change happen is preferable to ignoring the need for change

It forces you you know its kind of like you can either get on the boat and help paddle or you can get off and swim Id rather be in the boat paddling and trying to stay up with it because I dont swim very fast

Ronnie Bennett Dellwood Technology Coordinator strongly rejects the notion

that change is bad After decades in the classroom and office Ronnie is aware how

attitudes shape teaching activity

A long time ago I leamed that change is not always bad And I guess back there when I first decided you know I told myself there were a lot of people that said Computers are not for me I remember that and I told myself I thought I could either leam how to do this or Im going to fall by the wayside And having always been interested in technology and all change has never been a problem for me And it is for a lot of folks People that have taught school a certam way for twenty or twenty-five years and suddenly you interject this new thing called technology or computers and some people just say Now wait a minute I didnt think what I was doing was all that bad

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Ronnie suggests that some teachers might be blinded to their own attitudes about

their teaching practices

As a regular classroom teacher I know that the way I present things and the way the kids I dont present things anything like I did when I first started teaching at all And thats because kids change times change You cant stay the same Things dont stay the same You have to be willing to you know if theres a better way to do something you know what we have is we have a lot of people that have been in this profession for twenty twenty-five some of them nearly thirty years and they taught the same lesson wrong for thirty years Just because youve done it over and over and over doesnt mean that its right

Power

In addition to changes in attitudes changes in school curricula educational

methods extemal mandates etc also bring about changes in power Who has the

authority Who decides what to do Who calls the shots These issues were on the minds

ofthe informants

Crawford Bodine and Hoglund (1993) distinguish attributes of recognized power

by de iure school leaders from perceived powerment of classroom personnel Power for

the sitting administrator is the fi-eedom fi-om being told by others what to do (p 143)

The classroom person being empowered to leadership is instead acknowledged their

power and receives fi-eedom to exercise that responsibility with a minimum of

bureaucratic or managerial constraints (p 232)

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Technology appears to be a key means of providing teachers the empowerment to

collaborate Ronnie Bennetts early vision of computers manifested prescience

I remember thinking you know This is a way for teachers to share things I remember thinking that you know that teachers had access to a machine that would allow them to communicate back and forth with teachers at other schools then would share all this information Of course now with e-mail and the Intemet thats what they want everybody to do

Not only does technology empower the teacher but also the leamer Stephen a

secondary principal would hope that his teachers realize the need to surrender some of

their perceived power with a view toward improving instmction

I have tried to push for change away fi-om lecturelisten and readtake notes multiple choice assessment And I have pushed for learner-centered self directed leaming What I couldnt achieve through preaching and bullying technology has almost single-handedly achieved for me in that area

Renee noted that often her students were akeady prepped to use the technology

She had no quahns over accepting a more facilitative role with her students

Now the fact was you know the computers were there and the kids were going to leam about them whether I helped them or not because thats the nature of children They like that technology theyll figure it out with you or without you

Not only direct instmction but also day-to-day teacher practices are being

changed due to technology Stephen related anecdotes about the changes technology

made in unbalancing teachers perceived status and power

89

Ive witnessed the evolution of one of our teachers in particular that happens to be a coach that when he and I both appeared on this campus ten years ago he was strictly a traditional instmctor But Ill tell you right now its hard for him or has been hard for him but hes making the move successfully to give up the stmcture to give up the power and tum the power of leaming over to the students rather than the power being wielded by the teacher Thats been a hard stretch and technology it helps it gives you a venue to shift that power but at the same time there are sticky issues Obviously fi-ee speech issues obscenity issues those kind of things that are introduced with the advent of technology

Just getting traditional teachers to use a simple software package has tumed into

virtual showdowns in the administrative office Stephen gives an example from a

colleagues experience that echoes his own understanding

I think of an administrator fiiend of mine in a school in the Panhandle and theyre trying to move the rank-and-file in that direction And they are to the point where grades are submitted on disk at the end ofthe semester And they just have one math teacher as it tums out thats refiised you know just-was-not-going-to-do-it you know and finally his principal after two directives the third time he went down there and said Look you will tum your gradebook in on disk in May or you will not be working here in August That simple Step out But there are a lot of people that are nervous and I think its fear mostly I think its fear

The imposition of new ideas and new procedures can have an intimidating effect

on traditional teachers and administrators a relinquishing of power James admittedly a

traditional administrator relates that some of his teachers might be following his lead in

leaming new things

Its like making them do something that you know theyre required to do and theyre only doing it because they have to Maybe

90

Im like them or theyre like me in that some of us older dogs its a bit more difficuh to teach us something new or change

If leaming technology is merely a requirement for continuing teacher development

and not something that is perceived as needed then teachers will exhibit reluctance in

adoption of new technologies

As new technologies are implemented in schools there is the need for immediate

assistance in using the technology Those persons designated as technology coordinator

of a building or a district have had a modicum of perceived power bestowed on them

although each of these coordinators who have acted as informants still spends a

significant portion of their day in the classroom

Ronnie Bennett relates that his experiences with a number of superintendents

have tacitly acknowledged his expertise

Ive always been the kind of person that if something is broke that somehow ends up in my hands

Often they would say to Ronnie You tell me what you want or what to do

Ronnie appreciated one superintendent that was particularly supportive

(Conceming administrative support) but Buster (the superintendent) was like you know he wanted in there boy But he just about anything I ever wanted or needed you know he was just he was ready And he knew what I was talking about above all whereas a lot ofthe others had no idea what I was talking about

Bill found himself stumbling into his role as technology coordinator

91

But as far as being specifically trained for this Im not I just picked it up as I went and I was the guy that knew how to tum the computer on so I got the job you know as the Computer Gum You know the people the powers that be many of them ofthe teachers looked at me as having expertise really that I didnt have I just had one at home and knew how to tum it on they didnt They just thought I was genius you know so thats how I inherited this job

Later Bill found himself besieged by folks wanting his specialized knowledge

As kids leam more and more of this (computers) then we have people I have people you know that call and want to What kind of computer do I need to buy Of course you know thats like trying to recommend the type of automobile (they need to buy) and you dont want to get into that

Renee would chalk up her perceived expertise to her job title She has been skilled

with computers for years but has not always had people wanting her knowledge about

computers while she officially taught another subject at another school

So anyway I knew a lot about computers before other people but (because I taught home economics) no one ever asked me anything about computers at that school The whole year I was there no one had a question about computers All of a sudden because I teach computers I am the computer gum the shift in the role simply came with the title So I think what Im trying to say is is it the title itself dictating your role Not so much at first your knowledge so thats helpful and certainly its going to keep people coming back if youve been able to help them but simply your title itself says Oh you must have explanations that will help us here

Nevertheless final authority remains in the hands of de iure administrators One

ofthe technology coordinators explains

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And another thing too is that the administrator has the authority and theres a lot of things that I can see like I see we need to be doing training and that sort of thing but I dont have the authority in order to make that happen But until you get these administrators that are you know technologically oriented you know its hard to make things like that happen

This same technology coordinator feels fhistrated with trying to get teachers to use

technology and insists that those in leadership need to take charge and lead

Weve got these people at that level like the administrative level who have to provide the leadership that have the authority to make things happen and its like convincing someone you know youve got to convince them ofthe fact that it needs to be done Theyre too comfortable with you know getting the basketball games arranged and all this sort of thing and making sure a teachers in a certain classroom but boy when it comes to technology unless that person has used a computer its foreign to them

Student Leaming

The educational leadership literature points us to student learning as the ultimate

goal in any educational enterprise These informants unanimously echoed that concem

Unless the school staff perceive that the technology hardware is adequate to provide

quality educational experiences for the students the hardware is of little value Larry a

superintendent wonders why anyone would think otherwise

(Conceming his site-based committee) And then let them kind of I guess decipher what it is that they can use what it is that we need for our students how its going to benefit the kids whenever we get this stuff Whats going to be the benefit for the kids Are we going to teach them how to use it or are we just going to put it in the comer

93

Because he perceives that both students and staff are using the machinery effectively

Larry is more encouraged to plan for an increase in hardware for his district

Renee has been enmeshed in the technology for so long and has seen so much

progress with her students that they find technology use as normal

The kids who are in the tenth grade this year started school with computers They started kindergarten in Sawtooth with computers theyre the first class And when they hit my eighth grade class in computer literacy two years ago all I had to do was say Heres the program I want you to go to the menus at the top ofthe screen and see whats under each menu and get an idea of where things are Now I want you to create a PowerPoint presentation with these elements and I promise you other than probably a four or five minute demonstration on the program how it operated I did not have to tell those kids a thing It was OK where you expect them

Because of implementation of technology teachers are not only expected to use it

and thereby improve their teaching but also to increase student leaming Stephen a

secondary principal noticed the difference almost immediately

When we became connected and we put our computer labs online and when we got computers that are interfaced with televisions that are hooked into the Intemet and also to cable in the classroom Then automatically the teachers saw the convenience and the usefulness of using technology in what they do It sort of served as a catalyst to move fi-om traditional lecture instmction to student self-directed leaming To me thats the biggest change

Stephen considers technology as the catalyst in many areas of education He

integrates his technology concems with more global interests

94

Technology is proving to be a wonderful thing and a wonderfijl instmctional aid and in a large sense in my mind its the thing thats driving the conversations we have in the political realms regarding charter schools home schools private school vouchers because we dont have the monopoly on education any more and I think thats a good thing I think students and their parents are going to look for the most bang for their buck and theyre going to look for education thats provided to them opportunities and experiences thats provided to them in a non-encumbering way To me the biggest question is in relation to technology is how to predict where were going

If indeed the quality of teaching is critical toward student leaming technology is

not always believed to be a positive factor in such progress David a superintendent is

not happy with some ofthe pervasiveness of technology in the classroom

I may be totally wrong but probably thats going to be the biggest area of change is the way we deliver instmction to students other than one-on-one in the classroom I see the day that the kids here at Woodlake schools will be watching the TV monitor

As a traditional administrator in a traditional school James has reservations on

how well teaching quality is exhibited when mixed with various technologies and

instmctional arrangements Traditional school procedures such as homework could be

modified or even made obsolete through technology James even suggests that his

teachers may never have the time nor the physical space in their rooms to handle all the

information fi-om the new technologies He senses a foreboding dread of technology

having the potential to replace the teacher

I see tremendous change and I think its going to continue and grow by leaps and bounds whether its laser discs or computers And I dont know where all its going but I see it coming And I dont think

95

the teachers ever going to be replaced I hope they dont try because itll our quality of teaching is going to diminish I think if they do but I do see more and more technology involved in the classroom by these various kinds of things that weve been talking about

Informants have had varying amounts of time to measure the effectiveness of their

technology implementation Some of these districts have had over a decade to consider

increases in student leaming through computer technology David elaborated about what

his students at Woodlake have accomplished due to their years of experience with

technology

I feel like our students will be very prepared when they leave here to go on to college in the area of technology Woodlake has been fortunate to have (had) technology a lot longer than many other schools and weve had kiddos that have been able to use technology that they leamed here to work their way through college based on what theyve leamed and the exposure they got right here on technology

Mike McCoy Sawtooth Superintendent also has had highly advanced hardware

in his building for years and remarks how Sawtooth students at every level are integrating

technology into the curriculum

The students are just so extremely comfortable with technology I mean its just second nature with them almost You know we have computers in kindergarten you know all the way through twelfth grade and theyre in every classroom Our kindergarteners have no trouble with just going in sitting at the computer and you know being able to by themselves you know pull up a game or whatever it could be Every one of our elementary kids know that the information is available to them and they know how to get it off the Intemet They know where to go

96

Renee cautions that the changes that have been made and the progress achieved are

not just ends in themselves Despite piles of advanced technology in the classroom

Renee interjects

I still have to teach students to write I still have to teach students grammar I still have to teach students how to understand what they read I still have to get them to read I have to get them to write And I think this is tme generally technology is only a tool Its not the end result Were trying to teach students reading writing and arithmetic The 3 Rs The tools have changed the concepts have not Youre still trying to teach kids to think so they can move out into the world and be citizens ofthe greater society

Some administrators admittedly traditional in orientation have concems that

technology will dismpt the orderly progress that they have endeavored to produce in their

buildings They assume that discipline will lead to better student leaming James wonders

what effects distance leaming and Intemet use will have on both instmction and student

research when discussing the new interactive video delivered foreign languages classes

his school might offer

And to go the advanced (diploma) route its almost a necessary part of our curriculum As far as liking it I dont I think they do a poor job of teaching the course I think its just not a good way for students to leam

As for the interactive class James does not think it represents the best teaching method

He would prefer to have a live teacher in the classroom one that will be more proactive

in maintaining discipline and standard teaching activities

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Vemon also expressed concem over intemal discipline in the use ofthe e-mail

function ofthe system

My concem is consistency on the discipline ofthe e-mail of students in our school We try not to let them use it personally and I dont think its consistently enforced throughout our school and its very hard to supervise e-mail The e-mails a problem here that I have some teachers that watch it close and some teachers that dont

Indeed while discussing student leaming all of these informants expressed

specific concems over distance leaming and about its effects on their jobs and their

leamers As a result an additional concems theme distance emerged fi-om the data

Distance

Because the Consortium is implementing an advanced distance leaming center in

each of its member schools each informant volunteered concems over its

implementation use and outcomes The very concept of distance however is not

simply limited to distance leaming but also to the significant distances Consortium

educators have between their schools and sources of school improvement

These informants perceive improvement for their school districts by being able to

bring a greater variety of activities and services to their districts Larry a superintendent

jumps at the chance to use distance leaming in his district He sees benefits in distance

leaming to both professional and student progress as well as it being a cost-cutting

measure

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I think its going to be extremely beneficial especially to schools out here like we are that you know were an hour and a half away fi-om the Service Center or fi-om Center City or Tech or anywhere like that and itll be extremely beneficial to our students You know we can pick up some college classes We can get them some dual-credit classes Ive got some people here that want to take some classes and want to work on some graduate work and so forth that maybe we can pick up School board training and in-service training through the Service Center will save us lots of dollars and lots of time because if we dont have to travel all the way to Center City to get our in-service and even if its a half-a-day deal you spend a whole day by the time you drive over there and drive back

Mike agrees with Larrys concem over hteral distance fi-om school to service

center When staff have to do as much travel as do these school leaders distance becomes

a significant factor in what they can accomplish

Were so isolated Were a hundred miles from Center City which is where our Service Center is Instead of travel time you know because any teacher who leaves here loses a full day even if its an hour workshop

Renee echoes Mikes concems She experiences the presure ofthe distance cmnch

as she budgets her time and resources

We live a hundred miles fi-om any kind of technical support and we pay $10000 an hour for somebody to come out and fix it so you think twice before you even ask to have (a computer) looked at Can I work around this

Nevertheless there is a sense of concem registered by each informant over distance

leaming implementation As discussed in the previous section there is a fear of

99

technology supplanting the teachers role David sees distance leaming in his professional

future but also makes this prediction

My first instinct is to say that probably distance education is going to have effect particularly on mral America Im not real sure Im ready to buy that yet It may but Im not totally yet sold on distance leaming as a tool for replacing the teacher in the classroom There may come a day that that might be the only way that we can deliver some instmction to our students If and when that day comes I think thats going to be a shame and I think thats going to be a step back in education

Previous efforts with distance leaming were fi-ustrating at some informants

schools David registers his experiences

And (distance learning) wasnt that well received either fi-om the students or the parents And I know that distance leaming will be better than that because youll have two-way interactive audio and video at all times But I still have reservations and Ill have to see it work well to change my mind on it I probably cant stop it fi-om coming

Ronnie having been a distance leaming facilitator also remembers problems with

this teaching format for students and facilitator alike

But it was all these schools even as far away as Kansas that were viewing this at the same time And its hard to get through on the telephone line because you had all these people trying to get through to ask a question

When asked about the net effects of all this Ronnie explained

We had a lot of I guess youd say disillusioned parents and kids because they were expecting to get you know they thought What a

100

wonderfiil way to be in touch with computers and what have you And you know if we did work we had to bundle that work up send it to San Antonio Well by the time the guy got it graded and got it back you know it might be a week or two And at the same time we were under no pass no play mles And you had athletes that you know at three-weeks reporting period didnt know if they were passing or not And then some of them would wind up failing at the end and they didnt even really know why they were failing And so you know we had a bunch of kids that were like ineligible

Fmstrations registered by the aduh facilitators were received clearly but students

responses to the distance experience were even worse Ronnie elaborated in detail about

the legwork done on-site to facilitate distance leaming As is axiomatic in instmctional

design inadequate feedback does not promote leaming

The kids never really knew for sure if what they were doing was what he wanted or what was acceptable or till he had a chance to mark it and write notes on it and what have you And a lot of times by the time they did get feedback on it well it was too late

Renee also experienced first-hand the details of distance leaming Conceming the

possibilities of interactive video Renee questions

I guess the biggest concem has been teachers who are afi-aid that they will get dumped on How many students are you going to expect me to teach for this class that I have the same prep time that I had when I had seven kids And then all of a sudden Im teaching an interactive video classroom where I have kids fi-om Woodlake and from Dellwood and fi-om Beaverdam and fi-om Sawtooth and all of a sudden I have fifty kids instead of fifteen Im given the same amount of prep time or maybe Im given a second hour of prep I still have the logistics of having to be ready for however many my school district decides to contract for And I have to be eminently more prepared that I ever thought about having to be prepared in a normal classroom Because I cant go on the air and expect to freestyle it you

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Renee a technology coordinator as well as a classroom teacher brings distance

leaming down to earth with her practical concems Contrasting with the concems of

teachers over the years distance leaming is bringing in new heretofore unanticipated

concems and challenges Renee relates

You know when we just had textbooks the worst problem you had to deal with was with the student who showed up in class without their books or you ran out of chalk and you sent somebody down to the office to get chalk But when you start using these levels of technology where the bugs are not quite as worked out then you not only run into you run into problems using the technology that really can cmsh your class time and cmsh your prep time

James is adamant in his dislike for distance leaming Earlier he indicated that

distance leaming might not be a good way to leam James augments this with more

mundane administrative concems Since James perceives the teacher role in a traditional

manner he has concem over classroom discipline in a distance leaming format

Well I dont think youre going to have any kind of classroom without discipline in the class And the only person that can do that is the one that is supposedly in charge the one thats taking care of grades etc So that teacher has almost got to see her classroom

Training

Unless teachers administrators and other school staff are appropriately trained to

use the new technology hardware and software will be of little use Continuous staff

training goes on in this Consortium but Vemon expressed dismay over some ofthe

preparations for early technology implementation

102

I dont think we did enough preplanning before we got involved with the computers We just sort of put them in and it became a hit-and-miss thing you understand If I had to do it over again I would want lots and lots of preplanning to see how we could do it better how to install how to implement and so forth how we wanted to use it for our curriculum

Other informants quipped that the limits of whatever training they had for some

technology applications simply consisted of Heres the computer Heres the box Theres

the desk Put it there Larry has jumped right in to get his staff trained through a variety

of sources He is looking forward to all the training perks his district will receive from

this present technology implementation and the workshops he has set up

Theres so much information and so many different benefits that can come over that that its just mind-boggling that everything that we can possibly pick up out here And so were going to get plenty of training before we ever jump in there and you know put a room full of equipment in there and then it sits there and gathers dust If we cant use it theres no need for it being out here

Larry affirms the benefits of leaming by doing

I guess I would say that probably about ninety percent of my training has basically come through the Service Center and the other ten percent is just hands-on getting one there and doing it You know I guess Ive leamed Ive leamed a lot by you know just by using it because if you dont well going to all the classes is not going to help you a bit anyway

Stephen realized a concem for the format of much of staff training He found the

typical training arrangements useless and intimidating for his staff Smaller traming

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groups where more personal assistance can be given seems to be preferable to the mass

training activities so common to staff development

We dont herd thirty people in a room and have one person standing at a computer in front ofthe room and telling them how it can happen I mean we put five or six in the room and have somebody with knowledge about it there and then everybody has their hands on that tool They get to make their own mistakes so they get to correct their own mistakes and real leaming happens then

Now that Bill has a key role in training Camden staff in technology he realizes

that the increasing quantity of hardware possessed by the district carries with it the need

for increasing quality of staff straining

We had a bunch of stuff in quotes stuff but nobody knew anything about it you know And we got this stuff in We got it hooked up And then nobody knew how to maintain it There wasnt any training I mean you know yeah you look out here at Camden Oh boy Weve got computers But nobody knew how to tum them on and of course that wasnt where the emphasis was Wed met a requirement by having so many computers and that sort of thing and maybe doing a paper drill saying that people could do things but in reality that just wasnt there

Bill finds the attitudes of some of his colleagues fiiistrating If the computers are

seen as nothing more than expensive video games the implementation of technology

seems useless The teachers have yet to realize just what these computers can do for their

instmction

Its going to be easier there but we still have to train these people as to How do you use this thing See and most ofthe teachers dont have the time and the creativeness I guess or we dont give them the time you know to sit down and say Look at this thing You know

104

they dont go home like I used to and sit down and play with it because I enjoyed it see Id go home and play with it and say A-ha Man I can use this in my classroom

But as Bill has discovered some ofthe technology training ultimately takes hold

and teachers eventually intemahze new skills

But anything to get them to use those things You know if they just stumble on it like one of our Enghsh teachers has found all this stuff on Shakespeare and Macbeth you know and all this sort of thing Shes just going through the ceiling But thats just a little bitty part of things out there that you can find and these people dont know how to look for this stuff So weve got a lot of training (to do)

Ronnie concurs noting how his colleagues at Dellwood have been trained and

then apply the new technology

Well once they realized that this thing that got placed in their room was a tool that could be used for their benefit and could actually help them and their students you know they were ready to jump in there and start trying stuff

Unfortunately some Dellwood staff do indeed balk at modifications to their

training Citing the example of changing the district-adopted electronic gradebooks

Ronnie concluded

And some of them say Oh I just now leamed how to use the other one and here you are wanting to (change it) You know that type of change People get used to doing something and they dont want you to change them around but I think its human nature in anything

105

Infi-astmcture

With ever-advancing technological strides the infrastmcture needed to

successfully implement new curricular mandates has to also increase Our informants

pride themselves in their personal involvement in ensuring a topflight technology

infi-astmcture for their school districts

David describes himself as a pioneer in implementing new concepts in his district

When the challenge first came for implementing a computer network David relates

The maintenance guy and I sat down and said You know we can do this So we designed it ourselves and ran the wire and made the connections and totally put in the network system ourselves We did not hire it done which has helped from the standpoint of troubleshooting We put it in we know how it works and we can fix it

Mike also has rolled up his sleeves to keep hardware in Sawtooth working

efficiently If the technology coordinator is busy Mike has no qualms about getting

things fixed

We just had a problem this morning I was dealing with I went dovra there I can do the hardware things a whole lot easier than software but you know there were just two wires out of place I just kind of happened to notice it plug them back in the right places and we were back in business

Indeed Mike has stayed current with technology and maintenance

I have to stay a little more up here because if anything happens Im the guy they holler at so first I mean to fix it not just holler at Ive leamed a lot the last few years Just been forced to I guess

106

Bill laments the lack of foresight on the part of some administrators in keeping the

hardware maintained

That one-shot deal We got the computers That cost is out ofthe way We can forget about technology now weve got our X number of computers And then all of a sudden like you say weve got to have a hard drive here you know and a floppy drive went out there and a monitor goes out here well good-ness man whats the problem

Bill wonders if his leadership personnel were misled by various sales

representatives whose goals for sales were not always congment with school needs

Before I got into this our superintendent relied on a salesman and we bought a bunch of stuff we didnt need and it didnt fit in the overall plan It was like buying a Dodge engine and wed buy a Chevrolet body and all of a sudden these things werent compatible So we wasted a lot of money and Im sure school districts all over the state of Texas did This is a small community here Id like every shekel to count Theres not too many people around here that really realize that I dont guess

Stephen is concemed with making reasonable forecasts for what future

technologies he will need for his building He demonstrates that he has thought through

practical technology management issues

To me the biggest question is in relation to technology is how to predict where were going I mean just a little bit because were dropping tons of money on the hardware on the software on the training But even little issues I mean twenty years ago Woodlake was out in fi-ont on technology because they bought a bunch of Apple He computers And then they used them for eighteen years which put them way behind the leaming curve you know and then what computer do you buy Do you buy it with upgradable service contracts What kind of software are you looking for How is distance leaming going to

107

impact all this How does it impact your scheduling on a day-to-day basis How does it impact your school calendar How does it impact the people you hire

Stephen is looking squarely at the future needs of his staff and students

If we knew where it was headed we could be much more effective in our long-range planning But as it is in my mind its hard to plan beyond two years because theres no way of knowing where were going to be Weve had numerous conversations in my faculty meetings about individual laptops for students as opposed to the big stand-alone units in a big lab Theres discussions about the use of software versus hard-copy textbooks And I think were moving that way I just dont know how quickly And I dont know to what degree and thats the most perplexing thing as far as Im concemed

Money

As this present study is conducted significant changes are occurring in the

petroleum industry Since there has been a drop in petroleum prices some Chapter 41

(see Chapter Two) school districts have realized a significant drop in ad valorem

revenues Remembering that much ofthe financing for the Consortium comes fi-om two

Chapter 41 districts there exists some cause for concem Because these informants

represent both Chapter 41 and Chapter 42 districts none of these informants will be

identified by name in this section

One Chapter 41 superintendent related to us the situation regarding a loss of

funding for that superintendents district

Probably the biggest reason this last year we were able to put several million dollars of recapture money into the technology consortium Unfortunately being that most ofthe Chapter 41 districts

108

in our area are highly dependent on oil and mineral value and we lost 25 percent of our value last year Probably well lose at least that and maybe even more

Another Chapter 41 superintendent has noticed a drop of revenue but slants the

situation differently

It doesnt affect us that much believe it or not I mean it affects us some definitely but you know the higher the price of oil the more money we have to give away The lower the price the less we have to give away Because you only get to keep a certain value per student

All ofthe Chapter 41 informants indicated that they were glad to participate with

less property-wealthy districts in maintaining fimding for the Consortium

In dealing with school funding there is also the attendant concem with dealing

with government entities A Chapter 41 superintendent explains the situation as the

potential purchasing of more hardware is considered

(Conceming hardware purchasing) If this legislative session the Legislature does away with the hold harmless for Chapter 41 schools (See Chapter 2) well be in a whole different situation and well be saying Well do that when we can afford it I guarantee you

Because there are restrictions on where Chapter 41 districts can expend their

fiinds a Chapter 41 principal explains some creative strategies for retaining funds

Because the hang-up was that those monies that came out of these wealthy districts So in other words we could send our money to the Region(al Service) Center to be used for those purposes but we couldnt reap the benefit of i t (Dr Sarah McCullough) wrote grants specifically targeted at those of us that were putting money in the pot to help us get distance leaming labs up and running So its just been a

109

maze of dancing with the bear which anytime you deal with the government thats the way it is

As this is written a Chapter 41 superintendent hopes that the Texas Legislattire

will allow the legal stmcttires that made the Consortium a reality and function at its peak

to continue to exist

Now we would hope that the Legislature will realize that and possibly rewrite the current law to allow us to divert possibly more than ten percent into the technology consortium or change the way that we do it altogether to where the technology consortium can continue to benefit in the same arena of money that weve benefited for the last year or two

A Chapter 42 school leader looking at the Consortium as a whole sums up the

attitude of each of our informants

Well this consortium has been a good thing for us because I think by coming together you know I think this is people who have ideas and also have monies that they want to use for telecommunications and technology want to see that people in rural areas like ours are making an effort to pool their resources and thoughts and what have you When they see that you got seven schools that are working together to try to share ideas and help work through problems and even go so far as to share teaching personnel things like that I think thats something that people who have monies are kind of wanting they want to see that Because thats the whole idea behind you know trying to get reach some of our goals by the year 2000

Summary of Interview Data

All nine ofthe informants in this study provided candid assessments of their

individual roles in implementing technology in their districts the improvement of student

110

leaming and the training of staff to use the technology These latter points are also

suggested in the literature on staff development (Joyce amp Showers 1988) Concems over

infi-astmcture and finance were also supported in several other studies (Bailey 1997

Becker 1998 Kwajewski 1997 Maddux 1997 Texas Association of School

Administrators 1998)

New insights fi-om this study included the heavy apprehension over distance

leaming and the intensity ofthe power shift within the school system The fluctuation in

petroleum prices that occurred during this study did not completely take these leaders by

surprise but are concems with which Chapter 41 superintendents will continue to

contend

I l l

CHAPTER V

SUMMARY CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Summary of Research

As described in Chapter III quantitative data was in the form of Change

Facilitator Stages of Concem Questionnaire (CFSoC) profiles evaluated according to

Hall et al (1991) with hypothesized points on the Stages of Concem continuum for each

participant Conversations with nine informants fi-om the Consortium leadership cadre

formed a series of interviews that were analyzed and evaluated for emerging themes

Seven themes grew fi-om the data analysis and were discussed

CFSoC Profiles

Hall et al (1991) suggest that the Stage of Concem for any given innovation

varies with the change facilitator registering the array of concems Borrowing fi-om Fuller

(1969) Hall et al suggest that concems for the innovation within the individual change

facilitator begin at the level of Awareness progressing to Self concems then Task

concems and finally to Impact concems This researcher was able to hypothesize a

general stage of concem for each ofthe informants based on the methods of profile

interpretation defined by Hall et al (pp 29-42) The initial research question referred to

Stages of Concem placement for each informant

Where do these school leaders fall on the Concems-based Adoption Model (CBAM) continuum regarding TEKS technology implementation

112

The initial goal was to ascertain the position of each of these informants on

CBAM Table 5-1 provides a breakdown of this studys informants their job roles and

their hypothesized Stage of Concem

Table 5-1 Study Informants and CBAM Stages of Concem District Comparison

District

Camden

Tipllwor4H

North Prairie

Sawtooth

Woodlake

Superintendent

TASK

TASK

IMPACT

Principal

SELF

TASK

TASK

Technology Coordinator

SELF

SELFTASK

TASK

The table suggests that those in more well-defined administrative roles tended to

be more task oriented about their concems whereas those whose job descriptions are

inclusive ofthe classroom and who are also designated as change agents tended to be

more oriented to self and personal issues despite their abilities or expertise

As Hall et al (1991) have previously hypothesized the more experienced a

change facilitator is in the change facilitator process the more advanced that change

facilitator will be on the CFSoC profile The stages of concem of these informants in this

sample appear to concur with CFSoC projected norms Indeed if tiie stages of concem

are arranged in descending order (Impact Task Self Awareness) as in Table 5-2 there

113

appears to be a greater advancement along the Stages of Concem continuum based on the

more advanced job role

Table 5-2 Study Informants and CBAM Stages of Concem Concem Stage Comparison

Informant Stage of Concem

Woodlake Superintendent IMPACT

North Prairie Superintendent TASK

Sawtooth Superintendent TASK

Sawtooth Principal TASK

Woodlake Principal TASK

Sawtooth Technology Coordinator TASK

Dellwood Technology Coordinator TASKSELF

Camden Principal SELF

Camden Technology Coordinator SELF

These change facilitators fi-om the Sah Fork Consortium seem to manifest stages

of concem similar to those of other change facilitators studied through the CFSoC Two

ofthe technology coordinators seem to be more TASK oriented than a principal and one

technology coordinator is more SELF oriented The two task-oriented coordinators have

many years of experience in either office machinery electronics or staff training They

both suggested to this researcher greater confidence in their abilities to provide input to

their administrators conceming their schools technology requirements Such

114

competencies suggest that the greater stage of concem is based in part on the

individuals greater level of experience

Interview Themes

The hesitancy of new users to use new technologies is repeated with every

generation of innovation (Cuban 1984 1986 1993) Changes this extensive in

technology naturally bring about changes in how we teach and how we perceive our roles

as educators (Becker 1998 Berg Benz Lasley amp Raisch 1997 Braun 1993 Fullan

1990 Fullan amp Stiegelbauer 1991 Hope 1993) This sttidys informants repeatedly

expressed the desire to ensure that their staffs become as competent as possible in using

new technology to improve student leaming In tum these leaders affirmed that their

teachers would have it incumbent upon themselves to avail themselves of this training

As we appreciate the greater empowerment of educators who in tum empower

leamers we reahze that greater access to technology has played a major role in

developing this spirit of empowerment (Bailey 1997) Tmly continued control of

technology signifies continued power ofthe educational system These informants were

unanimous in marveling over the great things that have occurred in their schools as their

teachers adopted greater technology expertise Review of AEIS data since 1994 before

the establishment ofthe Consortium suggests improvements in TAAS scores and other

AEIS indicators (see Chapter I TEA 1995 1996 1997a 1998)

As a result schools become different places for leamers (Armstrong Davis amp

Young 1996 Mecklenburger 1989) Instead ofthe school as one-way insttiiction with

115

passive leamers the focus is now on schools led by leaming facilitators who guide the

leamer toward constmcting personal leaming (Joyce amp Showers 1988) It appears that

the wise change facilitator will recognize this power shift In the main Consortium

change facihtators certainly appeared eager to share that power

If we are not using the improved technology to improve student leaming then we

might be needing to be examine a different iimovation for improving student leaming

(Berg et al 1997 Bumiske 1998 Hope 1993 Joyce amp Showers 1988 National Staff

Development Council 1995) These informants were adamant about the power of

technology not only to foster greater leaming capabihties for students but also to provide

a heightened awareness for those charged with facilitating that leaming (Barr 1990

Hadley amp Sheingold 1993 Maddux 1997 Maddux amp Johnson 1997 Meltzer amp

Sherman 1997 Ragsdale 1997) As a resuh these school leaders and their school

boards will have more solid foundation to continue upgrading their technology Such a

massive influx of equipment as is happening now will not be needed but rather

technology purchasing with a view toward greater student achievement will not be

considered unique by other similarly situated school districts

The notion that technology could bring about needed opportunities and services to

remote sites by distance leaming has been discussed for some time and is now standard

for evaluating a schools technology program (Becker 1998 Texas Association of School

Administrators 1998) Nevertheless there appears to be a need for a semblance of

balance as the positive elements of distance leaming (services teaching physical distance

needs etc) are weighed against the pitfalls (teaching method changes impersonal

116

relationships) of these new technologies (Berg Benz Lasley amp Raisch 1997 Dillon amp

Walsh 1997) The apprehensions of Consortium change facilitators toward the

impending interactive video system were quite real They saw potential for some yet

unknown distracting factor causing havoc with the leaming process as a result of distance

leaming At least one informant voiced active disagreement with distance as a viable

means of teaching and leaming

If training activities are only instituted to meet extemally mandated directives it

seems pointless to expend so much effort in training faculty in technology (Becker 1991

1998 Dede 1997) The concept that technology remains a more advanced means of

game playing is still latent in many educators School leaders need to tmly be leaders

(Office of Technology Assessment 1995 Ritchie 1996) and should provide appropriate

training activities for their staffs (Bradshaw 1997 Davidson amp Maurer 1995 Joyce amp

Showers 1988) Because these school leaders describe the influx of interactive video

hardware as helpfiil in providing for a variety of training opportunities (school board

training college classes etc) this Consortium demonstrates a strong proactive

commitment to ensuring that the entire school community is kept up-to-date with

technology

As to funding and infi-astmcture acquisition a We can do it spirit is still found

in educators when they plan for and purchase their computer machinery Schools in this

Consortium as well as in other locales continue to demonstt-ate creative ways to provide

technology support with the resultant spirit of ownership possessed by all segments ofthe

educational community (Carroll amp Carroll 1994 McDaniel Mclnemey amp Armstrong

117

1993 Office of Technology Assessment 1995) The fact that a superintendent would be

involved in wiring his school for network capability or would do repairs on classroom

hardware suggests genuine committnent Principals with decades of experience in the

classroom and in the office in this rural area are taking the time to leam new computer

skills

Conclusions and Reflections

Because this present study is primarily qualitative it is appropriate that the

researcher does not (and really should not) know in advance all ofthe insights that might

possibly be gleaned fi-om a pending study Although this is a limited sampling of change

facilitators their CFSoC profiles confirmed that the greater the experience level ofthe

change facilitator interacting with the innovation the more advanced Stage of Concem

The Woodlake administrators with Stages of Concems ratings in IMPACT and TASK

stages for example have had the benefit of both performing hands-on technology

implementation (including wiring) and also developing technology programs fi-om Apple

computers in classrooms to vocational training over a twenty-year period

The specifics ofthe second research question require some discussion over the

importance and application ofthe concems of rural educators toward technology

implementation Three clusters of conclusions emerged fi-om the interview data

Personal concems are important in the professional lives of these informants

There is urgency for the educator to leam to use technology and to develop stt-ategies for

incorporating technology use in insttiiction Nevertheless the educator is never to forget

118

that there are still basic instmctional outcomes to be accomplished Leamers still have to

be proficient in reading writing and mathematics Day-to-day activities (lesson planning

teacher paperwork etc) cannot be neglected These informants did not allow this

researcher to overlook this fact All three technology coordinators who served as

informants emphasized their classroom duties with one in particular reminding me that

the computer is simply a tool in teaching basic educational concepts Each principal

interviewed related their technology concems in the context of administrative duties and

concems

In addition leadership personnel are to function as leaders and lead their staffs

Despite the hardware and capabilities schools are still schools Schools are having to

change their stmcture and technology seems to be key in fostering that change The very

use ofthe computer as a personal tool remains a challenge in these informants schools

Bill Potter Camden Technology Coordinator related that he continues to see his fellow

teachers using the computer as nothing more than a game machine The Sawtooth

informants noted that a few older more seasoned teachers are still not yet using

technology as a tool

As opposed to personal concems corporate concems registered by these

informants dealt with building district or Consortium issues Among these informants

there is a genuine sense of Where we are against Where we were in regard to

technology use Each superintendent interviewed expressed his satisfaction with the

improved productivity among his students as a result of technology Now more than ever

is a need to stay abreast of pedagogical as well as technological trends Stephen Greer

119

Woodlake Principal emphasized the need for him to know about technology and its

implementation in teacher practice These informants also indicated a generational trend

in that some educators eyeing retirement realize a lesser interest in leaming new

technologies Younger more recently trained educators are more conversant with new

technologies These informants indicated that the new teachers they hire come prepared to

use technology in the classroom

The informants also indicated a sense of owoiership toward technology

implementation For example several informants have trained themselves to do more

advanced troubleshooting and maintenance certainly more than is in their job

descriptions The Woodlake and Sawtooth superintendents are both adept with the

hardware These individuals want to know more and not just save their district some

funds All three ofthe technology coordinators have a history of leaming by doing

They enjoy reputations as being competent and the person to tum to when expertise is

needed

Cultural concems transcend the immediate short-term issues and are future-

oriented The change in our previously mral agrarian society to a worid filled with data

has had a heady effect on these informants North Prairie superintendent Larry Beckman

for example continues to marvel at all the activities the North Prairie educational

community can now avail themselves of because of technology Technology has assisted

in shifting genuine leaming power fi-om the educator to the student The resultant greater

ownership by students of their leaming is opening up greater avenues for insttaiction

120

There is constant uncertainty ofthe legal political and economic factors in

financing and establishing new technologies at schools The net result hinders these

informants fi-om reliably predicting what technologies might be needed in the future

Indeed it is impossible to predict what new gadgets will be invented or how fast a

computer will process ten years from now Neither ofthe Chapter 41 superintendents

believed their distticts finances were in jeopardy due to the changing pett-oleum prices

but each expressed the concem that the Legislature could modify the mles on finances

possibly making their underwriting of Consortium costs more difficult

Recommendations for Further Study

As this present research was being considered there was considerable concem for

the fact that very little research data existed for the CFSoC instmment This Consortium

had an insufficient number of participants to do a quantitative study of this instrument

with adequate factor analysis Indeed Hall et al (1991) cite themselves as those who

conducted reliability and validity studies of their own instrument A more thorough

validity study with adequate N should be conducted

The original thmst for this research was focused on staff development and teacher

training Because that initial idea was so broad it was abandoned early in this study

However since each informant referred to the teacher traming programs ofthe

Consortium it would be appropriate at a later date to review how teacher tt-aining is

planned and executed in a similarly situated technology cooperative

121

Personal impressions which emerged fi-om both the data collection and data

analysis also suggested additional avenues of study At no time and in no way were either

Consortium school distticts or school staff identified as to their Chapter 41 (Equalized

Wealth Level) or Chapter 42 (Minimum Foundation Program) stattis Nevertheless this

writer recognizes a difference in economic status for these districts that was impossible to

fully ignore and suggests that the differences in funding abilities of school districts be

explored as new technologies become de rigueur for even the smallest and most remote

school district

Also unexamined in this present study was any comparison on a rural-urban axis

Although each ofthe participating school districts was mral with a combined enrolhnent

smaller than one urban high school the available technology was up-to-date and with

more anticipated advanced technology yet to be implemented A similar study of larger

urban school technology programs dealing with identical TEKS constraints could be

instituted to ascertain concems of urban-oriented change facilitators

The professional experience aspect of each ofthe informants was never identified

as a factor in this present research The CFSoC form itself had blanks for data conceming

the number of years experience on the job in the present position etc Indeed the least

number of total years of school experience was nine years The question remains if

simply the amount of time in grade is a factor in the informants position on the CFSoC

continuum This researcher noted a trend in those in stated administrative roles being

more oriented to TASK and IMPACT concems as opposed to the technology

coordinators who by and large had duties more inclusive ofthe classroom and who were

122

more oriented to SELF concems and their personal status This could lead one to ponder

whether the role and the job title are influencing factors in a change facilitators Stage of

Concem

Moreover because ofthe contemporary trends toward school-based

management and greater empowerment of classroom personnel in decision-making it is

likely that those in change faciUtator roles would be more closely aligned to the

classroom ie more teachers may be in leadership roles We might expect the higher the

level of change facilitator position and experience the higher the level of concem (eg

IMPACT) It would be interesting to explore the possibifities and consequences for those

at the classroom level functioning as change facilitators in technology

123

REFERENCES

American Psychological Association (1994) Publication manual ofthe American Psychological Association (4th ed) Washington DC Author

Armstrong D Davis R amp Young G (1996) Technology integration at the middle and high school levels A model for staff development NASSP Bulletin 80(582) 81-88

Bailey G D (1997) What technology leaders need to know The essential top 10 concepts for technology integration in the 21st century Leaming and Leading With Technology 250) 57-62

Bailey D B amp Palsha S A (1992) Qualities ofthe Stages of Concem questionnaire and implications for educational innovations Joumal of Educational Research 85(4) 226-232

Barr D (1990) A solution in search of a problem The role of technology in educational reform Joumal for the Education ofthe Gifted 14(1) 79-95

Becker H J (1991) How computers are used in United States schools Basic data fi-om the 1989 I E A Computers in Education survey Joumal of Educational Computing Research 7(4) 385-406

Becker H J (1998) Running to catch a moving train Schools and information technologies Theory Into Practice 37(1) 20-30

Berg S Benz C Lasley T laquofe Raisch D (1997) The coordinators and the teachers A description of exemplary use of technology in elementary classrooms Paper presented at the Midwestem Educational Research Association Annual Meeting Chicago IL

Bogdan R C amp Biklen S K (1992) Qualitative research for education An introduction tn theory and methods (2nd ed) Boston Allyn amp Bacon

Bradshaw L K (1997) Technology-supported change A staff development opportunity NASSP Bulletin 81(593) 86-92

Braun L (1993) Educational technology Help for all the kids The Computing Teacher 20(8) 11-15

124

Brekhus T R (1997) The SeverNet project-assessment Antiquated systems without curriculum integration The Educational Graveyard of Unfulfilled Promise [Online] URL httpwwwseyemschoolcomsevemetsevemet_assesshtml

Bristol v amp Jechow M (1998) Guidelines on interlocal agreements fi-om the Texas Government Code Texas case law and Texas attomev general opinions [online] URL httpwwwbickerstaff comarticlesinter98htm

Bumiske R W (1998) The shadow play How the integration of technology annihilates debate in our schools Phi Delta Kappan 80(2) 155-157

Campbell T (1997) Technology multimedia and qualitative research in education Joumal of Research on Computing in Education 30(2) 122-132

Carroll S R amp Carroll D (1994) How smart schools get and keep community support Bloomington IN National Educational Service

Chisolm I M (1996) Computer use in a multicultural classroom Joumal of Research on Computing in Education 28(2) 162-174

CicchelH T amp Baecher R (1985) Intt-oducing microcomputers into the classroom A study of teacher concems Joumal of Educational Computing Research 1(1) 55-65

CiccheUi T amp Baecher R E (1987) The use of concems theory in inservice ttaining for computer education Computers amp Education 11(2) 85-93

Clark R E (1983) Reconsidering research on leaming fi-om media Review of Educational Research 53(4) 445-459

Clouse R W amp Garrett L N (1995) Case analysis An insttiictional tool Joumal of Educational Technology Systems 23(1) 39-51

Coffey A amp Atkinson P (1996) Making sense of qualitative data Complementary research strategies Thousand Oaks CA Sage

Crawford D K Bodine R J amp Hoglund R G (1993) The school for quality leaming Managing the school and the classroom the Deming way Champaign IL Research Press

Cuban L (1984) How teachers taupht Constancy and change in American classrooms -1980-1980 New York Longman

125

H THEMES AND SUB-THEMES FOR DATA ANALYSIS 147

I COMPARISON OF TECHNOLOGY IMPLEMENTATION IN STATE CURRICULA 148

VI

ABSTRACT

Although there has been a progression of technological improvements in the tools

available for educators to improve instmction there will always be the need for leamers

to master fimdamental skills and for educators to facilitate that learning Nevertheless the

implementation of innovative technology programs continues to be a priority of educators

in both urban and mral settings Texas educators are now under new Texas Essential

Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) curricular requirements a comprehensive document with

specific learner outcomes particularly with technology embedded into every grade level

Because of these extemal constraints even small rural school districts have to

provide advanced technology capabilities for their leamers This current study

investigated personal and professional concems of change facilitators in a seven-district

technology consortium as these requirements are implemented

This consortium was developed with assistance fiom both the local telephone

service provider and the regional Educational Service Center (ESC) These districts range

a distance of 70 to 125 miles fi^om their ESC Two of the participating school districts

are considered property-wealthy and provide the bulk of the fiinding for the other five

districts through special legislative mles

This exploratory case study used the Concems-based Adoption Model (CBAM)

for evaluating these concems Nine informants three each of superintendents principals

and technology coordinators responded to a 35-item Likert scale which placed the

informant on a Stage of Concem either SELF TASK or IMPACT Informants

vu

concems were rated largely at the TASK level In general an informants stage of

concem increased with a higher status within the school system

These informants were also interviewed on their personal concems toward

technology implementation Seven general themes emerged through the interview

process Informants articulated concems over attitudes power student learning distance

learning staff training infi-astmcture and finances These informants consistently

expressed concem for the prospects of implementing instmctional video and its

instmctional and disciplinary implications Each informant expressed optimism over the

educational and administrative possibilities modem computer technology brought to their

districts

Vlll

LIST OF TABLES

1-1 Teachers Use of Computers Hadley and Sheingold (1993) N=608 9

1-2 Instmcfional Software Use Hadley and Sheingold (1993) N=608 9

1 -3 Full Time Equivalent Staff for TechnologyComputer Operations 21

2-1 Coefficients of Intemal Reliability for the Stages of Concem Questionnaire N=830 39

2-2 Test-Retest Correlations on the Stages of Concem Questionnaire N=132 40

2-3 Means Standard Deviations and Alpha Coefficients for the CFSoC (N=589) 45

2-4 Means Standard Deviations and Alpha Coefficients for the CFSoC

(N=750) 45

2-5 Intercorrelations of the Scale Scores on the CFSoC (N=589) 46

5-1 Study Informants and CBAM Stages of Concem District Comparison 113

5-2 Study Informants and CBAM Stages of Concem Concem Stage Comparison 114

IX

LIST OF FIGURES

4-1 CFSoC Profile of James Petty Camden Principal 68

4-2 CFSoC Profile of Bill Potter Camden Technology Coordinator 70

4-3 CFSoC Profile of Ronnie Bennett Dellwood Technology Coordinator 72

4-4 CFSoC Profile of Larry Beckman North Prairie Superintendent 74

4-5 CFSoC Profile of Mike McCoy Sawtooth Superintendent 76

4-6 CFSoC Profile of Vemon Russell Sawtooth Principal 78

4-7 CFSoC Profile of Renee White Sawtooth Technology Coordinator 79

4-8 CFSoC Profile of David Jackson Woodlake Superintendent 81

4-9 CFSoC Profile of Stephen Greer Woodlake Principal 82

CHAPTER I

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Mr Edison says That the radio will supplant the teacher Already one may leam languages by means of Victrola records The moving picture will visualize What the radio fails to get across Teachers will be relegated to the backwoods With fire-horses And long-haired women Or perhaps shown in museums Education will become a matter Of pressing the button Perhaps I can get a position at the switchboard

(Church cf Cuban 1986 pp 4-5)

Introduction

Virginia Churchs 1925 poem entitled Antiquated probably sounds pessimistic

but facetiously demonstrates her concems of possibly being out of a job with the

approaching array of innovations heralded at that time Our teachers and administrators in

educational institutions at all levels continue to exhibit concems as new innovations are

proffered (Cuban 1986)

Certainly innovations designed to improve instmction have been utilized for

centuries Cuban (1986 pp 3-4) would suggest technology innovation goes back at least

to the invention of the lectem chalk and chalkboards books and pictures with fihn

radio television tape recorders video and computers as more recent examples of

teaching tools Cuban wryly describes how these most recent technologies were at first

lauded as the latest thing for schools how instmction would dramatically improve and

how disillusioned teachers became when the technology did not live up to its predicted

expectations

Bringing all schools up to maximum speed in technology is currently quite

fashionable Rescigno (1988) using his own school district as the example envisioned

the so-called smart classroom with state of the art technology as having the ability to

precisely measure student skill objectives and promote more positive student attitudes

and lower instances of discipline problems

Rescignos school does not seem to have been greatly replicated however

Nevertheless greater technology implementation remains a key element of both

educational and political rhetoric Chris Dede asserts For politicians the Intemet in

every classroom has become the modem equivalent of the promised chicken in every

pot (Dede 1997 p 13) Dede decries such first-generation thinking by those who

would make technology the panacea for magically transforming schools

Yet decades of experience with technological innovations based on first-generation thinking have demonstrated that this viewpoint is misguided Unless other simultaneous innovations occur in pedagogy curriculum assessment and school organization the time and effort expended on instmctional technology produce few improvements in educational outcomes ~ a result that reinforces many educators cynicism about fads based on magical machines (p 13)

Cuban (1984) concurs emphasizing that teachers technology use in the classroom

is just one of a great many factors in how teachers teach with the lions share of factors

related to the extemal constraints of school organization Hodas (1993) reminds us that

the culture and norms of schools are profoundly conservative that the stmcture of

schools have remained unchanged for hundreds of years and that there exists in the

popular mind a definite conservative conception of what schools should be like a

template fi-om which schools stray only at their peril (p 10)

Problem Statement and Research Ouestions

Several factors were considered in formulating a problem for this study There

was the consideration of finding out how schools particularly small ones were

implementing fimding and evaluating technology in their districts Moreover standard

principles of staff development particularly the ascertaining of personal and professional

concems of school leaders were prominent in the literature Finally at the time of

searching for a research topic the State of Texas was developing broad curricular

standards which included extensive instmctional technology components

The problem under study is the concems of three levels of change facilitators

implementing the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) for Technology

Applications The research questions for this study are outlined in the form of a grand

tour question followed by sub-questions (Gay 1997 Spradley 1979)

Grand Tour Ouestion

What are the concems of leadership personnel as the TEKS technology

requirements are implemented in their school districts

Sub-questions

1 Where do these school leaders fall on the Concems-based Adoption Model

(CBAM) continuum regarding TEKS technology implementation

2 What are the specific concems of these school leaders as the TEKS are

implemented and why are these concems important

Rationale

The concept of educational change with technology is not a novel idea despite

those concems that Dede (1997) registered Larry Cuban has written extensively on the

topic of technological change fi-om the perspectives of administration and of educational

history Cuban quotes fi-om a prominent American technology leader who often had much

to say about things

I believe that the motion picture is destined to revolutionize our educational system and that in a few years it will supplant largely if not entirely the use of textbooks I should say that on the average we get about two percent efficiency out of schoolbooks as they are written today The education of the fixture as I see it will be conducted through the medium of the motion picture where it should be possible to obtain one hundred percent efficiency (p 187)

These words came in 1922 fi-om Thomas Alva Edison the inventor of the motion

picture phonograph and other devices at their time thought to be the zenith in

technology Except for the media described many could envision computers as the

subject of that quote Cuban suggests that such entrepreneurs who publicly make broad

educational claims for their products may have more of a profit motive than of student

performance

McDaniel Mclnemey and Armstrong (1993) recognize a shift in classroom

pedagogy fiom those classrooms merely transmitting information to processing

information They assert that computers will play a significant role in how leamers

acquire question and evaluate information Moreover McDaniel et al describe a

changed learning community breaking down the traditional school walls to a classroom

that literally can be the whole world They do not doubt that new programs will continue

to make an impact on how we teach and how students leam

Bumiske (1998) concurs with this shift but tempers it with repeated questioning

of our reasonings and expectations conceming educational technology

Its no longer a question of whether we should introduce computer technology into our classrooms Im afi-aid that choice has already been made for us The question now is how we should make use of this technology for educational purposes The consequence of this is the stifling of essential debates and the repression of significant questions such as At what age should we introduce children to computers What impact will computers have on the social emotional and psychological development of our children And how will computers aUer the dynamics of a classroom and school (p 157)

Cuban (1993) suggests three reasons for the perceived need to implement

technology in the classroom

First there is the drive to bring schools technologically in step with the work place because of the fear that students will be unprepared both to compete in the job market and to adjust to the changing marketplace A second impulse has come fi-om a diverse coalition of academics educators and foundation officials who have

5

neoprogressive values including that of self-directed leaming for children Finally there is the impulse for productivity (pp 189-190)

Unfortunately Cuban pessimistically concludes that despite the use of

technological innovations those innovations have not been central to school reforms

Likewise the marginal use of computers in classrooms is less due to funding teacher

preparation or administrative support but more related to dominant cultural beliefs

about what teaching leaming and proper knowledge are and how schools are organized

for instmction (p 206)

Low administrative support is but one part of the overall picture Poor

infi-astmcture remains in place at many schools The United States Department of

Education (USDE) in its report Getting Americas Students Readv for the 21st Century

(USDE 1996) cited statistics where only four percent of schools had as many as one

computer for five students and only nine percent with Intemet connectivity Yet this

same study asserts 80 percent of Americans believing that teaching computer skills is

absolutely essential 75 percent encouraging a child to use a computer and 86 percent

believing that a computer is the most beneficial product available to increase childrens

opportunities

Why if most educators believe that technology can improve the educational

process is it so difficult to implement and integrate Kwajewski (1997) ponders this

question as he considers the value educators place on technology acceptance

The plain tmth is that technology still confuses the educational establishment It is not an art or a science It is not a curriculum or a

subject It is not a vocation or a college requirement It is not an activity a goal or an objective It is not a course or a program If it were any of these items it might have a fighting chance in the difficult arena of change But it isnt therefore its success is in jeopardy (p 54)

Hodas (1993) suggests that educators require a modicum of comfort before expanding

their intellectual horizons to achieve skill with new technology

There is lively discussion over the extent of how technology can restmcture the

school Schools are finding in diverse ways that the use of technology modifies the

existing school stmcture Braun (1993) points out that investment in technology makes

working with at-risk youth more cost-effective It appears better to pmdently allocate

fimds on high-technology instmction than on the costs involved with dropouts and other

at-risk problems Maddux and Johnson (1997) suggest that the existing stmcture of

schools will be modified by Intemet use but only after the surrounding culture first

makes the change

Addressing new technologies Clark (1983) boldly asserted that the medium of

instmction was no more involved in how well students leam than the tmck that delivers

our groceries causes changes in our nutrition (p 445) and that only the content of

instmction influences student achievement Kozma (1991) aggressively challenges

Clarks position pointing out the distinctives of certain technologies and how they can

help leamers constmct knowledge Chishohn (1996) would go so far as to insist that the

implementation of technology modifies the very social stmcture

Like any human artifact computers are an expression of the people and culture that created them Likewise computer software incorporates the programmers cultural assumptions heuristics and epistemology Even seemingly impartial applications such as

7

databases and word processing programs demonstrate a cultural preference for analytic linear thinking compartmentalization of information and culture-specific logic mles and organization (p 163)

Educational leaders who are comfortable with technology should be primed to

lead the way in facilitating change in schools (Office of Technology Assessment 1995)

Differing somewhat fi-om Cuban Ritchie (1996) notes that a lack of administrative

support leading toward inadequate staff development and inadequate funding continues

to lead the reasons that technology has yet to take hold in some school districts Ritchie

cites Mecklenburger who asserts

Administrators must understand the capabilities and limitations of technology Only then can they plan for budget for purchase carefiiUy install properly maintain dutifiilly schedule adequately distribute appropriately and replace systematically the electronic technology best suited for their needs (Mecklenburger 1989 p 7)

Yet principals and superintendents in the main received their education and

training at a time when computers were not yet part of the educational scene Whatever

training many school leaders have had simply focused on using the technology rather

than focusing on how the technology could be used to augment student leaming (Bailey

1997)

Since 98 percent of the elementary and secondary schools in the United States

have microcomputers (Ely 1993) it is important to analyze how they have been used In

an early pre-Intemet study of typical teacher practice Hadley and Sheingold (1993)

investigated how teachers integrated software into classroom practice In surveying 608

teachers they discovered that teachers used computer software as shown in Table 1-1

Table 1-1 Teachers Use of Computers Hadley and Sheingold (1993) N=608

Software

Text processing tools 95 Instmctional software 89 Analytic and information tools 87 Programming and operating systems 84 Games and simulations 81 Graphics and operating tools 81 Communications 49 Multimedia 25

(Hadley amp Sheingold 1993)

Teachers instmctional software use was fiirther broken down as shown

in Table 1-2

Table 1-2 Instmctional Software Use Hadley and Sheingold (1993) N=608

Software

Problem solving programs 75 Tutorial programs 73 Drill and practice programs 72 Software accompanying a textbook 37 Conceptual tools 30

(Hadley amp Sheingold 1993)

By contrast instead of querying teacher computer usage more current surveys

(eg Texas Association of School Administrators 1998) focus on the classroom

building and district hardware configurations and Intemet use of computers

Teachers obviously embraced the computer as a significant tool in teaching

practice As these researchers gathered data for their study the above activities were

indeed the cutting edge uses of computers just before Windows the World Wide Web

or America Online became household words

Radical educational change is no stranger to technology educators The practices

delineated in the literature have metamorphosed fi-om the above to a listing more

reflective of school Intemet use connectivity and the use of multimedia Echoing Cuban

Becker (1998) notes several generations of the advice of experts conceming change in

computer technology pedagogy each of which reflected conventional wisdom in its time

and underscoring the adage The more things change the more they stay the same

Teachers were first urged to have students program computers in BASIC (1982 Its the language that comes with your computer) then to have them program in Logo (1984 Teach students to think not just program) then to use integrated drill-and-practice systems (1986 Use networked systems that individualize instruction and focus on increasing test scores) then to do word processing (1988 Use computers as tools like adults do) then to use curriculum-specific tools such as history databases and science stimulators and data acquisition probes (1990 Integrate the computers with the existing curriculum) then to do multimedia hypertext programming (1992 Change the curriculum - students leam best by creating products for an audience) then to use electronic mail (1994 Let students be part of the real world) and currently to publish their students work to a worldwide audience via the World Wide Web (1996) Using computers in these respective ways would have generally required teachers to have access to the newest computer equipment being sold at that time (p 25)

Becker fiirther suggests that survey-based data reflects a more conservative and

traditional array of instmctional practices among teachers than what is reported in the

popular press which tends to be more reflective of the more innovative techniques

10

(Becker 1998) Moreover he suggests such survey data was needed to balance the

overly enthusiastic reports in the news media about the generalizability of pioneering

efforts in unusual schools with hard-to-replicate amounts of computer equipment teacher

expertise and family resources (Becker 1991 p 386) It remained to be seen if the

average school district or school board had the financial foresight to establish a similar

facility

Contrasting with pre-Intemet surveys more recent studies reflect surveys of

changing computer use Berg Benz Lasley and Raisch (1997) surveyed teachers about

technology use at school and found that teachers rated student motivation and a change

fi-om the traditional classroom stmcture as the most fi-equent purposes of technology

Concurring with Beckers (1998) conclusions on technology use Berg et al list these as

their most important school computer uses

To motivate students To change fi-om traditional classroom CD-ROMs for research Computers in writing process Using variety of resources (books CD-ROM Web etc) Desktop publishing software To integrate subject matter Intemet to do research Enhance communication with parents Tailor curriculum to individual student needs

(Berg Benz Lasley amp Raisch 1997 p 8)

Curiously Berg et al found distance leaming and video conferencing rated 38th of 39

instmctional purposes as rated by teachers

The Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) executed a survey in

September 1998 to ascertain the levels of technology available in Texas public schools

11

Rather than display teacher use statistics as in previous studies (Becker 1998 Berg et al

1997 Hadley amp Sheingold 1993) this survey is heavily skewed toward Intemet use in

the classroom showing percentages of connectivity fimding sources and resources

(service center technology consortium etc) There are no listings of specific teacher

activities such as word processing graphics or gradebooks Indeed the TASA survey

appears at this writing to be updated at fi-equent intervals (TASA 1998)

Willis (1993) concedes that educational change using technology is difficult to

pull off He identifies barriers to wider technology use including teacher isolation

ownership time and administrative support very similar to concems in much of the staff

development literature (Joyce amp Showers 1988 Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1991)

Recent literature on school technology implementation has raised questions

conceming just how well new programs will be implemented or indeed how extensive

technology implementation has been Maddux (1997) describes a gap in schools between

the increasing sophistication of technology and the ability of teachers to use such

technology Maddux contends that much of the negative reaction conceming the Intemet

the World Wide Web Windows 95982000 and other innovative technologies stems

fi-om just such a gap between the hardware the schools may have on hand and the

systemic requirements of new software purchased Schools by and large often have older

hardware incapable of accepting Windows 95-level software Indeed computer speed

modem speed and hard drive storage (with or without zip drives) in many school-owned

computers remain inadequate Maddux cites Brekhus (1997) who suggests that 80

percent of all computer hardware purchased for schools was obsolete at the time of

12

purchase (p 7) Maddux fiirther maintains that much of this gap is related to educational

fiscal tradition stemming fi-om a lack of acknowledgment that more sophisticated

technology had to be replaced every three to five years

Becker (1998) sounds even more alarming He estimates that the average

cumulative per pupil investment in computers over a typical school lifetime a 13-year

span was only $150 025 percent of the total of what was spent on a pupil in that time

span Only 20 percent of school computers had a hard drive with a similar percentage

having any network access Only 10 percent had CD-ROM capability Very few then of

available school computers were capable of using multimedia the World Wide Web

Windows 9598 or most CD-based software As this dissertation is written computers

with speeds of 500 to 600 megahertz are being offered at discount stores (Micro Center

1999) along with appropriate software Although many schools continue to upgrade the

computing power of their hardware and the regional educational service centers still

provide leadership in bringing up-to-date technology to every remote district

nevertheless many educational institutions remain using outmoded machinery due to

well-felt budgetary restrictions and fluctuating property values

Changes in Constraints

Against this backdrop of confiision over technology implementation overall

educators fi-om coast to coast have had extemally mandated constraints In Texas those

mandates were codified in the Texas Essential Elements (Texas Education Agency

1991) with specific competencies for each subject listed and more recently with the

13

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) standards (Texas Education Agency

1997b) Unlike the Essential Elements which simply specified the subject components

for the teacher to cover in each area the TEKS mandates a much broader array of

performance-based skills to be exhibited by the leamer The emphasis is now on what the

leamer can do over what skills the teacher exhibits School districts in Texas are

obhgated to follow the TEKS in designing curriculum and instmction Evaluation

procedures for Texas educators include the use of technology in the lesson cycle

The TEKS for Technology Applications delineates knowledge and skill

requirements for specific computer applications for grade levels K-8 and specific high

school classes with this common philosophy

(1) The technology applications curriculum has four strands foundations information acquisition work in solving problems and communication

(2) Through the study of technology applications foundations including technology-related terms concepts and data input strategies students leam to make informed decisions about technologies and their applications The efficient acquisition of information includes the identification of task requirements the plan for using search strategies and the use of technology to access analyze and evaluate the acquired information By using technology as a tool that supports the work of individuals and groups in solving problems students will select the technology appropriate for the task synthesize knowledge create a solution and evaluate the results Students communicate information in different formats and to diverse audiences A variety of technologies will be used Students will analyze and evaluate the resuUs (Texas Education Agency 1997b p 1)

Chapter 126 of the TEKS specifies standards for leaming activities under these

four strands in Technology Applications for all Texas leamers This chapter is restricted

14

to instmctional applications excluding curricula that would be better placed in chapters

dealing with Career and Technology Business Applications etc

Chapter 126 Subchapter A delineates skill requirements for leamers as early as

kindergarten Among the skills to be acquired by leamers at that early date include

networking creating naming and saving files keyword searching muhimedia design

and portfolio selection It does not end there Subchapter A spells out a broad outline of

technology activities fi-om kindergarten through fifth grade Subchapter B retains much of

the earlier Essential Elements for middle schools conceming keyboarding and computer

literacy Subchapter C defines requirements for eight specific courses for high school-

level Carnegie-unit credit The minimum hardware for just one of these courses requires

the capability to do local networking Intemet access video production and Web page

production and storage Because of these curricular standards virtually every school in

Texas had to purchase materials appropriate for these activities

These standards went into effect September 1 1998 (Texas Education Agency

1997b) providing impetus for school leaders to recognize and articulate concems over

the implementation of these standards An additional document The Technology

Applications Companion (K-12) (Texas Center for Educational Technology 1998)

containing a comprehensive program entitled Sharing Technology Applications

Resources with Teachers (START) has been distributed on CD-ROM to each public

school building in Texas to provide curricular assistance and resources for TEKS

implementation

15

Research Participants

The informants for this research are among the leadership staff at five school

districts in rural Texas Each would be described as a change facilitator as defined in a

subsequent paragraph The role of the change facilitator is ascribed to a variety of

professionals Three specific roles in the school system are examined in this present

study Each is a change faciUtator but each facilitates change in a unique way

Superintendent~The general superintendent is a certified school employee and is

charged with overseeing all of a school districts operations particularly those related to

supervision and finance This role in the United States was instituted and developed

during nineteenth century bureaucratic changes where centralization of school efforts was

found more economical and where the need was seen for one person to be at the top of

the school stmcture (Urban amp Wagoner 1996)

Lutz and Merz (1992) define the superintendent in three roles manager

politician and teacher The Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) establishes

competencies for school leaders and suggested curricula for their training Superintendent

courses (Texas Education Agency 1991) mostly relegate this role either to be a manager

what with the emphasis on business techniques and school law for school management

or to be the instmctional leader because of specialized expertise in special and

compensatory education and because of recent advancements in school change which

demand that change facilitators already excel as instmctional and curricular leaders

SBOE mles also reinforce the role of politician with a broad array of social science

electives for the prospective school leader

16

The combination of concems over financial matters political pressures and

extemal curricular constramts exclusively laden upon the district superintendent makes

this role particularly important to the proposed research If there is any new technology to

be implemented the superintendent will have to be the first person on deck to secure

community approval particularly that of the school board so that the community has the

opportunity to buy into the new program especially its fiinding It will be necessary to

describe specific concems of superintendents

PrincipalmdashThe principal is a certified school employee who is charged with

leading teachers Unlike the superintendent the principal is generally responsible for only

one building narrowing this persons focus The role developed during the nineteenth

century in urban schools where a beginning teacher would begin teaching at a low grade

level and move up through the system becoming a principal teacher leading the others

(Urban amp Wagoner 1996)

The literature is replete with suggestions for middle management to increase

knowledge of how to implement technology Ritchie (1996) fists vendors school district

personnel technology consultants technology classes and self-instmction as sources of

information for becoming more effective as a change facilitator

Hall Rutherford and Griffin (1982) recognize three distinct change facilitator

styles which largely fit the principals role Responders put heavy emphasis on

empowering teachers and giving them opportunity to take the lead but tend to make

decisions in terms of immediate situations rather than long-term goals Managers tend to

see that things get done but do not normally go beyond the basics of implementing an

17

innovation Initiators take the lead and make things happen having strong beliefs about

what schools should be Nevertheless Hall et al agree that no change faciUtator

completely fits into one of these compartments Much more than the superintendent the

building principals style sets the leadership tone for the students and staff

Hall et al apply these contrasting styles in leadership to applying innovation

implementation

Another apphcation of the ideas proposed in this paper could be in planning school level and district wide implementation efforts Perhaps implementation game plans should be adopted to different schools depending on the change facilitator style of the principal and the assistant principal In a Manager school implementation will likely proceed rather routinely once what is to be done is understood by the principal In a Responders school more encouragement fi-om the outside and more district personnel time spent in the school working with teachers would probably be necessary While in an Initiators school a certain amount of push might be necessary to get implementation of the innovation on the list of the principals priorities On the other hand if the innovation is already a priority for that principal all the central office staff developer may have to do is stand out of the way (pp 19-20)

Middle management concems are a second component of the proposed research

because these individuals provide day-to-day leadership of educators They are

responsible for every detail in their respective buildings including staff development

Although site-based management is ahnost standard in contemporary schools the

principal remains a key force in change

Technology Coordinator-This role is not as clearly defined as principal or

superintendent nor does it have a lengthy historical base but exists nevertheless An

early study by Stmdler and Gall (1988) reported a growing number of individuals with

18

the title of technology coordinator mainly fi-om the ranks of classroom teachers Bailey

(1997) points out that although the role of the technology coordinator is important in

school improvement activities very little recent literature exists that describes the specific

roles and responsibilities of the technology coordinator

Despite variations in the local job title the person recognized as the technology

coordinator will also have concems worth noting in this proposed research As Stmdler

and Gall (1988) reported earlier this person is eighty percent Hkely to come fi-om the

classroom reflecting classroom teacher concems yet will have to assume a leadership

role

Smith (1997) extensively lists qualities and competencies expected of a

technology coordinator under these headings

1 Technical expertise 2 Understanding of technology use in the instmctional environment 3 Professional development 4 Intemet knowledge and experience (p 56)

Jewell (1999) adds the interpersonal skills of vision and diplomacy along with the

ability to find solutions for a diverse group of technology users fi-om a hmited array of

resources Jewell reminds us that

Technology leadership is not for the timid An effective technology leader must be able to navigate the sea of ever-increasing information and equipment as well as the changes in education that comes fi-om technology use What happens with technology and schools will change our world and technology coordinators will have an important role in that outcome (p 57)

19

The Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) annually commission a

survey (TASA 1998) conceming technology usage The 1998 survey specifically

ascertained the availability of on-site technology support Table 1-3 describes the

fi-equency of technology support for a variety of school configurations in Texas

Study Significance

As a major population center and as a resuU a major purchaser of educational materials

(textbooks workbooks etc) Texas has the potential to lead the way with an innovative

array of technology related courses but with new technology changes will be necessary

in how teachers will teach Already school districts are writing funding grants

purchasing more advanced technology and designating an individual with a title

congment to technology coordinator

Administrators will now have to allow for changes in how they do their jobs

Superintendents are already realizing that budgetary planning for technology has to be for

shorter periods that both technology hardware and software will require firequent

upgrades and school policies will need to address technological issues particularly with

legal matters Building principals will not only require a change in their budgetary

procedures but will also need to include technology concems in dealing with both

curriculum and evaluation Having served unofficially as the building technology

computer coordinator this writer observes that these individuals will have concems over

not only keeping current with the technology but also the array of systemic bugs each

piece of hardware and software displays resulting in the attendant complaints expressed

by staff

20

Table 1-3 Full Time Equivalent Staff for TechnologyComputer Operations

Level

Elementary

Middle

High School

Central Office

Other ISD Service

One-campus

N

479

410

470

N

489

N

484

191

No FTEs on campus

()

382

385

362

None ()

595

0 ()

506

335

Vi FTE per campus

()

192

98

104

1 ()

282

1 ()

277

565

i d i lt IFTE ner campus

()

88

12

117

2-3 ()

7

2 ()

97

68

1 FTE or more per campus

()

338

398

417

More than 3 ()

53

3-4 5-6 () ()

52 19

1 0

(TASA 1998 Question 10)

Because of the major changes in what is expected of educators through the

transition fi-om implementing the Essential Elements to TEKS standards these new

regulations should be applicable and flexible enough for at least the next decade

considering that it replaces a document used for 13 years TEKS will be of necessity

21

applicable for implementing innovations that have yet to be invented and for change

strategies not yet imagined

Delimitations

This study focused on technology implementation concems of change facilitators

of school districts in rural Texas limiting the representativeness of the study Any

findings yielded reflected the comments of those interviewed at the time of the study The

constraints of TEKS are not specifically applicable to educational entities in other states

or countries Curricular documents in states other than Texas were surveyed to compare

TEKS requirements for technology with technology expectations for leamers in those

states States bordering Texas as well as the top 15 states in population were considered

(World Almanac 1999) Appendix I contains a listing of these individual states

standards and how much technology usage impacts these standards

This present study is undertaken during the first year of TEKS standards Those

interviewed will not have as much familiarity with TEKS standards as they might in later

years As the researcher involved in compiling this data this writer must recognize

various biases he might have in eliciting comments fi-om these individuals Such

comments will reflect subjective distinctions individuals have about different schools

extemally mandated policies personal expectations of themselves or product

preferences In short this researcher made every effort to allow the respondents to

accurately present themselves

22

Term Definitions

The literature in this study uses terms germane to change instmctional

technology and to applications of the TEKS In addition terms readily known and used

by Texas educators are described

Academic Excellence Indicator System (AEIS) The AEIS (Texas Education

Agency 1999) is a systematic accountability report delivered annually of each school

and school district in Texas Prior to the estabhshment of the AEIS districts were

evaluated for accountability based on mles and procedures With the advent of the AEIS

schools are now evaluated principally on student performance AEIS indicators include

Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) performance attendance and dropout

rates students participating in advanced courses and scores on college entrance

examinations

Change Fullan and Stiegelbauer (1991) suggest that educational change involves

change in practice and indeed is evident at many levels In implementing change three

components are at stake

(1) The possible use of new or revised materials (direct instmctional resources such as curriculum materials or technologies) (2) the possible use of new teaching approaches (i e new teaching strategies or activities) and (3) the possible alteration of beliefs (e g pedagogical assumptions and theories underlying particular new policies and programs) (p 37)

Change Facilitator The role of change facilitator is defined to include not only

superintendents curriculum speciahsts and building principals but also the diverse set

of persons within and outside of organizations who have the formal or informal role to

23

aid those involved in leaming to use innovations (Hall Newlove George Rutherford amp

Hord 1991piii)

Concems Based on the work of Fuller (1969) Hall and his associates expand on

what constitutes concem

The composite representation of these feelings preoccupations thoughts and considerations about a particular issue or task is called concems The mental activity composed of questioning analyzing and re-analyzing considering altemative actions and reactions and anticipating consequences is concem An aroused state of personal feelings and thought about an issue phenomenon or condition as it is perceived is concem To be concemed means to be in a mentally aroused state about something (Hall Newlove George Rutherford amp Hord 1991 p5)

Innovation Loucks-Horsley and Stiegelbauer (1991) include a variety of school

programs as being innovations including school change school mission and goals

shared leadership as well as implementation of new technology Hall and his associates

define innovation as the issue idea or thing that is the center of attention (Hall

George and Rutherford 1977) Hall et als work in ascertaining concems over

educational innovations as will be demonstrated in greater detail in Chapter 2 can be

used to describe a wide variety of school implementations but within this current study is

strictly limited to instmctional technology implementation

Technology Rogers (1983) defines a technology as

A design for instrumental action that reduces the uncertainty in the cause-effect relationships involved in achieving a desired outcome A technology usually has two components (1) a hardware aspect consisting of the tool that embodies the technology as material or physical objects and (2) a software aspect consisting of the information base for the tool (p 12)

24

Technology Applications Chapter 126 of the TEKS for Technology Applications

(Texas Education Agency 1997b) defines what technology applications are in a

common introduction to each subchapter Among competencies at various grade levels

technology applications include the use of several word processing competencies

keyboarding strategies knowledge of a variety of input devices such as mouse modem

disk drive scanner digital video CD-ROM or touch screen database and spreadsheet

usage Intemet intranet and World Wide Web usage formal training in computer

programming languages and guided independent study Certainly a wide variety of

contemporary applications that meet these requirements can fiilfill these guidelines

However these guidelines are so broadly drawn that technologies not yet imagined

constmcted marketed or researched can be effectively implemented for instmctional

purposes

Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) The TAAS is a criterion-

referenced assessment instrument administered to Texas students The core instrument

assesses students skills in writing reading and mathematics at several grade levels At

present TAAS information taken fi-om students in the fourth and eighth grades and fi-om

an exit examination first administered in the tenth grade with multiple opportunities for

mastery Except for a special education exemption given by the Admission Review and

Dismissal (ARD) team for certain special education students Texas students are required

to have successfiilly passed each of the TAAS areas before a high school diploma may be

granted

25

Organization of the Study

This study follows the format and style of the Publication Manual of the

American Psychological Association (APA 1994) in terms of stmcture and organization

for dissertations This present chapter presents introductory material and a statement of

the problem for study Chapter II is a review of related literature tying the postulates of

this study to the established literature base Chapter III describes the research

methodology to be employed along with the context for the study Chapter IV describes

the data analysis for both of the research sub-questions Chapter V provides a summary of

the research its implications and suggestions for fiirther study

26

CHAPTER n

REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Introduction

Fullan and Stiegelbauer (1991) suggest that there will always be the need to make

educational changes as societies become more complex Three broad mechanisms for

effecting these changes include

1 natural disasters

2 extemal forces such as technology values and immigration and

3 intemal contradictions such as changes in technology leading to new social

patterns and needs (Fullan amp Stiegelbauer 1991 p 17)

Innovations then tend to be devised through both political and educational

motives Since technology implementation is included in this list our examination of

technology implementation concems will first discuss the legal foundations of technology

consortium development reasons for collaboration the theory behind change and

diffiision of innovations collaboration then to discuss the theory supporting concems

and finally to discuss some of the means of assessing and evaluating concems of change

facilitators

Technology Consortium Development

The research site for this present study is a technology consortium comprised of

several school districts This consortium will be described fimctionally in Chapter HI but

27

the controlling legal foundations of how this consortium was developed are herein

described fi-om the literature base

A technology consortium is considered an example of an agreement between

state governmental agencies Such an interlocal agreement is defined by the 1971

Interiocal Cooperation Act (the Act) (Vemons Texas Codes Annotated (VTCA)

1991) At present this Act is codified as Chapter 791 of the Texas Government Code

The Act authorizes local governmental agencies to contract with each other or with the

state to provide services to each other Independent school districts are classified as

other governmental fimction as described in sect 791003

Interlocal agreements are required to be authorized by the goveming bodies of

each governmental entity in this case by each member school board sect 791011 provides

for financial cooperation while sect 791013 allows the consortium to designate

administrative personnel to provide services (Bristol amp Jechow 1998)

Hudson (1997) describes the need for interlocal agreements as either being

required by the intensive capital needed for poohng financial resources or requiring a

high degree of special skills such as public utility specialists This technology

consortium requires both capital and technical expertise Resources for purchasing

significant amounts of computer hardware are pooled under sect 791025

Funds for the technology consortium are derived by legal authority in the Texas

Education Code (TEC) Most school districts in Texas are financed under the Minimum

Foundation Program under Chapter 42 of the TEC (VTCA 1996a) Locally generated

28

ftinds are combined with State fimds to provide for the regular education program of

school districts

However certain school districts that are considered property-wealthy have

different financial considerations The value-added nature of such districts may be due to

industry land values or as in this present study mineral wealth specifically petroleum

Chapter 41 of the TEC specifies means to limit the local property wealth per student to

$280000 (sect 41002) Monies in excess of that amount are surrendered to the State

sect 41099 allows for such districts to recapture some of these fimds to support a

technology initiative (VTCA 1996b) Two of the seven districts in this technology

consortium are considered property-rich and serve as financiers for the purchase of

technology for the remaining five districts

Fowler (1998) describes various ways technology consortia have to plan for nuts-

and-bolts administrative details including preparing state and federal reports asset

distribution litigation inclusion into and withdrawl from the consortium and

determining credentials for consortium board membership Chapters III and IV will

describe in greater detail the practical educational applications of this consortium in

operation

Collaboration

A significant part of the innerworkings of a technology consortium is that those in

leadership have mastered the ability to successfiilly collaborate Indeed collaboration

could be considered an innovation in and of itself (Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer

29

1993) Mattessich and Monsey (1992) have identified factors indicative of outstanding

collaborative groups

1 The politicalsocial environment along with a history of previous cooperative

efforts (pp 16-18)

2 Group membership is based on mutual tmst personal self-interest

compromise and a cross-section of the organizations involved (pp 19-22)

3 Group members have a stake in both the process and outcome of decision

making Clear roles and policies must be developed (pp 22-26)

4 Frequent and open communication links should be established (pp 26-28)

5 Reahstic goals and shared vision leading to a unique purpose (pp 28-30)

6 Both financial and human resources should be considered (pp 30-31)

The Change Process

Fullan and Stiegelbauer (1991) identify educational change as developed through

three phases In the initiation (or readiness) phase change leaders establish a need to

make improvements and to assist in the development of vision and planning At this

level intended outcomes of change are identified During the implementation phase

plans are activated to achieve those outcomes Both individuals and organizations

experience change as the result of new leaming experiences and support through follow

up The institutionalization phase stresses the integration of new practices into school

policies budgets routines etc As new needs and plans are identified stmctures are

30

developed to ensure that the newly institutionalized procedures continue to be maintained

(Fullan amp Stiegelbauer 1991 National Staff Development Council 1995)

Diffusion of Innovations

Concems toward innovations have been noted for some time Knowledge of

change is of littie value unless its solutions are diffiised to the level of the practitioner

(Guba 1968) Guba cites Everett Rogers (1955) who describes five stages of diffiision of

innovations

1 Awareness The individual leams of the existence of the innovation

2 Interest The individual seeks more information and considers the merits of

the innovation

3 Evaluation The individual makes a mental application of the innovation and

weighs its merit for his particular situation

4 Trial The individual applies the innovation on a small scale

5 Adoption The individual apphes the innovation for continued use on the basis

of a previous trial (Guba 1968 p 292)

Rogers (1983) builds on his earlier conclusions and adds a description of

characteristics of innovations which explain the differing rates of adoption among groups

1 Relative advantage is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as better

than the idea it supersedes The greater the perceived relative advantage of an

innovation the more rapid its rate of adoption is going to be

31

2 Compatibility is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as being

consistent with the existing values past experiences and needs of potential adopters An

idea that is not compatible with the prevalent values and norms of a social system will not

be adopted as rapidly as an innovation that is compatible

3 Complexity is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as difficult to

understand and use

4 Trialibility is the degree to which an innovation may be experimented with on a

limited basis An innovation that is trialable represents less uncertainty to the

individual who is considering it for adoption as it is possible to leam by doing

5 Observability is the degree to which the results of an innovation are visible to

others The easier it is for individuals to see the results of an innovation the more likely

they are to adopt (Rogers 1983 pp 15-16)

Rogers (1983) describes five categories of individuals accepting irmovations

along a continuum under a normal fi-equency distribution (p 247)

1 Innovators (2 CT below mean) These individuals are described as venturesome

eager to try new ideas desiring the hazardous daring and risky While an innovator

may not be respected by the other members of a social system the innovator plays an

important role in the diffiision process that of launching the new idea in the social system

by importing the innovation fi-om outside of the systems boundaries (p 248)

2 Early Adopters (between 1 and 2 a below the mean) This adopter category

more than any other has the greatest degree of opinion leadership in most social systems

32

(p 249) These are individuals that are the ones to check in with before trying out new

ideas They are the one who enjoy the greatest respect fi-om their associates

3 Early Majority (fi-om mean to 1 CT below mean) These individuals require more

time to deliberate before adopting an iimovation They eventually follow willingly into

the innovation but seldom take the initiative

4 Late Majority (fi-om mean to 1 a above mean) These individuals approach

innovation with caution and skepticism They are not convinced about the innovation

until the social system norms are in place before they will adopt the innovation

5 Laggards (above 1 a above mean) These individuals are the last in the social

system to adopt an innovation They tend to be suspicious of any changes to the social

system and require absolute certainty that new ideas will work

Finally Rogers (1983) suggests that opinion leaders in a social system are the

individuals who lead the group into innovation adoption Rogers identifies generalized

characteristics of opinion leaders that distinguish them fi-om their followers

1 Opinion leaders have greater exposure to mass media than their followers

2 Opinion leaders are more cosmopolite than their followers

3 Opinion leaders have greater change agent contact than their followers

4 Opinion leaders have greater social participation than their followers

5 Opinion leaders have higher economic status than their followers

6 Opinion leaders are more innovative than their followers

33

7 When a social systems norms favor change opinion leaders are more

innovative but when the norms do not favor change opinion leaders are not especially

innovative (Rogers 1983 pp 282-284)

This present research relies heavily on the relative opinion leader status of those

change facilitators fi-om whom data was gathered Because the informants are change

facilitators and their input on technology implementation is considered authoritative

Rogers insights on change facilitators are appropriate here

Concems Theory

In her role as an observer of novice teachers at the University of Texas Frances

Fuller (1969) noted that there were perceptible differences in how experienced and non-

experienced teachers observed their profession

Are typically inexperienced undergraduates not yet ready to benefit fi-om a conventional teacher preparation program What are they ready to leam What does concem them Can we discover regularities in the interests of beginning education students regularities which might fiimish guides to educators in choosing course content and experiences for teacher education programs (Fuller 1969 p 208)

Fuller reviewed the available literature related to the concems of beginning

teachers Her study concluded that their concems primarily centered on classroom

management and perceptions of evaluations She was surprised not only with how

consistently the varied concems were reported but also with what these authors left out

the absence of concems about topics which are usually included in education courses

34

I instmctional design methods of presenting subject matter assessment of pupil leaming

dynamics of child behavior and so on (p 210)

Fullers subsequent research concluded that a developmental conceptualization of

teacher concems was most appropriate

Pre-teaching phase Non-concem ~ During this time before actual contact with

children concems articulated by pre-service teachers were amorphous and vague

Many did not know what to actually be concemed about Much of what these novices

reported could be regarded as hearsay rumors about teaching etc (p 219)

Early Teaching Phase Concem with Self- As the novice educator begins

service concems with Where do I stand and How am I doing were most dominant

(p 220)

Late concems Concems with Pupils - Scant data with experienced educators was

available to Fuller but mature concems appeared to focus on pupil gains and self-

evaluation as opposed to personal gains and evaluations by others (p 221)

Fullers groundbreaking article began the basis for the development of concems

theory She posited significant research implications that were expanded upon by later

researchers

1 Is the concem sequence complete or are there more tasks with specific

competencies to be defined and resequenced

2 Is concem a fimction of the person of the situation of both or of

neither

35

3 Do individuals as well as groups go through these phases Can a

phase be skipped returned to or be in muhiple phases

4 Can these stages be generalized to other groups such as

administrators college professors and non-teaching staff

5 Are concems more related to teaching behavior teacher competency

or student leaming

6 Are these concems measurable Can they be manipulated by

intervention (Fuller 1969 pp 222-223)

With Fullers article the stage was then set for the development of a more

comprehensive method of measuring concems of educators as they deal with innovations

The Role of CBAM

During the period Fuller was conducting her research Gene Hall and his

associates at the University of Texas were also researching teacher needs and concems

initially with a view toward providing relevant staff development activities Their

conceptual fi-amework for ascertaining concems during school change became the

Concems-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) (Hall Wallace amp Dossett 1973)

The CBAM describes feelings perspectives and attitudes of individuals while

they are considering the use of an innovation (Hall 1979) It is a people-oriented model

anticipating what change agents might discover during the change process and generally

used with staff development (Hope 1995) These assumptions undergird the CBAM

36

1 Change is a process not an event Change takes time and is accomplished in

stages

2 The individual is the primary target of interventions designed to facilitate

change in the classroom Institutions cannot change until individuals within them change

3 Change is a highly personal experience The personal satisfactions concems

motivations and perceptions play roles in determining the success or failure of an

innovation

4 The change process is developmental Individuals go through stages in feelings

and perceptions about the innovation as well as in skill of use of the innovation

5 Staff development can be best facilitated by a client-centered diagnostic-

prescriptive model Staff developers must discover what level participants are in the

change process and design activities congment with that level

6 Staff developers need to work in an adaptive yet systemic way They must be

able to assess the change process and adapt training methods to address those changes

(Hall amp Loucks 1978 Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1991)

Within CBAM three aspects of change form the basic fi-ame of reference of the

model

1 the concem that users have about the innovation

2 how the innovation is used and

3 the ways that the innovation can be adapted to meet the needs of individuals

(Hope 1995)

37

This current study focused only on this first strand-concems Using Fullers

research Hall et al redefined Fullers three stages of concem into concems unrelated to

teaching concems about self concems about the task and concems about impact

(Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1991) Seven Stages of Concem (SoC) about the

innovation have been identified (see Appendix A) Hall and his associates have

demonstrated that individuals move through these seven levels in a consistent manner

(Hall 1979 Hall 1985 Hall George amp Rutherford 1977 Hall amp Loucks 1978 Hall

Wallace amp Dossett 1973 Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1991) Stage 0 represents no

concem over the innovation Stages 1 and 2 reflect concems based on self stage 3

represents concem with the task and stages 4 through 6 mirror concems based on pupil

impact

The Stages of Concem Questionnaire the most precise measure of the SoC is a

35-item Likert scale where respondents indicate their present degree of concem about the

topic in an item (Hall George amp Rutherford 1979) Hall et al hypothesize that

individuals will normally flow fi-om the stages in consecutive order and that a scored

profile should place an individual somewhere along the concems continuum It is highly

rigorous and can be used effectively for research for large groups of people and for

tracking groups of people over time

George (1977) provided rehability and validity figures for this instrument

Intemal reliability was shown to be high Table 2-1 shows intemal reliability coefficients

for a 1974 sample (N=830) of teachers and professors A later subsample of teachers

38

Modifications to the content of the SoC have been done (Bailey amp Palsha 1992

Shotsberger amp Crawford 1996) with varying reliability In the main these researchers

concur that teacher concems do indeed occur in stages but differ in the number of stages

they detect

Table 2-1 Coefficients of Intemal Reliability for the Stages of Concem Questionnaire N = 830

Stage Alphas

0 64 1 78 2 83 3 75 4 76 5 82 6 71

(George 1977)

(N=132) was asked to complete the SoC a second time with test-retest correlations

shown in Table 2-2

As an adjunct to the SoC questionnaire the opportunity is presented for the

respondent to provide a written response with an open-ended statement along the lines of

When you think about [the innovation] what are you concemed about An collection

of open-ended statements can give the researcher opportunity to get a quick feeling for

39

Table 2-2 Test-Retest Correlations on the Stages of Concem Questionnaire N=132

Stage Pearson-r

0 65 1 86 2 82 3 81 4 76 5 84 6 71

(George 1977)

the concems of a group Moreover it can ascertain specific issues germane to a particular

group (Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1991) An altemate version of the SoC geared

principally to change facilitators contains an open-ended blank

43 Use this space (and back of this page) to express any concems you have not been able to indicate in the questionnaire (Hall Newlove George Rutherford amp Hord 1991 p 48)

A third means of gaining information is the one-legged interview which can be

done by simply having a conversation with a respondent about the innovation It is called

one-legged because it can be conducted on the mn or brief enough to do while standing

on one leg While not so rigorous as quantitative instruments this format allows for more

simplicity and rapport with chents (Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1991)

40

AppUcations of CBAM

CBAM has been used in a variety of educational situations Malone (1984) used

CBAM to determine concems of pre-service elementary teachers in teaching science

James and Hall (1981) evaluated concems of veteran teachers in implementing new

science curricula

CiccheUi and Baecher (1985 1987) used the CBAM model to study teacher

computer training They found that the level of concems of novice computer-using

teachers was a factor in how staff development was scheduled Their research questions

are similar to this present study

1 What specific concems will teachers have about using microcomputers in the

classroom

2 Do these concems vary and if so to what extent among elementary junior high

and senior high school teachers

3 Are there different concems between male and female teachers

4 In what ways can data yielded fi-om the SoCQ help teacher educators design

effective inservicing (Cicchelli amp Baecher 1985)

Wesley and Franks (1996) observed the voluntary adoption activities of teachers

using computer-assisted instmction (CAI) and multimedia through a variety of staff

development strategies most notably collegiality (Joyce amp Showers 1988) CBAM

developmental stmctures were positively linked to the increasing complexity of

technologies adopted by these teachers As they progress through the SoC teachers

voluntarily adopt technologies toward better leaming in the classroom Hope (1995)

41

examined teachers concems as they gained greater facility with computers in an

elementary school setting

Wells and Anderson (1997) performed studies comparing intemal concems

(stages 0 to 3) and extemal concems (stages 4 to 6) on a variety of computer appUcations

utilized by students in a graduate telecommunications course Prior computer usage in

eight separate skill areas along with general computing experiences was evaluated on the

SoC Ragsdale (1997) used CBAM to research the unexpected reactions of teachers and

students as they work in a variety of technologies Through CBAM Todd (1993) studied

university faculty concems in teacher preparation programs

CBAM is even used in non-scholastic situations Hall and Hord (1987) report

CBAM and SoC used to research nurse training Air Force cadet leadership training

health behavior and textbook sales and service CBAM has been used intemationally

with extensive studies in Belgium the Netherlands and Australia and has been piloted in

Indonesia Venezuela and Thailand (Hall Newlove George Rutherford amp Hord 1991)

The Change Facilitator SoC

The SoC questionnaire was shown to be adequate in determining the concems of

classroom teachers but did not work as well with administrators staff developers and

others who were charged with implementing change (Hall Newlove George Rutherford

amp Hord 1991) Not only were many of the SoC statements often inappropriate for change

facilitators but also scores elicited fi-om change facilitators yielded values skewed higher

in the Impact stages 4 through 6 particularly stage 5 (Collaboration) which is logical

42

considering the definition of stage 5 and the role of the change facilitator (Hall et al

1991 p 15) Earlier studies with change facilitators and CBAM gave impetus for a more

role-related instrument for assessing concems

The net result of this research yielded a set of Change Facilitator Stages of Concem

(CFSoC) The sequence of concems in the CFSoC (unrelated self task impact) is given

in Appendix B As with the SoC the CFSoC again contains 35 Likert-style statements

but each statement is expressed with a more leadership oriented spin Again as in the

earlier SoC Questionnaire Hall et al hypothesize that change facilitators will move along

the same path fi-om one stage to the next in consecutive order

The CFSoC Instrument

This specific instrument formed a significant portion of the data for this present

study and consequently requires more detailed reporting of its development Hall et al

(1991) have prepared a detailed manual describing the development of the instrument

scoring procedures methods of interpretation and reliability and validity data Appendix

C provides the current CFSoC instrument as used in this present study

CFSoC Development

As stated earlier those who had roles as change facilitators exhibited a different

pattem of responses to the SoC questionnaire because the SoC statements are phrased for

users of the innovation (p 15) Hall et al reported that they had to strike a balance

between innovation-related concems and change-facilitator role concems (p 16)

43

Because of this felt need for such a balance in May and June of 1979 Hall et al

instituted a pilot study of a potential change facilitator version of the well-used SoC This

pilot study indicated the need to wholly change the concems statements to reflect change

facilitator roles Additionally they found that the questionnaire items had to reflect the

facilitation of others use of the innovation rather its use per se (p 18) Questionnaire

items for the Impact stages (4-6) had to focus on efforts and concems on revising the

facilitation process rather than personal use of the innovation

Hall et al (1991) describe their later piloting efforts

Pilot data were collected at CBAM workshops for change facilitators in August 1979 in Texas (N=29) and New Mexico (N=23) Item analyses indicated that the intemal reliability of the scales were good (alphas greater than 65 on all scales) but Stages 1 and 2 (Informational and Personal) were too highly correlated This led to fiirther examination of the CFSoC definitions and a new draft of items for Stages 0 12 and 3

In May 1980 a sample of 219 CFSoC Questionnaires was collected by sending the measure to all change facilitators who had participated in Concems-Based Consulting Skills Workshops in 1979 and 1980 Analyses of these responses indicated good reliability and scale intercorrelations for all but Stage 6 (Refocusing) After carefiil analysis of the Stage 6 concept several new Stage 6 items were written and incorporated into the CFSoC

During the summer and fall 1980 an additional set of 288 CFSoC Questionnaires was collected fi-om a variety of workshops and mailings to change facilitators With these data factor analyses and other item analyses were used to select the five items for each stage on the final questionnaire (Hall et al 1991 p 18-19)

Reliability and Validity

Hall et al (1991) report two intemal rehability studies for the CFSoC A 1981

study (N=589) administered the current 35-item scale to a sample group that included a

44

variety of innovations examined job titles and years of experience Table 2-3 shows the

intemal reliability data for each stage Subsequent studies have produced virtually

identical data Another set of CFSoC responses (N=750) yielded the data in Table 2-4

Table 2-3 Means Standard Deviations and Alpha Coefficients for the CFSoC (N=589)

Stage Mean SD Alpha

0 1199 594 61 1 1691 949 85 2 1304 632 62 3 1790 730 72 4 2588 634 70 5 2586 699 77 6 907 652 81

(Halletal 1991p 19)

Table 2-4 Means Standard Deviations and Alpha Coefficients for the CFSoC (N=750)

Stage Mean SD Alpha

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

1320 1920 1140 1766 2477 2499

840

593 925 622 718 672 704 618

63

86

65

73

74

79

81

(Halletal 1991 p 19)

Hall et al conclude These statistics indicate that the scales have adequate

intemal reliability and the scales are consistent across various innovations (p 20) 45

The 1981 study yielded relatively low intercorrelations between stages Such low

intercorrelations indicate that these scales are measuring different concepts Table 2-5

provides a display of the intercorrelations of scale scores

Table 2-5 Intercorrelations of the Scale Scores on the CFSoC (N=589)

Scale 1 2 3 4 5 6

0 15 19 23 -15 -21 22

i 24 09 23

2 37 19

3 32

4

5

18

05

20

67

05

34

09

-06

-15

(Halletal 1991 p 20)

As is noticable in the table most stage correlations are small except for the correlation of

Consequence and Collaboration

Summary and Reflection

To summarize we know a great deal about how schools change fi-om the available

literature Fullan and Stiegelbauer (1991) point out famihar pattems of change and how

individuals adjust through those changes Rogers (1955 1983) insights into the diffiision

of innovations in a social system have expanded and matured with time Rogers points

46

out that those who facilitate change most effectively are those who in the social system

are most effective in social effectiveness Those who would dare to facilitate

technological change would normally reflect Rogers maxims conceming opinion leaders

The concepts of collaborative strategies appear usefiil for a variety of contexts

particularly for cooperative groups of school districts The original Stages of Concem

(SoC) survey continues to be utilized extensively but little hterature exists for the more

restrictive Change Facilitator Stages of Concem (CFSoC) instrument CFSoC authors

appear enthusiastic about its use (Hall amp Hord 1987 Hall Newlove George Rutherford

amp Hord 1991) but as this present research is conducted only one recent article advocates

its use (Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1993)

In communicating with CFSoC personnel they had no direct knowledge of

extensive recent literature on the CFSoC G Hall (personal communication November 2

1998) referred this writer to the original CBAM staff A George (personal

communication November 6 1998) was unable to find extemal validity studies of the

CFSoC There appears a need for this instmment to be used and reported upon

The legal stmctures which provide foundation for establishing a technology

consortium are solidly found in Texas legal literature Because they are based on legal

statutes they could be modified or deleted by subsequent legislatures Moreover the

changing fortunes of Chapter 41 school districts with fluctuating mineral wealth will

make it difficuh to reliably predict the fiiture of such technology consortia

47

CHAPTER m

METHODOLOGY

Study Design

Yin (1994) asserts that the type of research design to be used in any study must be

bounded by (a) the type of research question posed (b) the extent of control an

investigator has over actual behavioral events and (c) the degree of focus on

contemporary as opposed to historical events (p 4)

This present study used the case study method Yin (1993) specifically addressed

and described studies of educational partnerships or consortia as good examples of case

study research The research questions reiterated below are how and why oriented

(Yin 1994) They are presented in the form of a grand tour question what concems the

technology consortium exhibits as a group and sub-questions what concems individuals

(Spradley 1979)

Grand Tour Ouestion

What are the concems of leadership personnel as the TEKS technology

requirements are implemented in their school districts

Sub-questions

1 Where do these school leaders fall on the Concems-based Adoption Model

(CBAM) continuum regarding TEKS technology implementation

48

2 What are the specific concems of these school leaders as these TEKS are

implemented and why are these concems important

Rationale

This research examined details particularly interviewees responses which were

out of this writers direct control This study also focused on contemporary events in a

technology consortium in rural Texas Therefore Yins standards (Yin 1994 p 6) for

applying a case study method were justified

This present study was exploratory As such Yin (1994 p 21) would assert that

specific propositions or underlying assumptions about what we might discover in the

course of the inquiry should not be defined Assumptions tend to interfere with defining

issues they also constmct personal biases to both data gathering and interpretation

Rather Yin suggested that an exploratory study should reflect the purpose of the study

and the criteria by which an explanation will be judged successfiil (p 21) Levine

(1990) concurs that explorations into educational computer use often lack propositions

Many of the published qualitative studies are deemed exploratory by their authors reflecting researchers quandaries about what should be the subject of the inquiry in this new field and of equal importance the lack of any guiding theory against which to cast the qualitative data In general most of the extant models of quahtative investigation into classroom computer use tend to be atheoretical and largely positivist rather than interpretive in their orientation (p 464)

The criteria forjudging an explorations success will be discussed in the later section

dealing with validity and reliability

The unit of analysis for this study was a technology consortium the combined and

49

cooperative efforts of seven school districts to provide instmctional technology leadership

toward better serving their students Such a partnership has collective activities and

outcomes and as a distinct unit represents something greater than activities and

outcomes of member school districts (Yin 1993) Those change facilitators whose

concems were examined were all employed by the individual school districts and were

recognized as leaders within their respective districts Each of these individuals was

asked a set of similar questions Their responses were considered as representative of the

leadership of their individual districts Appendix D provides the list of questions that

were asked

Yin (1993) suggests that topical relevance and access can contribute to the

appropriateness of this research design The consideration of TEKS technology

implementation efforts is being effected during this present academic year and is certainly

current

For linking the data to the research questions the specific analysis strategy used

was the pattem-matching model Those concems registered by the interview participants

were compared with pattems of CBAM data particularly the typical and hypothesized

profiles of school change facilitators as manifested on the Change Facilitator Stages of

Concem (CFSoC) protocol (Hall Newlove George Rutherford amp Hord 1991)

Informants were asked to fill out the brief CFSoC survey The CFSoC manual presented

typical profiles and gave suggested interpretations of representative profiles These were

used to determine the concems rankings of these informants

Yin (1994) admits that there are no precisely set criteria for interpreting findings

In discussing a study by an author named herein Jones Yin made these observations

50

Jones data matched one pattem better than they matched the other But how close does a match have to be so as to be considered a match Note that Jones did not do any statistical test to make the comparison Nor would a statistical test have been possible because each data point in the pattem was a single number for which one could not calculate a variance and could not conduct any statistical test One hopes that the different pattems are sufficiently contrasting that the findings can be interpreted in terms of comparing at least two rival propositions (p 26)

The concems of school change facilitators as they implement new models of

curriculum were studied through the mode of exploratory case study a qualitative study

design Because this current study desired to know the current concems of sitting school

leaders a case study paradigm was used because the events in the study cannot be

manipulated Campbell (1997) suggests that a qualitative design is appropriate when

ascertaining the insiders point of view and the informants personal involvement A

research protocol of examining documents and artifacts and conducting interviews

provided a wide variety of data Moreover as Levine (1990) asserted case study research

could be accomplished relatively quickly Levine suggested that a case study design

appears to be the method of choice for those investigating different facets of educational

uses of computer technology

Clouse and Garrett (1994) suggest more theoretical reasons for utilizing case

study with adult change facilitators Borrowing fi-om Piagetian concepts the stage of

formal operations which forms the basis of case study is well-developed by adulthood

Moreover case study is grounded in the needs of adult leamers because of the

51

meaningfiilness of problems to the aduh and the responsibility they take toward their

own personal development

Stake (1995) describes defining characteristics of case study research that are

apphcable for this present study

1 It is holistic its contextuality is well developed it is case oriented

2 It is empirical it is field oriented its emphasis is on observables including the observations by informants it strives to be naturalistic noninterventionistic and there is a relative preference for natural language description

3 It is interpretive its researchers rely on intuition with many important criteria not specified it is attimed to the fact that research is a researcher-subject interaction

4 It is empathetic although plaimed its design is emergent responsive its reporting provides vicarious experience

(Stake 1995 pp 47-48)

Context for the Study

This study site was selected in consultation with a consultant who had knowledge

of and had worked with this organization I was directed toward one of the Consortiums

superintendents to secure access This superintendent in tum directed me toward a

person at the Educational Service Center who would be able to assist me

This technology consortium was comprised of seven school districts with two

districts declining to participate in this research These districts were rural and agrarian

yet possessed school leaders who tmly wanted to bring their communities up to date with

52

technology These school sites were given pseudonyms which were generated by random

selection of cities fi-om states other than Texas in a current road atlas Names of

participants were given pseudonyms Those names were those of students fi-om my high

school yearbook and were drawn by lot

In general each of the five school districts were in Texas counties which have

declined in population since 1990 The combined population of these districts is 7306

(Texas Almanac 1998) Each districts economy was based on agriculture and varying

amounts of mineral wealth resulting in substantial variance in property values Each

county boasts a relatively low crime rate

More important than minute details this present study is focused on the big

picture the ways and means utiHzed to make this technology consortium a reality In

initial contacts with consortium leadership this researcher was directed toward Dr Sarah

McCuUough a program specialist of the Educational Service Center Region J located in

Center City Texas Dr McCullough was instmmental in establishing this technology

consortium and providing this researcher with the history and innerworkings of this

consortium Interview questions for Dr McCullough are in Appendix E The following

narrative of the foundation and fimctioning of this consortium is based on this

researchers interview with Dr McCullough (personal communication December 9

1998)

The Sah Fork Educational Technology Consortium (the Consortium) is comprised

of seven independent school districts all of which have akeady worked together as a

special education cooperative Six of these districts are members of Educational Service

Center (ESC) Region J while one is actually in the territory of ESC Region K As also

53

with special education cooperatives a technology consortium is an interlocal agreement

by Texas law and has a management board comprised of district superintendents one

district designated as fiscal agent and a chair authorized to speak and act for the group

The Salt Fork Telephone Company (SFTC) headquartered in Dellwood Texas

provides rural telephone service for several counties in Texas All of the school districts

in these counties depend on this provider for both telephone service and the possibihty of

Intemet connectivity In 1995 the SFTC invited school leaders fi-om their service area to

a demonstration in Dellwood to show off a variety of new technologies that they were

excited to announce particularly their new capabiHty for two-way interactive video

Because these districts had worked together before had a common telephone carrier and

had common interests these school leaders concluded it logical and practical to combine

together for technology improvement in their schools

Prior to the Consortiums establishment member districts were limited to only the

computers they currently had in the classroom Almost all of their computers were

stand-alone units Each district also had a satellite dish for the state network materials

but were using them poorly and inefficiently

Dr McCullough was initially hired to work with this group to get a two-way

interactive video setup organized Later she was deeply involved with authoring several

grants for this group Her subsequent work with the Consortium was to conduct an array

of custom-designed technology needs assessments for each of several job descriptions

(teacher counselor administrator etc) with the emphasis on what do you want that you

do not have with the view that technology was the means to fiilfill those needs She now

54

meets regularly with these superintendents as they hold Consortium management board

meetings

Dr McCullough describes the interrelationships of Consortium members

positively She notes very little dissention as they discuss procedures that most decisions

are made by consensus What serves one serves all of them she emphasizes as the

Consortium moves toward better technology use Each board member realizes that they

are at different point toward reaching group goals They realize the benefits of

collaborative planning a hard lesson for everyone to leam

The Consortium keeps operating fiinds in a bank account separate fi-om general

operating fiinds administered by the business manager of the fiscal agent To date

fimding has come fi-om grants and fi-om monies generated fi-om the two member districts

designated as property-wealthy under Chapter 41 of the Texas Education Code These

districts recapture a certain percentage of excess property wealth normally surrendered to

the State and assign those fiinds to the Consortium (see Chapter II) These districts have

voluntarily chosen to redistribute their fiinds in this manner

Because these districts have formed this consortium they not only have more

technology but also more capabilities As a whole there is improved student

performance and better trained teachers with a rise in Academic Excellence Indicator

System (AEIS) scores (see Chapter I) Most importantly these school leaders fimction as

a group They actively seek ways to collaborate

A recent example of this improved outlook on technology concems teachers use

of the Accelerated Reader (AR) program Heretofore it had been difficult to get teachers

to travel all the way to Center City for training for AR but with a high-quality technology

55

center in Dellwood closer to the other Consortium member schools there was high and

enthusiastic tumout for the training sessions

Informant Selection

This researcher invited each of the seven school districts in the technology

consortium to participate in this study In August 1998 a letter was sent to each of the

district superintendents of the Consortium introducing me the goals of the prospective

research how they might participate^ etc A copy of this letter is provided in Appendix F

Within two weeks of the initial invitation a letter was received fi-om one

superintendent stating that in consultation with his districts site-based team they would

decline to participate in this present study That same week this researcher received a

telephone call fi-om the Dellwood ISD superintendent who had been authorized by the

Consortium board to grant permission to use their districts for this study

After securing approval of the Universitys Institutional Review Board these

superintendents were again contacted and consent forms instmctions and CFSoC

surveys were mailed to superintendents building principals and technology coordinators

of the six remaining districts This mailing was in November 1998 Eighteen completed

CFSoC surveys would be the potential maximum Appendix G contains a copy of the

consent forms and instmctions for taking the surveys

Concurrent with mailing queries to Consortium staff this researcher made initial

contact with Dr McCullough of the ESC and conducted an interview with her in

December 1998

56

The mailings yielded only eleven retumed surveys fi-om the maximum eighteen

possible informants However two of those with completed surveys were deleted fi-om

the pool during the pre-interview stage due to lack of fiirther response to interview

queries The net pool yielded exactly three each of superintendents building principals

and technology coordinators representing five school districts These nine informants are

those whose CFSoC profiles and interviews will be discussed in Chapter IV

Data Collection

A variety of data collection methods congment with the case study method was

used leading to the development of converging lines of inquiry allowing triangulation

ofthe data leading to improved validity and reliability of this study (Yin 1994)

Survey The CFSoC instmment contained 35 Likert-style statements which were

grouped into seven stages of concem Each ofthe statements received a score of 0

through 7 The statement scores were added up to provide a raw score for each stage

That raw score was in tum evaluated by a percentile score chart For the given raw

score there was a corresponding percentile score Percentile scores were then encircled

on a CFSoC protocol Interpretation ofthe CFSoC was based on the profile yielded

from the administration ofthe instrument

Hall et al (1991) insist that their instrument must not be used to make a definitive

analysis of a respondent but rather all interpretations must be treated as hypotheses (p

29) They discuss three methods of examining the CFSoC protocol to generate

hypotheses Interpretations can be made either by examining the stage which shows the

highest degree of concem based on percentile score by examining the percentile scores

57

ofthe highest and the second-highest stages or by examining the fiill array of stage

percentile scores Hall et al point out

As individuals move fi-om little concem about facilitating use of an innovation into actively becoming involved with users as a facilitator it is hypothesized that their concems develop fi-om being most intense at Stages 0 1 and 2 to most intense at Stage 3 and uhimately to most intense at Stages 4 5 and 6 This is most likely to occur if the innovation is a positive one and there is administrative support for its implementation However reality has a way of intervening on this idealized trend which results in different and interesting profiles Where an individual is in this change process can best be assessed through interpretation of a complete concems profile Analyzing both the tabular fisting of percentile scores and the plots of these percentile scores as a graph provides the most complete clinical interpretationassessment (Hall et al pp 33-34)

The profiles accuued as part ofthe data collection are thus examined according to

fiill-profile examples given in the CFSoC manual (Hall et al pp 34-42) Additionally

specific information given by the respondents conceming their change facilitator roles is

considered in establishing these hypotheses Scores are interpreted on the shape ofthe

profile and not necessarily on the numerical score of each concem stage

Interviews There were semistmctured interviews with district superintendents

building principals and persons designated within the school community as the

technology coordinator those whom teachers and administrators rely upon when

computer savvy is needed As opposed to the more open-ended interview I made the

interview more focused as Yin (1994 pp 84-85) puts it The informants were busy

educators and administrators and their time was perceived as limited Interviews were

oriented toward ascertaining the informants knowledge and use of technology with a

58

view toward discovering concems they had as new curricular guidelines and concurrent

hardware implementation was instituted Interviews were conducted by telephone tape

recorded and transcribed for review Interview queries were based on the CFSoC

questionnaire (Hall et al 1991) and questions used in a similar dissertation project

(Nagy 1996) This researcher noticed that several questions as listed in Appendix D

would be commented on by the informants without being asked When each ofthe

questions were answered by the informant the interview ceased Any discussion of non-

germane issues (local school politics vocational programs etc) or school activities not

included in Chapter 126 ofthe TEKS were not evaluated

Documentation Merriam (1988) defines documents as just about anything in

existence prior to the research at hand (p 105) but cautions whether it contains

information or insights relevant to the research question and whether it can be acquired in

a reasonably practical yet systematic manner (p 105)

I wanted to review a wide variety of recent public records in the fiirtherance of

technology implementation for this Consortium including but not limited to school

board minutes technology consortium records established policy statements grant

applications tabular data and evaluations Not all of these documents were available

fi-om Dr McCullough or fi-om Consortium members What was available included the

initial grant applications needs assessment surveys and technology plan The Academic

Excellence Indicator System (AEIS) reports for the 1997-98 school year for each district

were retrieved fi-om the TEA web site (TEA 1999) During the course of informant

interviews certain legal documents were alluded to found in Vemons Texas Codes

Annotated and were useful in verifying interview data A current survey (September

59

1998) ofthe Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) provided a comparison

of similarly situated school districts for technology use Cumulative accountability data

conceming these districts was found in pubhc records (TEA 1995 1996 1997a 1998)

Standardized indicators of district performance could thus be obtained as evidence of

progress

Merriam (1988) suggests that the use of these documents assists in grounding a

study into the context ofthe problem that is under investigation A further purpose of

reviewing documentation is that such records present not only the history ofthe

technology program but also the sense of ownership and commitment that the leadership

exerts and the staff reflect in their service to their leaming communities We also seek

independent objective means to determine if these technology implementations yield any

progress thus avoiding halo effects fi-om those most intimately involved with the

organization

Data Analysis

Since data collection and data analysis drive one another (Gay 1997) the data

was organized to reflect pattems or themes which emerged fi-om the data (Bogdan amp

Biklen 1992) As they discuss evaluating data they affirm that a method of finding a

focus is to look over your coding categories and see which have yielded the greatest

amount of data (p 186)

The interview transcripts were read and reread to gamer a sense ofthe concems

manifested by the informants The analysis had to be germane to the viewpoint ofthe

informant (Tashakkori amp Teddlie 1998) Coding categories emerging fi-om the interview

60

data included student leaming distance leaming power attitudes training infrastmcture

and finance The relevant narrative fi-om the hard copies ofthe transcripts were color

coded by crayon By using the cut-and-paste editing method with the word processor

color coded text fi-om individuals transcripts were collated into listings of specific

concems

Bogdan and Biklen (1992) suggest that this method of sorting piles of coded

material helps the researcher in not only making better sense ofthe data but also

communicating the results to others Appendix H shows the broad categories or themes

along with the sub-categories which comprised each theme

Since both quantitative and qualitative data were used in this present research it

becomes vital to justify the use of each paradigm and how the data is analyzed within that

paradigm Tashakkori and Teddlie (1998) wholeheartedly affirm that the two paradigms

can be successfully fused into one study They suggest that researchers deemed

pragmatic do not necessarily have to be doctrinaire about research paradigms Among

the various research models they describe is included a mixed-model study which

includes a research design that calls for a field experiment and extensive ethnographic

interviewing to occur simultaneously and in an integrated manner (p 19)

The CFSoC survey (Hall et al 1991) was analyzed as per the instmctions given

and the examples displayed in Section IV of their instruments manual Since each

informant could be considered at an individual position on the CFSoC concems

continuum a hypothesized profile was made for each informant based on the relative

extremes in percentile ranks derived fi-om the raw scores ofthe seven concem stages on

61

the CFSoC protocol (pp 33-34) Hall et al took pains to remind CFSoC users that the

quantitative results could only be considered data to generate hypotheses (p 43)

The examples given in the CFSoC manual make comparisons ofthe various high

stages that informants exhibit For example a high raw score in Stage 3-Management

would reflect that the informant may have significant concems toward logistics time and

management in fulfilling professional duties vis-a-vis implementing the discussed

innovation A high raw score at Stage 0-Awareness uniquely and specifically indicates

that the informant may have many other concems in addition to the innovation currently

in question These extemal concems could be any other activities that vie for a change

facilitators limited attention that outweigh the immediate concem for the stated

innovation Hall et al describe a variety of combinations and relative positioning of those

concems that are most prominent in the informants thinking Data reporting of

informants CFSoC profiles in Chapter IV will reflect analysis strategies described by

Hall et al in their manual (Hall et al 1991 pp 34-42)

Tashakkori and Teddlie (1998) assert that the qualitative field material (notes

interviews etc) be evaluated on two dimensions a) whether the themes or categories

were established a priori or emerged during the analysis and b) the degree of complexity

ofthe qualitative analysis scheme (ranging fi-om simple to complex) (p 117) They note

that through this process of emerging themes six to eight categories or themes emerge

when no a priori mle is imposed on informants

Because the data would be analyzed using recurring themes (Glesne amp Peshkin

1992 Howard 1994 Miles amp Huberman 1984) emerging fi-om the course of

interviewing the technique of latent content analysis was used As opposed to manifest

62

content the surface meaning of a text latent content refers to determining the underlying

meaning of a narrative and is determined by a subjective evaluation ofthe overall

content ofthe narrative (Tashakkori amp Teddhe 1998 p 122)

The text ofthe interviews was read several times for topics that the informants

found important Those topics which appeared most fi-equently emerged as the themes

Tashakkori and Teddlie point out that this analysis scheme makes it more appropriate for

the phenomenon being studied (p 123)

Verification Strategies

Maxwell (1996) insists that validity in a quahtative study is not acquired simply

by applying boilerplate techniques and strategies but by describing specific ways and

means of mling out possible altematives to our interpretations and conclusions Maxwell

insists that validity is a goal rather than a product it is never something that can be

proven or taken for granted (p 86) Moreover validity must be determined within the

context ofthe research and not merely a property independent ofthe context For each of

three principal means of understanding Maxwell describes a specific method that I was

able to use to better ensure validity

1 Description Since the main threat to description is inaccuracy the informant

interviews were recorded on cassette tape and transcribed Each ofthe informants was

sent a copy ofthe transcribed conversation for review verification and suggestions

2 Interpretation The principal threat to interpretation is imposing my own

meanings to the informants words To combat this validity threat consistent member

checks were made during the course ofthe interviews to ensure that I was getting the

63

correct information from the informant It was important to allow each informant to

express himself or herself in their own words Several methods of eliminating personal

bias are described below

3 Theory Not paying adequate attention to altemative propositions becomes the

most serious threat to theoretical validity (Maxwell 1996 p 89-90) Altemative

propositions can be masked by researcher bias and reactivity

Elimination of researcher bias is based on understanding how my personal biases

could affect the informants and their comments and my conclusions subsequently

derived Maxwell declares that is virtually impossible to totally eliminate my personal

thinking and values from the study (p 91) By asking similar questions of informants by

allowing these informants to candidly express themselves and by consistent member

checking I controlled for personal bias

Reactivity the influence ofthe researcher on the informants is likewise

impossible to totally remove from the research as Maxwell insists

For interviews in contrast reactivity is a powerful and inescapable influence what the informant says is always a function of the interviewer and interview situation What is important is to understand how you are influencing what the informant says and how this affects the validity ofthe inferences you can draw fi-om the interview (p 91)

Lists of what to do to combat reactivity have been compiled (Marshall amp

Rossman 1989 Maxwell 1996) but all of these suggestions (triangulation member

checks audits etc) are simply the usual methods in qualitative research Since there are

64

virtually no qualitative studies ofthe research instrument available for comparison I have

relied on these procedures to control for biases

1 Feedback Maxwell (1996) encourages the use of a variety of outside observers

to examine the data analysis and give their comments to critique my logic and methods

Two individuals with experience with both technology and research methods have agreed

to assist me with this and evaluate the data analysis

a Mr Jack P Stell instmctional design manager Fairfax VA and b Dr C L Wayne Moore Assistant Professor University of Tennessee Knoxville

With differing perspectives and biases these reviewers indicated agreement that

the research methodology proposed was indeed followed and that the research questions

were answered They pointed out grammatical and spelling errors writing style concems

adherence to APA requirements etc

2 Member Checks Although informants were given repeated opportunities to

clarify themselves in the interviews informants were given the opportunity to respond to

the data analysis specifically identifying themselves

3 Rich Data Maxwell (1996) considers rich data to be detailed and complete

enough that they provide a full and revealing picture of what is going on (p 95) This

generally includes verbatim transcripts of interviews which were compiled for each of

the Consortium informants As the data was read and considered themes emerged fi-om

the data

4 Numerical Report Data This researcher used numerical and normally

quantitative data to add to the confidence level of what my informants were saying

There was particular concem with whether the efforts ofthe Consortium were making

65

any progress over the time period from its establishment to the time ofthe interviews

Publicly available data was gamered from AEIS and TAAS reports to ascertain progress

in school performance

Study Limitations

This study focused on technology implementation concems of change facilitators

of a single technology consortium limiting the representativeness ofthe study The

combined student population of these five districts is smaller than many urban high

schools Interview responses reflected a rural attitude Findings yielded reflect the

comments of those interviewed at the time ofthe study There may be a variety of future

long-range plans pending that might modify present policies These would include grants

bond issues school board elections or even newer state mandates

Nevertheless this study must transcend these limitations in order to be of interest

and find applicability by other scholars Yin (1994) hastens to point out that the case

study paradigm relies on analytical generalization not experimental statistical

generalization to generalize the results to a broader theory (p 36) Yin suggests

replication of a case study with similar sites before a general theory can gain wider

acceptance

There is also the problem of apphcability to school settings markedly different

from those studied However issues that are common to school districts in general could

be expressed by these informants (eg concems over funding student leaming staff

development or transfer of power)

66

CHAPTER IV

RESULTS OF THE STUDY

Informant and CFSoC Profiles

As discussed in Chapter III Consortium informants were sent a copy ofthe

CFSoC questionnaire and those protocols were retumed to this researcher These

informants responses have been evaluated according to guidelines established by Hall et

al (1991) This instmment does not consign each informant to each ofthe seven stages of

concem but rather categorizes the informant in a broader category of CBAM either

Awareness Self Task or Impact as was discussed in Chapter II Consequently each

informant will be designated by the general category based on their individual CFSoC

profile TheCFSoC protocols for each ofthe informants are included as figures in this

chapter

James

James Petty is the high school principal at Camden a position he has held for over

fifteen years James considers himself a practical person and professes a rather traditional

attitude toward his administrative duties The interview with James repeatedly mentioned

school discipline and teacher control ofthe classroom He readily admitted to relying on

other persons to inform him on technological issues rather than researching the data

himself

James CFSoC profile (Figure 4-1) exhibited extremely high levels of concem

with Awareness Management and Personal stages with percentile scores over 90 The

67

0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage 0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score 99 69 99 96 13 21 68

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-1 CFSoC Profile of James Petty Camden Principal

68

high Personal score suggests a concem for personal position and standing while the high

Awareness score indicates a diversity of issues facing him which to him are of greater

importance particularly classroom management Also a high Management score implies

time logistical and managerial concems The moderately high Refocusing score

indicates James has thought about altematives to the innovation and would be exhibiting

definite ideas and opinions over the technology implementation This profile suggests

James is not as likely to be involved in the change process as others might be Attempts

to intervene could intensify his current levels of concem Because ofthe high scores in

the Self array of stages I would hypothesize James to be in the SELF stage of concem

Bill

Bill Potter is the technology coordinator for the Camden schools although he

continues to teach math for much of his school day Bill leamed his present trade largely

by doing it Although relatively new to computers (less than fifteen years) Bill considers

himself to have been oriented toward technology from his military days as an Army pilot

during the 1960s to the present His formal computer training has only been in a few

junior college classes and some inservice training Bill credits his technology reputation

to being the one who knew how to operate the computer at an earlier date than his peers

Although in the technology coordinator role Bills highest CFSoC profile (Figure

4-2) score was in Awareness This is most likely attributable to having many other

professional concems at present particularly since he remains a classroom teacher for

69

0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

91 56 62 60

5 12 18

2 3 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-2 CFSoC Profile of Bill Potter Camden Technology Coordinator

70

much ofthe school day as well as his increaseingly greater role in his school district He

may also just now be beginning to envision himself as a change facilitator

Information Personal and Management scores are no more than six percentile

points apart suggesting personal status and time logistical and managerial concems are

also important to Bill An increased Refocusing score also indicates Bill has some

definite ideas about the innovation that warrant consideration Bill manifests a SELF

stage of concem for this iimovation based on his CFSoC profile

Ronnie

Ronnie Bennett has been technology coordinator at Dellwood for just a few years

but has a long reputation and a deep pioneering attitude not only toward computers but to

a wide array of technology Ronnie was the first at his school to use a computer first with

a VCR first with a CD player and first to tinker with quadrophonic sound Like Bill

Ronnie first leamed computing by doing it In addition Ronnie observed and later

worked with the various private vendors and technicians who provided technology

services to his building

Ronnies CFSoC profile (Figure 4-3) indicates several areas of concem High

Awareness and Personal scores indicate many concems other than the present technology

implementation Ronnie also considers his personal position and role in the school

organization to be important The similar scores in Management and Refocusing reflect

his concem for time and managerial issues and his definite additional ideas toward the

71

0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

99 76 97 91 39 40 92

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-3 CFSoC Profile of Ronnie Bennett Dellwood Technology Coordinator

72

innovation that might warrant consideration Ronnie appears to border between the SELF

and TASK stages of concem

Larry

Larry Beckman a former agriculture teacher has been the superintendent at

North Prairie for a few years Larry realizes his mral attitudes and folksy manner but

demonstrates by his proactive approach to leadership that advancing technology in his

district is in the best interests of his students and staff He has had little formal training

intechnology except for several workshops However Larry credits a hands-on

technology approach as most effective for himself

Larry had relatively high percentile scores for each ofthe seven stages of concem

with a low of 68 in Consequence Larrys highest CFSoC profile (Figure 4-4) score was

Management suggesting that the physical nuts and bolts and managerial concems

were most important Information scoring higher than Awareness indicates a better

understanding ofthe details ofthe innovation Larrys lowest scores in Personal

Consequence and Collaboration were only five percentile points apart suggesting

relatively lower concem for interpersonal interests He also scored high in Refocusing

suggesting that he is considering additional ideas about the iimovation that should be

considered Because ofthe high degree of management concems Larry would be best

described as being in the TASK stage of concem

73

0

100

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

87 89 73 94 68 72 92

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-4 CFSoC Profile of Larry Beckman North Prairie Superintendent

74

Mike

Mike McCoy has spent almost a decade at Sawtooth as superintendent Like

several others Mike is perceived as a doer having leamed a great deal about

technology through practical application Mike has a more direct responsibility with his

staff doing teacher evaluations and performing first-line maintenance with his buildings

technology He credits both a number of technology workshops and reading of

technology periodicals as being great sources of information

Mike as superintendent has many concems on his mind as his CFSoC profile

(Figure 4-5) indicates with a high score in Awareness His second highest score

Management suggests that he feels the cmnch of managerial and material concems for

his district Low Information and Personal scores could suggest that he feels secure in his

position and understanding ofthe innovation implementation A slight increase in

Refocusing fi-om Collaboration suggests that Mike is considering some ideas in addition

to the innovation implementation Because more personal concems are lower and the

managerial concems are high Mike appears to be in the TASK stage of concem

Vemon

Vemon Russell has well over three decades of public school service currently

finding himself as principal ofthe Sawtooth school Indeed he still teaches some science

classes and has even coached football while still an administrator Vemon is relatively

new to technology but indicates his willingness to leam by studiously reading the

manuals and attending workshops Vemon quips Ive leamed more from it in the last

three years than all the other years put together

75

0 100

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

96 43 34 82 9

18 31

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-5 CFSoC Profile of Mike McCoy Sawtooth Superintendent

76

Vemons CFSoC profile (Figure 4-6) shows him interested and positive about the

innovation with the higher Information score but the high Management score shows

Vemon still concemed over his day-to-day details Low Personal and even lower

Consequence and Collaboration scores and both raw and percentile scores of zero for

Refocusing indicate little concem over his facilitative role his personal status nor his

interest in exploring altematives toward this innovation At this late stage of career

Vemon appears comfortable in his knowledge ofthe innovation Vemon also appears to

be in the TASK stage of concem based on the high Management score

Renee

Renee White a mid-career educator occupies the technology coordinator

designation at Sawtooth schools Having been a secretary for twenty years Renee

considers herself adept at any technology thrown at her Describing herself as the chief

distributor of information Renee considers herself glad not to have a computer in her

home because she would play with it indefinitely

Renee exhibits similarly high percentile scores in Awareness and Management on

her CFSoC profile (Figure 4-7) These scores imply Renee has both a variety of concems

in addition to the innovation implementation and also concems over time logistics and

management of her responsibilities Similarly low percentile scores in Information

Personal Consequence and Collaboration suggest lesser concem for personal position

and collaboration needs A slight upswing in the Refocusing score suggests a concem for

articulating altemative ideas Renee seems to exhibit a TASK stage of concem

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0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

69 81 30 78 16 4 0

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-6 CFSoC Profile of Vemon Russell Sawtooth Principal

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0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

91 18 30 86 2 3

18

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-7 CFSoC Profile of Renee White Sawtooth Technology Coordinator

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David

David Jackson has been an administrator for decades and is the superintendent at

Woodlake David recognized the potential of computers and technology as soon as

computers became widely available to schools He enjoys being involved with the nuts

and bolts details of technology implementation even to the point of being involved with

the wiring for hardware implementation

David shows the same percentile score for both Awareness and Information on his

CFSoC profile (Figure 4-8) This impHes Davids concem for a variety of issues at

present and a desire to leam more about the innovation A relatively high Management

score suggests physical and managerial concems Lower scores in Personal and

Consequence imply that personal position and impact are not as important to David

Nevertheless Davids higher scores in Collaboration and Refocusing suggest a desire to

work together with others to make an impact on their leamers and to consider

altematives to innovation implementation David appears to be in the IMPACT stage of

concem very much concemed with how well he facilitates change with his staff

Stephen

Stephen Greer has been secondary principal at Woodlake for several years He has

always been interested in technology but attributes his current increased level of interest

to his rising to his present administrative post Stephen describes himself as a leamer

enjoying researching a problem and its solution A former math teacher and coach

Stephen considers himself an innovator

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100

0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness I- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

87 87 30 74 13 60 68

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-8 CFSoC Profile of David Jackson Woodlake Superintendent

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0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1 - Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

81 61 73 93 62 60 13

2 3 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-9 CFSoC Profile of Stephen Greer Woodlake Principal

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Stephens highest percentile score on his CFSoC profile (Figure 4-9) was in

Management implying greatest concem with logistical and managerial concems A

somewhat lower score in Awareness suggests concems over other issues at present

Similar percentile scores in Personal Consequence and Collaboration could be

interpreted as concem for his impact for his facilitative and collaborative styles A very

low Refocusing score implies that Stephen is not considering altematives to the

innovation at this time Stephens profile best reflects the TASK stage of concem

Summary of CFSoC Data

To summarize these school change facilitators demonstrate a variety of change

facilitator strengths and had at least one individual in each ofthe CBAM stages (SELF

TASK IMPACT) Most of them score relatively high in Awareness suggesting that there

are other competing issues for that individuals time Management also scores

consistently high suggesting the day-to-day managerial and logistical details of the job is

of major importance to each informant Individuals appeared to be on a higher CBAM

stage as they held a higher position in the school district although there were some

differences which could be due to experience with the innovation

Informant Concems

Informant concems were also collected as described in Chapter III Each

informants interview was tape recorded and transcribed Copies ofthe transcriptions

were sent to each informant for confirmation prior to data analysis

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Seven overriding themes emerged across these interviews These were topics that

appeared to be important to these informants as they implemented new technologies in

their school districts in relation to the TEKS for technology applications The informants

registered strong opinions over these themes To reiterate these themes are discussed in

regard to the Consortium as a whole since the focus ofthe study was not on inter-role

relationships

Attitudes

The informants collectively expressed concems over the attitudes of themselves

their peers and their staffs There was high concem over the prevailing desire to keep

current with the technology David Jackson Woodlake Superintendent was a pioneer in

his district with implementing computer use and describes those early days

When we got our first network and put computers in the classroom that is the first keyboard many of our teachers had ever touched in their life as far as a computer keyboard Had no idea how to tum it on Had no idea how to apply software Knew nothing Scared them to death Still have a few that are very reluctant to use a computer or Intemet or any type of technology of that sort in the classroom

David feels that his some of his staff still manifest a degree of reluctance to use

technology

So the biggest challenge that Ive had is getting teachers to acquaint themselves with computer technology and cable technology all the technologies that have been made available to them You know its not going to do any good if they dont know how to use it

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Larry Beckman North Prairie Superintendent recognizes the need to keep his

district current with new technology

And I think a part of that is that a lot of us out here we know well I dont know whether we know or whatever but anyway we feel like maybe that weve got to try and stay on top of it as much as we can because we are so far away from anything And if we dont we dont stay on top of it were basically hurting our kids because you know if they graduate fi-om here and go over to Tech or to AampM or somewhere like that then they run into these situations you know theyve never seen any kind of this kind of equipment then theyre already two years behind everybody

Stephen Greer Woodlake Principal believes he is indeed on the fi-ont edge of

the curve at this point in time but credits his rising to an administrative post as a turning

point in his attitudes toward technology

Really up until the time I became an administrator we were the kind of on the back end ofthe curve there for a while but I feel were comfortable where we are right now technology wise

So much ofthe difficulty in implementing technology has centered on the fear of

change These informants encounter these fears daily both within themselves and their

staffs There appears to be a generational gap in acceptance of technology James Petty

Camden Principal considered his teachers and noted

I definitely see a difference in the age groups Those that are five years away from retiring are more difficult to get into use ofthe computer maybe a lot of times And probably the younger ones its just much easier for them to accept and to use a computer right off

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Similarly Vemon Russell Sawtooth Principal chalks it up to age and experience

level

We have one or two teachers who use it but use it sparingly you know what Im saying But we have other teachers I think that use it a lot Probably our primary grades its used less in K through 1 than anywheres But then they are traditional teachers Theyve been teaching a long time

Concurring David Jackson correctly noted

Because many of our teachers are intimidated by the fact that the students in their classroom know a whole lot more about the technology available in the classroom than they do Which is not uncommon I think in many schools

Bill Potter Camden Technology Coordinator marvels at the older teachers lack

of desire to advance in technology

Its like the older teachers you know they put that thing over in the comer and dust it off just like that F-16 out in front ofthe park you know Nobody knows how to fly it but boy we maintain it and it stays shiny Thats they way a lot of these older teachers treat their computers Theyre afraid to tum them on see so weve got to overcome that fear

Bill suggests that some ofthe more sophisticated technologies now in homes

might influence younger educators greater acceptance of technology

Of course as these people retire and theyre going to get here pretty quick I imagine in our school system and the younger ones take to more technology and the younger they get the better theyre going to be because theyve all grown up with VCRs and your microwaves

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Renee White Sawtooth Technology Coordinator would add that teachers

purchasing of personal computers improves their attitudes toward technology

A lot ofthe teachers own personal computers and so increasingly at our school theres a higher comfort level with using them and with experimenting and trying to figure things out than there was just two years ago I dont know if its a change in personnel or it its simply the exposure has increased the comfort level Maybe some of both

Larry Beckman as a district leader strongly realizes that m the face of change

positive efforts to make change happen is preferable to ignoring the need for change

It forces you you know its kind of like you can either get on the boat and help paddle or you can get off and swim Id rather be in the boat paddling and trying to stay up with it because I dont swim very fast

Ronnie Bennett Dellwood Technology Coordinator strongly rejects the notion

that change is bad After decades in the classroom and office Ronnie is aware how

attitudes shape teaching activity

A long time ago I leamed that change is not always bad And I guess back there when I first decided you know I told myself there were a lot of people that said Computers are not for me I remember that and I told myself I thought I could either leam how to do this or Im going to fall by the wayside And having always been interested in technology and all change has never been a problem for me And it is for a lot of folks People that have taught school a certam way for twenty or twenty-five years and suddenly you interject this new thing called technology or computers and some people just say Now wait a minute I didnt think what I was doing was all that bad

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Ronnie suggests that some teachers might be blinded to their own attitudes about

their teaching practices

As a regular classroom teacher I know that the way I present things and the way the kids I dont present things anything like I did when I first started teaching at all And thats because kids change times change You cant stay the same Things dont stay the same You have to be willing to you know if theres a better way to do something you know what we have is we have a lot of people that have been in this profession for twenty twenty-five some of them nearly thirty years and they taught the same lesson wrong for thirty years Just because youve done it over and over and over doesnt mean that its right

Power

In addition to changes in attitudes changes in school curricula educational

methods extemal mandates etc also bring about changes in power Who has the

authority Who decides what to do Who calls the shots These issues were on the minds

ofthe informants

Crawford Bodine and Hoglund (1993) distinguish attributes of recognized power

by de iure school leaders from perceived powerment of classroom personnel Power for

the sitting administrator is the fi-eedom fi-om being told by others what to do (p 143)

The classroom person being empowered to leadership is instead acknowledged their

power and receives fi-eedom to exercise that responsibility with a minimum of

bureaucratic or managerial constraints (p 232)

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Technology appears to be a key means of providing teachers the empowerment to

collaborate Ronnie Bennetts early vision of computers manifested prescience

I remember thinking you know This is a way for teachers to share things I remember thinking that you know that teachers had access to a machine that would allow them to communicate back and forth with teachers at other schools then would share all this information Of course now with e-mail and the Intemet thats what they want everybody to do

Not only does technology empower the teacher but also the leamer Stephen a

secondary principal would hope that his teachers realize the need to surrender some of

their perceived power with a view toward improving instmction

I have tried to push for change away fi-om lecturelisten and readtake notes multiple choice assessment And I have pushed for learner-centered self directed leaming What I couldnt achieve through preaching and bullying technology has almost single-handedly achieved for me in that area

Renee noted that often her students were akeady prepped to use the technology

She had no quahns over accepting a more facilitative role with her students

Now the fact was you know the computers were there and the kids were going to leam about them whether I helped them or not because thats the nature of children They like that technology theyll figure it out with you or without you

Not only direct instmction but also day-to-day teacher practices are being

changed due to technology Stephen related anecdotes about the changes technology

made in unbalancing teachers perceived status and power

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Ive witnessed the evolution of one of our teachers in particular that happens to be a coach that when he and I both appeared on this campus ten years ago he was strictly a traditional instmctor But Ill tell you right now its hard for him or has been hard for him but hes making the move successfully to give up the stmcture to give up the power and tum the power of leaming over to the students rather than the power being wielded by the teacher Thats been a hard stretch and technology it helps it gives you a venue to shift that power but at the same time there are sticky issues Obviously fi-ee speech issues obscenity issues those kind of things that are introduced with the advent of technology

Just getting traditional teachers to use a simple software package has tumed into

virtual showdowns in the administrative office Stephen gives an example from a

colleagues experience that echoes his own understanding

I think of an administrator fiiend of mine in a school in the Panhandle and theyre trying to move the rank-and-file in that direction And they are to the point where grades are submitted on disk at the end ofthe semester And they just have one math teacher as it tums out thats refiised you know just-was-not-going-to-do-it you know and finally his principal after two directives the third time he went down there and said Look you will tum your gradebook in on disk in May or you will not be working here in August That simple Step out But there are a lot of people that are nervous and I think its fear mostly I think its fear

The imposition of new ideas and new procedures can have an intimidating effect

on traditional teachers and administrators a relinquishing of power James admittedly a

traditional administrator relates that some of his teachers might be following his lead in

leaming new things

Its like making them do something that you know theyre required to do and theyre only doing it because they have to Maybe

90

Im like them or theyre like me in that some of us older dogs its a bit more difficuh to teach us something new or change

If leaming technology is merely a requirement for continuing teacher development

and not something that is perceived as needed then teachers will exhibit reluctance in

adoption of new technologies

As new technologies are implemented in schools there is the need for immediate

assistance in using the technology Those persons designated as technology coordinator

of a building or a district have had a modicum of perceived power bestowed on them

although each of these coordinators who have acted as informants still spends a

significant portion of their day in the classroom

Ronnie Bennett relates that his experiences with a number of superintendents

have tacitly acknowledged his expertise

Ive always been the kind of person that if something is broke that somehow ends up in my hands

Often they would say to Ronnie You tell me what you want or what to do

Ronnie appreciated one superintendent that was particularly supportive

(Conceming administrative support) but Buster (the superintendent) was like you know he wanted in there boy But he just about anything I ever wanted or needed you know he was just he was ready And he knew what I was talking about above all whereas a lot ofthe others had no idea what I was talking about

Bill found himself stumbling into his role as technology coordinator

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But as far as being specifically trained for this Im not I just picked it up as I went and I was the guy that knew how to tum the computer on so I got the job you know as the Computer Gum You know the people the powers that be many of them ofthe teachers looked at me as having expertise really that I didnt have I just had one at home and knew how to tum it on they didnt They just thought I was genius you know so thats how I inherited this job

Later Bill found himself besieged by folks wanting his specialized knowledge

As kids leam more and more of this (computers) then we have people I have people you know that call and want to What kind of computer do I need to buy Of course you know thats like trying to recommend the type of automobile (they need to buy) and you dont want to get into that

Renee would chalk up her perceived expertise to her job title She has been skilled

with computers for years but has not always had people wanting her knowledge about

computers while she officially taught another subject at another school

So anyway I knew a lot about computers before other people but (because I taught home economics) no one ever asked me anything about computers at that school The whole year I was there no one had a question about computers All of a sudden because I teach computers I am the computer gum the shift in the role simply came with the title So I think what Im trying to say is is it the title itself dictating your role Not so much at first your knowledge so thats helpful and certainly its going to keep people coming back if youve been able to help them but simply your title itself says Oh you must have explanations that will help us here

Nevertheless final authority remains in the hands of de iure administrators One

ofthe technology coordinators explains

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And another thing too is that the administrator has the authority and theres a lot of things that I can see like I see we need to be doing training and that sort of thing but I dont have the authority in order to make that happen But until you get these administrators that are you know technologically oriented you know its hard to make things like that happen

This same technology coordinator feels fhistrated with trying to get teachers to use

technology and insists that those in leadership need to take charge and lead

Weve got these people at that level like the administrative level who have to provide the leadership that have the authority to make things happen and its like convincing someone you know youve got to convince them ofthe fact that it needs to be done Theyre too comfortable with you know getting the basketball games arranged and all this sort of thing and making sure a teachers in a certain classroom but boy when it comes to technology unless that person has used a computer its foreign to them

Student Leaming

The educational leadership literature points us to student learning as the ultimate

goal in any educational enterprise These informants unanimously echoed that concem

Unless the school staff perceive that the technology hardware is adequate to provide

quality educational experiences for the students the hardware is of little value Larry a

superintendent wonders why anyone would think otherwise

(Conceming his site-based committee) And then let them kind of I guess decipher what it is that they can use what it is that we need for our students how its going to benefit the kids whenever we get this stuff Whats going to be the benefit for the kids Are we going to teach them how to use it or are we just going to put it in the comer

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Because he perceives that both students and staff are using the machinery effectively

Larry is more encouraged to plan for an increase in hardware for his district

Renee has been enmeshed in the technology for so long and has seen so much

progress with her students that they find technology use as normal

The kids who are in the tenth grade this year started school with computers They started kindergarten in Sawtooth with computers theyre the first class And when they hit my eighth grade class in computer literacy two years ago all I had to do was say Heres the program I want you to go to the menus at the top ofthe screen and see whats under each menu and get an idea of where things are Now I want you to create a PowerPoint presentation with these elements and I promise you other than probably a four or five minute demonstration on the program how it operated I did not have to tell those kids a thing It was OK where you expect them

Because of implementation of technology teachers are not only expected to use it

and thereby improve their teaching but also to increase student leaming Stephen a

secondary principal noticed the difference almost immediately

When we became connected and we put our computer labs online and when we got computers that are interfaced with televisions that are hooked into the Intemet and also to cable in the classroom Then automatically the teachers saw the convenience and the usefulness of using technology in what they do It sort of served as a catalyst to move fi-om traditional lecture instmction to student self-directed leaming To me thats the biggest change

Stephen considers technology as the catalyst in many areas of education He

integrates his technology concems with more global interests

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Technology is proving to be a wonderful thing and a wonderfijl instmctional aid and in a large sense in my mind its the thing thats driving the conversations we have in the political realms regarding charter schools home schools private school vouchers because we dont have the monopoly on education any more and I think thats a good thing I think students and their parents are going to look for the most bang for their buck and theyre going to look for education thats provided to them opportunities and experiences thats provided to them in a non-encumbering way To me the biggest question is in relation to technology is how to predict where were going

If indeed the quality of teaching is critical toward student leaming technology is

not always believed to be a positive factor in such progress David a superintendent is

not happy with some ofthe pervasiveness of technology in the classroom

I may be totally wrong but probably thats going to be the biggest area of change is the way we deliver instmction to students other than one-on-one in the classroom I see the day that the kids here at Woodlake schools will be watching the TV monitor

As a traditional administrator in a traditional school James has reservations on

how well teaching quality is exhibited when mixed with various technologies and

instmctional arrangements Traditional school procedures such as homework could be

modified or even made obsolete through technology James even suggests that his

teachers may never have the time nor the physical space in their rooms to handle all the

information fi-om the new technologies He senses a foreboding dread of technology

having the potential to replace the teacher

I see tremendous change and I think its going to continue and grow by leaps and bounds whether its laser discs or computers And I dont know where all its going but I see it coming And I dont think

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the teachers ever going to be replaced I hope they dont try because itll our quality of teaching is going to diminish I think if they do but I do see more and more technology involved in the classroom by these various kinds of things that weve been talking about

Informants have had varying amounts of time to measure the effectiveness of their

technology implementation Some of these districts have had over a decade to consider

increases in student leaming through computer technology David elaborated about what

his students at Woodlake have accomplished due to their years of experience with

technology

I feel like our students will be very prepared when they leave here to go on to college in the area of technology Woodlake has been fortunate to have (had) technology a lot longer than many other schools and weve had kiddos that have been able to use technology that they leamed here to work their way through college based on what theyve leamed and the exposure they got right here on technology

Mike McCoy Sawtooth Superintendent also has had highly advanced hardware

in his building for years and remarks how Sawtooth students at every level are integrating

technology into the curriculum

The students are just so extremely comfortable with technology I mean its just second nature with them almost You know we have computers in kindergarten you know all the way through twelfth grade and theyre in every classroom Our kindergarteners have no trouble with just going in sitting at the computer and you know being able to by themselves you know pull up a game or whatever it could be Every one of our elementary kids know that the information is available to them and they know how to get it off the Intemet They know where to go

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Renee cautions that the changes that have been made and the progress achieved are

not just ends in themselves Despite piles of advanced technology in the classroom

Renee interjects

I still have to teach students to write I still have to teach students grammar I still have to teach students how to understand what they read I still have to get them to read I have to get them to write And I think this is tme generally technology is only a tool Its not the end result Were trying to teach students reading writing and arithmetic The 3 Rs The tools have changed the concepts have not Youre still trying to teach kids to think so they can move out into the world and be citizens ofthe greater society

Some administrators admittedly traditional in orientation have concems that

technology will dismpt the orderly progress that they have endeavored to produce in their

buildings They assume that discipline will lead to better student leaming James wonders

what effects distance leaming and Intemet use will have on both instmction and student

research when discussing the new interactive video delivered foreign languages classes

his school might offer

And to go the advanced (diploma) route its almost a necessary part of our curriculum As far as liking it I dont I think they do a poor job of teaching the course I think its just not a good way for students to leam

As for the interactive class James does not think it represents the best teaching method

He would prefer to have a live teacher in the classroom one that will be more proactive

in maintaining discipline and standard teaching activities

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Vemon also expressed concem over intemal discipline in the use ofthe e-mail

function ofthe system

My concem is consistency on the discipline ofthe e-mail of students in our school We try not to let them use it personally and I dont think its consistently enforced throughout our school and its very hard to supervise e-mail The e-mails a problem here that I have some teachers that watch it close and some teachers that dont

Indeed while discussing student leaming all of these informants expressed

specific concems over distance leaming and about its effects on their jobs and their

leamers As a result an additional concems theme distance emerged fi-om the data

Distance

Because the Consortium is implementing an advanced distance leaming center in

each of its member schools each informant volunteered concems over its

implementation use and outcomes The very concept of distance however is not

simply limited to distance leaming but also to the significant distances Consortium

educators have between their schools and sources of school improvement

These informants perceive improvement for their school districts by being able to

bring a greater variety of activities and services to their districts Larry a superintendent

jumps at the chance to use distance leaming in his district He sees benefits in distance

leaming to both professional and student progress as well as it being a cost-cutting

measure

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I think its going to be extremely beneficial especially to schools out here like we are that you know were an hour and a half away fi-om the Service Center or fi-om Center City or Tech or anywhere like that and itll be extremely beneficial to our students You know we can pick up some college classes We can get them some dual-credit classes Ive got some people here that want to take some classes and want to work on some graduate work and so forth that maybe we can pick up School board training and in-service training through the Service Center will save us lots of dollars and lots of time because if we dont have to travel all the way to Center City to get our in-service and even if its a half-a-day deal you spend a whole day by the time you drive over there and drive back

Mike agrees with Larrys concem over hteral distance fi-om school to service

center When staff have to do as much travel as do these school leaders distance becomes

a significant factor in what they can accomplish

Were so isolated Were a hundred miles from Center City which is where our Service Center is Instead of travel time you know because any teacher who leaves here loses a full day even if its an hour workshop

Renee echoes Mikes concems She experiences the presure ofthe distance cmnch

as she budgets her time and resources

We live a hundred miles fi-om any kind of technical support and we pay $10000 an hour for somebody to come out and fix it so you think twice before you even ask to have (a computer) looked at Can I work around this

Nevertheless there is a sense of concem registered by each informant over distance

leaming implementation As discussed in the previous section there is a fear of

99

technology supplanting the teachers role David sees distance leaming in his professional

future but also makes this prediction

My first instinct is to say that probably distance education is going to have effect particularly on mral America Im not real sure Im ready to buy that yet It may but Im not totally yet sold on distance leaming as a tool for replacing the teacher in the classroom There may come a day that that might be the only way that we can deliver some instmction to our students If and when that day comes I think thats going to be a shame and I think thats going to be a step back in education

Previous efforts with distance leaming were fi-ustrating at some informants

schools David registers his experiences

And (distance learning) wasnt that well received either fi-om the students or the parents And I know that distance leaming will be better than that because youll have two-way interactive audio and video at all times But I still have reservations and Ill have to see it work well to change my mind on it I probably cant stop it fi-om coming

Ronnie having been a distance leaming facilitator also remembers problems with

this teaching format for students and facilitator alike

But it was all these schools even as far away as Kansas that were viewing this at the same time And its hard to get through on the telephone line because you had all these people trying to get through to ask a question

When asked about the net effects of all this Ronnie explained

We had a lot of I guess youd say disillusioned parents and kids because they were expecting to get you know they thought What a

100

wonderfiil way to be in touch with computers and what have you And you know if we did work we had to bundle that work up send it to San Antonio Well by the time the guy got it graded and got it back you know it might be a week or two And at the same time we were under no pass no play mles And you had athletes that you know at three-weeks reporting period didnt know if they were passing or not And then some of them would wind up failing at the end and they didnt even really know why they were failing And so you know we had a bunch of kids that were like ineligible

Fmstrations registered by the aduh facilitators were received clearly but students

responses to the distance experience were even worse Ronnie elaborated in detail about

the legwork done on-site to facilitate distance leaming As is axiomatic in instmctional

design inadequate feedback does not promote leaming

The kids never really knew for sure if what they were doing was what he wanted or what was acceptable or till he had a chance to mark it and write notes on it and what have you And a lot of times by the time they did get feedback on it well it was too late

Renee also experienced first-hand the details of distance leaming Conceming the

possibilities of interactive video Renee questions

I guess the biggest concem has been teachers who are afi-aid that they will get dumped on How many students are you going to expect me to teach for this class that I have the same prep time that I had when I had seven kids And then all of a sudden Im teaching an interactive video classroom where I have kids fi-om Woodlake and from Dellwood and fi-om Beaverdam and fi-om Sawtooth and all of a sudden I have fifty kids instead of fifteen Im given the same amount of prep time or maybe Im given a second hour of prep I still have the logistics of having to be ready for however many my school district decides to contract for And I have to be eminently more prepared that I ever thought about having to be prepared in a normal classroom Because I cant go on the air and expect to freestyle it you

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Renee a technology coordinator as well as a classroom teacher brings distance

leaming down to earth with her practical concems Contrasting with the concems of

teachers over the years distance leaming is bringing in new heretofore unanticipated

concems and challenges Renee relates

You know when we just had textbooks the worst problem you had to deal with was with the student who showed up in class without their books or you ran out of chalk and you sent somebody down to the office to get chalk But when you start using these levels of technology where the bugs are not quite as worked out then you not only run into you run into problems using the technology that really can cmsh your class time and cmsh your prep time

James is adamant in his dislike for distance leaming Earlier he indicated that

distance leaming might not be a good way to leam James augments this with more

mundane administrative concems Since James perceives the teacher role in a traditional

manner he has concem over classroom discipline in a distance leaming format

Well I dont think youre going to have any kind of classroom without discipline in the class And the only person that can do that is the one that is supposedly in charge the one thats taking care of grades etc So that teacher has almost got to see her classroom

Training

Unless teachers administrators and other school staff are appropriately trained to

use the new technology hardware and software will be of little use Continuous staff

training goes on in this Consortium but Vemon expressed dismay over some ofthe

preparations for early technology implementation

102

I dont think we did enough preplanning before we got involved with the computers We just sort of put them in and it became a hit-and-miss thing you understand If I had to do it over again I would want lots and lots of preplanning to see how we could do it better how to install how to implement and so forth how we wanted to use it for our curriculum

Other informants quipped that the limits of whatever training they had for some

technology applications simply consisted of Heres the computer Heres the box Theres

the desk Put it there Larry has jumped right in to get his staff trained through a variety

of sources He is looking forward to all the training perks his district will receive from

this present technology implementation and the workshops he has set up

Theres so much information and so many different benefits that can come over that that its just mind-boggling that everything that we can possibly pick up out here And so were going to get plenty of training before we ever jump in there and you know put a room full of equipment in there and then it sits there and gathers dust If we cant use it theres no need for it being out here

Larry affirms the benefits of leaming by doing

I guess I would say that probably about ninety percent of my training has basically come through the Service Center and the other ten percent is just hands-on getting one there and doing it You know I guess Ive leamed Ive leamed a lot by you know just by using it because if you dont well going to all the classes is not going to help you a bit anyway

Stephen realized a concem for the format of much of staff training He found the

typical training arrangements useless and intimidating for his staff Smaller traming

103

groups where more personal assistance can be given seems to be preferable to the mass

training activities so common to staff development

We dont herd thirty people in a room and have one person standing at a computer in front ofthe room and telling them how it can happen I mean we put five or six in the room and have somebody with knowledge about it there and then everybody has their hands on that tool They get to make their own mistakes so they get to correct their own mistakes and real leaming happens then

Now that Bill has a key role in training Camden staff in technology he realizes

that the increasing quantity of hardware possessed by the district carries with it the need

for increasing quality of staff straining

We had a bunch of stuff in quotes stuff but nobody knew anything about it you know And we got this stuff in We got it hooked up And then nobody knew how to maintain it There wasnt any training I mean you know yeah you look out here at Camden Oh boy Weve got computers But nobody knew how to tum them on and of course that wasnt where the emphasis was Wed met a requirement by having so many computers and that sort of thing and maybe doing a paper drill saying that people could do things but in reality that just wasnt there

Bill finds the attitudes of some of his colleagues fiiistrating If the computers are

seen as nothing more than expensive video games the implementation of technology

seems useless The teachers have yet to realize just what these computers can do for their

instmction

Its going to be easier there but we still have to train these people as to How do you use this thing See and most ofthe teachers dont have the time and the creativeness I guess or we dont give them the time you know to sit down and say Look at this thing You know

104

they dont go home like I used to and sit down and play with it because I enjoyed it see Id go home and play with it and say A-ha Man I can use this in my classroom

But as Bill has discovered some ofthe technology training ultimately takes hold

and teachers eventually intemahze new skills

But anything to get them to use those things You know if they just stumble on it like one of our Enghsh teachers has found all this stuff on Shakespeare and Macbeth you know and all this sort of thing Shes just going through the ceiling But thats just a little bitty part of things out there that you can find and these people dont know how to look for this stuff So weve got a lot of training (to do)

Ronnie concurs noting how his colleagues at Dellwood have been trained and

then apply the new technology

Well once they realized that this thing that got placed in their room was a tool that could be used for their benefit and could actually help them and their students you know they were ready to jump in there and start trying stuff

Unfortunately some Dellwood staff do indeed balk at modifications to their

training Citing the example of changing the district-adopted electronic gradebooks

Ronnie concluded

And some of them say Oh I just now leamed how to use the other one and here you are wanting to (change it) You know that type of change People get used to doing something and they dont want you to change them around but I think its human nature in anything

105

Infi-astmcture

With ever-advancing technological strides the infrastmcture needed to

successfully implement new curricular mandates has to also increase Our informants

pride themselves in their personal involvement in ensuring a topflight technology

infi-astmcture for their school districts

David describes himself as a pioneer in implementing new concepts in his district

When the challenge first came for implementing a computer network David relates

The maintenance guy and I sat down and said You know we can do this So we designed it ourselves and ran the wire and made the connections and totally put in the network system ourselves We did not hire it done which has helped from the standpoint of troubleshooting We put it in we know how it works and we can fix it

Mike also has rolled up his sleeves to keep hardware in Sawtooth working

efficiently If the technology coordinator is busy Mike has no qualms about getting

things fixed

We just had a problem this morning I was dealing with I went dovra there I can do the hardware things a whole lot easier than software but you know there were just two wires out of place I just kind of happened to notice it plug them back in the right places and we were back in business

Indeed Mike has stayed current with technology and maintenance

I have to stay a little more up here because if anything happens Im the guy they holler at so first I mean to fix it not just holler at Ive leamed a lot the last few years Just been forced to I guess

106

Bill laments the lack of foresight on the part of some administrators in keeping the

hardware maintained

That one-shot deal We got the computers That cost is out ofthe way We can forget about technology now weve got our X number of computers And then all of a sudden like you say weve got to have a hard drive here you know and a floppy drive went out there and a monitor goes out here well good-ness man whats the problem

Bill wonders if his leadership personnel were misled by various sales

representatives whose goals for sales were not always congment with school needs

Before I got into this our superintendent relied on a salesman and we bought a bunch of stuff we didnt need and it didnt fit in the overall plan It was like buying a Dodge engine and wed buy a Chevrolet body and all of a sudden these things werent compatible So we wasted a lot of money and Im sure school districts all over the state of Texas did This is a small community here Id like every shekel to count Theres not too many people around here that really realize that I dont guess

Stephen is concemed with making reasonable forecasts for what future

technologies he will need for his building He demonstrates that he has thought through

practical technology management issues

To me the biggest question is in relation to technology is how to predict where were going I mean just a little bit because were dropping tons of money on the hardware on the software on the training But even little issues I mean twenty years ago Woodlake was out in fi-ont on technology because they bought a bunch of Apple He computers And then they used them for eighteen years which put them way behind the leaming curve you know and then what computer do you buy Do you buy it with upgradable service contracts What kind of software are you looking for How is distance leaming going to

107

impact all this How does it impact your scheduling on a day-to-day basis How does it impact your school calendar How does it impact the people you hire

Stephen is looking squarely at the future needs of his staff and students

If we knew where it was headed we could be much more effective in our long-range planning But as it is in my mind its hard to plan beyond two years because theres no way of knowing where were going to be Weve had numerous conversations in my faculty meetings about individual laptops for students as opposed to the big stand-alone units in a big lab Theres discussions about the use of software versus hard-copy textbooks And I think were moving that way I just dont know how quickly And I dont know to what degree and thats the most perplexing thing as far as Im concemed

Money

As this present study is conducted significant changes are occurring in the

petroleum industry Since there has been a drop in petroleum prices some Chapter 41

(see Chapter Two) school districts have realized a significant drop in ad valorem

revenues Remembering that much ofthe financing for the Consortium comes fi-om two

Chapter 41 districts there exists some cause for concem Because these informants

represent both Chapter 41 and Chapter 42 districts none of these informants will be

identified by name in this section

One Chapter 41 superintendent related to us the situation regarding a loss of

funding for that superintendents district

Probably the biggest reason this last year we were able to put several million dollars of recapture money into the technology consortium Unfortunately being that most ofthe Chapter 41 districts

108

in our area are highly dependent on oil and mineral value and we lost 25 percent of our value last year Probably well lose at least that and maybe even more

Another Chapter 41 superintendent has noticed a drop of revenue but slants the

situation differently

It doesnt affect us that much believe it or not I mean it affects us some definitely but you know the higher the price of oil the more money we have to give away The lower the price the less we have to give away Because you only get to keep a certain value per student

All ofthe Chapter 41 informants indicated that they were glad to participate with

less property-wealthy districts in maintaining fimding for the Consortium

In dealing with school funding there is also the attendant concem with dealing

with government entities A Chapter 41 superintendent explains the situation as the

potential purchasing of more hardware is considered

(Conceming hardware purchasing) If this legislative session the Legislature does away with the hold harmless for Chapter 41 schools (See Chapter 2) well be in a whole different situation and well be saying Well do that when we can afford it I guarantee you

Because there are restrictions on where Chapter 41 districts can expend their

fiinds a Chapter 41 principal explains some creative strategies for retaining funds

Because the hang-up was that those monies that came out of these wealthy districts So in other words we could send our money to the Region(al Service) Center to be used for those purposes but we couldnt reap the benefit of i t (Dr Sarah McCullough) wrote grants specifically targeted at those of us that were putting money in the pot to help us get distance leaming labs up and running So its just been a

109

maze of dancing with the bear which anytime you deal with the government thats the way it is

As this is written a Chapter 41 superintendent hopes that the Texas Legislattire

will allow the legal stmcttires that made the Consortium a reality and function at its peak

to continue to exist

Now we would hope that the Legislature will realize that and possibly rewrite the current law to allow us to divert possibly more than ten percent into the technology consortium or change the way that we do it altogether to where the technology consortium can continue to benefit in the same arena of money that weve benefited for the last year or two

A Chapter 42 school leader looking at the Consortium as a whole sums up the

attitude of each of our informants

Well this consortium has been a good thing for us because I think by coming together you know I think this is people who have ideas and also have monies that they want to use for telecommunications and technology want to see that people in rural areas like ours are making an effort to pool their resources and thoughts and what have you When they see that you got seven schools that are working together to try to share ideas and help work through problems and even go so far as to share teaching personnel things like that I think thats something that people who have monies are kind of wanting they want to see that Because thats the whole idea behind you know trying to get reach some of our goals by the year 2000

Summary of Interview Data

All nine ofthe informants in this study provided candid assessments of their

individual roles in implementing technology in their districts the improvement of student

110

leaming and the training of staff to use the technology These latter points are also

suggested in the literature on staff development (Joyce amp Showers 1988) Concems over

infi-astmcture and finance were also supported in several other studies (Bailey 1997

Becker 1998 Kwajewski 1997 Maddux 1997 Texas Association of School

Administrators 1998)

New insights fi-om this study included the heavy apprehension over distance

leaming and the intensity ofthe power shift within the school system The fluctuation in

petroleum prices that occurred during this study did not completely take these leaders by

surprise but are concems with which Chapter 41 superintendents will continue to

contend

I l l

CHAPTER V

SUMMARY CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Summary of Research

As described in Chapter III quantitative data was in the form of Change

Facilitator Stages of Concem Questionnaire (CFSoC) profiles evaluated according to

Hall et al (1991) with hypothesized points on the Stages of Concem continuum for each

participant Conversations with nine informants fi-om the Consortium leadership cadre

formed a series of interviews that were analyzed and evaluated for emerging themes

Seven themes grew fi-om the data analysis and were discussed

CFSoC Profiles

Hall et al (1991) suggest that the Stage of Concem for any given innovation

varies with the change facilitator registering the array of concems Borrowing fi-om Fuller

(1969) Hall et al suggest that concems for the innovation within the individual change

facilitator begin at the level of Awareness progressing to Self concems then Task

concems and finally to Impact concems This researcher was able to hypothesize a

general stage of concem for each ofthe informants based on the methods of profile

interpretation defined by Hall et al (pp 29-42) The initial research question referred to

Stages of Concem placement for each informant

Where do these school leaders fall on the Concems-based Adoption Model (CBAM) continuum regarding TEKS technology implementation

112

The initial goal was to ascertain the position of each of these informants on

CBAM Table 5-1 provides a breakdown of this studys informants their job roles and

their hypothesized Stage of Concem

Table 5-1 Study Informants and CBAM Stages of Concem District Comparison

District

Camden

Tipllwor4H

North Prairie

Sawtooth

Woodlake

Superintendent

TASK

TASK

IMPACT

Principal

SELF

TASK

TASK

Technology Coordinator

SELF

SELFTASK

TASK

The table suggests that those in more well-defined administrative roles tended to

be more task oriented about their concems whereas those whose job descriptions are

inclusive ofthe classroom and who are also designated as change agents tended to be

more oriented to self and personal issues despite their abilities or expertise

As Hall et al (1991) have previously hypothesized the more experienced a

change facilitator is in the change facilitator process the more advanced that change

facilitator will be on the CFSoC profile The stages of concem of these informants in this

sample appear to concur with CFSoC projected norms Indeed if tiie stages of concem

are arranged in descending order (Impact Task Self Awareness) as in Table 5-2 there

113

appears to be a greater advancement along the Stages of Concem continuum based on the

more advanced job role

Table 5-2 Study Informants and CBAM Stages of Concem Concem Stage Comparison

Informant Stage of Concem

Woodlake Superintendent IMPACT

North Prairie Superintendent TASK

Sawtooth Superintendent TASK

Sawtooth Principal TASK

Woodlake Principal TASK

Sawtooth Technology Coordinator TASK

Dellwood Technology Coordinator TASKSELF

Camden Principal SELF

Camden Technology Coordinator SELF

These change facilitators fi-om the Sah Fork Consortium seem to manifest stages

of concem similar to those of other change facilitators studied through the CFSoC Two

ofthe technology coordinators seem to be more TASK oriented than a principal and one

technology coordinator is more SELF oriented The two task-oriented coordinators have

many years of experience in either office machinery electronics or staff training They

both suggested to this researcher greater confidence in their abilities to provide input to

their administrators conceming their schools technology requirements Such

114

competencies suggest that the greater stage of concem is based in part on the

individuals greater level of experience

Interview Themes

The hesitancy of new users to use new technologies is repeated with every

generation of innovation (Cuban 1984 1986 1993) Changes this extensive in

technology naturally bring about changes in how we teach and how we perceive our roles

as educators (Becker 1998 Berg Benz Lasley amp Raisch 1997 Braun 1993 Fullan

1990 Fullan amp Stiegelbauer 1991 Hope 1993) This sttidys informants repeatedly

expressed the desire to ensure that their staffs become as competent as possible in using

new technology to improve student leaming In tum these leaders affirmed that their

teachers would have it incumbent upon themselves to avail themselves of this training

As we appreciate the greater empowerment of educators who in tum empower

leamers we reahze that greater access to technology has played a major role in

developing this spirit of empowerment (Bailey 1997) Tmly continued control of

technology signifies continued power ofthe educational system These informants were

unanimous in marveling over the great things that have occurred in their schools as their

teachers adopted greater technology expertise Review of AEIS data since 1994 before

the establishment ofthe Consortium suggests improvements in TAAS scores and other

AEIS indicators (see Chapter I TEA 1995 1996 1997a 1998)

As a result schools become different places for leamers (Armstrong Davis amp

Young 1996 Mecklenburger 1989) Instead ofthe school as one-way insttiiction with

115

passive leamers the focus is now on schools led by leaming facilitators who guide the

leamer toward constmcting personal leaming (Joyce amp Showers 1988) It appears that

the wise change facilitator will recognize this power shift In the main Consortium

change facihtators certainly appeared eager to share that power

If we are not using the improved technology to improve student leaming then we

might be needing to be examine a different iimovation for improving student leaming

(Berg et al 1997 Bumiske 1998 Hope 1993 Joyce amp Showers 1988 National Staff

Development Council 1995) These informants were adamant about the power of

technology not only to foster greater leaming capabihties for students but also to provide

a heightened awareness for those charged with facilitating that leaming (Barr 1990

Hadley amp Sheingold 1993 Maddux 1997 Maddux amp Johnson 1997 Meltzer amp

Sherman 1997 Ragsdale 1997) As a resuh these school leaders and their school

boards will have more solid foundation to continue upgrading their technology Such a

massive influx of equipment as is happening now will not be needed but rather

technology purchasing with a view toward greater student achievement will not be

considered unique by other similarly situated school districts

The notion that technology could bring about needed opportunities and services to

remote sites by distance leaming has been discussed for some time and is now standard

for evaluating a schools technology program (Becker 1998 Texas Association of School

Administrators 1998) Nevertheless there appears to be a need for a semblance of

balance as the positive elements of distance leaming (services teaching physical distance

needs etc) are weighed against the pitfalls (teaching method changes impersonal

116

relationships) of these new technologies (Berg Benz Lasley amp Raisch 1997 Dillon amp

Walsh 1997) The apprehensions of Consortium change facilitators toward the

impending interactive video system were quite real They saw potential for some yet

unknown distracting factor causing havoc with the leaming process as a result of distance

leaming At least one informant voiced active disagreement with distance as a viable

means of teaching and leaming

If training activities are only instituted to meet extemally mandated directives it

seems pointless to expend so much effort in training faculty in technology (Becker 1991

1998 Dede 1997) The concept that technology remains a more advanced means of

game playing is still latent in many educators School leaders need to tmly be leaders

(Office of Technology Assessment 1995 Ritchie 1996) and should provide appropriate

training activities for their staffs (Bradshaw 1997 Davidson amp Maurer 1995 Joyce amp

Showers 1988) Because these school leaders describe the influx of interactive video

hardware as helpfiil in providing for a variety of training opportunities (school board

training college classes etc) this Consortium demonstrates a strong proactive

commitment to ensuring that the entire school community is kept up-to-date with

technology

As to funding and infi-astmcture acquisition a We can do it spirit is still found

in educators when they plan for and purchase their computer machinery Schools in this

Consortium as well as in other locales continue to demonstt-ate creative ways to provide

technology support with the resultant spirit of ownership possessed by all segments ofthe

educational community (Carroll amp Carroll 1994 McDaniel Mclnemey amp Armstrong

117

1993 Office of Technology Assessment 1995) The fact that a superintendent would be

involved in wiring his school for network capability or would do repairs on classroom

hardware suggests genuine committnent Principals with decades of experience in the

classroom and in the office in this rural area are taking the time to leam new computer

skills

Conclusions and Reflections

Because this present study is primarily qualitative it is appropriate that the

researcher does not (and really should not) know in advance all ofthe insights that might

possibly be gleaned fi-om a pending study Although this is a limited sampling of change

facilitators their CFSoC profiles confirmed that the greater the experience level ofthe

change facilitator interacting with the innovation the more advanced Stage of Concem

The Woodlake administrators with Stages of Concems ratings in IMPACT and TASK

stages for example have had the benefit of both performing hands-on technology

implementation (including wiring) and also developing technology programs fi-om Apple

computers in classrooms to vocational training over a twenty-year period

The specifics ofthe second research question require some discussion over the

importance and application ofthe concems of rural educators toward technology

implementation Three clusters of conclusions emerged fi-om the interview data

Personal concems are important in the professional lives of these informants

There is urgency for the educator to leam to use technology and to develop stt-ategies for

incorporating technology use in insttiiction Nevertheless the educator is never to forget

118

that there are still basic instmctional outcomes to be accomplished Leamers still have to

be proficient in reading writing and mathematics Day-to-day activities (lesson planning

teacher paperwork etc) cannot be neglected These informants did not allow this

researcher to overlook this fact All three technology coordinators who served as

informants emphasized their classroom duties with one in particular reminding me that

the computer is simply a tool in teaching basic educational concepts Each principal

interviewed related their technology concems in the context of administrative duties and

concems

In addition leadership personnel are to function as leaders and lead their staffs

Despite the hardware and capabilities schools are still schools Schools are having to

change their stmcture and technology seems to be key in fostering that change The very

use ofthe computer as a personal tool remains a challenge in these informants schools

Bill Potter Camden Technology Coordinator related that he continues to see his fellow

teachers using the computer as nothing more than a game machine The Sawtooth

informants noted that a few older more seasoned teachers are still not yet using

technology as a tool

As opposed to personal concems corporate concems registered by these

informants dealt with building district or Consortium issues Among these informants

there is a genuine sense of Where we are against Where we were in regard to

technology use Each superintendent interviewed expressed his satisfaction with the

improved productivity among his students as a result of technology Now more than ever

is a need to stay abreast of pedagogical as well as technological trends Stephen Greer

119

Woodlake Principal emphasized the need for him to know about technology and its

implementation in teacher practice These informants also indicated a generational trend

in that some educators eyeing retirement realize a lesser interest in leaming new

technologies Younger more recently trained educators are more conversant with new

technologies These informants indicated that the new teachers they hire come prepared to

use technology in the classroom

The informants also indicated a sense of owoiership toward technology

implementation For example several informants have trained themselves to do more

advanced troubleshooting and maintenance certainly more than is in their job

descriptions The Woodlake and Sawtooth superintendents are both adept with the

hardware These individuals want to know more and not just save their district some

funds All three ofthe technology coordinators have a history of leaming by doing

They enjoy reputations as being competent and the person to tum to when expertise is

needed

Cultural concems transcend the immediate short-term issues and are future-

oriented The change in our previously mral agrarian society to a worid filled with data

has had a heady effect on these informants North Prairie superintendent Larry Beckman

for example continues to marvel at all the activities the North Prairie educational

community can now avail themselves of because of technology Technology has assisted

in shifting genuine leaming power fi-om the educator to the student The resultant greater

ownership by students of their leaming is opening up greater avenues for insttaiction

120

There is constant uncertainty ofthe legal political and economic factors in

financing and establishing new technologies at schools The net result hinders these

informants fi-om reliably predicting what technologies might be needed in the future

Indeed it is impossible to predict what new gadgets will be invented or how fast a

computer will process ten years from now Neither ofthe Chapter 41 superintendents

believed their distticts finances were in jeopardy due to the changing pett-oleum prices

but each expressed the concem that the Legislature could modify the mles on finances

possibly making their underwriting of Consortium costs more difficult

Recommendations for Further Study

As this present research was being considered there was considerable concem for

the fact that very little research data existed for the CFSoC instmment This Consortium

had an insufficient number of participants to do a quantitative study of this instrument

with adequate factor analysis Indeed Hall et al (1991) cite themselves as those who

conducted reliability and validity studies of their own instrument A more thorough

validity study with adequate N should be conducted

The original thmst for this research was focused on staff development and teacher

training Because that initial idea was so broad it was abandoned early in this study

However since each informant referred to the teacher traming programs ofthe

Consortium it would be appropriate at a later date to review how teacher tt-aining is

planned and executed in a similarly situated technology cooperative

121

Personal impressions which emerged fi-om both the data collection and data

analysis also suggested additional avenues of study At no time and in no way were either

Consortium school distticts or school staff identified as to their Chapter 41 (Equalized

Wealth Level) or Chapter 42 (Minimum Foundation Program) stattis Nevertheless this

writer recognizes a difference in economic status for these districts that was impossible to

fully ignore and suggests that the differences in funding abilities of school districts be

explored as new technologies become de rigueur for even the smallest and most remote

school district

Also unexamined in this present study was any comparison on a rural-urban axis

Although each ofthe participating school districts was mral with a combined enrolhnent

smaller than one urban high school the available technology was up-to-date and with

more anticipated advanced technology yet to be implemented A similar study of larger

urban school technology programs dealing with identical TEKS constraints could be

instituted to ascertain concems of urban-oriented change facilitators

The professional experience aspect of each ofthe informants was never identified

as a factor in this present research The CFSoC form itself had blanks for data conceming

the number of years experience on the job in the present position etc Indeed the least

number of total years of school experience was nine years The question remains if

simply the amount of time in grade is a factor in the informants position on the CFSoC

continuum This researcher noted a trend in those in stated administrative roles being

more oriented to TASK and IMPACT concems as opposed to the technology

coordinators who by and large had duties more inclusive ofthe classroom and who were

122

more oriented to SELF concems and their personal status This could lead one to ponder

whether the role and the job title are influencing factors in a change facilitators Stage of

Concem

Moreover because ofthe contemporary trends toward school-based

management and greater empowerment of classroom personnel in decision-making it is

likely that those in change faciUtator roles would be more closely aligned to the

classroom ie more teachers may be in leadership roles We might expect the higher the

level of change facilitator position and experience the higher the level of concem (eg

IMPACT) It would be interesting to explore the possibifities and consequences for those

at the classroom level functioning as change facilitators in technology

123

REFERENCES

American Psychological Association (1994) Publication manual ofthe American Psychological Association (4th ed) Washington DC Author

Armstrong D Davis R amp Young G (1996) Technology integration at the middle and high school levels A model for staff development NASSP Bulletin 80(582) 81-88

Bailey G D (1997) What technology leaders need to know The essential top 10 concepts for technology integration in the 21st century Leaming and Leading With Technology 250) 57-62

Bailey D B amp Palsha S A (1992) Qualities ofthe Stages of Concem questionnaire and implications for educational innovations Joumal of Educational Research 85(4) 226-232

Barr D (1990) A solution in search of a problem The role of technology in educational reform Joumal for the Education ofthe Gifted 14(1) 79-95

Becker H J (1991) How computers are used in United States schools Basic data fi-om the 1989 I E A Computers in Education survey Joumal of Educational Computing Research 7(4) 385-406

Becker H J (1998) Running to catch a moving train Schools and information technologies Theory Into Practice 37(1) 20-30

Berg S Benz C Lasley T laquofe Raisch D (1997) The coordinators and the teachers A description of exemplary use of technology in elementary classrooms Paper presented at the Midwestem Educational Research Association Annual Meeting Chicago IL

Bogdan R C amp Biklen S K (1992) Qualitative research for education An introduction tn theory and methods (2nd ed) Boston Allyn amp Bacon

Bradshaw L K (1997) Technology-supported change A staff development opportunity NASSP Bulletin 81(593) 86-92

Braun L (1993) Educational technology Help for all the kids The Computing Teacher 20(8) 11-15

124

Brekhus T R (1997) The SeverNet project-assessment Antiquated systems without curriculum integration The Educational Graveyard of Unfulfilled Promise [Online] URL httpwwwseyemschoolcomsevemetsevemet_assesshtml

Bristol v amp Jechow M (1998) Guidelines on interlocal agreements fi-om the Texas Government Code Texas case law and Texas attomev general opinions [online] URL httpwwwbickerstaff comarticlesinter98htm

Bumiske R W (1998) The shadow play How the integration of technology annihilates debate in our schools Phi Delta Kappan 80(2) 155-157

Campbell T (1997) Technology multimedia and qualitative research in education Joumal of Research on Computing in Education 30(2) 122-132

Carroll S R amp Carroll D (1994) How smart schools get and keep community support Bloomington IN National Educational Service

Chisolm I M (1996) Computer use in a multicultural classroom Joumal of Research on Computing in Education 28(2) 162-174

CicchelH T amp Baecher R (1985) Intt-oducing microcomputers into the classroom A study of teacher concems Joumal of Educational Computing Research 1(1) 55-65

CiccheUi T amp Baecher R E (1987) The use of concems theory in inservice ttaining for computer education Computers amp Education 11(2) 85-93

Clark R E (1983) Reconsidering research on leaming fi-om media Review of Educational Research 53(4) 445-459

Clouse R W amp Garrett L N (1995) Case analysis An insttiictional tool Joumal of Educational Technology Systems 23(1) 39-51

Coffey A amp Atkinson P (1996) Making sense of qualitative data Complementary research strategies Thousand Oaks CA Sage

Crawford D K Bodine R J amp Hoglund R G (1993) The school for quality leaming Managing the school and the classroom the Deming way Champaign IL Research Press

Cuban L (1984) How teachers taupht Constancy and change in American classrooms -1980-1980 New York Longman

125

ABSTRACT

Although there has been a progression of technological improvements in the tools

available for educators to improve instmction there will always be the need for leamers

to master fimdamental skills and for educators to facilitate that learning Nevertheless the

implementation of innovative technology programs continues to be a priority of educators

in both urban and mral settings Texas educators are now under new Texas Essential

Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) curricular requirements a comprehensive document with

specific learner outcomes particularly with technology embedded into every grade level

Because of these extemal constraints even small rural school districts have to

provide advanced technology capabilities for their leamers This current study

investigated personal and professional concems of change facilitators in a seven-district

technology consortium as these requirements are implemented

This consortium was developed with assistance fiom both the local telephone

service provider and the regional Educational Service Center (ESC) These districts range

a distance of 70 to 125 miles fi^om their ESC Two of the participating school districts

are considered property-wealthy and provide the bulk of the fiinding for the other five

districts through special legislative mles

This exploratory case study used the Concems-based Adoption Model (CBAM)

for evaluating these concems Nine informants three each of superintendents principals

and technology coordinators responded to a 35-item Likert scale which placed the

informant on a Stage of Concem either SELF TASK or IMPACT Informants

vu

concems were rated largely at the TASK level In general an informants stage of

concem increased with a higher status within the school system

These informants were also interviewed on their personal concems toward

technology implementation Seven general themes emerged through the interview

process Informants articulated concems over attitudes power student learning distance

learning staff training infi-astmcture and finances These informants consistently

expressed concem for the prospects of implementing instmctional video and its

instmctional and disciplinary implications Each informant expressed optimism over the

educational and administrative possibilities modem computer technology brought to their

districts

Vlll

LIST OF TABLES

1-1 Teachers Use of Computers Hadley and Sheingold (1993) N=608 9

1-2 Instmcfional Software Use Hadley and Sheingold (1993) N=608 9

1 -3 Full Time Equivalent Staff for TechnologyComputer Operations 21

2-1 Coefficients of Intemal Reliability for the Stages of Concem Questionnaire N=830 39

2-2 Test-Retest Correlations on the Stages of Concem Questionnaire N=132 40

2-3 Means Standard Deviations and Alpha Coefficients for the CFSoC (N=589) 45

2-4 Means Standard Deviations and Alpha Coefficients for the CFSoC

(N=750) 45

2-5 Intercorrelations of the Scale Scores on the CFSoC (N=589) 46

5-1 Study Informants and CBAM Stages of Concem District Comparison 113

5-2 Study Informants and CBAM Stages of Concem Concem Stage Comparison 114

IX

LIST OF FIGURES

4-1 CFSoC Profile of James Petty Camden Principal 68

4-2 CFSoC Profile of Bill Potter Camden Technology Coordinator 70

4-3 CFSoC Profile of Ronnie Bennett Dellwood Technology Coordinator 72

4-4 CFSoC Profile of Larry Beckman North Prairie Superintendent 74

4-5 CFSoC Profile of Mike McCoy Sawtooth Superintendent 76

4-6 CFSoC Profile of Vemon Russell Sawtooth Principal 78

4-7 CFSoC Profile of Renee White Sawtooth Technology Coordinator 79

4-8 CFSoC Profile of David Jackson Woodlake Superintendent 81

4-9 CFSoC Profile of Stephen Greer Woodlake Principal 82

CHAPTER I

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Mr Edison says That the radio will supplant the teacher Already one may leam languages by means of Victrola records The moving picture will visualize What the radio fails to get across Teachers will be relegated to the backwoods With fire-horses And long-haired women Or perhaps shown in museums Education will become a matter Of pressing the button Perhaps I can get a position at the switchboard

(Church cf Cuban 1986 pp 4-5)

Introduction

Virginia Churchs 1925 poem entitled Antiquated probably sounds pessimistic

but facetiously demonstrates her concems of possibly being out of a job with the

approaching array of innovations heralded at that time Our teachers and administrators in

educational institutions at all levels continue to exhibit concems as new innovations are

proffered (Cuban 1986)

Certainly innovations designed to improve instmction have been utilized for

centuries Cuban (1986 pp 3-4) would suggest technology innovation goes back at least

to the invention of the lectem chalk and chalkboards books and pictures with fihn

radio television tape recorders video and computers as more recent examples of

teaching tools Cuban wryly describes how these most recent technologies were at first

lauded as the latest thing for schools how instmction would dramatically improve and

how disillusioned teachers became when the technology did not live up to its predicted

expectations

Bringing all schools up to maximum speed in technology is currently quite

fashionable Rescigno (1988) using his own school district as the example envisioned

the so-called smart classroom with state of the art technology as having the ability to

precisely measure student skill objectives and promote more positive student attitudes

and lower instances of discipline problems

Rescignos school does not seem to have been greatly replicated however

Nevertheless greater technology implementation remains a key element of both

educational and political rhetoric Chris Dede asserts For politicians the Intemet in

every classroom has become the modem equivalent of the promised chicken in every

pot (Dede 1997 p 13) Dede decries such first-generation thinking by those who

would make technology the panacea for magically transforming schools

Yet decades of experience with technological innovations based on first-generation thinking have demonstrated that this viewpoint is misguided Unless other simultaneous innovations occur in pedagogy curriculum assessment and school organization the time and effort expended on instmctional technology produce few improvements in educational outcomes ~ a result that reinforces many educators cynicism about fads based on magical machines (p 13)

Cuban (1984) concurs emphasizing that teachers technology use in the classroom

is just one of a great many factors in how teachers teach with the lions share of factors

related to the extemal constraints of school organization Hodas (1993) reminds us that

the culture and norms of schools are profoundly conservative that the stmcture of

schools have remained unchanged for hundreds of years and that there exists in the

popular mind a definite conservative conception of what schools should be like a

template fi-om which schools stray only at their peril (p 10)

Problem Statement and Research Ouestions

Several factors were considered in formulating a problem for this study There

was the consideration of finding out how schools particularly small ones were

implementing fimding and evaluating technology in their districts Moreover standard

principles of staff development particularly the ascertaining of personal and professional

concems of school leaders were prominent in the literature Finally at the time of

searching for a research topic the State of Texas was developing broad curricular

standards which included extensive instmctional technology components

The problem under study is the concems of three levels of change facilitators

implementing the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) for Technology

Applications The research questions for this study are outlined in the form of a grand

tour question followed by sub-questions (Gay 1997 Spradley 1979)

Grand Tour Ouestion

What are the concems of leadership personnel as the TEKS technology

requirements are implemented in their school districts

Sub-questions

1 Where do these school leaders fall on the Concems-based Adoption Model

(CBAM) continuum regarding TEKS technology implementation

2 What are the specific concems of these school leaders as the TEKS are

implemented and why are these concems important

Rationale

The concept of educational change with technology is not a novel idea despite

those concems that Dede (1997) registered Larry Cuban has written extensively on the

topic of technological change fi-om the perspectives of administration and of educational

history Cuban quotes fi-om a prominent American technology leader who often had much

to say about things

I believe that the motion picture is destined to revolutionize our educational system and that in a few years it will supplant largely if not entirely the use of textbooks I should say that on the average we get about two percent efficiency out of schoolbooks as they are written today The education of the fixture as I see it will be conducted through the medium of the motion picture where it should be possible to obtain one hundred percent efficiency (p 187)

These words came in 1922 fi-om Thomas Alva Edison the inventor of the motion

picture phonograph and other devices at their time thought to be the zenith in

technology Except for the media described many could envision computers as the

subject of that quote Cuban suggests that such entrepreneurs who publicly make broad

educational claims for their products may have more of a profit motive than of student

performance

McDaniel Mclnemey and Armstrong (1993) recognize a shift in classroom

pedagogy fiom those classrooms merely transmitting information to processing

information They assert that computers will play a significant role in how leamers

acquire question and evaluate information Moreover McDaniel et al describe a

changed learning community breaking down the traditional school walls to a classroom

that literally can be the whole world They do not doubt that new programs will continue

to make an impact on how we teach and how students leam

Bumiske (1998) concurs with this shift but tempers it with repeated questioning

of our reasonings and expectations conceming educational technology

Its no longer a question of whether we should introduce computer technology into our classrooms Im afi-aid that choice has already been made for us The question now is how we should make use of this technology for educational purposes The consequence of this is the stifling of essential debates and the repression of significant questions such as At what age should we introduce children to computers What impact will computers have on the social emotional and psychological development of our children And how will computers aUer the dynamics of a classroom and school (p 157)

Cuban (1993) suggests three reasons for the perceived need to implement

technology in the classroom

First there is the drive to bring schools technologically in step with the work place because of the fear that students will be unprepared both to compete in the job market and to adjust to the changing marketplace A second impulse has come fi-om a diverse coalition of academics educators and foundation officials who have

5

neoprogressive values including that of self-directed leaming for children Finally there is the impulse for productivity (pp 189-190)

Unfortunately Cuban pessimistically concludes that despite the use of

technological innovations those innovations have not been central to school reforms

Likewise the marginal use of computers in classrooms is less due to funding teacher

preparation or administrative support but more related to dominant cultural beliefs

about what teaching leaming and proper knowledge are and how schools are organized

for instmction (p 206)

Low administrative support is but one part of the overall picture Poor

infi-astmcture remains in place at many schools The United States Department of

Education (USDE) in its report Getting Americas Students Readv for the 21st Century

(USDE 1996) cited statistics where only four percent of schools had as many as one

computer for five students and only nine percent with Intemet connectivity Yet this

same study asserts 80 percent of Americans believing that teaching computer skills is

absolutely essential 75 percent encouraging a child to use a computer and 86 percent

believing that a computer is the most beneficial product available to increase childrens

opportunities

Why if most educators believe that technology can improve the educational

process is it so difficult to implement and integrate Kwajewski (1997) ponders this

question as he considers the value educators place on technology acceptance

The plain tmth is that technology still confuses the educational establishment It is not an art or a science It is not a curriculum or a

subject It is not a vocation or a college requirement It is not an activity a goal or an objective It is not a course or a program If it were any of these items it might have a fighting chance in the difficult arena of change But it isnt therefore its success is in jeopardy (p 54)

Hodas (1993) suggests that educators require a modicum of comfort before expanding

their intellectual horizons to achieve skill with new technology

There is lively discussion over the extent of how technology can restmcture the

school Schools are finding in diverse ways that the use of technology modifies the

existing school stmcture Braun (1993) points out that investment in technology makes

working with at-risk youth more cost-effective It appears better to pmdently allocate

fimds on high-technology instmction than on the costs involved with dropouts and other

at-risk problems Maddux and Johnson (1997) suggest that the existing stmcture of

schools will be modified by Intemet use but only after the surrounding culture first

makes the change

Addressing new technologies Clark (1983) boldly asserted that the medium of

instmction was no more involved in how well students leam than the tmck that delivers

our groceries causes changes in our nutrition (p 445) and that only the content of

instmction influences student achievement Kozma (1991) aggressively challenges

Clarks position pointing out the distinctives of certain technologies and how they can

help leamers constmct knowledge Chishohn (1996) would go so far as to insist that the

implementation of technology modifies the very social stmcture

Like any human artifact computers are an expression of the people and culture that created them Likewise computer software incorporates the programmers cultural assumptions heuristics and epistemology Even seemingly impartial applications such as

7

databases and word processing programs demonstrate a cultural preference for analytic linear thinking compartmentalization of information and culture-specific logic mles and organization (p 163)

Educational leaders who are comfortable with technology should be primed to

lead the way in facilitating change in schools (Office of Technology Assessment 1995)

Differing somewhat fi-om Cuban Ritchie (1996) notes that a lack of administrative

support leading toward inadequate staff development and inadequate funding continues

to lead the reasons that technology has yet to take hold in some school districts Ritchie

cites Mecklenburger who asserts

Administrators must understand the capabilities and limitations of technology Only then can they plan for budget for purchase carefiiUy install properly maintain dutifiilly schedule adequately distribute appropriately and replace systematically the electronic technology best suited for their needs (Mecklenburger 1989 p 7)

Yet principals and superintendents in the main received their education and

training at a time when computers were not yet part of the educational scene Whatever

training many school leaders have had simply focused on using the technology rather

than focusing on how the technology could be used to augment student leaming (Bailey

1997)

Since 98 percent of the elementary and secondary schools in the United States

have microcomputers (Ely 1993) it is important to analyze how they have been used In

an early pre-Intemet study of typical teacher practice Hadley and Sheingold (1993)

investigated how teachers integrated software into classroom practice In surveying 608

teachers they discovered that teachers used computer software as shown in Table 1-1

Table 1-1 Teachers Use of Computers Hadley and Sheingold (1993) N=608

Software

Text processing tools 95 Instmctional software 89 Analytic and information tools 87 Programming and operating systems 84 Games and simulations 81 Graphics and operating tools 81 Communications 49 Multimedia 25

(Hadley amp Sheingold 1993)

Teachers instmctional software use was fiirther broken down as shown

in Table 1-2

Table 1-2 Instmctional Software Use Hadley and Sheingold (1993) N=608

Software

Problem solving programs 75 Tutorial programs 73 Drill and practice programs 72 Software accompanying a textbook 37 Conceptual tools 30

(Hadley amp Sheingold 1993)

By contrast instead of querying teacher computer usage more current surveys

(eg Texas Association of School Administrators 1998) focus on the classroom

building and district hardware configurations and Intemet use of computers

Teachers obviously embraced the computer as a significant tool in teaching

practice As these researchers gathered data for their study the above activities were

indeed the cutting edge uses of computers just before Windows the World Wide Web

or America Online became household words

Radical educational change is no stranger to technology educators The practices

delineated in the literature have metamorphosed fi-om the above to a listing more

reflective of school Intemet use connectivity and the use of multimedia Echoing Cuban

Becker (1998) notes several generations of the advice of experts conceming change in

computer technology pedagogy each of which reflected conventional wisdom in its time

and underscoring the adage The more things change the more they stay the same

Teachers were first urged to have students program computers in BASIC (1982 Its the language that comes with your computer) then to have them program in Logo (1984 Teach students to think not just program) then to use integrated drill-and-practice systems (1986 Use networked systems that individualize instruction and focus on increasing test scores) then to do word processing (1988 Use computers as tools like adults do) then to use curriculum-specific tools such as history databases and science stimulators and data acquisition probes (1990 Integrate the computers with the existing curriculum) then to do multimedia hypertext programming (1992 Change the curriculum - students leam best by creating products for an audience) then to use electronic mail (1994 Let students be part of the real world) and currently to publish their students work to a worldwide audience via the World Wide Web (1996) Using computers in these respective ways would have generally required teachers to have access to the newest computer equipment being sold at that time (p 25)

Becker fiirther suggests that survey-based data reflects a more conservative and

traditional array of instmctional practices among teachers than what is reported in the

popular press which tends to be more reflective of the more innovative techniques

10

(Becker 1998) Moreover he suggests such survey data was needed to balance the

overly enthusiastic reports in the news media about the generalizability of pioneering

efforts in unusual schools with hard-to-replicate amounts of computer equipment teacher

expertise and family resources (Becker 1991 p 386) It remained to be seen if the

average school district or school board had the financial foresight to establish a similar

facility

Contrasting with pre-Intemet surveys more recent studies reflect surveys of

changing computer use Berg Benz Lasley and Raisch (1997) surveyed teachers about

technology use at school and found that teachers rated student motivation and a change

fi-om the traditional classroom stmcture as the most fi-equent purposes of technology

Concurring with Beckers (1998) conclusions on technology use Berg et al list these as

their most important school computer uses

To motivate students To change fi-om traditional classroom CD-ROMs for research Computers in writing process Using variety of resources (books CD-ROM Web etc) Desktop publishing software To integrate subject matter Intemet to do research Enhance communication with parents Tailor curriculum to individual student needs

(Berg Benz Lasley amp Raisch 1997 p 8)

Curiously Berg et al found distance leaming and video conferencing rated 38th of 39

instmctional purposes as rated by teachers

The Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) executed a survey in

September 1998 to ascertain the levels of technology available in Texas public schools

11

Rather than display teacher use statistics as in previous studies (Becker 1998 Berg et al

1997 Hadley amp Sheingold 1993) this survey is heavily skewed toward Intemet use in

the classroom showing percentages of connectivity fimding sources and resources

(service center technology consortium etc) There are no listings of specific teacher

activities such as word processing graphics or gradebooks Indeed the TASA survey

appears at this writing to be updated at fi-equent intervals (TASA 1998)

Willis (1993) concedes that educational change using technology is difficult to

pull off He identifies barriers to wider technology use including teacher isolation

ownership time and administrative support very similar to concems in much of the staff

development literature (Joyce amp Showers 1988 Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1991)

Recent literature on school technology implementation has raised questions

conceming just how well new programs will be implemented or indeed how extensive

technology implementation has been Maddux (1997) describes a gap in schools between

the increasing sophistication of technology and the ability of teachers to use such

technology Maddux contends that much of the negative reaction conceming the Intemet

the World Wide Web Windows 95982000 and other innovative technologies stems

fi-om just such a gap between the hardware the schools may have on hand and the

systemic requirements of new software purchased Schools by and large often have older

hardware incapable of accepting Windows 95-level software Indeed computer speed

modem speed and hard drive storage (with or without zip drives) in many school-owned

computers remain inadequate Maddux cites Brekhus (1997) who suggests that 80

percent of all computer hardware purchased for schools was obsolete at the time of

12

purchase (p 7) Maddux fiirther maintains that much of this gap is related to educational

fiscal tradition stemming fi-om a lack of acknowledgment that more sophisticated

technology had to be replaced every three to five years

Becker (1998) sounds even more alarming He estimates that the average

cumulative per pupil investment in computers over a typical school lifetime a 13-year

span was only $150 025 percent of the total of what was spent on a pupil in that time

span Only 20 percent of school computers had a hard drive with a similar percentage

having any network access Only 10 percent had CD-ROM capability Very few then of

available school computers were capable of using multimedia the World Wide Web

Windows 9598 or most CD-based software As this dissertation is written computers

with speeds of 500 to 600 megahertz are being offered at discount stores (Micro Center

1999) along with appropriate software Although many schools continue to upgrade the

computing power of their hardware and the regional educational service centers still

provide leadership in bringing up-to-date technology to every remote district

nevertheless many educational institutions remain using outmoded machinery due to

well-felt budgetary restrictions and fluctuating property values

Changes in Constraints

Against this backdrop of confiision over technology implementation overall

educators fi-om coast to coast have had extemally mandated constraints In Texas those

mandates were codified in the Texas Essential Elements (Texas Education Agency

1991) with specific competencies for each subject listed and more recently with the

13

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) standards (Texas Education Agency

1997b) Unlike the Essential Elements which simply specified the subject components

for the teacher to cover in each area the TEKS mandates a much broader array of

performance-based skills to be exhibited by the leamer The emphasis is now on what the

leamer can do over what skills the teacher exhibits School districts in Texas are

obhgated to follow the TEKS in designing curriculum and instmction Evaluation

procedures for Texas educators include the use of technology in the lesson cycle

The TEKS for Technology Applications delineates knowledge and skill

requirements for specific computer applications for grade levels K-8 and specific high

school classes with this common philosophy

(1) The technology applications curriculum has four strands foundations information acquisition work in solving problems and communication

(2) Through the study of technology applications foundations including technology-related terms concepts and data input strategies students leam to make informed decisions about technologies and their applications The efficient acquisition of information includes the identification of task requirements the plan for using search strategies and the use of technology to access analyze and evaluate the acquired information By using technology as a tool that supports the work of individuals and groups in solving problems students will select the technology appropriate for the task synthesize knowledge create a solution and evaluate the results Students communicate information in different formats and to diverse audiences A variety of technologies will be used Students will analyze and evaluate the resuUs (Texas Education Agency 1997b p 1)

Chapter 126 of the TEKS specifies standards for leaming activities under these

four strands in Technology Applications for all Texas leamers This chapter is restricted

14

to instmctional applications excluding curricula that would be better placed in chapters

dealing with Career and Technology Business Applications etc

Chapter 126 Subchapter A delineates skill requirements for leamers as early as

kindergarten Among the skills to be acquired by leamers at that early date include

networking creating naming and saving files keyword searching muhimedia design

and portfolio selection It does not end there Subchapter A spells out a broad outline of

technology activities fi-om kindergarten through fifth grade Subchapter B retains much of

the earlier Essential Elements for middle schools conceming keyboarding and computer

literacy Subchapter C defines requirements for eight specific courses for high school-

level Carnegie-unit credit The minimum hardware for just one of these courses requires

the capability to do local networking Intemet access video production and Web page

production and storage Because of these curricular standards virtually every school in

Texas had to purchase materials appropriate for these activities

These standards went into effect September 1 1998 (Texas Education Agency

1997b) providing impetus for school leaders to recognize and articulate concems over

the implementation of these standards An additional document The Technology

Applications Companion (K-12) (Texas Center for Educational Technology 1998)

containing a comprehensive program entitled Sharing Technology Applications

Resources with Teachers (START) has been distributed on CD-ROM to each public

school building in Texas to provide curricular assistance and resources for TEKS

implementation

15

Research Participants

The informants for this research are among the leadership staff at five school

districts in rural Texas Each would be described as a change facilitator as defined in a

subsequent paragraph The role of the change facilitator is ascribed to a variety of

professionals Three specific roles in the school system are examined in this present

study Each is a change faciUtator but each facilitates change in a unique way

Superintendent~The general superintendent is a certified school employee and is

charged with overseeing all of a school districts operations particularly those related to

supervision and finance This role in the United States was instituted and developed

during nineteenth century bureaucratic changes where centralization of school efforts was

found more economical and where the need was seen for one person to be at the top of

the school stmcture (Urban amp Wagoner 1996)

Lutz and Merz (1992) define the superintendent in three roles manager

politician and teacher The Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) establishes

competencies for school leaders and suggested curricula for their training Superintendent

courses (Texas Education Agency 1991) mostly relegate this role either to be a manager

what with the emphasis on business techniques and school law for school management

or to be the instmctional leader because of specialized expertise in special and

compensatory education and because of recent advancements in school change which

demand that change facilitators already excel as instmctional and curricular leaders

SBOE mles also reinforce the role of politician with a broad array of social science

electives for the prospective school leader

16

The combination of concems over financial matters political pressures and

extemal curricular constramts exclusively laden upon the district superintendent makes

this role particularly important to the proposed research If there is any new technology to

be implemented the superintendent will have to be the first person on deck to secure

community approval particularly that of the school board so that the community has the

opportunity to buy into the new program especially its fiinding It will be necessary to

describe specific concems of superintendents

PrincipalmdashThe principal is a certified school employee who is charged with

leading teachers Unlike the superintendent the principal is generally responsible for only

one building narrowing this persons focus The role developed during the nineteenth

century in urban schools where a beginning teacher would begin teaching at a low grade

level and move up through the system becoming a principal teacher leading the others

(Urban amp Wagoner 1996)

The literature is replete with suggestions for middle management to increase

knowledge of how to implement technology Ritchie (1996) fists vendors school district

personnel technology consultants technology classes and self-instmction as sources of

information for becoming more effective as a change facilitator

Hall Rutherford and Griffin (1982) recognize three distinct change facilitator

styles which largely fit the principals role Responders put heavy emphasis on

empowering teachers and giving them opportunity to take the lead but tend to make

decisions in terms of immediate situations rather than long-term goals Managers tend to

see that things get done but do not normally go beyond the basics of implementing an

17

innovation Initiators take the lead and make things happen having strong beliefs about

what schools should be Nevertheless Hall et al agree that no change faciUtator

completely fits into one of these compartments Much more than the superintendent the

building principals style sets the leadership tone for the students and staff

Hall et al apply these contrasting styles in leadership to applying innovation

implementation

Another apphcation of the ideas proposed in this paper could be in planning school level and district wide implementation efforts Perhaps implementation game plans should be adopted to different schools depending on the change facilitator style of the principal and the assistant principal In a Manager school implementation will likely proceed rather routinely once what is to be done is understood by the principal In a Responders school more encouragement fi-om the outside and more district personnel time spent in the school working with teachers would probably be necessary While in an Initiators school a certain amount of push might be necessary to get implementation of the innovation on the list of the principals priorities On the other hand if the innovation is already a priority for that principal all the central office staff developer may have to do is stand out of the way (pp 19-20)

Middle management concems are a second component of the proposed research

because these individuals provide day-to-day leadership of educators They are

responsible for every detail in their respective buildings including staff development

Although site-based management is ahnost standard in contemporary schools the

principal remains a key force in change

Technology Coordinator-This role is not as clearly defined as principal or

superintendent nor does it have a lengthy historical base but exists nevertheless An

early study by Stmdler and Gall (1988) reported a growing number of individuals with

18

the title of technology coordinator mainly fi-om the ranks of classroom teachers Bailey

(1997) points out that although the role of the technology coordinator is important in

school improvement activities very little recent literature exists that describes the specific

roles and responsibilities of the technology coordinator

Despite variations in the local job title the person recognized as the technology

coordinator will also have concems worth noting in this proposed research As Stmdler

and Gall (1988) reported earlier this person is eighty percent Hkely to come fi-om the

classroom reflecting classroom teacher concems yet will have to assume a leadership

role

Smith (1997) extensively lists qualities and competencies expected of a

technology coordinator under these headings

1 Technical expertise 2 Understanding of technology use in the instmctional environment 3 Professional development 4 Intemet knowledge and experience (p 56)

Jewell (1999) adds the interpersonal skills of vision and diplomacy along with the

ability to find solutions for a diverse group of technology users fi-om a hmited array of

resources Jewell reminds us that

Technology leadership is not for the timid An effective technology leader must be able to navigate the sea of ever-increasing information and equipment as well as the changes in education that comes fi-om technology use What happens with technology and schools will change our world and technology coordinators will have an important role in that outcome (p 57)

19

The Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) annually commission a

survey (TASA 1998) conceming technology usage The 1998 survey specifically

ascertained the availability of on-site technology support Table 1-3 describes the

fi-equency of technology support for a variety of school configurations in Texas

Study Significance

As a major population center and as a resuU a major purchaser of educational materials

(textbooks workbooks etc) Texas has the potential to lead the way with an innovative

array of technology related courses but with new technology changes will be necessary

in how teachers will teach Already school districts are writing funding grants

purchasing more advanced technology and designating an individual with a title

congment to technology coordinator

Administrators will now have to allow for changes in how they do their jobs

Superintendents are already realizing that budgetary planning for technology has to be for

shorter periods that both technology hardware and software will require firequent

upgrades and school policies will need to address technological issues particularly with

legal matters Building principals will not only require a change in their budgetary

procedures but will also need to include technology concems in dealing with both

curriculum and evaluation Having served unofficially as the building technology

computer coordinator this writer observes that these individuals will have concems over

not only keeping current with the technology but also the array of systemic bugs each

piece of hardware and software displays resulting in the attendant complaints expressed

by staff

20

Table 1-3 Full Time Equivalent Staff for TechnologyComputer Operations

Level

Elementary

Middle

High School

Central Office

Other ISD Service

One-campus

N

479

410

470

N

489

N

484

191

No FTEs on campus

()

382

385

362

None ()

595

0 ()

506

335

Vi FTE per campus

()

192

98

104

1 ()

282

1 ()

277

565

i d i lt IFTE ner campus

()

88

12

117

2-3 ()

7

2 ()

97

68

1 FTE or more per campus

()

338

398

417

More than 3 ()

53

3-4 5-6 () ()

52 19

1 0

(TASA 1998 Question 10)

Because of the major changes in what is expected of educators through the

transition fi-om implementing the Essential Elements to TEKS standards these new

regulations should be applicable and flexible enough for at least the next decade

considering that it replaces a document used for 13 years TEKS will be of necessity

21

applicable for implementing innovations that have yet to be invented and for change

strategies not yet imagined

Delimitations

This study focused on technology implementation concems of change facilitators

of school districts in rural Texas limiting the representativeness of the study Any

findings yielded reflected the comments of those interviewed at the time of the study The

constraints of TEKS are not specifically applicable to educational entities in other states

or countries Curricular documents in states other than Texas were surveyed to compare

TEKS requirements for technology with technology expectations for leamers in those

states States bordering Texas as well as the top 15 states in population were considered

(World Almanac 1999) Appendix I contains a listing of these individual states

standards and how much technology usage impacts these standards

This present study is undertaken during the first year of TEKS standards Those

interviewed will not have as much familiarity with TEKS standards as they might in later

years As the researcher involved in compiling this data this writer must recognize

various biases he might have in eliciting comments fi-om these individuals Such

comments will reflect subjective distinctions individuals have about different schools

extemally mandated policies personal expectations of themselves or product

preferences In short this researcher made every effort to allow the respondents to

accurately present themselves

22

Term Definitions

The literature in this study uses terms germane to change instmctional

technology and to applications of the TEKS In addition terms readily known and used

by Texas educators are described

Academic Excellence Indicator System (AEIS) The AEIS (Texas Education

Agency 1999) is a systematic accountability report delivered annually of each school

and school district in Texas Prior to the estabhshment of the AEIS districts were

evaluated for accountability based on mles and procedures With the advent of the AEIS

schools are now evaluated principally on student performance AEIS indicators include

Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) performance attendance and dropout

rates students participating in advanced courses and scores on college entrance

examinations

Change Fullan and Stiegelbauer (1991) suggest that educational change involves

change in practice and indeed is evident at many levels In implementing change three

components are at stake

(1) The possible use of new or revised materials (direct instmctional resources such as curriculum materials or technologies) (2) the possible use of new teaching approaches (i e new teaching strategies or activities) and (3) the possible alteration of beliefs (e g pedagogical assumptions and theories underlying particular new policies and programs) (p 37)

Change Facilitator The role of change facilitator is defined to include not only

superintendents curriculum speciahsts and building principals but also the diverse set

of persons within and outside of organizations who have the formal or informal role to

23

aid those involved in leaming to use innovations (Hall Newlove George Rutherford amp

Hord 1991piii)

Concems Based on the work of Fuller (1969) Hall and his associates expand on

what constitutes concem

The composite representation of these feelings preoccupations thoughts and considerations about a particular issue or task is called concems The mental activity composed of questioning analyzing and re-analyzing considering altemative actions and reactions and anticipating consequences is concem An aroused state of personal feelings and thought about an issue phenomenon or condition as it is perceived is concem To be concemed means to be in a mentally aroused state about something (Hall Newlove George Rutherford amp Hord 1991 p5)

Innovation Loucks-Horsley and Stiegelbauer (1991) include a variety of school

programs as being innovations including school change school mission and goals

shared leadership as well as implementation of new technology Hall and his associates

define innovation as the issue idea or thing that is the center of attention (Hall

George and Rutherford 1977) Hall et als work in ascertaining concems over

educational innovations as will be demonstrated in greater detail in Chapter 2 can be

used to describe a wide variety of school implementations but within this current study is

strictly limited to instmctional technology implementation

Technology Rogers (1983) defines a technology as

A design for instrumental action that reduces the uncertainty in the cause-effect relationships involved in achieving a desired outcome A technology usually has two components (1) a hardware aspect consisting of the tool that embodies the technology as material or physical objects and (2) a software aspect consisting of the information base for the tool (p 12)

24

Technology Applications Chapter 126 of the TEKS for Technology Applications

(Texas Education Agency 1997b) defines what technology applications are in a

common introduction to each subchapter Among competencies at various grade levels

technology applications include the use of several word processing competencies

keyboarding strategies knowledge of a variety of input devices such as mouse modem

disk drive scanner digital video CD-ROM or touch screen database and spreadsheet

usage Intemet intranet and World Wide Web usage formal training in computer

programming languages and guided independent study Certainly a wide variety of

contemporary applications that meet these requirements can fiilfill these guidelines

However these guidelines are so broadly drawn that technologies not yet imagined

constmcted marketed or researched can be effectively implemented for instmctional

purposes

Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) The TAAS is a criterion-

referenced assessment instrument administered to Texas students The core instrument

assesses students skills in writing reading and mathematics at several grade levels At

present TAAS information taken fi-om students in the fourth and eighth grades and fi-om

an exit examination first administered in the tenth grade with multiple opportunities for

mastery Except for a special education exemption given by the Admission Review and

Dismissal (ARD) team for certain special education students Texas students are required

to have successfiilly passed each of the TAAS areas before a high school diploma may be

granted

25

Organization of the Study

This study follows the format and style of the Publication Manual of the

American Psychological Association (APA 1994) in terms of stmcture and organization

for dissertations This present chapter presents introductory material and a statement of

the problem for study Chapter II is a review of related literature tying the postulates of

this study to the established literature base Chapter III describes the research

methodology to be employed along with the context for the study Chapter IV describes

the data analysis for both of the research sub-questions Chapter V provides a summary of

the research its implications and suggestions for fiirther study

26

CHAPTER n

REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Introduction

Fullan and Stiegelbauer (1991) suggest that there will always be the need to make

educational changes as societies become more complex Three broad mechanisms for

effecting these changes include

1 natural disasters

2 extemal forces such as technology values and immigration and

3 intemal contradictions such as changes in technology leading to new social

patterns and needs (Fullan amp Stiegelbauer 1991 p 17)

Innovations then tend to be devised through both political and educational

motives Since technology implementation is included in this list our examination of

technology implementation concems will first discuss the legal foundations of technology

consortium development reasons for collaboration the theory behind change and

diffiision of innovations collaboration then to discuss the theory supporting concems

and finally to discuss some of the means of assessing and evaluating concems of change

facilitators

Technology Consortium Development

The research site for this present study is a technology consortium comprised of

several school districts This consortium will be described fimctionally in Chapter HI but

27

the controlling legal foundations of how this consortium was developed are herein

described fi-om the literature base

A technology consortium is considered an example of an agreement between

state governmental agencies Such an interlocal agreement is defined by the 1971

Interiocal Cooperation Act (the Act) (Vemons Texas Codes Annotated (VTCA)

1991) At present this Act is codified as Chapter 791 of the Texas Government Code

The Act authorizes local governmental agencies to contract with each other or with the

state to provide services to each other Independent school districts are classified as

other governmental fimction as described in sect 791003

Interlocal agreements are required to be authorized by the goveming bodies of

each governmental entity in this case by each member school board sect 791011 provides

for financial cooperation while sect 791013 allows the consortium to designate

administrative personnel to provide services (Bristol amp Jechow 1998)

Hudson (1997) describes the need for interlocal agreements as either being

required by the intensive capital needed for poohng financial resources or requiring a

high degree of special skills such as public utility specialists This technology

consortium requires both capital and technical expertise Resources for purchasing

significant amounts of computer hardware are pooled under sect 791025

Funds for the technology consortium are derived by legal authority in the Texas

Education Code (TEC) Most school districts in Texas are financed under the Minimum

Foundation Program under Chapter 42 of the TEC (VTCA 1996a) Locally generated

28

ftinds are combined with State fimds to provide for the regular education program of

school districts

However certain school districts that are considered property-wealthy have

different financial considerations The value-added nature of such districts may be due to

industry land values or as in this present study mineral wealth specifically petroleum

Chapter 41 of the TEC specifies means to limit the local property wealth per student to

$280000 (sect 41002) Monies in excess of that amount are surrendered to the State

sect 41099 allows for such districts to recapture some of these fimds to support a

technology initiative (VTCA 1996b) Two of the seven districts in this technology

consortium are considered property-rich and serve as financiers for the purchase of

technology for the remaining five districts

Fowler (1998) describes various ways technology consortia have to plan for nuts-

and-bolts administrative details including preparing state and federal reports asset

distribution litigation inclusion into and withdrawl from the consortium and

determining credentials for consortium board membership Chapters III and IV will

describe in greater detail the practical educational applications of this consortium in

operation

Collaboration

A significant part of the innerworkings of a technology consortium is that those in

leadership have mastered the ability to successfiilly collaborate Indeed collaboration

could be considered an innovation in and of itself (Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer

29

1993) Mattessich and Monsey (1992) have identified factors indicative of outstanding

collaborative groups

1 The politicalsocial environment along with a history of previous cooperative

efforts (pp 16-18)

2 Group membership is based on mutual tmst personal self-interest

compromise and a cross-section of the organizations involved (pp 19-22)

3 Group members have a stake in both the process and outcome of decision

making Clear roles and policies must be developed (pp 22-26)

4 Frequent and open communication links should be established (pp 26-28)

5 Reahstic goals and shared vision leading to a unique purpose (pp 28-30)

6 Both financial and human resources should be considered (pp 30-31)

The Change Process

Fullan and Stiegelbauer (1991) identify educational change as developed through

three phases In the initiation (or readiness) phase change leaders establish a need to

make improvements and to assist in the development of vision and planning At this

level intended outcomes of change are identified During the implementation phase

plans are activated to achieve those outcomes Both individuals and organizations

experience change as the result of new leaming experiences and support through follow

up The institutionalization phase stresses the integration of new practices into school

policies budgets routines etc As new needs and plans are identified stmctures are

30

developed to ensure that the newly institutionalized procedures continue to be maintained

(Fullan amp Stiegelbauer 1991 National Staff Development Council 1995)

Diffusion of Innovations

Concems toward innovations have been noted for some time Knowledge of

change is of littie value unless its solutions are diffiised to the level of the practitioner

(Guba 1968) Guba cites Everett Rogers (1955) who describes five stages of diffiision of

innovations

1 Awareness The individual leams of the existence of the innovation

2 Interest The individual seeks more information and considers the merits of

the innovation

3 Evaluation The individual makes a mental application of the innovation and

weighs its merit for his particular situation

4 Trial The individual applies the innovation on a small scale

5 Adoption The individual apphes the innovation for continued use on the basis

of a previous trial (Guba 1968 p 292)

Rogers (1983) builds on his earlier conclusions and adds a description of

characteristics of innovations which explain the differing rates of adoption among groups

1 Relative advantage is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as better

than the idea it supersedes The greater the perceived relative advantage of an

innovation the more rapid its rate of adoption is going to be

31

2 Compatibility is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as being

consistent with the existing values past experiences and needs of potential adopters An

idea that is not compatible with the prevalent values and norms of a social system will not

be adopted as rapidly as an innovation that is compatible

3 Complexity is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as difficult to

understand and use

4 Trialibility is the degree to which an innovation may be experimented with on a

limited basis An innovation that is trialable represents less uncertainty to the

individual who is considering it for adoption as it is possible to leam by doing

5 Observability is the degree to which the results of an innovation are visible to

others The easier it is for individuals to see the results of an innovation the more likely

they are to adopt (Rogers 1983 pp 15-16)

Rogers (1983) describes five categories of individuals accepting irmovations

along a continuum under a normal fi-equency distribution (p 247)

1 Innovators (2 CT below mean) These individuals are described as venturesome

eager to try new ideas desiring the hazardous daring and risky While an innovator

may not be respected by the other members of a social system the innovator plays an

important role in the diffiision process that of launching the new idea in the social system

by importing the innovation fi-om outside of the systems boundaries (p 248)

2 Early Adopters (between 1 and 2 a below the mean) This adopter category

more than any other has the greatest degree of opinion leadership in most social systems

32

(p 249) These are individuals that are the ones to check in with before trying out new

ideas They are the one who enjoy the greatest respect fi-om their associates

3 Early Majority (fi-om mean to 1 CT below mean) These individuals require more

time to deliberate before adopting an iimovation They eventually follow willingly into

the innovation but seldom take the initiative

4 Late Majority (fi-om mean to 1 a above mean) These individuals approach

innovation with caution and skepticism They are not convinced about the innovation

until the social system norms are in place before they will adopt the innovation

5 Laggards (above 1 a above mean) These individuals are the last in the social

system to adopt an innovation They tend to be suspicious of any changes to the social

system and require absolute certainty that new ideas will work

Finally Rogers (1983) suggests that opinion leaders in a social system are the

individuals who lead the group into innovation adoption Rogers identifies generalized

characteristics of opinion leaders that distinguish them fi-om their followers

1 Opinion leaders have greater exposure to mass media than their followers

2 Opinion leaders are more cosmopolite than their followers

3 Opinion leaders have greater change agent contact than their followers

4 Opinion leaders have greater social participation than their followers

5 Opinion leaders have higher economic status than their followers

6 Opinion leaders are more innovative than their followers

33

7 When a social systems norms favor change opinion leaders are more

innovative but when the norms do not favor change opinion leaders are not especially

innovative (Rogers 1983 pp 282-284)

This present research relies heavily on the relative opinion leader status of those

change facilitators fi-om whom data was gathered Because the informants are change

facilitators and their input on technology implementation is considered authoritative

Rogers insights on change facilitators are appropriate here

Concems Theory

In her role as an observer of novice teachers at the University of Texas Frances

Fuller (1969) noted that there were perceptible differences in how experienced and non-

experienced teachers observed their profession

Are typically inexperienced undergraduates not yet ready to benefit fi-om a conventional teacher preparation program What are they ready to leam What does concem them Can we discover regularities in the interests of beginning education students regularities which might fiimish guides to educators in choosing course content and experiences for teacher education programs (Fuller 1969 p 208)

Fuller reviewed the available literature related to the concems of beginning

teachers Her study concluded that their concems primarily centered on classroom

management and perceptions of evaluations She was surprised not only with how

consistently the varied concems were reported but also with what these authors left out

the absence of concems about topics which are usually included in education courses

34

I instmctional design methods of presenting subject matter assessment of pupil leaming

dynamics of child behavior and so on (p 210)

Fullers subsequent research concluded that a developmental conceptualization of

teacher concems was most appropriate

Pre-teaching phase Non-concem ~ During this time before actual contact with

children concems articulated by pre-service teachers were amorphous and vague

Many did not know what to actually be concemed about Much of what these novices

reported could be regarded as hearsay rumors about teaching etc (p 219)

Early Teaching Phase Concem with Self- As the novice educator begins

service concems with Where do I stand and How am I doing were most dominant

(p 220)

Late concems Concems with Pupils - Scant data with experienced educators was

available to Fuller but mature concems appeared to focus on pupil gains and self-

evaluation as opposed to personal gains and evaluations by others (p 221)

Fullers groundbreaking article began the basis for the development of concems

theory She posited significant research implications that were expanded upon by later

researchers

1 Is the concem sequence complete or are there more tasks with specific

competencies to be defined and resequenced

2 Is concem a fimction of the person of the situation of both or of

neither

35

3 Do individuals as well as groups go through these phases Can a

phase be skipped returned to or be in muhiple phases

4 Can these stages be generalized to other groups such as

administrators college professors and non-teaching staff

5 Are concems more related to teaching behavior teacher competency

or student leaming

6 Are these concems measurable Can they be manipulated by

intervention (Fuller 1969 pp 222-223)

With Fullers article the stage was then set for the development of a more

comprehensive method of measuring concems of educators as they deal with innovations

The Role of CBAM

During the period Fuller was conducting her research Gene Hall and his

associates at the University of Texas were also researching teacher needs and concems

initially with a view toward providing relevant staff development activities Their

conceptual fi-amework for ascertaining concems during school change became the

Concems-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) (Hall Wallace amp Dossett 1973)

The CBAM describes feelings perspectives and attitudes of individuals while

they are considering the use of an innovation (Hall 1979) It is a people-oriented model

anticipating what change agents might discover during the change process and generally

used with staff development (Hope 1995) These assumptions undergird the CBAM

36

1 Change is a process not an event Change takes time and is accomplished in

stages

2 The individual is the primary target of interventions designed to facilitate

change in the classroom Institutions cannot change until individuals within them change

3 Change is a highly personal experience The personal satisfactions concems

motivations and perceptions play roles in determining the success or failure of an

innovation

4 The change process is developmental Individuals go through stages in feelings

and perceptions about the innovation as well as in skill of use of the innovation

5 Staff development can be best facilitated by a client-centered diagnostic-

prescriptive model Staff developers must discover what level participants are in the

change process and design activities congment with that level

6 Staff developers need to work in an adaptive yet systemic way They must be

able to assess the change process and adapt training methods to address those changes

(Hall amp Loucks 1978 Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1991)

Within CBAM three aspects of change form the basic fi-ame of reference of the

model

1 the concem that users have about the innovation

2 how the innovation is used and

3 the ways that the innovation can be adapted to meet the needs of individuals

(Hope 1995)

37

This current study focused only on this first strand-concems Using Fullers

research Hall et al redefined Fullers three stages of concem into concems unrelated to

teaching concems about self concems about the task and concems about impact

(Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1991) Seven Stages of Concem (SoC) about the

innovation have been identified (see Appendix A) Hall and his associates have

demonstrated that individuals move through these seven levels in a consistent manner

(Hall 1979 Hall 1985 Hall George amp Rutherford 1977 Hall amp Loucks 1978 Hall

Wallace amp Dossett 1973 Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1991) Stage 0 represents no

concem over the innovation Stages 1 and 2 reflect concems based on self stage 3

represents concem with the task and stages 4 through 6 mirror concems based on pupil

impact

The Stages of Concem Questionnaire the most precise measure of the SoC is a

35-item Likert scale where respondents indicate their present degree of concem about the

topic in an item (Hall George amp Rutherford 1979) Hall et al hypothesize that

individuals will normally flow fi-om the stages in consecutive order and that a scored

profile should place an individual somewhere along the concems continuum It is highly

rigorous and can be used effectively for research for large groups of people and for

tracking groups of people over time

George (1977) provided rehability and validity figures for this instrument

Intemal reliability was shown to be high Table 2-1 shows intemal reliability coefficients

for a 1974 sample (N=830) of teachers and professors A later subsample of teachers

38

Modifications to the content of the SoC have been done (Bailey amp Palsha 1992

Shotsberger amp Crawford 1996) with varying reliability In the main these researchers

concur that teacher concems do indeed occur in stages but differ in the number of stages

they detect

Table 2-1 Coefficients of Intemal Reliability for the Stages of Concem Questionnaire N = 830

Stage Alphas

0 64 1 78 2 83 3 75 4 76 5 82 6 71

(George 1977)

(N=132) was asked to complete the SoC a second time with test-retest correlations

shown in Table 2-2

As an adjunct to the SoC questionnaire the opportunity is presented for the

respondent to provide a written response with an open-ended statement along the lines of

When you think about [the innovation] what are you concemed about An collection

of open-ended statements can give the researcher opportunity to get a quick feeling for

39

Table 2-2 Test-Retest Correlations on the Stages of Concem Questionnaire N=132

Stage Pearson-r

0 65 1 86 2 82 3 81 4 76 5 84 6 71

(George 1977)

the concems of a group Moreover it can ascertain specific issues germane to a particular

group (Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1991) An altemate version of the SoC geared

principally to change facilitators contains an open-ended blank

43 Use this space (and back of this page) to express any concems you have not been able to indicate in the questionnaire (Hall Newlove George Rutherford amp Hord 1991 p 48)

A third means of gaining information is the one-legged interview which can be

done by simply having a conversation with a respondent about the innovation It is called

one-legged because it can be conducted on the mn or brief enough to do while standing

on one leg While not so rigorous as quantitative instruments this format allows for more

simplicity and rapport with chents (Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1991)

40

AppUcations of CBAM

CBAM has been used in a variety of educational situations Malone (1984) used

CBAM to determine concems of pre-service elementary teachers in teaching science

James and Hall (1981) evaluated concems of veteran teachers in implementing new

science curricula

CiccheUi and Baecher (1985 1987) used the CBAM model to study teacher

computer training They found that the level of concems of novice computer-using

teachers was a factor in how staff development was scheduled Their research questions

are similar to this present study

1 What specific concems will teachers have about using microcomputers in the

classroom

2 Do these concems vary and if so to what extent among elementary junior high

and senior high school teachers

3 Are there different concems between male and female teachers

4 In what ways can data yielded fi-om the SoCQ help teacher educators design

effective inservicing (Cicchelli amp Baecher 1985)

Wesley and Franks (1996) observed the voluntary adoption activities of teachers

using computer-assisted instmction (CAI) and multimedia through a variety of staff

development strategies most notably collegiality (Joyce amp Showers 1988) CBAM

developmental stmctures were positively linked to the increasing complexity of

technologies adopted by these teachers As they progress through the SoC teachers

voluntarily adopt technologies toward better leaming in the classroom Hope (1995)

41

examined teachers concems as they gained greater facility with computers in an

elementary school setting

Wells and Anderson (1997) performed studies comparing intemal concems

(stages 0 to 3) and extemal concems (stages 4 to 6) on a variety of computer appUcations

utilized by students in a graduate telecommunications course Prior computer usage in

eight separate skill areas along with general computing experiences was evaluated on the

SoC Ragsdale (1997) used CBAM to research the unexpected reactions of teachers and

students as they work in a variety of technologies Through CBAM Todd (1993) studied

university faculty concems in teacher preparation programs

CBAM is even used in non-scholastic situations Hall and Hord (1987) report

CBAM and SoC used to research nurse training Air Force cadet leadership training

health behavior and textbook sales and service CBAM has been used intemationally

with extensive studies in Belgium the Netherlands and Australia and has been piloted in

Indonesia Venezuela and Thailand (Hall Newlove George Rutherford amp Hord 1991)

The Change Facilitator SoC

The SoC questionnaire was shown to be adequate in determining the concems of

classroom teachers but did not work as well with administrators staff developers and

others who were charged with implementing change (Hall Newlove George Rutherford

amp Hord 1991) Not only were many of the SoC statements often inappropriate for change

facilitators but also scores elicited fi-om change facilitators yielded values skewed higher

in the Impact stages 4 through 6 particularly stage 5 (Collaboration) which is logical

42

considering the definition of stage 5 and the role of the change facilitator (Hall et al

1991 p 15) Earlier studies with change facilitators and CBAM gave impetus for a more

role-related instrument for assessing concems

The net result of this research yielded a set of Change Facilitator Stages of Concem

(CFSoC) The sequence of concems in the CFSoC (unrelated self task impact) is given

in Appendix B As with the SoC the CFSoC again contains 35 Likert-style statements

but each statement is expressed with a more leadership oriented spin Again as in the

earlier SoC Questionnaire Hall et al hypothesize that change facilitators will move along

the same path fi-om one stage to the next in consecutive order

The CFSoC Instrument

This specific instrument formed a significant portion of the data for this present

study and consequently requires more detailed reporting of its development Hall et al

(1991) have prepared a detailed manual describing the development of the instrument

scoring procedures methods of interpretation and reliability and validity data Appendix

C provides the current CFSoC instrument as used in this present study

CFSoC Development

As stated earlier those who had roles as change facilitators exhibited a different

pattem of responses to the SoC questionnaire because the SoC statements are phrased for

users of the innovation (p 15) Hall et al reported that they had to strike a balance

between innovation-related concems and change-facilitator role concems (p 16)

43

Because of this felt need for such a balance in May and June of 1979 Hall et al

instituted a pilot study of a potential change facilitator version of the well-used SoC This

pilot study indicated the need to wholly change the concems statements to reflect change

facilitator roles Additionally they found that the questionnaire items had to reflect the

facilitation of others use of the innovation rather its use per se (p 18) Questionnaire

items for the Impact stages (4-6) had to focus on efforts and concems on revising the

facilitation process rather than personal use of the innovation

Hall et al (1991) describe their later piloting efforts

Pilot data were collected at CBAM workshops for change facilitators in August 1979 in Texas (N=29) and New Mexico (N=23) Item analyses indicated that the intemal reliability of the scales were good (alphas greater than 65 on all scales) but Stages 1 and 2 (Informational and Personal) were too highly correlated This led to fiirther examination of the CFSoC definitions and a new draft of items for Stages 0 12 and 3

In May 1980 a sample of 219 CFSoC Questionnaires was collected by sending the measure to all change facilitators who had participated in Concems-Based Consulting Skills Workshops in 1979 and 1980 Analyses of these responses indicated good reliability and scale intercorrelations for all but Stage 6 (Refocusing) After carefiil analysis of the Stage 6 concept several new Stage 6 items were written and incorporated into the CFSoC

During the summer and fall 1980 an additional set of 288 CFSoC Questionnaires was collected fi-om a variety of workshops and mailings to change facilitators With these data factor analyses and other item analyses were used to select the five items for each stage on the final questionnaire (Hall et al 1991 p 18-19)

Reliability and Validity

Hall et al (1991) report two intemal rehability studies for the CFSoC A 1981

study (N=589) administered the current 35-item scale to a sample group that included a

44

variety of innovations examined job titles and years of experience Table 2-3 shows the

intemal reliability data for each stage Subsequent studies have produced virtually

identical data Another set of CFSoC responses (N=750) yielded the data in Table 2-4

Table 2-3 Means Standard Deviations and Alpha Coefficients for the CFSoC (N=589)

Stage Mean SD Alpha

0 1199 594 61 1 1691 949 85 2 1304 632 62 3 1790 730 72 4 2588 634 70 5 2586 699 77 6 907 652 81

(Halletal 1991p 19)

Table 2-4 Means Standard Deviations and Alpha Coefficients for the CFSoC (N=750)

Stage Mean SD Alpha

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

1320 1920 1140 1766 2477 2499

840

593 925 622 718 672 704 618

63

86

65

73

74

79

81

(Halletal 1991 p 19)

Hall et al conclude These statistics indicate that the scales have adequate

intemal reliability and the scales are consistent across various innovations (p 20) 45

The 1981 study yielded relatively low intercorrelations between stages Such low

intercorrelations indicate that these scales are measuring different concepts Table 2-5

provides a display of the intercorrelations of scale scores

Table 2-5 Intercorrelations of the Scale Scores on the CFSoC (N=589)

Scale 1 2 3 4 5 6

0 15 19 23 -15 -21 22

i 24 09 23

2 37 19

3 32

4

5

18

05

20

67

05

34

09

-06

-15

(Halletal 1991 p 20)

As is noticable in the table most stage correlations are small except for the correlation of

Consequence and Collaboration

Summary and Reflection

To summarize we know a great deal about how schools change fi-om the available

literature Fullan and Stiegelbauer (1991) point out famihar pattems of change and how

individuals adjust through those changes Rogers (1955 1983) insights into the diffiision

of innovations in a social system have expanded and matured with time Rogers points

46

out that those who facilitate change most effectively are those who in the social system

are most effective in social effectiveness Those who would dare to facilitate

technological change would normally reflect Rogers maxims conceming opinion leaders

The concepts of collaborative strategies appear usefiil for a variety of contexts

particularly for cooperative groups of school districts The original Stages of Concem

(SoC) survey continues to be utilized extensively but little hterature exists for the more

restrictive Change Facilitator Stages of Concem (CFSoC) instrument CFSoC authors

appear enthusiastic about its use (Hall amp Hord 1987 Hall Newlove George Rutherford

amp Hord 1991) but as this present research is conducted only one recent article advocates

its use (Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1993)

In communicating with CFSoC personnel they had no direct knowledge of

extensive recent literature on the CFSoC G Hall (personal communication November 2

1998) referred this writer to the original CBAM staff A George (personal

communication November 6 1998) was unable to find extemal validity studies of the

CFSoC There appears a need for this instmment to be used and reported upon

The legal stmctures which provide foundation for establishing a technology

consortium are solidly found in Texas legal literature Because they are based on legal

statutes they could be modified or deleted by subsequent legislatures Moreover the

changing fortunes of Chapter 41 school districts with fluctuating mineral wealth will

make it difficuh to reliably predict the fiiture of such technology consortia

47

CHAPTER m

METHODOLOGY

Study Design

Yin (1994) asserts that the type of research design to be used in any study must be

bounded by (a) the type of research question posed (b) the extent of control an

investigator has over actual behavioral events and (c) the degree of focus on

contemporary as opposed to historical events (p 4)

This present study used the case study method Yin (1993) specifically addressed

and described studies of educational partnerships or consortia as good examples of case

study research The research questions reiterated below are how and why oriented

(Yin 1994) They are presented in the form of a grand tour question what concems the

technology consortium exhibits as a group and sub-questions what concems individuals

(Spradley 1979)

Grand Tour Ouestion

What are the concems of leadership personnel as the TEKS technology

requirements are implemented in their school districts

Sub-questions

1 Where do these school leaders fall on the Concems-based Adoption Model

(CBAM) continuum regarding TEKS technology implementation

48

2 What are the specific concems of these school leaders as these TEKS are

implemented and why are these concems important

Rationale

This research examined details particularly interviewees responses which were

out of this writers direct control This study also focused on contemporary events in a

technology consortium in rural Texas Therefore Yins standards (Yin 1994 p 6) for

applying a case study method were justified

This present study was exploratory As such Yin (1994 p 21) would assert that

specific propositions or underlying assumptions about what we might discover in the

course of the inquiry should not be defined Assumptions tend to interfere with defining

issues they also constmct personal biases to both data gathering and interpretation

Rather Yin suggested that an exploratory study should reflect the purpose of the study

and the criteria by which an explanation will be judged successfiil (p 21) Levine

(1990) concurs that explorations into educational computer use often lack propositions

Many of the published qualitative studies are deemed exploratory by their authors reflecting researchers quandaries about what should be the subject of the inquiry in this new field and of equal importance the lack of any guiding theory against which to cast the qualitative data In general most of the extant models of quahtative investigation into classroom computer use tend to be atheoretical and largely positivist rather than interpretive in their orientation (p 464)

The criteria forjudging an explorations success will be discussed in the later section

dealing with validity and reliability

The unit of analysis for this study was a technology consortium the combined and

49

cooperative efforts of seven school districts to provide instmctional technology leadership

toward better serving their students Such a partnership has collective activities and

outcomes and as a distinct unit represents something greater than activities and

outcomes of member school districts (Yin 1993) Those change facilitators whose

concems were examined were all employed by the individual school districts and were

recognized as leaders within their respective districts Each of these individuals was

asked a set of similar questions Their responses were considered as representative of the

leadership of their individual districts Appendix D provides the list of questions that

were asked

Yin (1993) suggests that topical relevance and access can contribute to the

appropriateness of this research design The consideration of TEKS technology

implementation efforts is being effected during this present academic year and is certainly

current

For linking the data to the research questions the specific analysis strategy used

was the pattem-matching model Those concems registered by the interview participants

were compared with pattems of CBAM data particularly the typical and hypothesized

profiles of school change facilitators as manifested on the Change Facilitator Stages of

Concem (CFSoC) protocol (Hall Newlove George Rutherford amp Hord 1991)

Informants were asked to fill out the brief CFSoC survey The CFSoC manual presented

typical profiles and gave suggested interpretations of representative profiles These were

used to determine the concems rankings of these informants

Yin (1994) admits that there are no precisely set criteria for interpreting findings

In discussing a study by an author named herein Jones Yin made these observations

50

Jones data matched one pattem better than they matched the other But how close does a match have to be so as to be considered a match Note that Jones did not do any statistical test to make the comparison Nor would a statistical test have been possible because each data point in the pattem was a single number for which one could not calculate a variance and could not conduct any statistical test One hopes that the different pattems are sufficiently contrasting that the findings can be interpreted in terms of comparing at least two rival propositions (p 26)

The concems of school change facilitators as they implement new models of

curriculum were studied through the mode of exploratory case study a qualitative study

design Because this current study desired to know the current concems of sitting school

leaders a case study paradigm was used because the events in the study cannot be

manipulated Campbell (1997) suggests that a qualitative design is appropriate when

ascertaining the insiders point of view and the informants personal involvement A

research protocol of examining documents and artifacts and conducting interviews

provided a wide variety of data Moreover as Levine (1990) asserted case study research

could be accomplished relatively quickly Levine suggested that a case study design

appears to be the method of choice for those investigating different facets of educational

uses of computer technology

Clouse and Garrett (1994) suggest more theoretical reasons for utilizing case

study with adult change facilitators Borrowing fi-om Piagetian concepts the stage of

formal operations which forms the basis of case study is well-developed by adulthood

Moreover case study is grounded in the needs of adult leamers because of the

51

meaningfiilness of problems to the aduh and the responsibility they take toward their

own personal development

Stake (1995) describes defining characteristics of case study research that are

apphcable for this present study

1 It is holistic its contextuality is well developed it is case oriented

2 It is empirical it is field oriented its emphasis is on observables including the observations by informants it strives to be naturalistic noninterventionistic and there is a relative preference for natural language description

3 It is interpretive its researchers rely on intuition with many important criteria not specified it is attimed to the fact that research is a researcher-subject interaction

4 It is empathetic although plaimed its design is emergent responsive its reporting provides vicarious experience

(Stake 1995 pp 47-48)

Context for the Study

This study site was selected in consultation with a consultant who had knowledge

of and had worked with this organization I was directed toward one of the Consortiums

superintendents to secure access This superintendent in tum directed me toward a

person at the Educational Service Center who would be able to assist me

This technology consortium was comprised of seven school districts with two

districts declining to participate in this research These districts were rural and agrarian

yet possessed school leaders who tmly wanted to bring their communities up to date with

52

technology These school sites were given pseudonyms which were generated by random

selection of cities fi-om states other than Texas in a current road atlas Names of

participants were given pseudonyms Those names were those of students fi-om my high

school yearbook and were drawn by lot

In general each of the five school districts were in Texas counties which have

declined in population since 1990 The combined population of these districts is 7306

(Texas Almanac 1998) Each districts economy was based on agriculture and varying

amounts of mineral wealth resulting in substantial variance in property values Each

county boasts a relatively low crime rate

More important than minute details this present study is focused on the big

picture the ways and means utiHzed to make this technology consortium a reality In

initial contacts with consortium leadership this researcher was directed toward Dr Sarah

McCuUough a program specialist of the Educational Service Center Region J located in

Center City Texas Dr McCullough was instmmental in establishing this technology

consortium and providing this researcher with the history and innerworkings of this

consortium Interview questions for Dr McCullough are in Appendix E The following

narrative of the foundation and fimctioning of this consortium is based on this

researchers interview with Dr McCullough (personal communication December 9

1998)

The Sah Fork Educational Technology Consortium (the Consortium) is comprised

of seven independent school districts all of which have akeady worked together as a

special education cooperative Six of these districts are members of Educational Service

Center (ESC) Region J while one is actually in the territory of ESC Region K As also

53

with special education cooperatives a technology consortium is an interlocal agreement

by Texas law and has a management board comprised of district superintendents one

district designated as fiscal agent and a chair authorized to speak and act for the group

The Salt Fork Telephone Company (SFTC) headquartered in Dellwood Texas

provides rural telephone service for several counties in Texas All of the school districts

in these counties depend on this provider for both telephone service and the possibihty of

Intemet connectivity In 1995 the SFTC invited school leaders fi-om their service area to

a demonstration in Dellwood to show off a variety of new technologies that they were

excited to announce particularly their new capabiHty for two-way interactive video

Because these districts had worked together before had a common telephone carrier and

had common interests these school leaders concluded it logical and practical to combine

together for technology improvement in their schools

Prior to the Consortiums establishment member districts were limited to only the

computers they currently had in the classroom Almost all of their computers were

stand-alone units Each district also had a satellite dish for the state network materials

but were using them poorly and inefficiently

Dr McCullough was initially hired to work with this group to get a two-way

interactive video setup organized Later she was deeply involved with authoring several

grants for this group Her subsequent work with the Consortium was to conduct an array

of custom-designed technology needs assessments for each of several job descriptions

(teacher counselor administrator etc) with the emphasis on what do you want that you

do not have with the view that technology was the means to fiilfill those needs She now

54

meets regularly with these superintendents as they hold Consortium management board

meetings

Dr McCullough describes the interrelationships of Consortium members

positively She notes very little dissention as they discuss procedures that most decisions

are made by consensus What serves one serves all of them she emphasizes as the

Consortium moves toward better technology use Each board member realizes that they

are at different point toward reaching group goals They realize the benefits of

collaborative planning a hard lesson for everyone to leam

The Consortium keeps operating fiinds in a bank account separate fi-om general

operating fiinds administered by the business manager of the fiscal agent To date

fimding has come fi-om grants and fi-om monies generated fi-om the two member districts

designated as property-wealthy under Chapter 41 of the Texas Education Code These

districts recapture a certain percentage of excess property wealth normally surrendered to

the State and assign those fiinds to the Consortium (see Chapter II) These districts have

voluntarily chosen to redistribute their fiinds in this manner

Because these districts have formed this consortium they not only have more

technology but also more capabilities As a whole there is improved student

performance and better trained teachers with a rise in Academic Excellence Indicator

System (AEIS) scores (see Chapter I) Most importantly these school leaders fimction as

a group They actively seek ways to collaborate

A recent example of this improved outlook on technology concems teachers use

of the Accelerated Reader (AR) program Heretofore it had been difficult to get teachers

to travel all the way to Center City for training for AR but with a high-quality technology

55

center in Dellwood closer to the other Consortium member schools there was high and

enthusiastic tumout for the training sessions

Informant Selection

This researcher invited each of the seven school districts in the technology

consortium to participate in this study In August 1998 a letter was sent to each of the

district superintendents of the Consortium introducing me the goals of the prospective

research how they might participate^ etc A copy of this letter is provided in Appendix F

Within two weeks of the initial invitation a letter was received fi-om one

superintendent stating that in consultation with his districts site-based team they would

decline to participate in this present study That same week this researcher received a

telephone call fi-om the Dellwood ISD superintendent who had been authorized by the

Consortium board to grant permission to use their districts for this study

After securing approval of the Universitys Institutional Review Board these

superintendents were again contacted and consent forms instmctions and CFSoC

surveys were mailed to superintendents building principals and technology coordinators

of the six remaining districts This mailing was in November 1998 Eighteen completed

CFSoC surveys would be the potential maximum Appendix G contains a copy of the

consent forms and instmctions for taking the surveys

Concurrent with mailing queries to Consortium staff this researcher made initial

contact with Dr McCullough of the ESC and conducted an interview with her in

December 1998

56

The mailings yielded only eleven retumed surveys fi-om the maximum eighteen

possible informants However two of those with completed surveys were deleted fi-om

the pool during the pre-interview stage due to lack of fiirther response to interview

queries The net pool yielded exactly three each of superintendents building principals

and technology coordinators representing five school districts These nine informants are

those whose CFSoC profiles and interviews will be discussed in Chapter IV

Data Collection

A variety of data collection methods congment with the case study method was

used leading to the development of converging lines of inquiry allowing triangulation

ofthe data leading to improved validity and reliability of this study (Yin 1994)

Survey The CFSoC instmment contained 35 Likert-style statements which were

grouped into seven stages of concem Each ofthe statements received a score of 0

through 7 The statement scores were added up to provide a raw score for each stage

That raw score was in tum evaluated by a percentile score chart For the given raw

score there was a corresponding percentile score Percentile scores were then encircled

on a CFSoC protocol Interpretation ofthe CFSoC was based on the profile yielded

from the administration ofthe instrument

Hall et al (1991) insist that their instrument must not be used to make a definitive

analysis of a respondent but rather all interpretations must be treated as hypotheses (p

29) They discuss three methods of examining the CFSoC protocol to generate

hypotheses Interpretations can be made either by examining the stage which shows the

highest degree of concem based on percentile score by examining the percentile scores

57

ofthe highest and the second-highest stages or by examining the fiill array of stage

percentile scores Hall et al point out

As individuals move fi-om little concem about facilitating use of an innovation into actively becoming involved with users as a facilitator it is hypothesized that their concems develop fi-om being most intense at Stages 0 1 and 2 to most intense at Stage 3 and uhimately to most intense at Stages 4 5 and 6 This is most likely to occur if the innovation is a positive one and there is administrative support for its implementation However reality has a way of intervening on this idealized trend which results in different and interesting profiles Where an individual is in this change process can best be assessed through interpretation of a complete concems profile Analyzing both the tabular fisting of percentile scores and the plots of these percentile scores as a graph provides the most complete clinical interpretationassessment (Hall et al pp 33-34)

The profiles accuued as part ofthe data collection are thus examined according to

fiill-profile examples given in the CFSoC manual (Hall et al pp 34-42) Additionally

specific information given by the respondents conceming their change facilitator roles is

considered in establishing these hypotheses Scores are interpreted on the shape ofthe

profile and not necessarily on the numerical score of each concem stage

Interviews There were semistmctured interviews with district superintendents

building principals and persons designated within the school community as the

technology coordinator those whom teachers and administrators rely upon when

computer savvy is needed As opposed to the more open-ended interview I made the

interview more focused as Yin (1994 pp 84-85) puts it The informants were busy

educators and administrators and their time was perceived as limited Interviews were

oriented toward ascertaining the informants knowledge and use of technology with a

58

view toward discovering concems they had as new curricular guidelines and concurrent

hardware implementation was instituted Interviews were conducted by telephone tape

recorded and transcribed for review Interview queries were based on the CFSoC

questionnaire (Hall et al 1991) and questions used in a similar dissertation project

(Nagy 1996) This researcher noticed that several questions as listed in Appendix D

would be commented on by the informants without being asked When each ofthe

questions were answered by the informant the interview ceased Any discussion of non-

germane issues (local school politics vocational programs etc) or school activities not

included in Chapter 126 ofthe TEKS were not evaluated

Documentation Merriam (1988) defines documents as just about anything in

existence prior to the research at hand (p 105) but cautions whether it contains

information or insights relevant to the research question and whether it can be acquired in

a reasonably practical yet systematic manner (p 105)

I wanted to review a wide variety of recent public records in the fiirtherance of

technology implementation for this Consortium including but not limited to school

board minutes technology consortium records established policy statements grant

applications tabular data and evaluations Not all of these documents were available

fi-om Dr McCullough or fi-om Consortium members What was available included the

initial grant applications needs assessment surveys and technology plan The Academic

Excellence Indicator System (AEIS) reports for the 1997-98 school year for each district

were retrieved fi-om the TEA web site (TEA 1999) During the course of informant

interviews certain legal documents were alluded to found in Vemons Texas Codes

Annotated and were useful in verifying interview data A current survey (September

59

1998) ofthe Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) provided a comparison

of similarly situated school districts for technology use Cumulative accountability data

conceming these districts was found in pubhc records (TEA 1995 1996 1997a 1998)

Standardized indicators of district performance could thus be obtained as evidence of

progress

Merriam (1988) suggests that the use of these documents assists in grounding a

study into the context ofthe problem that is under investigation A further purpose of

reviewing documentation is that such records present not only the history ofthe

technology program but also the sense of ownership and commitment that the leadership

exerts and the staff reflect in their service to their leaming communities We also seek

independent objective means to determine if these technology implementations yield any

progress thus avoiding halo effects fi-om those most intimately involved with the

organization

Data Analysis

Since data collection and data analysis drive one another (Gay 1997) the data

was organized to reflect pattems or themes which emerged fi-om the data (Bogdan amp

Biklen 1992) As they discuss evaluating data they affirm that a method of finding a

focus is to look over your coding categories and see which have yielded the greatest

amount of data (p 186)

The interview transcripts were read and reread to gamer a sense ofthe concems

manifested by the informants The analysis had to be germane to the viewpoint ofthe

informant (Tashakkori amp Teddlie 1998) Coding categories emerging fi-om the interview

60

data included student leaming distance leaming power attitudes training infrastmcture

and finance The relevant narrative fi-om the hard copies ofthe transcripts were color

coded by crayon By using the cut-and-paste editing method with the word processor

color coded text fi-om individuals transcripts were collated into listings of specific

concems

Bogdan and Biklen (1992) suggest that this method of sorting piles of coded

material helps the researcher in not only making better sense ofthe data but also

communicating the results to others Appendix H shows the broad categories or themes

along with the sub-categories which comprised each theme

Since both quantitative and qualitative data were used in this present research it

becomes vital to justify the use of each paradigm and how the data is analyzed within that

paradigm Tashakkori and Teddlie (1998) wholeheartedly affirm that the two paradigms

can be successfully fused into one study They suggest that researchers deemed

pragmatic do not necessarily have to be doctrinaire about research paradigms Among

the various research models they describe is included a mixed-model study which

includes a research design that calls for a field experiment and extensive ethnographic

interviewing to occur simultaneously and in an integrated manner (p 19)

The CFSoC survey (Hall et al 1991) was analyzed as per the instmctions given

and the examples displayed in Section IV of their instruments manual Since each

informant could be considered at an individual position on the CFSoC concems

continuum a hypothesized profile was made for each informant based on the relative

extremes in percentile ranks derived fi-om the raw scores ofthe seven concem stages on

61

the CFSoC protocol (pp 33-34) Hall et al took pains to remind CFSoC users that the

quantitative results could only be considered data to generate hypotheses (p 43)

The examples given in the CFSoC manual make comparisons ofthe various high

stages that informants exhibit For example a high raw score in Stage 3-Management

would reflect that the informant may have significant concems toward logistics time and

management in fulfilling professional duties vis-a-vis implementing the discussed

innovation A high raw score at Stage 0-Awareness uniquely and specifically indicates

that the informant may have many other concems in addition to the innovation currently

in question These extemal concems could be any other activities that vie for a change

facilitators limited attention that outweigh the immediate concem for the stated

innovation Hall et al describe a variety of combinations and relative positioning of those

concems that are most prominent in the informants thinking Data reporting of

informants CFSoC profiles in Chapter IV will reflect analysis strategies described by

Hall et al in their manual (Hall et al 1991 pp 34-42)

Tashakkori and Teddlie (1998) assert that the qualitative field material (notes

interviews etc) be evaluated on two dimensions a) whether the themes or categories

were established a priori or emerged during the analysis and b) the degree of complexity

ofthe qualitative analysis scheme (ranging fi-om simple to complex) (p 117) They note

that through this process of emerging themes six to eight categories or themes emerge

when no a priori mle is imposed on informants

Because the data would be analyzed using recurring themes (Glesne amp Peshkin

1992 Howard 1994 Miles amp Huberman 1984) emerging fi-om the course of

interviewing the technique of latent content analysis was used As opposed to manifest

62

content the surface meaning of a text latent content refers to determining the underlying

meaning of a narrative and is determined by a subjective evaluation ofthe overall

content ofthe narrative (Tashakkori amp Teddhe 1998 p 122)

The text ofthe interviews was read several times for topics that the informants

found important Those topics which appeared most fi-equently emerged as the themes

Tashakkori and Teddlie point out that this analysis scheme makes it more appropriate for

the phenomenon being studied (p 123)

Verification Strategies

Maxwell (1996) insists that validity in a quahtative study is not acquired simply

by applying boilerplate techniques and strategies but by describing specific ways and

means of mling out possible altematives to our interpretations and conclusions Maxwell

insists that validity is a goal rather than a product it is never something that can be

proven or taken for granted (p 86) Moreover validity must be determined within the

context ofthe research and not merely a property independent ofthe context For each of

three principal means of understanding Maxwell describes a specific method that I was

able to use to better ensure validity

1 Description Since the main threat to description is inaccuracy the informant

interviews were recorded on cassette tape and transcribed Each ofthe informants was

sent a copy ofthe transcribed conversation for review verification and suggestions

2 Interpretation The principal threat to interpretation is imposing my own

meanings to the informants words To combat this validity threat consistent member

checks were made during the course ofthe interviews to ensure that I was getting the

63

correct information from the informant It was important to allow each informant to

express himself or herself in their own words Several methods of eliminating personal

bias are described below

3 Theory Not paying adequate attention to altemative propositions becomes the

most serious threat to theoretical validity (Maxwell 1996 p 89-90) Altemative

propositions can be masked by researcher bias and reactivity

Elimination of researcher bias is based on understanding how my personal biases

could affect the informants and their comments and my conclusions subsequently

derived Maxwell declares that is virtually impossible to totally eliminate my personal

thinking and values from the study (p 91) By asking similar questions of informants by

allowing these informants to candidly express themselves and by consistent member

checking I controlled for personal bias

Reactivity the influence ofthe researcher on the informants is likewise

impossible to totally remove from the research as Maxwell insists

For interviews in contrast reactivity is a powerful and inescapable influence what the informant says is always a function of the interviewer and interview situation What is important is to understand how you are influencing what the informant says and how this affects the validity ofthe inferences you can draw fi-om the interview (p 91)

Lists of what to do to combat reactivity have been compiled (Marshall amp

Rossman 1989 Maxwell 1996) but all of these suggestions (triangulation member

checks audits etc) are simply the usual methods in qualitative research Since there are

64

virtually no qualitative studies ofthe research instrument available for comparison I have

relied on these procedures to control for biases

1 Feedback Maxwell (1996) encourages the use of a variety of outside observers

to examine the data analysis and give their comments to critique my logic and methods

Two individuals with experience with both technology and research methods have agreed

to assist me with this and evaluate the data analysis

a Mr Jack P Stell instmctional design manager Fairfax VA and b Dr C L Wayne Moore Assistant Professor University of Tennessee Knoxville

With differing perspectives and biases these reviewers indicated agreement that

the research methodology proposed was indeed followed and that the research questions

were answered They pointed out grammatical and spelling errors writing style concems

adherence to APA requirements etc

2 Member Checks Although informants were given repeated opportunities to

clarify themselves in the interviews informants were given the opportunity to respond to

the data analysis specifically identifying themselves

3 Rich Data Maxwell (1996) considers rich data to be detailed and complete

enough that they provide a full and revealing picture of what is going on (p 95) This

generally includes verbatim transcripts of interviews which were compiled for each of

the Consortium informants As the data was read and considered themes emerged fi-om

the data

4 Numerical Report Data This researcher used numerical and normally

quantitative data to add to the confidence level of what my informants were saying

There was particular concem with whether the efforts ofthe Consortium were making

65

any progress over the time period from its establishment to the time ofthe interviews

Publicly available data was gamered from AEIS and TAAS reports to ascertain progress

in school performance

Study Limitations

This study focused on technology implementation concems of change facilitators

of a single technology consortium limiting the representativeness ofthe study The

combined student population of these five districts is smaller than many urban high

schools Interview responses reflected a rural attitude Findings yielded reflect the

comments of those interviewed at the time ofthe study There may be a variety of future

long-range plans pending that might modify present policies These would include grants

bond issues school board elections or even newer state mandates

Nevertheless this study must transcend these limitations in order to be of interest

and find applicability by other scholars Yin (1994) hastens to point out that the case

study paradigm relies on analytical generalization not experimental statistical

generalization to generalize the results to a broader theory (p 36) Yin suggests

replication of a case study with similar sites before a general theory can gain wider

acceptance

There is also the problem of apphcability to school settings markedly different

from those studied However issues that are common to school districts in general could

be expressed by these informants (eg concems over funding student leaming staff

development or transfer of power)

66

CHAPTER IV

RESULTS OF THE STUDY

Informant and CFSoC Profiles

As discussed in Chapter III Consortium informants were sent a copy ofthe

CFSoC questionnaire and those protocols were retumed to this researcher These

informants responses have been evaluated according to guidelines established by Hall et

al (1991) This instmment does not consign each informant to each ofthe seven stages of

concem but rather categorizes the informant in a broader category of CBAM either

Awareness Self Task or Impact as was discussed in Chapter II Consequently each

informant will be designated by the general category based on their individual CFSoC

profile TheCFSoC protocols for each ofthe informants are included as figures in this

chapter

James

James Petty is the high school principal at Camden a position he has held for over

fifteen years James considers himself a practical person and professes a rather traditional

attitude toward his administrative duties The interview with James repeatedly mentioned

school discipline and teacher control ofthe classroom He readily admitted to relying on

other persons to inform him on technological issues rather than researching the data

himself

James CFSoC profile (Figure 4-1) exhibited extremely high levels of concem

with Awareness Management and Personal stages with percentile scores over 90 The

67

0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage 0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score 99 69 99 96 13 21 68

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-1 CFSoC Profile of James Petty Camden Principal

68

high Personal score suggests a concem for personal position and standing while the high

Awareness score indicates a diversity of issues facing him which to him are of greater

importance particularly classroom management Also a high Management score implies

time logistical and managerial concems The moderately high Refocusing score

indicates James has thought about altematives to the innovation and would be exhibiting

definite ideas and opinions over the technology implementation This profile suggests

James is not as likely to be involved in the change process as others might be Attempts

to intervene could intensify his current levels of concem Because ofthe high scores in

the Self array of stages I would hypothesize James to be in the SELF stage of concem

Bill

Bill Potter is the technology coordinator for the Camden schools although he

continues to teach math for much of his school day Bill leamed his present trade largely

by doing it Although relatively new to computers (less than fifteen years) Bill considers

himself to have been oriented toward technology from his military days as an Army pilot

during the 1960s to the present His formal computer training has only been in a few

junior college classes and some inservice training Bill credits his technology reputation

to being the one who knew how to operate the computer at an earlier date than his peers

Although in the technology coordinator role Bills highest CFSoC profile (Figure

4-2) score was in Awareness This is most likely attributable to having many other

professional concems at present particularly since he remains a classroom teacher for

69

0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

91 56 62 60

5 12 18

2 3 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-2 CFSoC Profile of Bill Potter Camden Technology Coordinator

70

much ofthe school day as well as his increaseingly greater role in his school district He

may also just now be beginning to envision himself as a change facilitator

Information Personal and Management scores are no more than six percentile

points apart suggesting personal status and time logistical and managerial concems are

also important to Bill An increased Refocusing score also indicates Bill has some

definite ideas about the innovation that warrant consideration Bill manifests a SELF

stage of concem for this iimovation based on his CFSoC profile

Ronnie

Ronnie Bennett has been technology coordinator at Dellwood for just a few years

but has a long reputation and a deep pioneering attitude not only toward computers but to

a wide array of technology Ronnie was the first at his school to use a computer first with

a VCR first with a CD player and first to tinker with quadrophonic sound Like Bill

Ronnie first leamed computing by doing it In addition Ronnie observed and later

worked with the various private vendors and technicians who provided technology

services to his building

Ronnies CFSoC profile (Figure 4-3) indicates several areas of concem High

Awareness and Personal scores indicate many concems other than the present technology

implementation Ronnie also considers his personal position and role in the school

organization to be important The similar scores in Management and Refocusing reflect

his concem for time and managerial issues and his definite additional ideas toward the

71

0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

99 76 97 91 39 40 92

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-3 CFSoC Profile of Ronnie Bennett Dellwood Technology Coordinator

72

innovation that might warrant consideration Ronnie appears to border between the SELF

and TASK stages of concem

Larry

Larry Beckman a former agriculture teacher has been the superintendent at

North Prairie for a few years Larry realizes his mral attitudes and folksy manner but

demonstrates by his proactive approach to leadership that advancing technology in his

district is in the best interests of his students and staff He has had little formal training

intechnology except for several workshops However Larry credits a hands-on

technology approach as most effective for himself

Larry had relatively high percentile scores for each ofthe seven stages of concem

with a low of 68 in Consequence Larrys highest CFSoC profile (Figure 4-4) score was

Management suggesting that the physical nuts and bolts and managerial concems

were most important Information scoring higher than Awareness indicates a better

understanding ofthe details ofthe innovation Larrys lowest scores in Personal

Consequence and Collaboration were only five percentile points apart suggesting

relatively lower concem for interpersonal interests He also scored high in Refocusing

suggesting that he is considering additional ideas about the iimovation that should be

considered Because ofthe high degree of management concems Larry would be best

described as being in the TASK stage of concem

73

0

100

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

87 89 73 94 68 72 92

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-4 CFSoC Profile of Larry Beckman North Prairie Superintendent

74

Mike

Mike McCoy has spent almost a decade at Sawtooth as superintendent Like

several others Mike is perceived as a doer having leamed a great deal about

technology through practical application Mike has a more direct responsibility with his

staff doing teacher evaluations and performing first-line maintenance with his buildings

technology He credits both a number of technology workshops and reading of

technology periodicals as being great sources of information

Mike as superintendent has many concems on his mind as his CFSoC profile

(Figure 4-5) indicates with a high score in Awareness His second highest score

Management suggests that he feels the cmnch of managerial and material concems for

his district Low Information and Personal scores could suggest that he feels secure in his

position and understanding ofthe innovation implementation A slight increase in

Refocusing fi-om Collaboration suggests that Mike is considering some ideas in addition

to the innovation implementation Because more personal concems are lower and the

managerial concems are high Mike appears to be in the TASK stage of concem

Vemon

Vemon Russell has well over three decades of public school service currently

finding himself as principal ofthe Sawtooth school Indeed he still teaches some science

classes and has even coached football while still an administrator Vemon is relatively

new to technology but indicates his willingness to leam by studiously reading the

manuals and attending workshops Vemon quips Ive leamed more from it in the last

three years than all the other years put together

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0 100

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

96 43 34 82 9

18 31

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-5 CFSoC Profile of Mike McCoy Sawtooth Superintendent

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Vemons CFSoC profile (Figure 4-6) shows him interested and positive about the

innovation with the higher Information score but the high Management score shows

Vemon still concemed over his day-to-day details Low Personal and even lower

Consequence and Collaboration scores and both raw and percentile scores of zero for

Refocusing indicate little concem over his facilitative role his personal status nor his

interest in exploring altematives toward this innovation At this late stage of career

Vemon appears comfortable in his knowledge ofthe innovation Vemon also appears to

be in the TASK stage of concem based on the high Management score

Renee

Renee White a mid-career educator occupies the technology coordinator

designation at Sawtooth schools Having been a secretary for twenty years Renee

considers herself adept at any technology thrown at her Describing herself as the chief

distributor of information Renee considers herself glad not to have a computer in her

home because she would play with it indefinitely

Renee exhibits similarly high percentile scores in Awareness and Management on

her CFSoC profile (Figure 4-7) These scores imply Renee has both a variety of concems

in addition to the innovation implementation and also concems over time logistics and

management of her responsibilities Similarly low percentile scores in Information

Personal Consequence and Collaboration suggest lesser concem for personal position

and collaboration needs A slight upswing in the Refocusing score suggests a concem for

articulating altemative ideas Renee seems to exhibit a TASK stage of concem

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0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

69 81 30 78 16 4 0

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-6 CFSoC Profile of Vemon Russell Sawtooth Principal

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0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

91 18 30 86 2 3

18

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-7 CFSoC Profile of Renee White Sawtooth Technology Coordinator

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David

David Jackson has been an administrator for decades and is the superintendent at

Woodlake David recognized the potential of computers and technology as soon as

computers became widely available to schools He enjoys being involved with the nuts

and bolts details of technology implementation even to the point of being involved with

the wiring for hardware implementation

David shows the same percentile score for both Awareness and Information on his

CFSoC profile (Figure 4-8) This impHes Davids concem for a variety of issues at

present and a desire to leam more about the innovation A relatively high Management

score suggests physical and managerial concems Lower scores in Personal and

Consequence imply that personal position and impact are not as important to David

Nevertheless Davids higher scores in Collaboration and Refocusing suggest a desire to

work together with others to make an impact on their leamers and to consider

altematives to innovation implementation David appears to be in the IMPACT stage of

concem very much concemed with how well he facilitates change with his staff

Stephen

Stephen Greer has been secondary principal at Woodlake for several years He has

always been interested in technology but attributes his current increased level of interest

to his rising to his present administrative post Stephen describes himself as a leamer

enjoying researching a problem and its solution A former math teacher and coach

Stephen considers himself an innovator

80

100

0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness I- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

87 87 30 74 13 60 68

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-8 CFSoC Profile of David Jackson Woodlake Superintendent

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0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1 - Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

81 61 73 93 62 60 13

2 3 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-9 CFSoC Profile of Stephen Greer Woodlake Principal

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Stephens highest percentile score on his CFSoC profile (Figure 4-9) was in

Management implying greatest concem with logistical and managerial concems A

somewhat lower score in Awareness suggests concems over other issues at present

Similar percentile scores in Personal Consequence and Collaboration could be

interpreted as concem for his impact for his facilitative and collaborative styles A very

low Refocusing score implies that Stephen is not considering altematives to the

innovation at this time Stephens profile best reflects the TASK stage of concem

Summary of CFSoC Data

To summarize these school change facilitators demonstrate a variety of change

facilitator strengths and had at least one individual in each ofthe CBAM stages (SELF

TASK IMPACT) Most of them score relatively high in Awareness suggesting that there

are other competing issues for that individuals time Management also scores

consistently high suggesting the day-to-day managerial and logistical details of the job is

of major importance to each informant Individuals appeared to be on a higher CBAM

stage as they held a higher position in the school district although there were some

differences which could be due to experience with the innovation

Informant Concems

Informant concems were also collected as described in Chapter III Each

informants interview was tape recorded and transcribed Copies ofthe transcriptions

were sent to each informant for confirmation prior to data analysis

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Seven overriding themes emerged across these interviews These were topics that

appeared to be important to these informants as they implemented new technologies in

their school districts in relation to the TEKS for technology applications The informants

registered strong opinions over these themes To reiterate these themes are discussed in

regard to the Consortium as a whole since the focus ofthe study was not on inter-role

relationships

Attitudes

The informants collectively expressed concems over the attitudes of themselves

their peers and their staffs There was high concem over the prevailing desire to keep

current with the technology David Jackson Woodlake Superintendent was a pioneer in

his district with implementing computer use and describes those early days

When we got our first network and put computers in the classroom that is the first keyboard many of our teachers had ever touched in their life as far as a computer keyboard Had no idea how to tum it on Had no idea how to apply software Knew nothing Scared them to death Still have a few that are very reluctant to use a computer or Intemet or any type of technology of that sort in the classroom

David feels that his some of his staff still manifest a degree of reluctance to use

technology

So the biggest challenge that Ive had is getting teachers to acquaint themselves with computer technology and cable technology all the technologies that have been made available to them You know its not going to do any good if they dont know how to use it

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Larry Beckman North Prairie Superintendent recognizes the need to keep his

district current with new technology

And I think a part of that is that a lot of us out here we know well I dont know whether we know or whatever but anyway we feel like maybe that weve got to try and stay on top of it as much as we can because we are so far away from anything And if we dont we dont stay on top of it were basically hurting our kids because you know if they graduate fi-om here and go over to Tech or to AampM or somewhere like that then they run into these situations you know theyve never seen any kind of this kind of equipment then theyre already two years behind everybody

Stephen Greer Woodlake Principal believes he is indeed on the fi-ont edge of

the curve at this point in time but credits his rising to an administrative post as a turning

point in his attitudes toward technology

Really up until the time I became an administrator we were the kind of on the back end ofthe curve there for a while but I feel were comfortable where we are right now technology wise

So much ofthe difficulty in implementing technology has centered on the fear of

change These informants encounter these fears daily both within themselves and their

staffs There appears to be a generational gap in acceptance of technology James Petty

Camden Principal considered his teachers and noted

I definitely see a difference in the age groups Those that are five years away from retiring are more difficult to get into use ofthe computer maybe a lot of times And probably the younger ones its just much easier for them to accept and to use a computer right off

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Similarly Vemon Russell Sawtooth Principal chalks it up to age and experience

level

We have one or two teachers who use it but use it sparingly you know what Im saying But we have other teachers I think that use it a lot Probably our primary grades its used less in K through 1 than anywheres But then they are traditional teachers Theyve been teaching a long time

Concurring David Jackson correctly noted

Because many of our teachers are intimidated by the fact that the students in their classroom know a whole lot more about the technology available in the classroom than they do Which is not uncommon I think in many schools

Bill Potter Camden Technology Coordinator marvels at the older teachers lack

of desire to advance in technology

Its like the older teachers you know they put that thing over in the comer and dust it off just like that F-16 out in front ofthe park you know Nobody knows how to fly it but boy we maintain it and it stays shiny Thats they way a lot of these older teachers treat their computers Theyre afraid to tum them on see so weve got to overcome that fear

Bill suggests that some ofthe more sophisticated technologies now in homes

might influence younger educators greater acceptance of technology

Of course as these people retire and theyre going to get here pretty quick I imagine in our school system and the younger ones take to more technology and the younger they get the better theyre going to be because theyve all grown up with VCRs and your microwaves

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Renee White Sawtooth Technology Coordinator would add that teachers

purchasing of personal computers improves their attitudes toward technology

A lot ofthe teachers own personal computers and so increasingly at our school theres a higher comfort level with using them and with experimenting and trying to figure things out than there was just two years ago I dont know if its a change in personnel or it its simply the exposure has increased the comfort level Maybe some of both

Larry Beckman as a district leader strongly realizes that m the face of change

positive efforts to make change happen is preferable to ignoring the need for change

It forces you you know its kind of like you can either get on the boat and help paddle or you can get off and swim Id rather be in the boat paddling and trying to stay up with it because I dont swim very fast

Ronnie Bennett Dellwood Technology Coordinator strongly rejects the notion

that change is bad After decades in the classroom and office Ronnie is aware how

attitudes shape teaching activity

A long time ago I leamed that change is not always bad And I guess back there when I first decided you know I told myself there were a lot of people that said Computers are not for me I remember that and I told myself I thought I could either leam how to do this or Im going to fall by the wayside And having always been interested in technology and all change has never been a problem for me And it is for a lot of folks People that have taught school a certam way for twenty or twenty-five years and suddenly you interject this new thing called technology or computers and some people just say Now wait a minute I didnt think what I was doing was all that bad

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Ronnie suggests that some teachers might be blinded to their own attitudes about

their teaching practices

As a regular classroom teacher I know that the way I present things and the way the kids I dont present things anything like I did when I first started teaching at all And thats because kids change times change You cant stay the same Things dont stay the same You have to be willing to you know if theres a better way to do something you know what we have is we have a lot of people that have been in this profession for twenty twenty-five some of them nearly thirty years and they taught the same lesson wrong for thirty years Just because youve done it over and over and over doesnt mean that its right

Power

In addition to changes in attitudes changes in school curricula educational

methods extemal mandates etc also bring about changes in power Who has the

authority Who decides what to do Who calls the shots These issues were on the minds

ofthe informants

Crawford Bodine and Hoglund (1993) distinguish attributes of recognized power

by de iure school leaders from perceived powerment of classroom personnel Power for

the sitting administrator is the fi-eedom fi-om being told by others what to do (p 143)

The classroom person being empowered to leadership is instead acknowledged their

power and receives fi-eedom to exercise that responsibility with a minimum of

bureaucratic or managerial constraints (p 232)

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Technology appears to be a key means of providing teachers the empowerment to

collaborate Ronnie Bennetts early vision of computers manifested prescience

I remember thinking you know This is a way for teachers to share things I remember thinking that you know that teachers had access to a machine that would allow them to communicate back and forth with teachers at other schools then would share all this information Of course now with e-mail and the Intemet thats what they want everybody to do

Not only does technology empower the teacher but also the leamer Stephen a

secondary principal would hope that his teachers realize the need to surrender some of

their perceived power with a view toward improving instmction

I have tried to push for change away fi-om lecturelisten and readtake notes multiple choice assessment And I have pushed for learner-centered self directed leaming What I couldnt achieve through preaching and bullying technology has almost single-handedly achieved for me in that area

Renee noted that often her students were akeady prepped to use the technology

She had no quahns over accepting a more facilitative role with her students

Now the fact was you know the computers were there and the kids were going to leam about them whether I helped them or not because thats the nature of children They like that technology theyll figure it out with you or without you

Not only direct instmction but also day-to-day teacher practices are being

changed due to technology Stephen related anecdotes about the changes technology

made in unbalancing teachers perceived status and power

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Ive witnessed the evolution of one of our teachers in particular that happens to be a coach that when he and I both appeared on this campus ten years ago he was strictly a traditional instmctor But Ill tell you right now its hard for him or has been hard for him but hes making the move successfully to give up the stmcture to give up the power and tum the power of leaming over to the students rather than the power being wielded by the teacher Thats been a hard stretch and technology it helps it gives you a venue to shift that power but at the same time there are sticky issues Obviously fi-ee speech issues obscenity issues those kind of things that are introduced with the advent of technology

Just getting traditional teachers to use a simple software package has tumed into

virtual showdowns in the administrative office Stephen gives an example from a

colleagues experience that echoes his own understanding

I think of an administrator fiiend of mine in a school in the Panhandle and theyre trying to move the rank-and-file in that direction And they are to the point where grades are submitted on disk at the end ofthe semester And they just have one math teacher as it tums out thats refiised you know just-was-not-going-to-do-it you know and finally his principal after two directives the third time he went down there and said Look you will tum your gradebook in on disk in May or you will not be working here in August That simple Step out But there are a lot of people that are nervous and I think its fear mostly I think its fear

The imposition of new ideas and new procedures can have an intimidating effect

on traditional teachers and administrators a relinquishing of power James admittedly a

traditional administrator relates that some of his teachers might be following his lead in

leaming new things

Its like making them do something that you know theyre required to do and theyre only doing it because they have to Maybe

90

Im like them or theyre like me in that some of us older dogs its a bit more difficuh to teach us something new or change

If leaming technology is merely a requirement for continuing teacher development

and not something that is perceived as needed then teachers will exhibit reluctance in

adoption of new technologies

As new technologies are implemented in schools there is the need for immediate

assistance in using the technology Those persons designated as technology coordinator

of a building or a district have had a modicum of perceived power bestowed on them

although each of these coordinators who have acted as informants still spends a

significant portion of their day in the classroom

Ronnie Bennett relates that his experiences with a number of superintendents

have tacitly acknowledged his expertise

Ive always been the kind of person that if something is broke that somehow ends up in my hands

Often they would say to Ronnie You tell me what you want or what to do

Ronnie appreciated one superintendent that was particularly supportive

(Conceming administrative support) but Buster (the superintendent) was like you know he wanted in there boy But he just about anything I ever wanted or needed you know he was just he was ready And he knew what I was talking about above all whereas a lot ofthe others had no idea what I was talking about

Bill found himself stumbling into his role as technology coordinator

91

But as far as being specifically trained for this Im not I just picked it up as I went and I was the guy that knew how to tum the computer on so I got the job you know as the Computer Gum You know the people the powers that be many of them ofthe teachers looked at me as having expertise really that I didnt have I just had one at home and knew how to tum it on they didnt They just thought I was genius you know so thats how I inherited this job

Later Bill found himself besieged by folks wanting his specialized knowledge

As kids leam more and more of this (computers) then we have people I have people you know that call and want to What kind of computer do I need to buy Of course you know thats like trying to recommend the type of automobile (they need to buy) and you dont want to get into that

Renee would chalk up her perceived expertise to her job title She has been skilled

with computers for years but has not always had people wanting her knowledge about

computers while she officially taught another subject at another school

So anyway I knew a lot about computers before other people but (because I taught home economics) no one ever asked me anything about computers at that school The whole year I was there no one had a question about computers All of a sudden because I teach computers I am the computer gum the shift in the role simply came with the title So I think what Im trying to say is is it the title itself dictating your role Not so much at first your knowledge so thats helpful and certainly its going to keep people coming back if youve been able to help them but simply your title itself says Oh you must have explanations that will help us here

Nevertheless final authority remains in the hands of de iure administrators One

ofthe technology coordinators explains

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And another thing too is that the administrator has the authority and theres a lot of things that I can see like I see we need to be doing training and that sort of thing but I dont have the authority in order to make that happen But until you get these administrators that are you know technologically oriented you know its hard to make things like that happen

This same technology coordinator feels fhistrated with trying to get teachers to use

technology and insists that those in leadership need to take charge and lead

Weve got these people at that level like the administrative level who have to provide the leadership that have the authority to make things happen and its like convincing someone you know youve got to convince them ofthe fact that it needs to be done Theyre too comfortable with you know getting the basketball games arranged and all this sort of thing and making sure a teachers in a certain classroom but boy when it comes to technology unless that person has used a computer its foreign to them

Student Leaming

The educational leadership literature points us to student learning as the ultimate

goal in any educational enterprise These informants unanimously echoed that concem

Unless the school staff perceive that the technology hardware is adequate to provide

quality educational experiences for the students the hardware is of little value Larry a

superintendent wonders why anyone would think otherwise

(Conceming his site-based committee) And then let them kind of I guess decipher what it is that they can use what it is that we need for our students how its going to benefit the kids whenever we get this stuff Whats going to be the benefit for the kids Are we going to teach them how to use it or are we just going to put it in the comer

93

Because he perceives that both students and staff are using the machinery effectively

Larry is more encouraged to plan for an increase in hardware for his district

Renee has been enmeshed in the technology for so long and has seen so much

progress with her students that they find technology use as normal

The kids who are in the tenth grade this year started school with computers They started kindergarten in Sawtooth with computers theyre the first class And when they hit my eighth grade class in computer literacy two years ago all I had to do was say Heres the program I want you to go to the menus at the top ofthe screen and see whats under each menu and get an idea of where things are Now I want you to create a PowerPoint presentation with these elements and I promise you other than probably a four or five minute demonstration on the program how it operated I did not have to tell those kids a thing It was OK where you expect them

Because of implementation of technology teachers are not only expected to use it

and thereby improve their teaching but also to increase student leaming Stephen a

secondary principal noticed the difference almost immediately

When we became connected and we put our computer labs online and when we got computers that are interfaced with televisions that are hooked into the Intemet and also to cable in the classroom Then automatically the teachers saw the convenience and the usefulness of using technology in what they do It sort of served as a catalyst to move fi-om traditional lecture instmction to student self-directed leaming To me thats the biggest change

Stephen considers technology as the catalyst in many areas of education He

integrates his technology concems with more global interests

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Technology is proving to be a wonderful thing and a wonderfijl instmctional aid and in a large sense in my mind its the thing thats driving the conversations we have in the political realms regarding charter schools home schools private school vouchers because we dont have the monopoly on education any more and I think thats a good thing I think students and their parents are going to look for the most bang for their buck and theyre going to look for education thats provided to them opportunities and experiences thats provided to them in a non-encumbering way To me the biggest question is in relation to technology is how to predict where were going

If indeed the quality of teaching is critical toward student leaming technology is

not always believed to be a positive factor in such progress David a superintendent is

not happy with some ofthe pervasiveness of technology in the classroom

I may be totally wrong but probably thats going to be the biggest area of change is the way we deliver instmction to students other than one-on-one in the classroom I see the day that the kids here at Woodlake schools will be watching the TV monitor

As a traditional administrator in a traditional school James has reservations on

how well teaching quality is exhibited when mixed with various technologies and

instmctional arrangements Traditional school procedures such as homework could be

modified or even made obsolete through technology James even suggests that his

teachers may never have the time nor the physical space in their rooms to handle all the

information fi-om the new technologies He senses a foreboding dread of technology

having the potential to replace the teacher

I see tremendous change and I think its going to continue and grow by leaps and bounds whether its laser discs or computers And I dont know where all its going but I see it coming And I dont think

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the teachers ever going to be replaced I hope they dont try because itll our quality of teaching is going to diminish I think if they do but I do see more and more technology involved in the classroom by these various kinds of things that weve been talking about

Informants have had varying amounts of time to measure the effectiveness of their

technology implementation Some of these districts have had over a decade to consider

increases in student leaming through computer technology David elaborated about what

his students at Woodlake have accomplished due to their years of experience with

technology

I feel like our students will be very prepared when they leave here to go on to college in the area of technology Woodlake has been fortunate to have (had) technology a lot longer than many other schools and weve had kiddos that have been able to use technology that they leamed here to work their way through college based on what theyve leamed and the exposure they got right here on technology

Mike McCoy Sawtooth Superintendent also has had highly advanced hardware

in his building for years and remarks how Sawtooth students at every level are integrating

technology into the curriculum

The students are just so extremely comfortable with technology I mean its just second nature with them almost You know we have computers in kindergarten you know all the way through twelfth grade and theyre in every classroom Our kindergarteners have no trouble with just going in sitting at the computer and you know being able to by themselves you know pull up a game or whatever it could be Every one of our elementary kids know that the information is available to them and they know how to get it off the Intemet They know where to go

96

Renee cautions that the changes that have been made and the progress achieved are

not just ends in themselves Despite piles of advanced technology in the classroom

Renee interjects

I still have to teach students to write I still have to teach students grammar I still have to teach students how to understand what they read I still have to get them to read I have to get them to write And I think this is tme generally technology is only a tool Its not the end result Were trying to teach students reading writing and arithmetic The 3 Rs The tools have changed the concepts have not Youre still trying to teach kids to think so they can move out into the world and be citizens ofthe greater society

Some administrators admittedly traditional in orientation have concems that

technology will dismpt the orderly progress that they have endeavored to produce in their

buildings They assume that discipline will lead to better student leaming James wonders

what effects distance leaming and Intemet use will have on both instmction and student

research when discussing the new interactive video delivered foreign languages classes

his school might offer

And to go the advanced (diploma) route its almost a necessary part of our curriculum As far as liking it I dont I think they do a poor job of teaching the course I think its just not a good way for students to leam

As for the interactive class James does not think it represents the best teaching method

He would prefer to have a live teacher in the classroom one that will be more proactive

in maintaining discipline and standard teaching activities

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Vemon also expressed concem over intemal discipline in the use ofthe e-mail

function ofthe system

My concem is consistency on the discipline ofthe e-mail of students in our school We try not to let them use it personally and I dont think its consistently enforced throughout our school and its very hard to supervise e-mail The e-mails a problem here that I have some teachers that watch it close and some teachers that dont

Indeed while discussing student leaming all of these informants expressed

specific concems over distance leaming and about its effects on their jobs and their

leamers As a result an additional concems theme distance emerged fi-om the data

Distance

Because the Consortium is implementing an advanced distance leaming center in

each of its member schools each informant volunteered concems over its

implementation use and outcomes The very concept of distance however is not

simply limited to distance leaming but also to the significant distances Consortium

educators have between their schools and sources of school improvement

These informants perceive improvement for their school districts by being able to

bring a greater variety of activities and services to their districts Larry a superintendent

jumps at the chance to use distance leaming in his district He sees benefits in distance

leaming to both professional and student progress as well as it being a cost-cutting

measure

98

I think its going to be extremely beneficial especially to schools out here like we are that you know were an hour and a half away fi-om the Service Center or fi-om Center City or Tech or anywhere like that and itll be extremely beneficial to our students You know we can pick up some college classes We can get them some dual-credit classes Ive got some people here that want to take some classes and want to work on some graduate work and so forth that maybe we can pick up School board training and in-service training through the Service Center will save us lots of dollars and lots of time because if we dont have to travel all the way to Center City to get our in-service and even if its a half-a-day deal you spend a whole day by the time you drive over there and drive back

Mike agrees with Larrys concem over hteral distance fi-om school to service

center When staff have to do as much travel as do these school leaders distance becomes

a significant factor in what they can accomplish

Were so isolated Were a hundred miles from Center City which is where our Service Center is Instead of travel time you know because any teacher who leaves here loses a full day even if its an hour workshop

Renee echoes Mikes concems She experiences the presure ofthe distance cmnch

as she budgets her time and resources

We live a hundred miles fi-om any kind of technical support and we pay $10000 an hour for somebody to come out and fix it so you think twice before you even ask to have (a computer) looked at Can I work around this

Nevertheless there is a sense of concem registered by each informant over distance

leaming implementation As discussed in the previous section there is a fear of

99

technology supplanting the teachers role David sees distance leaming in his professional

future but also makes this prediction

My first instinct is to say that probably distance education is going to have effect particularly on mral America Im not real sure Im ready to buy that yet It may but Im not totally yet sold on distance leaming as a tool for replacing the teacher in the classroom There may come a day that that might be the only way that we can deliver some instmction to our students If and when that day comes I think thats going to be a shame and I think thats going to be a step back in education

Previous efforts with distance leaming were fi-ustrating at some informants

schools David registers his experiences

And (distance learning) wasnt that well received either fi-om the students or the parents And I know that distance leaming will be better than that because youll have two-way interactive audio and video at all times But I still have reservations and Ill have to see it work well to change my mind on it I probably cant stop it fi-om coming

Ronnie having been a distance leaming facilitator also remembers problems with

this teaching format for students and facilitator alike

But it was all these schools even as far away as Kansas that were viewing this at the same time And its hard to get through on the telephone line because you had all these people trying to get through to ask a question

When asked about the net effects of all this Ronnie explained

We had a lot of I guess youd say disillusioned parents and kids because they were expecting to get you know they thought What a

100

wonderfiil way to be in touch with computers and what have you And you know if we did work we had to bundle that work up send it to San Antonio Well by the time the guy got it graded and got it back you know it might be a week or two And at the same time we were under no pass no play mles And you had athletes that you know at three-weeks reporting period didnt know if they were passing or not And then some of them would wind up failing at the end and they didnt even really know why they were failing And so you know we had a bunch of kids that were like ineligible

Fmstrations registered by the aduh facilitators were received clearly but students

responses to the distance experience were even worse Ronnie elaborated in detail about

the legwork done on-site to facilitate distance leaming As is axiomatic in instmctional

design inadequate feedback does not promote leaming

The kids never really knew for sure if what they were doing was what he wanted or what was acceptable or till he had a chance to mark it and write notes on it and what have you And a lot of times by the time they did get feedback on it well it was too late

Renee also experienced first-hand the details of distance leaming Conceming the

possibilities of interactive video Renee questions

I guess the biggest concem has been teachers who are afi-aid that they will get dumped on How many students are you going to expect me to teach for this class that I have the same prep time that I had when I had seven kids And then all of a sudden Im teaching an interactive video classroom where I have kids fi-om Woodlake and from Dellwood and fi-om Beaverdam and fi-om Sawtooth and all of a sudden I have fifty kids instead of fifteen Im given the same amount of prep time or maybe Im given a second hour of prep I still have the logistics of having to be ready for however many my school district decides to contract for And I have to be eminently more prepared that I ever thought about having to be prepared in a normal classroom Because I cant go on the air and expect to freestyle it you

101

Renee a technology coordinator as well as a classroom teacher brings distance

leaming down to earth with her practical concems Contrasting with the concems of

teachers over the years distance leaming is bringing in new heretofore unanticipated

concems and challenges Renee relates

You know when we just had textbooks the worst problem you had to deal with was with the student who showed up in class without their books or you ran out of chalk and you sent somebody down to the office to get chalk But when you start using these levels of technology where the bugs are not quite as worked out then you not only run into you run into problems using the technology that really can cmsh your class time and cmsh your prep time

James is adamant in his dislike for distance leaming Earlier he indicated that

distance leaming might not be a good way to leam James augments this with more

mundane administrative concems Since James perceives the teacher role in a traditional

manner he has concem over classroom discipline in a distance leaming format

Well I dont think youre going to have any kind of classroom without discipline in the class And the only person that can do that is the one that is supposedly in charge the one thats taking care of grades etc So that teacher has almost got to see her classroom

Training

Unless teachers administrators and other school staff are appropriately trained to

use the new technology hardware and software will be of little use Continuous staff

training goes on in this Consortium but Vemon expressed dismay over some ofthe

preparations for early technology implementation

102

I dont think we did enough preplanning before we got involved with the computers We just sort of put them in and it became a hit-and-miss thing you understand If I had to do it over again I would want lots and lots of preplanning to see how we could do it better how to install how to implement and so forth how we wanted to use it for our curriculum

Other informants quipped that the limits of whatever training they had for some

technology applications simply consisted of Heres the computer Heres the box Theres

the desk Put it there Larry has jumped right in to get his staff trained through a variety

of sources He is looking forward to all the training perks his district will receive from

this present technology implementation and the workshops he has set up

Theres so much information and so many different benefits that can come over that that its just mind-boggling that everything that we can possibly pick up out here And so were going to get plenty of training before we ever jump in there and you know put a room full of equipment in there and then it sits there and gathers dust If we cant use it theres no need for it being out here

Larry affirms the benefits of leaming by doing

I guess I would say that probably about ninety percent of my training has basically come through the Service Center and the other ten percent is just hands-on getting one there and doing it You know I guess Ive leamed Ive leamed a lot by you know just by using it because if you dont well going to all the classes is not going to help you a bit anyway

Stephen realized a concem for the format of much of staff training He found the

typical training arrangements useless and intimidating for his staff Smaller traming

103

groups where more personal assistance can be given seems to be preferable to the mass

training activities so common to staff development

We dont herd thirty people in a room and have one person standing at a computer in front ofthe room and telling them how it can happen I mean we put five or six in the room and have somebody with knowledge about it there and then everybody has their hands on that tool They get to make their own mistakes so they get to correct their own mistakes and real leaming happens then

Now that Bill has a key role in training Camden staff in technology he realizes

that the increasing quantity of hardware possessed by the district carries with it the need

for increasing quality of staff straining

We had a bunch of stuff in quotes stuff but nobody knew anything about it you know And we got this stuff in We got it hooked up And then nobody knew how to maintain it There wasnt any training I mean you know yeah you look out here at Camden Oh boy Weve got computers But nobody knew how to tum them on and of course that wasnt where the emphasis was Wed met a requirement by having so many computers and that sort of thing and maybe doing a paper drill saying that people could do things but in reality that just wasnt there

Bill finds the attitudes of some of his colleagues fiiistrating If the computers are

seen as nothing more than expensive video games the implementation of technology

seems useless The teachers have yet to realize just what these computers can do for their

instmction

Its going to be easier there but we still have to train these people as to How do you use this thing See and most ofthe teachers dont have the time and the creativeness I guess or we dont give them the time you know to sit down and say Look at this thing You know

104

they dont go home like I used to and sit down and play with it because I enjoyed it see Id go home and play with it and say A-ha Man I can use this in my classroom

But as Bill has discovered some ofthe technology training ultimately takes hold

and teachers eventually intemahze new skills

But anything to get them to use those things You know if they just stumble on it like one of our Enghsh teachers has found all this stuff on Shakespeare and Macbeth you know and all this sort of thing Shes just going through the ceiling But thats just a little bitty part of things out there that you can find and these people dont know how to look for this stuff So weve got a lot of training (to do)

Ronnie concurs noting how his colleagues at Dellwood have been trained and

then apply the new technology

Well once they realized that this thing that got placed in their room was a tool that could be used for their benefit and could actually help them and their students you know they were ready to jump in there and start trying stuff

Unfortunately some Dellwood staff do indeed balk at modifications to their

training Citing the example of changing the district-adopted electronic gradebooks

Ronnie concluded

And some of them say Oh I just now leamed how to use the other one and here you are wanting to (change it) You know that type of change People get used to doing something and they dont want you to change them around but I think its human nature in anything

105

Infi-astmcture

With ever-advancing technological strides the infrastmcture needed to

successfully implement new curricular mandates has to also increase Our informants

pride themselves in their personal involvement in ensuring a topflight technology

infi-astmcture for their school districts

David describes himself as a pioneer in implementing new concepts in his district

When the challenge first came for implementing a computer network David relates

The maintenance guy and I sat down and said You know we can do this So we designed it ourselves and ran the wire and made the connections and totally put in the network system ourselves We did not hire it done which has helped from the standpoint of troubleshooting We put it in we know how it works and we can fix it

Mike also has rolled up his sleeves to keep hardware in Sawtooth working

efficiently If the technology coordinator is busy Mike has no qualms about getting

things fixed

We just had a problem this morning I was dealing with I went dovra there I can do the hardware things a whole lot easier than software but you know there were just two wires out of place I just kind of happened to notice it plug them back in the right places and we were back in business

Indeed Mike has stayed current with technology and maintenance

I have to stay a little more up here because if anything happens Im the guy they holler at so first I mean to fix it not just holler at Ive leamed a lot the last few years Just been forced to I guess

106

Bill laments the lack of foresight on the part of some administrators in keeping the

hardware maintained

That one-shot deal We got the computers That cost is out ofthe way We can forget about technology now weve got our X number of computers And then all of a sudden like you say weve got to have a hard drive here you know and a floppy drive went out there and a monitor goes out here well good-ness man whats the problem

Bill wonders if his leadership personnel were misled by various sales

representatives whose goals for sales were not always congment with school needs

Before I got into this our superintendent relied on a salesman and we bought a bunch of stuff we didnt need and it didnt fit in the overall plan It was like buying a Dodge engine and wed buy a Chevrolet body and all of a sudden these things werent compatible So we wasted a lot of money and Im sure school districts all over the state of Texas did This is a small community here Id like every shekel to count Theres not too many people around here that really realize that I dont guess

Stephen is concemed with making reasonable forecasts for what future

technologies he will need for his building He demonstrates that he has thought through

practical technology management issues

To me the biggest question is in relation to technology is how to predict where were going I mean just a little bit because were dropping tons of money on the hardware on the software on the training But even little issues I mean twenty years ago Woodlake was out in fi-ont on technology because they bought a bunch of Apple He computers And then they used them for eighteen years which put them way behind the leaming curve you know and then what computer do you buy Do you buy it with upgradable service contracts What kind of software are you looking for How is distance leaming going to

107

impact all this How does it impact your scheduling on a day-to-day basis How does it impact your school calendar How does it impact the people you hire

Stephen is looking squarely at the future needs of his staff and students

If we knew where it was headed we could be much more effective in our long-range planning But as it is in my mind its hard to plan beyond two years because theres no way of knowing where were going to be Weve had numerous conversations in my faculty meetings about individual laptops for students as opposed to the big stand-alone units in a big lab Theres discussions about the use of software versus hard-copy textbooks And I think were moving that way I just dont know how quickly And I dont know to what degree and thats the most perplexing thing as far as Im concemed

Money

As this present study is conducted significant changes are occurring in the

petroleum industry Since there has been a drop in petroleum prices some Chapter 41

(see Chapter Two) school districts have realized a significant drop in ad valorem

revenues Remembering that much ofthe financing for the Consortium comes fi-om two

Chapter 41 districts there exists some cause for concem Because these informants

represent both Chapter 41 and Chapter 42 districts none of these informants will be

identified by name in this section

One Chapter 41 superintendent related to us the situation regarding a loss of

funding for that superintendents district

Probably the biggest reason this last year we were able to put several million dollars of recapture money into the technology consortium Unfortunately being that most ofthe Chapter 41 districts

108

in our area are highly dependent on oil and mineral value and we lost 25 percent of our value last year Probably well lose at least that and maybe even more

Another Chapter 41 superintendent has noticed a drop of revenue but slants the

situation differently

It doesnt affect us that much believe it or not I mean it affects us some definitely but you know the higher the price of oil the more money we have to give away The lower the price the less we have to give away Because you only get to keep a certain value per student

All ofthe Chapter 41 informants indicated that they were glad to participate with

less property-wealthy districts in maintaining fimding for the Consortium

In dealing with school funding there is also the attendant concem with dealing

with government entities A Chapter 41 superintendent explains the situation as the

potential purchasing of more hardware is considered

(Conceming hardware purchasing) If this legislative session the Legislature does away with the hold harmless for Chapter 41 schools (See Chapter 2) well be in a whole different situation and well be saying Well do that when we can afford it I guarantee you

Because there are restrictions on where Chapter 41 districts can expend their

fiinds a Chapter 41 principal explains some creative strategies for retaining funds

Because the hang-up was that those monies that came out of these wealthy districts So in other words we could send our money to the Region(al Service) Center to be used for those purposes but we couldnt reap the benefit of i t (Dr Sarah McCullough) wrote grants specifically targeted at those of us that were putting money in the pot to help us get distance leaming labs up and running So its just been a

109

maze of dancing with the bear which anytime you deal with the government thats the way it is

As this is written a Chapter 41 superintendent hopes that the Texas Legislattire

will allow the legal stmcttires that made the Consortium a reality and function at its peak

to continue to exist

Now we would hope that the Legislature will realize that and possibly rewrite the current law to allow us to divert possibly more than ten percent into the technology consortium or change the way that we do it altogether to where the technology consortium can continue to benefit in the same arena of money that weve benefited for the last year or two

A Chapter 42 school leader looking at the Consortium as a whole sums up the

attitude of each of our informants

Well this consortium has been a good thing for us because I think by coming together you know I think this is people who have ideas and also have monies that they want to use for telecommunications and technology want to see that people in rural areas like ours are making an effort to pool their resources and thoughts and what have you When they see that you got seven schools that are working together to try to share ideas and help work through problems and even go so far as to share teaching personnel things like that I think thats something that people who have monies are kind of wanting they want to see that Because thats the whole idea behind you know trying to get reach some of our goals by the year 2000

Summary of Interview Data

All nine ofthe informants in this study provided candid assessments of their

individual roles in implementing technology in their districts the improvement of student

110

leaming and the training of staff to use the technology These latter points are also

suggested in the literature on staff development (Joyce amp Showers 1988) Concems over

infi-astmcture and finance were also supported in several other studies (Bailey 1997

Becker 1998 Kwajewski 1997 Maddux 1997 Texas Association of School

Administrators 1998)

New insights fi-om this study included the heavy apprehension over distance

leaming and the intensity ofthe power shift within the school system The fluctuation in

petroleum prices that occurred during this study did not completely take these leaders by

surprise but are concems with which Chapter 41 superintendents will continue to

contend

I l l

CHAPTER V

SUMMARY CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Summary of Research

As described in Chapter III quantitative data was in the form of Change

Facilitator Stages of Concem Questionnaire (CFSoC) profiles evaluated according to

Hall et al (1991) with hypothesized points on the Stages of Concem continuum for each

participant Conversations with nine informants fi-om the Consortium leadership cadre

formed a series of interviews that were analyzed and evaluated for emerging themes

Seven themes grew fi-om the data analysis and were discussed

CFSoC Profiles

Hall et al (1991) suggest that the Stage of Concem for any given innovation

varies with the change facilitator registering the array of concems Borrowing fi-om Fuller

(1969) Hall et al suggest that concems for the innovation within the individual change

facilitator begin at the level of Awareness progressing to Self concems then Task

concems and finally to Impact concems This researcher was able to hypothesize a

general stage of concem for each ofthe informants based on the methods of profile

interpretation defined by Hall et al (pp 29-42) The initial research question referred to

Stages of Concem placement for each informant

Where do these school leaders fall on the Concems-based Adoption Model (CBAM) continuum regarding TEKS technology implementation

112

The initial goal was to ascertain the position of each of these informants on

CBAM Table 5-1 provides a breakdown of this studys informants their job roles and

their hypothesized Stage of Concem

Table 5-1 Study Informants and CBAM Stages of Concem District Comparison

District

Camden

Tipllwor4H

North Prairie

Sawtooth

Woodlake

Superintendent

TASK

TASK

IMPACT

Principal

SELF

TASK

TASK

Technology Coordinator

SELF

SELFTASK

TASK

The table suggests that those in more well-defined administrative roles tended to

be more task oriented about their concems whereas those whose job descriptions are

inclusive ofthe classroom and who are also designated as change agents tended to be

more oriented to self and personal issues despite their abilities or expertise

As Hall et al (1991) have previously hypothesized the more experienced a

change facilitator is in the change facilitator process the more advanced that change

facilitator will be on the CFSoC profile The stages of concem of these informants in this

sample appear to concur with CFSoC projected norms Indeed if tiie stages of concem

are arranged in descending order (Impact Task Self Awareness) as in Table 5-2 there

113

appears to be a greater advancement along the Stages of Concem continuum based on the

more advanced job role

Table 5-2 Study Informants and CBAM Stages of Concem Concem Stage Comparison

Informant Stage of Concem

Woodlake Superintendent IMPACT

North Prairie Superintendent TASK

Sawtooth Superintendent TASK

Sawtooth Principal TASK

Woodlake Principal TASK

Sawtooth Technology Coordinator TASK

Dellwood Technology Coordinator TASKSELF

Camden Principal SELF

Camden Technology Coordinator SELF

These change facilitators fi-om the Sah Fork Consortium seem to manifest stages

of concem similar to those of other change facilitators studied through the CFSoC Two

ofthe technology coordinators seem to be more TASK oriented than a principal and one

technology coordinator is more SELF oriented The two task-oriented coordinators have

many years of experience in either office machinery electronics or staff training They

both suggested to this researcher greater confidence in their abilities to provide input to

their administrators conceming their schools technology requirements Such

114

competencies suggest that the greater stage of concem is based in part on the

individuals greater level of experience

Interview Themes

The hesitancy of new users to use new technologies is repeated with every

generation of innovation (Cuban 1984 1986 1993) Changes this extensive in

technology naturally bring about changes in how we teach and how we perceive our roles

as educators (Becker 1998 Berg Benz Lasley amp Raisch 1997 Braun 1993 Fullan

1990 Fullan amp Stiegelbauer 1991 Hope 1993) This sttidys informants repeatedly

expressed the desire to ensure that their staffs become as competent as possible in using

new technology to improve student leaming In tum these leaders affirmed that their

teachers would have it incumbent upon themselves to avail themselves of this training

As we appreciate the greater empowerment of educators who in tum empower

leamers we reahze that greater access to technology has played a major role in

developing this spirit of empowerment (Bailey 1997) Tmly continued control of

technology signifies continued power ofthe educational system These informants were

unanimous in marveling over the great things that have occurred in their schools as their

teachers adopted greater technology expertise Review of AEIS data since 1994 before

the establishment ofthe Consortium suggests improvements in TAAS scores and other

AEIS indicators (see Chapter I TEA 1995 1996 1997a 1998)

As a result schools become different places for leamers (Armstrong Davis amp

Young 1996 Mecklenburger 1989) Instead ofthe school as one-way insttiiction with

115

passive leamers the focus is now on schools led by leaming facilitators who guide the

leamer toward constmcting personal leaming (Joyce amp Showers 1988) It appears that

the wise change facilitator will recognize this power shift In the main Consortium

change facihtators certainly appeared eager to share that power

If we are not using the improved technology to improve student leaming then we

might be needing to be examine a different iimovation for improving student leaming

(Berg et al 1997 Bumiske 1998 Hope 1993 Joyce amp Showers 1988 National Staff

Development Council 1995) These informants were adamant about the power of

technology not only to foster greater leaming capabihties for students but also to provide

a heightened awareness for those charged with facilitating that leaming (Barr 1990

Hadley amp Sheingold 1993 Maddux 1997 Maddux amp Johnson 1997 Meltzer amp

Sherman 1997 Ragsdale 1997) As a resuh these school leaders and their school

boards will have more solid foundation to continue upgrading their technology Such a

massive influx of equipment as is happening now will not be needed but rather

technology purchasing with a view toward greater student achievement will not be

considered unique by other similarly situated school districts

The notion that technology could bring about needed opportunities and services to

remote sites by distance leaming has been discussed for some time and is now standard

for evaluating a schools technology program (Becker 1998 Texas Association of School

Administrators 1998) Nevertheless there appears to be a need for a semblance of

balance as the positive elements of distance leaming (services teaching physical distance

needs etc) are weighed against the pitfalls (teaching method changes impersonal

116

relationships) of these new technologies (Berg Benz Lasley amp Raisch 1997 Dillon amp

Walsh 1997) The apprehensions of Consortium change facilitators toward the

impending interactive video system were quite real They saw potential for some yet

unknown distracting factor causing havoc with the leaming process as a result of distance

leaming At least one informant voiced active disagreement with distance as a viable

means of teaching and leaming

If training activities are only instituted to meet extemally mandated directives it

seems pointless to expend so much effort in training faculty in technology (Becker 1991

1998 Dede 1997) The concept that technology remains a more advanced means of

game playing is still latent in many educators School leaders need to tmly be leaders

(Office of Technology Assessment 1995 Ritchie 1996) and should provide appropriate

training activities for their staffs (Bradshaw 1997 Davidson amp Maurer 1995 Joyce amp

Showers 1988) Because these school leaders describe the influx of interactive video

hardware as helpfiil in providing for a variety of training opportunities (school board

training college classes etc) this Consortium demonstrates a strong proactive

commitment to ensuring that the entire school community is kept up-to-date with

technology

As to funding and infi-astmcture acquisition a We can do it spirit is still found

in educators when they plan for and purchase their computer machinery Schools in this

Consortium as well as in other locales continue to demonstt-ate creative ways to provide

technology support with the resultant spirit of ownership possessed by all segments ofthe

educational community (Carroll amp Carroll 1994 McDaniel Mclnemey amp Armstrong

117

1993 Office of Technology Assessment 1995) The fact that a superintendent would be

involved in wiring his school for network capability or would do repairs on classroom

hardware suggests genuine committnent Principals with decades of experience in the

classroom and in the office in this rural area are taking the time to leam new computer

skills

Conclusions and Reflections

Because this present study is primarily qualitative it is appropriate that the

researcher does not (and really should not) know in advance all ofthe insights that might

possibly be gleaned fi-om a pending study Although this is a limited sampling of change

facilitators their CFSoC profiles confirmed that the greater the experience level ofthe

change facilitator interacting with the innovation the more advanced Stage of Concem

The Woodlake administrators with Stages of Concems ratings in IMPACT and TASK

stages for example have had the benefit of both performing hands-on technology

implementation (including wiring) and also developing technology programs fi-om Apple

computers in classrooms to vocational training over a twenty-year period

The specifics ofthe second research question require some discussion over the

importance and application ofthe concems of rural educators toward technology

implementation Three clusters of conclusions emerged fi-om the interview data

Personal concems are important in the professional lives of these informants

There is urgency for the educator to leam to use technology and to develop stt-ategies for

incorporating technology use in insttiiction Nevertheless the educator is never to forget

118

that there are still basic instmctional outcomes to be accomplished Leamers still have to

be proficient in reading writing and mathematics Day-to-day activities (lesson planning

teacher paperwork etc) cannot be neglected These informants did not allow this

researcher to overlook this fact All three technology coordinators who served as

informants emphasized their classroom duties with one in particular reminding me that

the computer is simply a tool in teaching basic educational concepts Each principal

interviewed related their technology concems in the context of administrative duties and

concems

In addition leadership personnel are to function as leaders and lead their staffs

Despite the hardware and capabilities schools are still schools Schools are having to

change their stmcture and technology seems to be key in fostering that change The very

use ofthe computer as a personal tool remains a challenge in these informants schools

Bill Potter Camden Technology Coordinator related that he continues to see his fellow

teachers using the computer as nothing more than a game machine The Sawtooth

informants noted that a few older more seasoned teachers are still not yet using

technology as a tool

As opposed to personal concems corporate concems registered by these

informants dealt with building district or Consortium issues Among these informants

there is a genuine sense of Where we are against Where we were in regard to

technology use Each superintendent interviewed expressed his satisfaction with the

improved productivity among his students as a result of technology Now more than ever

is a need to stay abreast of pedagogical as well as technological trends Stephen Greer

119

Woodlake Principal emphasized the need for him to know about technology and its

implementation in teacher practice These informants also indicated a generational trend

in that some educators eyeing retirement realize a lesser interest in leaming new

technologies Younger more recently trained educators are more conversant with new

technologies These informants indicated that the new teachers they hire come prepared to

use technology in the classroom

The informants also indicated a sense of owoiership toward technology

implementation For example several informants have trained themselves to do more

advanced troubleshooting and maintenance certainly more than is in their job

descriptions The Woodlake and Sawtooth superintendents are both adept with the

hardware These individuals want to know more and not just save their district some

funds All three ofthe technology coordinators have a history of leaming by doing

They enjoy reputations as being competent and the person to tum to when expertise is

needed

Cultural concems transcend the immediate short-term issues and are future-

oriented The change in our previously mral agrarian society to a worid filled with data

has had a heady effect on these informants North Prairie superintendent Larry Beckman

for example continues to marvel at all the activities the North Prairie educational

community can now avail themselves of because of technology Technology has assisted

in shifting genuine leaming power fi-om the educator to the student The resultant greater

ownership by students of their leaming is opening up greater avenues for insttaiction

120

There is constant uncertainty ofthe legal political and economic factors in

financing and establishing new technologies at schools The net result hinders these

informants fi-om reliably predicting what technologies might be needed in the future

Indeed it is impossible to predict what new gadgets will be invented or how fast a

computer will process ten years from now Neither ofthe Chapter 41 superintendents

believed their distticts finances were in jeopardy due to the changing pett-oleum prices

but each expressed the concem that the Legislature could modify the mles on finances

possibly making their underwriting of Consortium costs more difficult

Recommendations for Further Study

As this present research was being considered there was considerable concem for

the fact that very little research data existed for the CFSoC instmment This Consortium

had an insufficient number of participants to do a quantitative study of this instrument

with adequate factor analysis Indeed Hall et al (1991) cite themselves as those who

conducted reliability and validity studies of their own instrument A more thorough

validity study with adequate N should be conducted

The original thmst for this research was focused on staff development and teacher

training Because that initial idea was so broad it was abandoned early in this study

However since each informant referred to the teacher traming programs ofthe

Consortium it would be appropriate at a later date to review how teacher tt-aining is

planned and executed in a similarly situated technology cooperative

121

Personal impressions which emerged fi-om both the data collection and data

analysis also suggested additional avenues of study At no time and in no way were either

Consortium school distticts or school staff identified as to their Chapter 41 (Equalized

Wealth Level) or Chapter 42 (Minimum Foundation Program) stattis Nevertheless this

writer recognizes a difference in economic status for these districts that was impossible to

fully ignore and suggests that the differences in funding abilities of school districts be

explored as new technologies become de rigueur for even the smallest and most remote

school district

Also unexamined in this present study was any comparison on a rural-urban axis

Although each ofthe participating school districts was mral with a combined enrolhnent

smaller than one urban high school the available technology was up-to-date and with

more anticipated advanced technology yet to be implemented A similar study of larger

urban school technology programs dealing with identical TEKS constraints could be

instituted to ascertain concems of urban-oriented change facilitators

The professional experience aspect of each ofthe informants was never identified

as a factor in this present research The CFSoC form itself had blanks for data conceming

the number of years experience on the job in the present position etc Indeed the least

number of total years of school experience was nine years The question remains if

simply the amount of time in grade is a factor in the informants position on the CFSoC

continuum This researcher noted a trend in those in stated administrative roles being

more oriented to TASK and IMPACT concems as opposed to the technology

coordinators who by and large had duties more inclusive ofthe classroom and who were

122

more oriented to SELF concems and their personal status This could lead one to ponder

whether the role and the job title are influencing factors in a change facilitators Stage of

Concem

Moreover because ofthe contemporary trends toward school-based

management and greater empowerment of classroom personnel in decision-making it is

likely that those in change faciUtator roles would be more closely aligned to the

classroom ie more teachers may be in leadership roles We might expect the higher the

level of change facilitator position and experience the higher the level of concem (eg

IMPACT) It would be interesting to explore the possibifities and consequences for those

at the classroom level functioning as change facilitators in technology

123

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Bailey G D (1997) What technology leaders need to know The essential top 10 concepts for technology integration in the 21st century Leaming and Leading With Technology 250) 57-62

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Barr D (1990) A solution in search of a problem The role of technology in educational reform Joumal for the Education ofthe Gifted 14(1) 79-95

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Berg S Benz C Lasley T laquofe Raisch D (1997) The coordinators and the teachers A description of exemplary use of technology in elementary classrooms Paper presented at the Midwestem Educational Research Association Annual Meeting Chicago IL

Bogdan R C amp Biklen S K (1992) Qualitative research for education An introduction tn theory and methods (2nd ed) Boston Allyn amp Bacon

Bradshaw L K (1997) Technology-supported change A staff development opportunity NASSP Bulletin 81(593) 86-92

Braun L (1993) Educational technology Help for all the kids The Computing Teacher 20(8) 11-15

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Brekhus T R (1997) The SeverNet project-assessment Antiquated systems without curriculum integration The Educational Graveyard of Unfulfilled Promise [Online] URL httpwwwseyemschoolcomsevemetsevemet_assesshtml

Bristol v amp Jechow M (1998) Guidelines on interlocal agreements fi-om the Texas Government Code Texas case law and Texas attomev general opinions [online] URL httpwwwbickerstaff comarticlesinter98htm

Bumiske R W (1998) The shadow play How the integration of technology annihilates debate in our schools Phi Delta Kappan 80(2) 155-157

Campbell T (1997) Technology multimedia and qualitative research in education Joumal of Research on Computing in Education 30(2) 122-132

Carroll S R amp Carroll D (1994) How smart schools get and keep community support Bloomington IN National Educational Service

Chisolm I M (1996) Computer use in a multicultural classroom Joumal of Research on Computing in Education 28(2) 162-174

CicchelH T amp Baecher R (1985) Intt-oducing microcomputers into the classroom A study of teacher concems Joumal of Educational Computing Research 1(1) 55-65

CiccheUi T amp Baecher R E (1987) The use of concems theory in inservice ttaining for computer education Computers amp Education 11(2) 85-93

Clark R E (1983) Reconsidering research on leaming fi-om media Review of Educational Research 53(4) 445-459

Clouse R W amp Garrett L N (1995) Case analysis An insttiictional tool Joumal of Educational Technology Systems 23(1) 39-51

Coffey A amp Atkinson P (1996) Making sense of qualitative data Complementary research strategies Thousand Oaks CA Sage

Crawford D K Bodine R J amp Hoglund R G (1993) The school for quality leaming Managing the school and the classroom the Deming way Champaign IL Research Press

Cuban L (1984) How teachers taupht Constancy and change in American classrooms -1980-1980 New York Longman

125

concems were rated largely at the TASK level In general an informants stage of

concem increased with a higher status within the school system

These informants were also interviewed on their personal concems toward

technology implementation Seven general themes emerged through the interview

process Informants articulated concems over attitudes power student learning distance

learning staff training infi-astmcture and finances These informants consistently

expressed concem for the prospects of implementing instmctional video and its

instmctional and disciplinary implications Each informant expressed optimism over the

educational and administrative possibilities modem computer technology brought to their

districts

Vlll

LIST OF TABLES

1-1 Teachers Use of Computers Hadley and Sheingold (1993) N=608 9

1-2 Instmcfional Software Use Hadley and Sheingold (1993) N=608 9

1 -3 Full Time Equivalent Staff for TechnologyComputer Operations 21

2-1 Coefficients of Intemal Reliability for the Stages of Concem Questionnaire N=830 39

2-2 Test-Retest Correlations on the Stages of Concem Questionnaire N=132 40

2-3 Means Standard Deviations and Alpha Coefficients for the CFSoC (N=589) 45

2-4 Means Standard Deviations and Alpha Coefficients for the CFSoC

(N=750) 45

2-5 Intercorrelations of the Scale Scores on the CFSoC (N=589) 46

5-1 Study Informants and CBAM Stages of Concem District Comparison 113

5-2 Study Informants and CBAM Stages of Concem Concem Stage Comparison 114

IX

LIST OF FIGURES

4-1 CFSoC Profile of James Petty Camden Principal 68

4-2 CFSoC Profile of Bill Potter Camden Technology Coordinator 70

4-3 CFSoC Profile of Ronnie Bennett Dellwood Technology Coordinator 72

4-4 CFSoC Profile of Larry Beckman North Prairie Superintendent 74

4-5 CFSoC Profile of Mike McCoy Sawtooth Superintendent 76

4-6 CFSoC Profile of Vemon Russell Sawtooth Principal 78

4-7 CFSoC Profile of Renee White Sawtooth Technology Coordinator 79

4-8 CFSoC Profile of David Jackson Woodlake Superintendent 81

4-9 CFSoC Profile of Stephen Greer Woodlake Principal 82

CHAPTER I

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Mr Edison says That the radio will supplant the teacher Already one may leam languages by means of Victrola records The moving picture will visualize What the radio fails to get across Teachers will be relegated to the backwoods With fire-horses And long-haired women Or perhaps shown in museums Education will become a matter Of pressing the button Perhaps I can get a position at the switchboard

(Church cf Cuban 1986 pp 4-5)

Introduction

Virginia Churchs 1925 poem entitled Antiquated probably sounds pessimistic

but facetiously demonstrates her concems of possibly being out of a job with the

approaching array of innovations heralded at that time Our teachers and administrators in

educational institutions at all levels continue to exhibit concems as new innovations are

proffered (Cuban 1986)

Certainly innovations designed to improve instmction have been utilized for

centuries Cuban (1986 pp 3-4) would suggest technology innovation goes back at least

to the invention of the lectem chalk and chalkboards books and pictures with fihn

radio television tape recorders video and computers as more recent examples of

teaching tools Cuban wryly describes how these most recent technologies were at first

lauded as the latest thing for schools how instmction would dramatically improve and

how disillusioned teachers became when the technology did not live up to its predicted

expectations

Bringing all schools up to maximum speed in technology is currently quite

fashionable Rescigno (1988) using his own school district as the example envisioned

the so-called smart classroom with state of the art technology as having the ability to

precisely measure student skill objectives and promote more positive student attitudes

and lower instances of discipline problems

Rescignos school does not seem to have been greatly replicated however

Nevertheless greater technology implementation remains a key element of both

educational and political rhetoric Chris Dede asserts For politicians the Intemet in

every classroom has become the modem equivalent of the promised chicken in every

pot (Dede 1997 p 13) Dede decries such first-generation thinking by those who

would make technology the panacea for magically transforming schools

Yet decades of experience with technological innovations based on first-generation thinking have demonstrated that this viewpoint is misguided Unless other simultaneous innovations occur in pedagogy curriculum assessment and school organization the time and effort expended on instmctional technology produce few improvements in educational outcomes ~ a result that reinforces many educators cynicism about fads based on magical machines (p 13)

Cuban (1984) concurs emphasizing that teachers technology use in the classroom

is just one of a great many factors in how teachers teach with the lions share of factors

related to the extemal constraints of school organization Hodas (1993) reminds us that

the culture and norms of schools are profoundly conservative that the stmcture of

schools have remained unchanged for hundreds of years and that there exists in the

popular mind a definite conservative conception of what schools should be like a

template fi-om which schools stray only at their peril (p 10)

Problem Statement and Research Ouestions

Several factors were considered in formulating a problem for this study There

was the consideration of finding out how schools particularly small ones were

implementing fimding and evaluating technology in their districts Moreover standard

principles of staff development particularly the ascertaining of personal and professional

concems of school leaders were prominent in the literature Finally at the time of

searching for a research topic the State of Texas was developing broad curricular

standards which included extensive instmctional technology components

The problem under study is the concems of three levels of change facilitators

implementing the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) for Technology

Applications The research questions for this study are outlined in the form of a grand

tour question followed by sub-questions (Gay 1997 Spradley 1979)

Grand Tour Ouestion

What are the concems of leadership personnel as the TEKS technology

requirements are implemented in their school districts

Sub-questions

1 Where do these school leaders fall on the Concems-based Adoption Model

(CBAM) continuum regarding TEKS technology implementation

2 What are the specific concems of these school leaders as the TEKS are

implemented and why are these concems important

Rationale

The concept of educational change with technology is not a novel idea despite

those concems that Dede (1997) registered Larry Cuban has written extensively on the

topic of technological change fi-om the perspectives of administration and of educational

history Cuban quotes fi-om a prominent American technology leader who often had much

to say about things

I believe that the motion picture is destined to revolutionize our educational system and that in a few years it will supplant largely if not entirely the use of textbooks I should say that on the average we get about two percent efficiency out of schoolbooks as they are written today The education of the fixture as I see it will be conducted through the medium of the motion picture where it should be possible to obtain one hundred percent efficiency (p 187)

These words came in 1922 fi-om Thomas Alva Edison the inventor of the motion

picture phonograph and other devices at their time thought to be the zenith in

technology Except for the media described many could envision computers as the

subject of that quote Cuban suggests that such entrepreneurs who publicly make broad

educational claims for their products may have more of a profit motive than of student

performance

McDaniel Mclnemey and Armstrong (1993) recognize a shift in classroom

pedagogy fiom those classrooms merely transmitting information to processing

information They assert that computers will play a significant role in how leamers

acquire question and evaluate information Moreover McDaniel et al describe a

changed learning community breaking down the traditional school walls to a classroom

that literally can be the whole world They do not doubt that new programs will continue

to make an impact on how we teach and how students leam

Bumiske (1998) concurs with this shift but tempers it with repeated questioning

of our reasonings and expectations conceming educational technology

Its no longer a question of whether we should introduce computer technology into our classrooms Im afi-aid that choice has already been made for us The question now is how we should make use of this technology for educational purposes The consequence of this is the stifling of essential debates and the repression of significant questions such as At what age should we introduce children to computers What impact will computers have on the social emotional and psychological development of our children And how will computers aUer the dynamics of a classroom and school (p 157)

Cuban (1993) suggests three reasons for the perceived need to implement

technology in the classroom

First there is the drive to bring schools technologically in step with the work place because of the fear that students will be unprepared both to compete in the job market and to adjust to the changing marketplace A second impulse has come fi-om a diverse coalition of academics educators and foundation officials who have

5

neoprogressive values including that of self-directed leaming for children Finally there is the impulse for productivity (pp 189-190)

Unfortunately Cuban pessimistically concludes that despite the use of

technological innovations those innovations have not been central to school reforms

Likewise the marginal use of computers in classrooms is less due to funding teacher

preparation or administrative support but more related to dominant cultural beliefs

about what teaching leaming and proper knowledge are and how schools are organized

for instmction (p 206)

Low administrative support is but one part of the overall picture Poor

infi-astmcture remains in place at many schools The United States Department of

Education (USDE) in its report Getting Americas Students Readv for the 21st Century

(USDE 1996) cited statistics where only four percent of schools had as many as one

computer for five students and only nine percent with Intemet connectivity Yet this

same study asserts 80 percent of Americans believing that teaching computer skills is

absolutely essential 75 percent encouraging a child to use a computer and 86 percent

believing that a computer is the most beneficial product available to increase childrens

opportunities

Why if most educators believe that technology can improve the educational

process is it so difficult to implement and integrate Kwajewski (1997) ponders this

question as he considers the value educators place on technology acceptance

The plain tmth is that technology still confuses the educational establishment It is not an art or a science It is not a curriculum or a

subject It is not a vocation or a college requirement It is not an activity a goal or an objective It is not a course or a program If it were any of these items it might have a fighting chance in the difficult arena of change But it isnt therefore its success is in jeopardy (p 54)

Hodas (1993) suggests that educators require a modicum of comfort before expanding

their intellectual horizons to achieve skill with new technology

There is lively discussion over the extent of how technology can restmcture the

school Schools are finding in diverse ways that the use of technology modifies the

existing school stmcture Braun (1993) points out that investment in technology makes

working with at-risk youth more cost-effective It appears better to pmdently allocate

fimds on high-technology instmction than on the costs involved with dropouts and other

at-risk problems Maddux and Johnson (1997) suggest that the existing stmcture of

schools will be modified by Intemet use but only after the surrounding culture first

makes the change

Addressing new technologies Clark (1983) boldly asserted that the medium of

instmction was no more involved in how well students leam than the tmck that delivers

our groceries causes changes in our nutrition (p 445) and that only the content of

instmction influences student achievement Kozma (1991) aggressively challenges

Clarks position pointing out the distinctives of certain technologies and how they can

help leamers constmct knowledge Chishohn (1996) would go so far as to insist that the

implementation of technology modifies the very social stmcture

Like any human artifact computers are an expression of the people and culture that created them Likewise computer software incorporates the programmers cultural assumptions heuristics and epistemology Even seemingly impartial applications such as

7

databases and word processing programs demonstrate a cultural preference for analytic linear thinking compartmentalization of information and culture-specific logic mles and organization (p 163)

Educational leaders who are comfortable with technology should be primed to

lead the way in facilitating change in schools (Office of Technology Assessment 1995)

Differing somewhat fi-om Cuban Ritchie (1996) notes that a lack of administrative

support leading toward inadequate staff development and inadequate funding continues

to lead the reasons that technology has yet to take hold in some school districts Ritchie

cites Mecklenburger who asserts

Administrators must understand the capabilities and limitations of technology Only then can they plan for budget for purchase carefiiUy install properly maintain dutifiilly schedule adequately distribute appropriately and replace systematically the electronic technology best suited for their needs (Mecklenburger 1989 p 7)

Yet principals and superintendents in the main received their education and

training at a time when computers were not yet part of the educational scene Whatever

training many school leaders have had simply focused on using the technology rather

than focusing on how the technology could be used to augment student leaming (Bailey

1997)

Since 98 percent of the elementary and secondary schools in the United States

have microcomputers (Ely 1993) it is important to analyze how they have been used In

an early pre-Intemet study of typical teacher practice Hadley and Sheingold (1993)

investigated how teachers integrated software into classroom practice In surveying 608

teachers they discovered that teachers used computer software as shown in Table 1-1

Table 1-1 Teachers Use of Computers Hadley and Sheingold (1993) N=608

Software

Text processing tools 95 Instmctional software 89 Analytic and information tools 87 Programming and operating systems 84 Games and simulations 81 Graphics and operating tools 81 Communications 49 Multimedia 25

(Hadley amp Sheingold 1993)

Teachers instmctional software use was fiirther broken down as shown

in Table 1-2

Table 1-2 Instmctional Software Use Hadley and Sheingold (1993) N=608

Software

Problem solving programs 75 Tutorial programs 73 Drill and practice programs 72 Software accompanying a textbook 37 Conceptual tools 30

(Hadley amp Sheingold 1993)

By contrast instead of querying teacher computer usage more current surveys

(eg Texas Association of School Administrators 1998) focus on the classroom

building and district hardware configurations and Intemet use of computers

Teachers obviously embraced the computer as a significant tool in teaching

practice As these researchers gathered data for their study the above activities were

indeed the cutting edge uses of computers just before Windows the World Wide Web

or America Online became household words

Radical educational change is no stranger to technology educators The practices

delineated in the literature have metamorphosed fi-om the above to a listing more

reflective of school Intemet use connectivity and the use of multimedia Echoing Cuban

Becker (1998) notes several generations of the advice of experts conceming change in

computer technology pedagogy each of which reflected conventional wisdom in its time

and underscoring the adage The more things change the more they stay the same

Teachers were first urged to have students program computers in BASIC (1982 Its the language that comes with your computer) then to have them program in Logo (1984 Teach students to think not just program) then to use integrated drill-and-practice systems (1986 Use networked systems that individualize instruction and focus on increasing test scores) then to do word processing (1988 Use computers as tools like adults do) then to use curriculum-specific tools such as history databases and science stimulators and data acquisition probes (1990 Integrate the computers with the existing curriculum) then to do multimedia hypertext programming (1992 Change the curriculum - students leam best by creating products for an audience) then to use electronic mail (1994 Let students be part of the real world) and currently to publish their students work to a worldwide audience via the World Wide Web (1996) Using computers in these respective ways would have generally required teachers to have access to the newest computer equipment being sold at that time (p 25)

Becker fiirther suggests that survey-based data reflects a more conservative and

traditional array of instmctional practices among teachers than what is reported in the

popular press which tends to be more reflective of the more innovative techniques

10

(Becker 1998) Moreover he suggests such survey data was needed to balance the

overly enthusiastic reports in the news media about the generalizability of pioneering

efforts in unusual schools with hard-to-replicate amounts of computer equipment teacher

expertise and family resources (Becker 1991 p 386) It remained to be seen if the

average school district or school board had the financial foresight to establish a similar

facility

Contrasting with pre-Intemet surveys more recent studies reflect surveys of

changing computer use Berg Benz Lasley and Raisch (1997) surveyed teachers about

technology use at school and found that teachers rated student motivation and a change

fi-om the traditional classroom stmcture as the most fi-equent purposes of technology

Concurring with Beckers (1998) conclusions on technology use Berg et al list these as

their most important school computer uses

To motivate students To change fi-om traditional classroom CD-ROMs for research Computers in writing process Using variety of resources (books CD-ROM Web etc) Desktop publishing software To integrate subject matter Intemet to do research Enhance communication with parents Tailor curriculum to individual student needs

(Berg Benz Lasley amp Raisch 1997 p 8)

Curiously Berg et al found distance leaming and video conferencing rated 38th of 39

instmctional purposes as rated by teachers

The Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) executed a survey in

September 1998 to ascertain the levels of technology available in Texas public schools

11

Rather than display teacher use statistics as in previous studies (Becker 1998 Berg et al

1997 Hadley amp Sheingold 1993) this survey is heavily skewed toward Intemet use in

the classroom showing percentages of connectivity fimding sources and resources

(service center technology consortium etc) There are no listings of specific teacher

activities such as word processing graphics or gradebooks Indeed the TASA survey

appears at this writing to be updated at fi-equent intervals (TASA 1998)

Willis (1993) concedes that educational change using technology is difficult to

pull off He identifies barriers to wider technology use including teacher isolation

ownership time and administrative support very similar to concems in much of the staff

development literature (Joyce amp Showers 1988 Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1991)

Recent literature on school technology implementation has raised questions

conceming just how well new programs will be implemented or indeed how extensive

technology implementation has been Maddux (1997) describes a gap in schools between

the increasing sophistication of technology and the ability of teachers to use such

technology Maddux contends that much of the negative reaction conceming the Intemet

the World Wide Web Windows 95982000 and other innovative technologies stems

fi-om just such a gap between the hardware the schools may have on hand and the

systemic requirements of new software purchased Schools by and large often have older

hardware incapable of accepting Windows 95-level software Indeed computer speed

modem speed and hard drive storage (with or without zip drives) in many school-owned

computers remain inadequate Maddux cites Brekhus (1997) who suggests that 80

percent of all computer hardware purchased for schools was obsolete at the time of

12

purchase (p 7) Maddux fiirther maintains that much of this gap is related to educational

fiscal tradition stemming fi-om a lack of acknowledgment that more sophisticated

technology had to be replaced every three to five years

Becker (1998) sounds even more alarming He estimates that the average

cumulative per pupil investment in computers over a typical school lifetime a 13-year

span was only $150 025 percent of the total of what was spent on a pupil in that time

span Only 20 percent of school computers had a hard drive with a similar percentage

having any network access Only 10 percent had CD-ROM capability Very few then of

available school computers were capable of using multimedia the World Wide Web

Windows 9598 or most CD-based software As this dissertation is written computers

with speeds of 500 to 600 megahertz are being offered at discount stores (Micro Center

1999) along with appropriate software Although many schools continue to upgrade the

computing power of their hardware and the regional educational service centers still

provide leadership in bringing up-to-date technology to every remote district

nevertheless many educational institutions remain using outmoded machinery due to

well-felt budgetary restrictions and fluctuating property values

Changes in Constraints

Against this backdrop of confiision over technology implementation overall

educators fi-om coast to coast have had extemally mandated constraints In Texas those

mandates were codified in the Texas Essential Elements (Texas Education Agency

1991) with specific competencies for each subject listed and more recently with the

13

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) standards (Texas Education Agency

1997b) Unlike the Essential Elements which simply specified the subject components

for the teacher to cover in each area the TEKS mandates a much broader array of

performance-based skills to be exhibited by the leamer The emphasis is now on what the

leamer can do over what skills the teacher exhibits School districts in Texas are

obhgated to follow the TEKS in designing curriculum and instmction Evaluation

procedures for Texas educators include the use of technology in the lesson cycle

The TEKS for Technology Applications delineates knowledge and skill

requirements for specific computer applications for grade levels K-8 and specific high

school classes with this common philosophy

(1) The technology applications curriculum has four strands foundations information acquisition work in solving problems and communication

(2) Through the study of technology applications foundations including technology-related terms concepts and data input strategies students leam to make informed decisions about technologies and their applications The efficient acquisition of information includes the identification of task requirements the plan for using search strategies and the use of technology to access analyze and evaluate the acquired information By using technology as a tool that supports the work of individuals and groups in solving problems students will select the technology appropriate for the task synthesize knowledge create a solution and evaluate the results Students communicate information in different formats and to diverse audiences A variety of technologies will be used Students will analyze and evaluate the resuUs (Texas Education Agency 1997b p 1)

Chapter 126 of the TEKS specifies standards for leaming activities under these

four strands in Technology Applications for all Texas leamers This chapter is restricted

14

to instmctional applications excluding curricula that would be better placed in chapters

dealing with Career and Technology Business Applications etc

Chapter 126 Subchapter A delineates skill requirements for leamers as early as

kindergarten Among the skills to be acquired by leamers at that early date include

networking creating naming and saving files keyword searching muhimedia design

and portfolio selection It does not end there Subchapter A spells out a broad outline of

technology activities fi-om kindergarten through fifth grade Subchapter B retains much of

the earlier Essential Elements for middle schools conceming keyboarding and computer

literacy Subchapter C defines requirements for eight specific courses for high school-

level Carnegie-unit credit The minimum hardware for just one of these courses requires

the capability to do local networking Intemet access video production and Web page

production and storage Because of these curricular standards virtually every school in

Texas had to purchase materials appropriate for these activities

These standards went into effect September 1 1998 (Texas Education Agency

1997b) providing impetus for school leaders to recognize and articulate concems over

the implementation of these standards An additional document The Technology

Applications Companion (K-12) (Texas Center for Educational Technology 1998)

containing a comprehensive program entitled Sharing Technology Applications

Resources with Teachers (START) has been distributed on CD-ROM to each public

school building in Texas to provide curricular assistance and resources for TEKS

implementation

15

Research Participants

The informants for this research are among the leadership staff at five school

districts in rural Texas Each would be described as a change facilitator as defined in a

subsequent paragraph The role of the change facilitator is ascribed to a variety of

professionals Three specific roles in the school system are examined in this present

study Each is a change faciUtator but each facilitates change in a unique way

Superintendent~The general superintendent is a certified school employee and is

charged with overseeing all of a school districts operations particularly those related to

supervision and finance This role in the United States was instituted and developed

during nineteenth century bureaucratic changes where centralization of school efforts was

found more economical and where the need was seen for one person to be at the top of

the school stmcture (Urban amp Wagoner 1996)

Lutz and Merz (1992) define the superintendent in three roles manager

politician and teacher The Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) establishes

competencies for school leaders and suggested curricula for their training Superintendent

courses (Texas Education Agency 1991) mostly relegate this role either to be a manager

what with the emphasis on business techniques and school law for school management

or to be the instmctional leader because of specialized expertise in special and

compensatory education and because of recent advancements in school change which

demand that change facilitators already excel as instmctional and curricular leaders

SBOE mles also reinforce the role of politician with a broad array of social science

electives for the prospective school leader

16

The combination of concems over financial matters political pressures and

extemal curricular constramts exclusively laden upon the district superintendent makes

this role particularly important to the proposed research If there is any new technology to

be implemented the superintendent will have to be the first person on deck to secure

community approval particularly that of the school board so that the community has the

opportunity to buy into the new program especially its fiinding It will be necessary to

describe specific concems of superintendents

PrincipalmdashThe principal is a certified school employee who is charged with

leading teachers Unlike the superintendent the principal is generally responsible for only

one building narrowing this persons focus The role developed during the nineteenth

century in urban schools where a beginning teacher would begin teaching at a low grade

level and move up through the system becoming a principal teacher leading the others

(Urban amp Wagoner 1996)

The literature is replete with suggestions for middle management to increase

knowledge of how to implement technology Ritchie (1996) fists vendors school district

personnel technology consultants technology classes and self-instmction as sources of

information for becoming more effective as a change facilitator

Hall Rutherford and Griffin (1982) recognize three distinct change facilitator

styles which largely fit the principals role Responders put heavy emphasis on

empowering teachers and giving them opportunity to take the lead but tend to make

decisions in terms of immediate situations rather than long-term goals Managers tend to

see that things get done but do not normally go beyond the basics of implementing an

17

innovation Initiators take the lead and make things happen having strong beliefs about

what schools should be Nevertheless Hall et al agree that no change faciUtator

completely fits into one of these compartments Much more than the superintendent the

building principals style sets the leadership tone for the students and staff

Hall et al apply these contrasting styles in leadership to applying innovation

implementation

Another apphcation of the ideas proposed in this paper could be in planning school level and district wide implementation efforts Perhaps implementation game plans should be adopted to different schools depending on the change facilitator style of the principal and the assistant principal In a Manager school implementation will likely proceed rather routinely once what is to be done is understood by the principal In a Responders school more encouragement fi-om the outside and more district personnel time spent in the school working with teachers would probably be necessary While in an Initiators school a certain amount of push might be necessary to get implementation of the innovation on the list of the principals priorities On the other hand if the innovation is already a priority for that principal all the central office staff developer may have to do is stand out of the way (pp 19-20)

Middle management concems are a second component of the proposed research

because these individuals provide day-to-day leadership of educators They are

responsible for every detail in their respective buildings including staff development

Although site-based management is ahnost standard in contemporary schools the

principal remains a key force in change

Technology Coordinator-This role is not as clearly defined as principal or

superintendent nor does it have a lengthy historical base but exists nevertheless An

early study by Stmdler and Gall (1988) reported a growing number of individuals with

18

the title of technology coordinator mainly fi-om the ranks of classroom teachers Bailey

(1997) points out that although the role of the technology coordinator is important in

school improvement activities very little recent literature exists that describes the specific

roles and responsibilities of the technology coordinator

Despite variations in the local job title the person recognized as the technology

coordinator will also have concems worth noting in this proposed research As Stmdler

and Gall (1988) reported earlier this person is eighty percent Hkely to come fi-om the

classroom reflecting classroom teacher concems yet will have to assume a leadership

role

Smith (1997) extensively lists qualities and competencies expected of a

technology coordinator under these headings

1 Technical expertise 2 Understanding of technology use in the instmctional environment 3 Professional development 4 Intemet knowledge and experience (p 56)

Jewell (1999) adds the interpersonal skills of vision and diplomacy along with the

ability to find solutions for a diverse group of technology users fi-om a hmited array of

resources Jewell reminds us that

Technology leadership is not for the timid An effective technology leader must be able to navigate the sea of ever-increasing information and equipment as well as the changes in education that comes fi-om technology use What happens with technology and schools will change our world and technology coordinators will have an important role in that outcome (p 57)

19

The Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) annually commission a

survey (TASA 1998) conceming technology usage The 1998 survey specifically

ascertained the availability of on-site technology support Table 1-3 describes the

fi-equency of technology support for a variety of school configurations in Texas

Study Significance

As a major population center and as a resuU a major purchaser of educational materials

(textbooks workbooks etc) Texas has the potential to lead the way with an innovative

array of technology related courses but with new technology changes will be necessary

in how teachers will teach Already school districts are writing funding grants

purchasing more advanced technology and designating an individual with a title

congment to technology coordinator

Administrators will now have to allow for changes in how they do their jobs

Superintendents are already realizing that budgetary planning for technology has to be for

shorter periods that both technology hardware and software will require firequent

upgrades and school policies will need to address technological issues particularly with

legal matters Building principals will not only require a change in their budgetary

procedures but will also need to include technology concems in dealing with both

curriculum and evaluation Having served unofficially as the building technology

computer coordinator this writer observes that these individuals will have concems over

not only keeping current with the technology but also the array of systemic bugs each

piece of hardware and software displays resulting in the attendant complaints expressed

by staff

20

Table 1-3 Full Time Equivalent Staff for TechnologyComputer Operations

Level

Elementary

Middle

High School

Central Office

Other ISD Service

One-campus

N

479

410

470

N

489

N

484

191

No FTEs on campus

()

382

385

362

None ()

595

0 ()

506

335

Vi FTE per campus

()

192

98

104

1 ()

282

1 ()

277

565

i d i lt IFTE ner campus

()

88

12

117

2-3 ()

7

2 ()

97

68

1 FTE or more per campus

()

338

398

417

More than 3 ()

53

3-4 5-6 () ()

52 19

1 0

(TASA 1998 Question 10)

Because of the major changes in what is expected of educators through the

transition fi-om implementing the Essential Elements to TEKS standards these new

regulations should be applicable and flexible enough for at least the next decade

considering that it replaces a document used for 13 years TEKS will be of necessity

21

applicable for implementing innovations that have yet to be invented and for change

strategies not yet imagined

Delimitations

This study focused on technology implementation concems of change facilitators

of school districts in rural Texas limiting the representativeness of the study Any

findings yielded reflected the comments of those interviewed at the time of the study The

constraints of TEKS are not specifically applicable to educational entities in other states

or countries Curricular documents in states other than Texas were surveyed to compare

TEKS requirements for technology with technology expectations for leamers in those

states States bordering Texas as well as the top 15 states in population were considered

(World Almanac 1999) Appendix I contains a listing of these individual states

standards and how much technology usage impacts these standards

This present study is undertaken during the first year of TEKS standards Those

interviewed will not have as much familiarity with TEKS standards as they might in later

years As the researcher involved in compiling this data this writer must recognize

various biases he might have in eliciting comments fi-om these individuals Such

comments will reflect subjective distinctions individuals have about different schools

extemally mandated policies personal expectations of themselves or product

preferences In short this researcher made every effort to allow the respondents to

accurately present themselves

22

Term Definitions

The literature in this study uses terms germane to change instmctional

technology and to applications of the TEKS In addition terms readily known and used

by Texas educators are described

Academic Excellence Indicator System (AEIS) The AEIS (Texas Education

Agency 1999) is a systematic accountability report delivered annually of each school

and school district in Texas Prior to the estabhshment of the AEIS districts were

evaluated for accountability based on mles and procedures With the advent of the AEIS

schools are now evaluated principally on student performance AEIS indicators include

Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) performance attendance and dropout

rates students participating in advanced courses and scores on college entrance

examinations

Change Fullan and Stiegelbauer (1991) suggest that educational change involves

change in practice and indeed is evident at many levels In implementing change three

components are at stake

(1) The possible use of new or revised materials (direct instmctional resources such as curriculum materials or technologies) (2) the possible use of new teaching approaches (i e new teaching strategies or activities) and (3) the possible alteration of beliefs (e g pedagogical assumptions and theories underlying particular new policies and programs) (p 37)

Change Facilitator The role of change facilitator is defined to include not only

superintendents curriculum speciahsts and building principals but also the diverse set

of persons within and outside of organizations who have the formal or informal role to

23

aid those involved in leaming to use innovations (Hall Newlove George Rutherford amp

Hord 1991piii)

Concems Based on the work of Fuller (1969) Hall and his associates expand on

what constitutes concem

The composite representation of these feelings preoccupations thoughts and considerations about a particular issue or task is called concems The mental activity composed of questioning analyzing and re-analyzing considering altemative actions and reactions and anticipating consequences is concem An aroused state of personal feelings and thought about an issue phenomenon or condition as it is perceived is concem To be concemed means to be in a mentally aroused state about something (Hall Newlove George Rutherford amp Hord 1991 p5)

Innovation Loucks-Horsley and Stiegelbauer (1991) include a variety of school

programs as being innovations including school change school mission and goals

shared leadership as well as implementation of new technology Hall and his associates

define innovation as the issue idea or thing that is the center of attention (Hall

George and Rutherford 1977) Hall et als work in ascertaining concems over

educational innovations as will be demonstrated in greater detail in Chapter 2 can be

used to describe a wide variety of school implementations but within this current study is

strictly limited to instmctional technology implementation

Technology Rogers (1983) defines a technology as

A design for instrumental action that reduces the uncertainty in the cause-effect relationships involved in achieving a desired outcome A technology usually has two components (1) a hardware aspect consisting of the tool that embodies the technology as material or physical objects and (2) a software aspect consisting of the information base for the tool (p 12)

24

Technology Applications Chapter 126 of the TEKS for Technology Applications

(Texas Education Agency 1997b) defines what technology applications are in a

common introduction to each subchapter Among competencies at various grade levels

technology applications include the use of several word processing competencies

keyboarding strategies knowledge of a variety of input devices such as mouse modem

disk drive scanner digital video CD-ROM or touch screen database and spreadsheet

usage Intemet intranet and World Wide Web usage formal training in computer

programming languages and guided independent study Certainly a wide variety of

contemporary applications that meet these requirements can fiilfill these guidelines

However these guidelines are so broadly drawn that technologies not yet imagined

constmcted marketed or researched can be effectively implemented for instmctional

purposes

Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) The TAAS is a criterion-

referenced assessment instrument administered to Texas students The core instrument

assesses students skills in writing reading and mathematics at several grade levels At

present TAAS information taken fi-om students in the fourth and eighth grades and fi-om

an exit examination first administered in the tenth grade with multiple opportunities for

mastery Except for a special education exemption given by the Admission Review and

Dismissal (ARD) team for certain special education students Texas students are required

to have successfiilly passed each of the TAAS areas before a high school diploma may be

granted

25

Organization of the Study

This study follows the format and style of the Publication Manual of the

American Psychological Association (APA 1994) in terms of stmcture and organization

for dissertations This present chapter presents introductory material and a statement of

the problem for study Chapter II is a review of related literature tying the postulates of

this study to the established literature base Chapter III describes the research

methodology to be employed along with the context for the study Chapter IV describes

the data analysis for both of the research sub-questions Chapter V provides a summary of

the research its implications and suggestions for fiirther study

26

CHAPTER n

REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Introduction

Fullan and Stiegelbauer (1991) suggest that there will always be the need to make

educational changes as societies become more complex Three broad mechanisms for

effecting these changes include

1 natural disasters

2 extemal forces such as technology values and immigration and

3 intemal contradictions such as changes in technology leading to new social

patterns and needs (Fullan amp Stiegelbauer 1991 p 17)

Innovations then tend to be devised through both political and educational

motives Since technology implementation is included in this list our examination of

technology implementation concems will first discuss the legal foundations of technology

consortium development reasons for collaboration the theory behind change and

diffiision of innovations collaboration then to discuss the theory supporting concems

and finally to discuss some of the means of assessing and evaluating concems of change

facilitators

Technology Consortium Development

The research site for this present study is a technology consortium comprised of

several school districts This consortium will be described fimctionally in Chapter HI but

27

the controlling legal foundations of how this consortium was developed are herein

described fi-om the literature base

A technology consortium is considered an example of an agreement between

state governmental agencies Such an interlocal agreement is defined by the 1971

Interiocal Cooperation Act (the Act) (Vemons Texas Codes Annotated (VTCA)

1991) At present this Act is codified as Chapter 791 of the Texas Government Code

The Act authorizes local governmental agencies to contract with each other or with the

state to provide services to each other Independent school districts are classified as

other governmental fimction as described in sect 791003

Interlocal agreements are required to be authorized by the goveming bodies of

each governmental entity in this case by each member school board sect 791011 provides

for financial cooperation while sect 791013 allows the consortium to designate

administrative personnel to provide services (Bristol amp Jechow 1998)

Hudson (1997) describes the need for interlocal agreements as either being

required by the intensive capital needed for poohng financial resources or requiring a

high degree of special skills such as public utility specialists This technology

consortium requires both capital and technical expertise Resources for purchasing

significant amounts of computer hardware are pooled under sect 791025

Funds for the technology consortium are derived by legal authority in the Texas

Education Code (TEC) Most school districts in Texas are financed under the Minimum

Foundation Program under Chapter 42 of the TEC (VTCA 1996a) Locally generated

28

ftinds are combined with State fimds to provide for the regular education program of

school districts

However certain school districts that are considered property-wealthy have

different financial considerations The value-added nature of such districts may be due to

industry land values or as in this present study mineral wealth specifically petroleum

Chapter 41 of the TEC specifies means to limit the local property wealth per student to

$280000 (sect 41002) Monies in excess of that amount are surrendered to the State

sect 41099 allows for such districts to recapture some of these fimds to support a

technology initiative (VTCA 1996b) Two of the seven districts in this technology

consortium are considered property-rich and serve as financiers for the purchase of

technology for the remaining five districts

Fowler (1998) describes various ways technology consortia have to plan for nuts-

and-bolts administrative details including preparing state and federal reports asset

distribution litigation inclusion into and withdrawl from the consortium and

determining credentials for consortium board membership Chapters III and IV will

describe in greater detail the practical educational applications of this consortium in

operation

Collaboration

A significant part of the innerworkings of a technology consortium is that those in

leadership have mastered the ability to successfiilly collaborate Indeed collaboration

could be considered an innovation in and of itself (Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer

29

1993) Mattessich and Monsey (1992) have identified factors indicative of outstanding

collaborative groups

1 The politicalsocial environment along with a history of previous cooperative

efforts (pp 16-18)

2 Group membership is based on mutual tmst personal self-interest

compromise and a cross-section of the organizations involved (pp 19-22)

3 Group members have a stake in both the process and outcome of decision

making Clear roles and policies must be developed (pp 22-26)

4 Frequent and open communication links should be established (pp 26-28)

5 Reahstic goals and shared vision leading to a unique purpose (pp 28-30)

6 Both financial and human resources should be considered (pp 30-31)

The Change Process

Fullan and Stiegelbauer (1991) identify educational change as developed through

three phases In the initiation (or readiness) phase change leaders establish a need to

make improvements and to assist in the development of vision and planning At this

level intended outcomes of change are identified During the implementation phase

plans are activated to achieve those outcomes Both individuals and organizations

experience change as the result of new leaming experiences and support through follow

up The institutionalization phase stresses the integration of new practices into school

policies budgets routines etc As new needs and plans are identified stmctures are

30

developed to ensure that the newly institutionalized procedures continue to be maintained

(Fullan amp Stiegelbauer 1991 National Staff Development Council 1995)

Diffusion of Innovations

Concems toward innovations have been noted for some time Knowledge of

change is of littie value unless its solutions are diffiised to the level of the practitioner

(Guba 1968) Guba cites Everett Rogers (1955) who describes five stages of diffiision of

innovations

1 Awareness The individual leams of the existence of the innovation

2 Interest The individual seeks more information and considers the merits of

the innovation

3 Evaluation The individual makes a mental application of the innovation and

weighs its merit for his particular situation

4 Trial The individual applies the innovation on a small scale

5 Adoption The individual apphes the innovation for continued use on the basis

of a previous trial (Guba 1968 p 292)

Rogers (1983) builds on his earlier conclusions and adds a description of

characteristics of innovations which explain the differing rates of adoption among groups

1 Relative advantage is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as better

than the idea it supersedes The greater the perceived relative advantage of an

innovation the more rapid its rate of adoption is going to be

31

2 Compatibility is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as being

consistent with the existing values past experiences and needs of potential adopters An

idea that is not compatible with the prevalent values and norms of a social system will not

be adopted as rapidly as an innovation that is compatible

3 Complexity is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as difficult to

understand and use

4 Trialibility is the degree to which an innovation may be experimented with on a

limited basis An innovation that is trialable represents less uncertainty to the

individual who is considering it for adoption as it is possible to leam by doing

5 Observability is the degree to which the results of an innovation are visible to

others The easier it is for individuals to see the results of an innovation the more likely

they are to adopt (Rogers 1983 pp 15-16)

Rogers (1983) describes five categories of individuals accepting irmovations

along a continuum under a normal fi-equency distribution (p 247)

1 Innovators (2 CT below mean) These individuals are described as venturesome

eager to try new ideas desiring the hazardous daring and risky While an innovator

may not be respected by the other members of a social system the innovator plays an

important role in the diffiision process that of launching the new idea in the social system

by importing the innovation fi-om outside of the systems boundaries (p 248)

2 Early Adopters (between 1 and 2 a below the mean) This adopter category

more than any other has the greatest degree of opinion leadership in most social systems

32

(p 249) These are individuals that are the ones to check in with before trying out new

ideas They are the one who enjoy the greatest respect fi-om their associates

3 Early Majority (fi-om mean to 1 CT below mean) These individuals require more

time to deliberate before adopting an iimovation They eventually follow willingly into

the innovation but seldom take the initiative

4 Late Majority (fi-om mean to 1 a above mean) These individuals approach

innovation with caution and skepticism They are not convinced about the innovation

until the social system norms are in place before they will adopt the innovation

5 Laggards (above 1 a above mean) These individuals are the last in the social

system to adopt an innovation They tend to be suspicious of any changes to the social

system and require absolute certainty that new ideas will work

Finally Rogers (1983) suggests that opinion leaders in a social system are the

individuals who lead the group into innovation adoption Rogers identifies generalized

characteristics of opinion leaders that distinguish them fi-om their followers

1 Opinion leaders have greater exposure to mass media than their followers

2 Opinion leaders are more cosmopolite than their followers

3 Opinion leaders have greater change agent contact than their followers

4 Opinion leaders have greater social participation than their followers

5 Opinion leaders have higher economic status than their followers

6 Opinion leaders are more innovative than their followers

33

7 When a social systems norms favor change opinion leaders are more

innovative but when the norms do not favor change opinion leaders are not especially

innovative (Rogers 1983 pp 282-284)

This present research relies heavily on the relative opinion leader status of those

change facilitators fi-om whom data was gathered Because the informants are change

facilitators and their input on technology implementation is considered authoritative

Rogers insights on change facilitators are appropriate here

Concems Theory

In her role as an observer of novice teachers at the University of Texas Frances

Fuller (1969) noted that there were perceptible differences in how experienced and non-

experienced teachers observed their profession

Are typically inexperienced undergraduates not yet ready to benefit fi-om a conventional teacher preparation program What are they ready to leam What does concem them Can we discover regularities in the interests of beginning education students regularities which might fiimish guides to educators in choosing course content and experiences for teacher education programs (Fuller 1969 p 208)

Fuller reviewed the available literature related to the concems of beginning

teachers Her study concluded that their concems primarily centered on classroom

management and perceptions of evaluations She was surprised not only with how

consistently the varied concems were reported but also with what these authors left out

the absence of concems about topics which are usually included in education courses

34

I instmctional design methods of presenting subject matter assessment of pupil leaming

dynamics of child behavior and so on (p 210)

Fullers subsequent research concluded that a developmental conceptualization of

teacher concems was most appropriate

Pre-teaching phase Non-concem ~ During this time before actual contact with

children concems articulated by pre-service teachers were amorphous and vague

Many did not know what to actually be concemed about Much of what these novices

reported could be regarded as hearsay rumors about teaching etc (p 219)

Early Teaching Phase Concem with Self- As the novice educator begins

service concems with Where do I stand and How am I doing were most dominant

(p 220)

Late concems Concems with Pupils - Scant data with experienced educators was

available to Fuller but mature concems appeared to focus on pupil gains and self-

evaluation as opposed to personal gains and evaluations by others (p 221)

Fullers groundbreaking article began the basis for the development of concems

theory She posited significant research implications that were expanded upon by later

researchers

1 Is the concem sequence complete or are there more tasks with specific

competencies to be defined and resequenced

2 Is concem a fimction of the person of the situation of both or of

neither

35

3 Do individuals as well as groups go through these phases Can a

phase be skipped returned to or be in muhiple phases

4 Can these stages be generalized to other groups such as

administrators college professors and non-teaching staff

5 Are concems more related to teaching behavior teacher competency

or student leaming

6 Are these concems measurable Can they be manipulated by

intervention (Fuller 1969 pp 222-223)

With Fullers article the stage was then set for the development of a more

comprehensive method of measuring concems of educators as they deal with innovations

The Role of CBAM

During the period Fuller was conducting her research Gene Hall and his

associates at the University of Texas were also researching teacher needs and concems

initially with a view toward providing relevant staff development activities Their

conceptual fi-amework for ascertaining concems during school change became the

Concems-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) (Hall Wallace amp Dossett 1973)

The CBAM describes feelings perspectives and attitudes of individuals while

they are considering the use of an innovation (Hall 1979) It is a people-oriented model

anticipating what change agents might discover during the change process and generally

used with staff development (Hope 1995) These assumptions undergird the CBAM

36

1 Change is a process not an event Change takes time and is accomplished in

stages

2 The individual is the primary target of interventions designed to facilitate

change in the classroom Institutions cannot change until individuals within them change

3 Change is a highly personal experience The personal satisfactions concems

motivations and perceptions play roles in determining the success or failure of an

innovation

4 The change process is developmental Individuals go through stages in feelings

and perceptions about the innovation as well as in skill of use of the innovation

5 Staff development can be best facilitated by a client-centered diagnostic-

prescriptive model Staff developers must discover what level participants are in the

change process and design activities congment with that level

6 Staff developers need to work in an adaptive yet systemic way They must be

able to assess the change process and adapt training methods to address those changes

(Hall amp Loucks 1978 Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1991)

Within CBAM three aspects of change form the basic fi-ame of reference of the

model

1 the concem that users have about the innovation

2 how the innovation is used and

3 the ways that the innovation can be adapted to meet the needs of individuals

(Hope 1995)

37

This current study focused only on this first strand-concems Using Fullers

research Hall et al redefined Fullers three stages of concem into concems unrelated to

teaching concems about self concems about the task and concems about impact

(Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1991) Seven Stages of Concem (SoC) about the

innovation have been identified (see Appendix A) Hall and his associates have

demonstrated that individuals move through these seven levels in a consistent manner

(Hall 1979 Hall 1985 Hall George amp Rutherford 1977 Hall amp Loucks 1978 Hall

Wallace amp Dossett 1973 Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1991) Stage 0 represents no

concem over the innovation Stages 1 and 2 reflect concems based on self stage 3

represents concem with the task and stages 4 through 6 mirror concems based on pupil

impact

The Stages of Concem Questionnaire the most precise measure of the SoC is a

35-item Likert scale where respondents indicate their present degree of concem about the

topic in an item (Hall George amp Rutherford 1979) Hall et al hypothesize that

individuals will normally flow fi-om the stages in consecutive order and that a scored

profile should place an individual somewhere along the concems continuum It is highly

rigorous and can be used effectively for research for large groups of people and for

tracking groups of people over time

George (1977) provided rehability and validity figures for this instrument

Intemal reliability was shown to be high Table 2-1 shows intemal reliability coefficients

for a 1974 sample (N=830) of teachers and professors A later subsample of teachers

38

Modifications to the content of the SoC have been done (Bailey amp Palsha 1992

Shotsberger amp Crawford 1996) with varying reliability In the main these researchers

concur that teacher concems do indeed occur in stages but differ in the number of stages

they detect

Table 2-1 Coefficients of Intemal Reliability for the Stages of Concem Questionnaire N = 830

Stage Alphas

0 64 1 78 2 83 3 75 4 76 5 82 6 71

(George 1977)

(N=132) was asked to complete the SoC a second time with test-retest correlations

shown in Table 2-2

As an adjunct to the SoC questionnaire the opportunity is presented for the

respondent to provide a written response with an open-ended statement along the lines of

When you think about [the innovation] what are you concemed about An collection

of open-ended statements can give the researcher opportunity to get a quick feeling for

39

Table 2-2 Test-Retest Correlations on the Stages of Concem Questionnaire N=132

Stage Pearson-r

0 65 1 86 2 82 3 81 4 76 5 84 6 71

(George 1977)

the concems of a group Moreover it can ascertain specific issues germane to a particular

group (Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1991) An altemate version of the SoC geared

principally to change facilitators contains an open-ended blank

43 Use this space (and back of this page) to express any concems you have not been able to indicate in the questionnaire (Hall Newlove George Rutherford amp Hord 1991 p 48)

A third means of gaining information is the one-legged interview which can be

done by simply having a conversation with a respondent about the innovation It is called

one-legged because it can be conducted on the mn or brief enough to do while standing

on one leg While not so rigorous as quantitative instruments this format allows for more

simplicity and rapport with chents (Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1991)

40

AppUcations of CBAM

CBAM has been used in a variety of educational situations Malone (1984) used

CBAM to determine concems of pre-service elementary teachers in teaching science

James and Hall (1981) evaluated concems of veteran teachers in implementing new

science curricula

CiccheUi and Baecher (1985 1987) used the CBAM model to study teacher

computer training They found that the level of concems of novice computer-using

teachers was a factor in how staff development was scheduled Their research questions

are similar to this present study

1 What specific concems will teachers have about using microcomputers in the

classroom

2 Do these concems vary and if so to what extent among elementary junior high

and senior high school teachers

3 Are there different concems between male and female teachers

4 In what ways can data yielded fi-om the SoCQ help teacher educators design

effective inservicing (Cicchelli amp Baecher 1985)

Wesley and Franks (1996) observed the voluntary adoption activities of teachers

using computer-assisted instmction (CAI) and multimedia through a variety of staff

development strategies most notably collegiality (Joyce amp Showers 1988) CBAM

developmental stmctures were positively linked to the increasing complexity of

technologies adopted by these teachers As they progress through the SoC teachers

voluntarily adopt technologies toward better leaming in the classroom Hope (1995)

41

examined teachers concems as they gained greater facility with computers in an

elementary school setting

Wells and Anderson (1997) performed studies comparing intemal concems

(stages 0 to 3) and extemal concems (stages 4 to 6) on a variety of computer appUcations

utilized by students in a graduate telecommunications course Prior computer usage in

eight separate skill areas along with general computing experiences was evaluated on the

SoC Ragsdale (1997) used CBAM to research the unexpected reactions of teachers and

students as they work in a variety of technologies Through CBAM Todd (1993) studied

university faculty concems in teacher preparation programs

CBAM is even used in non-scholastic situations Hall and Hord (1987) report

CBAM and SoC used to research nurse training Air Force cadet leadership training

health behavior and textbook sales and service CBAM has been used intemationally

with extensive studies in Belgium the Netherlands and Australia and has been piloted in

Indonesia Venezuela and Thailand (Hall Newlove George Rutherford amp Hord 1991)

The Change Facilitator SoC

The SoC questionnaire was shown to be adequate in determining the concems of

classroom teachers but did not work as well with administrators staff developers and

others who were charged with implementing change (Hall Newlove George Rutherford

amp Hord 1991) Not only were many of the SoC statements often inappropriate for change

facilitators but also scores elicited fi-om change facilitators yielded values skewed higher

in the Impact stages 4 through 6 particularly stage 5 (Collaboration) which is logical

42

considering the definition of stage 5 and the role of the change facilitator (Hall et al

1991 p 15) Earlier studies with change facilitators and CBAM gave impetus for a more

role-related instrument for assessing concems

The net result of this research yielded a set of Change Facilitator Stages of Concem

(CFSoC) The sequence of concems in the CFSoC (unrelated self task impact) is given

in Appendix B As with the SoC the CFSoC again contains 35 Likert-style statements

but each statement is expressed with a more leadership oriented spin Again as in the

earlier SoC Questionnaire Hall et al hypothesize that change facilitators will move along

the same path fi-om one stage to the next in consecutive order

The CFSoC Instrument

This specific instrument formed a significant portion of the data for this present

study and consequently requires more detailed reporting of its development Hall et al

(1991) have prepared a detailed manual describing the development of the instrument

scoring procedures methods of interpretation and reliability and validity data Appendix

C provides the current CFSoC instrument as used in this present study

CFSoC Development

As stated earlier those who had roles as change facilitators exhibited a different

pattem of responses to the SoC questionnaire because the SoC statements are phrased for

users of the innovation (p 15) Hall et al reported that they had to strike a balance

between innovation-related concems and change-facilitator role concems (p 16)

43

Because of this felt need for such a balance in May and June of 1979 Hall et al

instituted a pilot study of a potential change facilitator version of the well-used SoC This

pilot study indicated the need to wholly change the concems statements to reflect change

facilitator roles Additionally they found that the questionnaire items had to reflect the

facilitation of others use of the innovation rather its use per se (p 18) Questionnaire

items for the Impact stages (4-6) had to focus on efforts and concems on revising the

facilitation process rather than personal use of the innovation

Hall et al (1991) describe their later piloting efforts

Pilot data were collected at CBAM workshops for change facilitators in August 1979 in Texas (N=29) and New Mexico (N=23) Item analyses indicated that the intemal reliability of the scales were good (alphas greater than 65 on all scales) but Stages 1 and 2 (Informational and Personal) were too highly correlated This led to fiirther examination of the CFSoC definitions and a new draft of items for Stages 0 12 and 3

In May 1980 a sample of 219 CFSoC Questionnaires was collected by sending the measure to all change facilitators who had participated in Concems-Based Consulting Skills Workshops in 1979 and 1980 Analyses of these responses indicated good reliability and scale intercorrelations for all but Stage 6 (Refocusing) After carefiil analysis of the Stage 6 concept several new Stage 6 items were written and incorporated into the CFSoC

During the summer and fall 1980 an additional set of 288 CFSoC Questionnaires was collected fi-om a variety of workshops and mailings to change facilitators With these data factor analyses and other item analyses were used to select the five items for each stage on the final questionnaire (Hall et al 1991 p 18-19)

Reliability and Validity

Hall et al (1991) report two intemal rehability studies for the CFSoC A 1981

study (N=589) administered the current 35-item scale to a sample group that included a

44

variety of innovations examined job titles and years of experience Table 2-3 shows the

intemal reliability data for each stage Subsequent studies have produced virtually

identical data Another set of CFSoC responses (N=750) yielded the data in Table 2-4

Table 2-3 Means Standard Deviations and Alpha Coefficients for the CFSoC (N=589)

Stage Mean SD Alpha

0 1199 594 61 1 1691 949 85 2 1304 632 62 3 1790 730 72 4 2588 634 70 5 2586 699 77 6 907 652 81

(Halletal 1991p 19)

Table 2-4 Means Standard Deviations and Alpha Coefficients for the CFSoC (N=750)

Stage Mean SD Alpha

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

1320 1920 1140 1766 2477 2499

840

593 925 622 718 672 704 618

63

86

65

73

74

79

81

(Halletal 1991 p 19)

Hall et al conclude These statistics indicate that the scales have adequate

intemal reliability and the scales are consistent across various innovations (p 20) 45

The 1981 study yielded relatively low intercorrelations between stages Such low

intercorrelations indicate that these scales are measuring different concepts Table 2-5

provides a display of the intercorrelations of scale scores

Table 2-5 Intercorrelations of the Scale Scores on the CFSoC (N=589)

Scale 1 2 3 4 5 6

0 15 19 23 -15 -21 22

i 24 09 23

2 37 19

3 32

4

5

18

05

20

67

05

34

09

-06

-15

(Halletal 1991 p 20)

As is noticable in the table most stage correlations are small except for the correlation of

Consequence and Collaboration

Summary and Reflection

To summarize we know a great deal about how schools change fi-om the available

literature Fullan and Stiegelbauer (1991) point out famihar pattems of change and how

individuals adjust through those changes Rogers (1955 1983) insights into the diffiision

of innovations in a social system have expanded and matured with time Rogers points

46

out that those who facilitate change most effectively are those who in the social system

are most effective in social effectiveness Those who would dare to facilitate

technological change would normally reflect Rogers maxims conceming opinion leaders

The concepts of collaborative strategies appear usefiil for a variety of contexts

particularly for cooperative groups of school districts The original Stages of Concem

(SoC) survey continues to be utilized extensively but little hterature exists for the more

restrictive Change Facilitator Stages of Concem (CFSoC) instrument CFSoC authors

appear enthusiastic about its use (Hall amp Hord 1987 Hall Newlove George Rutherford

amp Hord 1991) but as this present research is conducted only one recent article advocates

its use (Loucks-Horsley amp Stiegelbauer 1993)

In communicating with CFSoC personnel they had no direct knowledge of

extensive recent literature on the CFSoC G Hall (personal communication November 2

1998) referred this writer to the original CBAM staff A George (personal

communication November 6 1998) was unable to find extemal validity studies of the

CFSoC There appears a need for this instmment to be used and reported upon

The legal stmctures which provide foundation for establishing a technology

consortium are solidly found in Texas legal literature Because they are based on legal

statutes they could be modified or deleted by subsequent legislatures Moreover the

changing fortunes of Chapter 41 school districts with fluctuating mineral wealth will

make it difficuh to reliably predict the fiiture of such technology consortia

47

CHAPTER m

METHODOLOGY

Study Design

Yin (1994) asserts that the type of research design to be used in any study must be

bounded by (a) the type of research question posed (b) the extent of control an

investigator has over actual behavioral events and (c) the degree of focus on

contemporary as opposed to historical events (p 4)

This present study used the case study method Yin (1993) specifically addressed

and described studies of educational partnerships or consortia as good examples of case

study research The research questions reiterated below are how and why oriented

(Yin 1994) They are presented in the form of a grand tour question what concems the

technology consortium exhibits as a group and sub-questions what concems individuals

(Spradley 1979)

Grand Tour Ouestion

What are the concems of leadership personnel as the TEKS technology

requirements are implemented in their school districts

Sub-questions

1 Where do these school leaders fall on the Concems-based Adoption Model

(CBAM) continuum regarding TEKS technology implementation

48

2 What are the specific concems of these school leaders as these TEKS are

implemented and why are these concems important

Rationale

This research examined details particularly interviewees responses which were

out of this writers direct control This study also focused on contemporary events in a

technology consortium in rural Texas Therefore Yins standards (Yin 1994 p 6) for

applying a case study method were justified

This present study was exploratory As such Yin (1994 p 21) would assert that

specific propositions or underlying assumptions about what we might discover in the

course of the inquiry should not be defined Assumptions tend to interfere with defining

issues they also constmct personal biases to both data gathering and interpretation

Rather Yin suggested that an exploratory study should reflect the purpose of the study

and the criteria by which an explanation will be judged successfiil (p 21) Levine

(1990) concurs that explorations into educational computer use often lack propositions

Many of the published qualitative studies are deemed exploratory by their authors reflecting researchers quandaries about what should be the subject of the inquiry in this new field and of equal importance the lack of any guiding theory against which to cast the qualitative data In general most of the extant models of quahtative investigation into classroom computer use tend to be atheoretical and largely positivist rather than interpretive in their orientation (p 464)

The criteria forjudging an explorations success will be discussed in the later section

dealing with validity and reliability

The unit of analysis for this study was a technology consortium the combined and

49

cooperative efforts of seven school districts to provide instmctional technology leadership

toward better serving their students Such a partnership has collective activities and

outcomes and as a distinct unit represents something greater than activities and

outcomes of member school districts (Yin 1993) Those change facilitators whose

concems were examined were all employed by the individual school districts and were

recognized as leaders within their respective districts Each of these individuals was

asked a set of similar questions Their responses were considered as representative of the

leadership of their individual districts Appendix D provides the list of questions that

were asked

Yin (1993) suggests that topical relevance and access can contribute to the

appropriateness of this research design The consideration of TEKS technology

implementation efforts is being effected during this present academic year and is certainly

current

For linking the data to the research questions the specific analysis strategy used

was the pattem-matching model Those concems registered by the interview participants

were compared with pattems of CBAM data particularly the typical and hypothesized

profiles of school change facilitators as manifested on the Change Facilitator Stages of

Concem (CFSoC) protocol (Hall Newlove George Rutherford amp Hord 1991)

Informants were asked to fill out the brief CFSoC survey The CFSoC manual presented

typical profiles and gave suggested interpretations of representative profiles These were

used to determine the concems rankings of these informants

Yin (1994) admits that there are no precisely set criteria for interpreting findings

In discussing a study by an author named herein Jones Yin made these observations

50

Jones data matched one pattem better than they matched the other But how close does a match have to be so as to be considered a match Note that Jones did not do any statistical test to make the comparison Nor would a statistical test have been possible because each data point in the pattem was a single number for which one could not calculate a variance and could not conduct any statistical test One hopes that the different pattems are sufficiently contrasting that the findings can be interpreted in terms of comparing at least two rival propositions (p 26)

The concems of school change facilitators as they implement new models of

curriculum were studied through the mode of exploratory case study a qualitative study

design Because this current study desired to know the current concems of sitting school

leaders a case study paradigm was used because the events in the study cannot be

manipulated Campbell (1997) suggests that a qualitative design is appropriate when

ascertaining the insiders point of view and the informants personal involvement A

research protocol of examining documents and artifacts and conducting interviews

provided a wide variety of data Moreover as Levine (1990) asserted case study research

could be accomplished relatively quickly Levine suggested that a case study design

appears to be the method of choice for those investigating different facets of educational

uses of computer technology

Clouse and Garrett (1994) suggest more theoretical reasons for utilizing case

study with adult change facilitators Borrowing fi-om Piagetian concepts the stage of

formal operations which forms the basis of case study is well-developed by adulthood

Moreover case study is grounded in the needs of adult leamers because of the

51

meaningfiilness of problems to the aduh and the responsibility they take toward their

own personal development

Stake (1995) describes defining characteristics of case study research that are

apphcable for this present study

1 It is holistic its contextuality is well developed it is case oriented

2 It is empirical it is field oriented its emphasis is on observables including the observations by informants it strives to be naturalistic noninterventionistic and there is a relative preference for natural language description

3 It is interpretive its researchers rely on intuition with many important criteria not specified it is attimed to the fact that research is a researcher-subject interaction

4 It is empathetic although plaimed its design is emergent responsive its reporting provides vicarious experience

(Stake 1995 pp 47-48)

Context for the Study

This study site was selected in consultation with a consultant who had knowledge

of and had worked with this organization I was directed toward one of the Consortiums

superintendents to secure access This superintendent in tum directed me toward a

person at the Educational Service Center who would be able to assist me

This technology consortium was comprised of seven school districts with two

districts declining to participate in this research These districts were rural and agrarian

yet possessed school leaders who tmly wanted to bring their communities up to date with

52

technology These school sites were given pseudonyms which were generated by random

selection of cities fi-om states other than Texas in a current road atlas Names of

participants were given pseudonyms Those names were those of students fi-om my high

school yearbook and were drawn by lot

In general each of the five school districts were in Texas counties which have

declined in population since 1990 The combined population of these districts is 7306

(Texas Almanac 1998) Each districts economy was based on agriculture and varying

amounts of mineral wealth resulting in substantial variance in property values Each

county boasts a relatively low crime rate

More important than minute details this present study is focused on the big

picture the ways and means utiHzed to make this technology consortium a reality In

initial contacts with consortium leadership this researcher was directed toward Dr Sarah

McCuUough a program specialist of the Educational Service Center Region J located in

Center City Texas Dr McCullough was instmmental in establishing this technology

consortium and providing this researcher with the history and innerworkings of this

consortium Interview questions for Dr McCullough are in Appendix E The following

narrative of the foundation and fimctioning of this consortium is based on this

researchers interview with Dr McCullough (personal communication December 9

1998)

The Sah Fork Educational Technology Consortium (the Consortium) is comprised

of seven independent school districts all of which have akeady worked together as a

special education cooperative Six of these districts are members of Educational Service

Center (ESC) Region J while one is actually in the territory of ESC Region K As also

53

with special education cooperatives a technology consortium is an interlocal agreement

by Texas law and has a management board comprised of district superintendents one

district designated as fiscal agent and a chair authorized to speak and act for the group

The Salt Fork Telephone Company (SFTC) headquartered in Dellwood Texas

provides rural telephone service for several counties in Texas All of the school districts

in these counties depend on this provider for both telephone service and the possibihty of

Intemet connectivity In 1995 the SFTC invited school leaders fi-om their service area to

a demonstration in Dellwood to show off a variety of new technologies that they were

excited to announce particularly their new capabiHty for two-way interactive video

Because these districts had worked together before had a common telephone carrier and

had common interests these school leaders concluded it logical and practical to combine

together for technology improvement in their schools

Prior to the Consortiums establishment member districts were limited to only the

computers they currently had in the classroom Almost all of their computers were

stand-alone units Each district also had a satellite dish for the state network materials

but were using them poorly and inefficiently

Dr McCullough was initially hired to work with this group to get a two-way

interactive video setup organized Later she was deeply involved with authoring several

grants for this group Her subsequent work with the Consortium was to conduct an array

of custom-designed technology needs assessments for each of several job descriptions

(teacher counselor administrator etc) with the emphasis on what do you want that you

do not have with the view that technology was the means to fiilfill those needs She now

54

meets regularly with these superintendents as they hold Consortium management board

meetings

Dr McCullough describes the interrelationships of Consortium members

positively She notes very little dissention as they discuss procedures that most decisions

are made by consensus What serves one serves all of them she emphasizes as the

Consortium moves toward better technology use Each board member realizes that they

are at different point toward reaching group goals They realize the benefits of

collaborative planning a hard lesson for everyone to leam

The Consortium keeps operating fiinds in a bank account separate fi-om general

operating fiinds administered by the business manager of the fiscal agent To date

fimding has come fi-om grants and fi-om monies generated fi-om the two member districts

designated as property-wealthy under Chapter 41 of the Texas Education Code These

districts recapture a certain percentage of excess property wealth normally surrendered to

the State and assign those fiinds to the Consortium (see Chapter II) These districts have

voluntarily chosen to redistribute their fiinds in this manner

Because these districts have formed this consortium they not only have more

technology but also more capabilities As a whole there is improved student

performance and better trained teachers with a rise in Academic Excellence Indicator

System (AEIS) scores (see Chapter I) Most importantly these school leaders fimction as

a group They actively seek ways to collaborate

A recent example of this improved outlook on technology concems teachers use

of the Accelerated Reader (AR) program Heretofore it had been difficult to get teachers

to travel all the way to Center City for training for AR but with a high-quality technology

55

center in Dellwood closer to the other Consortium member schools there was high and

enthusiastic tumout for the training sessions

Informant Selection

This researcher invited each of the seven school districts in the technology

consortium to participate in this study In August 1998 a letter was sent to each of the

district superintendents of the Consortium introducing me the goals of the prospective

research how they might participate^ etc A copy of this letter is provided in Appendix F

Within two weeks of the initial invitation a letter was received fi-om one

superintendent stating that in consultation with his districts site-based team they would

decline to participate in this present study That same week this researcher received a

telephone call fi-om the Dellwood ISD superintendent who had been authorized by the

Consortium board to grant permission to use their districts for this study

After securing approval of the Universitys Institutional Review Board these

superintendents were again contacted and consent forms instmctions and CFSoC

surveys were mailed to superintendents building principals and technology coordinators

of the six remaining districts This mailing was in November 1998 Eighteen completed

CFSoC surveys would be the potential maximum Appendix G contains a copy of the

consent forms and instmctions for taking the surveys

Concurrent with mailing queries to Consortium staff this researcher made initial

contact with Dr McCullough of the ESC and conducted an interview with her in

December 1998

56

The mailings yielded only eleven retumed surveys fi-om the maximum eighteen

possible informants However two of those with completed surveys were deleted fi-om

the pool during the pre-interview stage due to lack of fiirther response to interview

queries The net pool yielded exactly three each of superintendents building principals

and technology coordinators representing five school districts These nine informants are

those whose CFSoC profiles and interviews will be discussed in Chapter IV

Data Collection

A variety of data collection methods congment with the case study method was

used leading to the development of converging lines of inquiry allowing triangulation

ofthe data leading to improved validity and reliability of this study (Yin 1994)

Survey The CFSoC instmment contained 35 Likert-style statements which were

grouped into seven stages of concem Each ofthe statements received a score of 0

through 7 The statement scores were added up to provide a raw score for each stage

That raw score was in tum evaluated by a percentile score chart For the given raw

score there was a corresponding percentile score Percentile scores were then encircled

on a CFSoC protocol Interpretation ofthe CFSoC was based on the profile yielded

from the administration ofthe instrument

Hall et al (1991) insist that their instrument must not be used to make a definitive

analysis of a respondent but rather all interpretations must be treated as hypotheses (p

29) They discuss three methods of examining the CFSoC protocol to generate

hypotheses Interpretations can be made either by examining the stage which shows the

highest degree of concem based on percentile score by examining the percentile scores

57

ofthe highest and the second-highest stages or by examining the fiill array of stage

percentile scores Hall et al point out

As individuals move fi-om little concem about facilitating use of an innovation into actively becoming involved with users as a facilitator it is hypothesized that their concems develop fi-om being most intense at Stages 0 1 and 2 to most intense at Stage 3 and uhimately to most intense at Stages 4 5 and 6 This is most likely to occur if the innovation is a positive one and there is administrative support for its implementation However reality has a way of intervening on this idealized trend which results in different and interesting profiles Where an individual is in this change process can best be assessed through interpretation of a complete concems profile Analyzing both the tabular fisting of percentile scores and the plots of these percentile scores as a graph provides the most complete clinical interpretationassessment (Hall et al pp 33-34)

The profiles accuued as part ofthe data collection are thus examined according to

fiill-profile examples given in the CFSoC manual (Hall et al pp 34-42) Additionally

specific information given by the respondents conceming their change facilitator roles is

considered in establishing these hypotheses Scores are interpreted on the shape ofthe

profile and not necessarily on the numerical score of each concem stage

Interviews There were semistmctured interviews with district superintendents

building principals and persons designated within the school community as the

technology coordinator those whom teachers and administrators rely upon when

computer savvy is needed As opposed to the more open-ended interview I made the

interview more focused as Yin (1994 pp 84-85) puts it The informants were busy

educators and administrators and their time was perceived as limited Interviews were

oriented toward ascertaining the informants knowledge and use of technology with a

58

view toward discovering concems they had as new curricular guidelines and concurrent

hardware implementation was instituted Interviews were conducted by telephone tape

recorded and transcribed for review Interview queries were based on the CFSoC

questionnaire (Hall et al 1991) and questions used in a similar dissertation project

(Nagy 1996) This researcher noticed that several questions as listed in Appendix D

would be commented on by the informants without being asked When each ofthe

questions were answered by the informant the interview ceased Any discussion of non-

germane issues (local school politics vocational programs etc) or school activities not

included in Chapter 126 ofthe TEKS were not evaluated

Documentation Merriam (1988) defines documents as just about anything in

existence prior to the research at hand (p 105) but cautions whether it contains

information or insights relevant to the research question and whether it can be acquired in

a reasonably practical yet systematic manner (p 105)

I wanted to review a wide variety of recent public records in the fiirtherance of

technology implementation for this Consortium including but not limited to school

board minutes technology consortium records established policy statements grant

applications tabular data and evaluations Not all of these documents were available

fi-om Dr McCullough or fi-om Consortium members What was available included the

initial grant applications needs assessment surveys and technology plan The Academic

Excellence Indicator System (AEIS) reports for the 1997-98 school year for each district

were retrieved fi-om the TEA web site (TEA 1999) During the course of informant

interviews certain legal documents were alluded to found in Vemons Texas Codes

Annotated and were useful in verifying interview data A current survey (September

59

1998) ofthe Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) provided a comparison

of similarly situated school districts for technology use Cumulative accountability data

conceming these districts was found in pubhc records (TEA 1995 1996 1997a 1998)

Standardized indicators of district performance could thus be obtained as evidence of

progress

Merriam (1988) suggests that the use of these documents assists in grounding a

study into the context ofthe problem that is under investigation A further purpose of

reviewing documentation is that such records present not only the history ofthe

technology program but also the sense of ownership and commitment that the leadership

exerts and the staff reflect in their service to their leaming communities We also seek

independent objective means to determine if these technology implementations yield any

progress thus avoiding halo effects fi-om those most intimately involved with the

organization

Data Analysis

Since data collection and data analysis drive one another (Gay 1997) the data

was organized to reflect pattems or themes which emerged fi-om the data (Bogdan amp

Biklen 1992) As they discuss evaluating data they affirm that a method of finding a

focus is to look over your coding categories and see which have yielded the greatest

amount of data (p 186)

The interview transcripts were read and reread to gamer a sense ofthe concems

manifested by the informants The analysis had to be germane to the viewpoint ofthe

informant (Tashakkori amp Teddlie 1998) Coding categories emerging fi-om the interview

60

data included student leaming distance leaming power attitudes training infrastmcture

and finance The relevant narrative fi-om the hard copies ofthe transcripts were color

coded by crayon By using the cut-and-paste editing method with the word processor

color coded text fi-om individuals transcripts were collated into listings of specific

concems

Bogdan and Biklen (1992) suggest that this method of sorting piles of coded

material helps the researcher in not only making better sense ofthe data but also

communicating the results to others Appendix H shows the broad categories or themes

along with the sub-categories which comprised each theme

Since both quantitative and qualitative data were used in this present research it

becomes vital to justify the use of each paradigm and how the data is analyzed within that

paradigm Tashakkori and Teddlie (1998) wholeheartedly affirm that the two paradigms

can be successfully fused into one study They suggest that researchers deemed

pragmatic do not necessarily have to be doctrinaire about research paradigms Among

the various research models they describe is included a mixed-model study which

includes a research design that calls for a field experiment and extensive ethnographic

interviewing to occur simultaneously and in an integrated manner (p 19)

The CFSoC survey (Hall et al 1991) was analyzed as per the instmctions given

and the examples displayed in Section IV of their instruments manual Since each

informant could be considered at an individual position on the CFSoC concems

continuum a hypothesized profile was made for each informant based on the relative

extremes in percentile ranks derived fi-om the raw scores ofthe seven concem stages on

61

the CFSoC protocol (pp 33-34) Hall et al took pains to remind CFSoC users that the

quantitative results could only be considered data to generate hypotheses (p 43)

The examples given in the CFSoC manual make comparisons ofthe various high

stages that informants exhibit For example a high raw score in Stage 3-Management

would reflect that the informant may have significant concems toward logistics time and

management in fulfilling professional duties vis-a-vis implementing the discussed

innovation A high raw score at Stage 0-Awareness uniquely and specifically indicates

that the informant may have many other concems in addition to the innovation currently

in question These extemal concems could be any other activities that vie for a change

facilitators limited attention that outweigh the immediate concem for the stated

innovation Hall et al describe a variety of combinations and relative positioning of those

concems that are most prominent in the informants thinking Data reporting of

informants CFSoC profiles in Chapter IV will reflect analysis strategies described by

Hall et al in their manual (Hall et al 1991 pp 34-42)

Tashakkori and Teddlie (1998) assert that the qualitative field material (notes

interviews etc) be evaluated on two dimensions a) whether the themes or categories

were established a priori or emerged during the analysis and b) the degree of complexity

ofthe qualitative analysis scheme (ranging fi-om simple to complex) (p 117) They note

that through this process of emerging themes six to eight categories or themes emerge

when no a priori mle is imposed on informants

Because the data would be analyzed using recurring themes (Glesne amp Peshkin

1992 Howard 1994 Miles amp Huberman 1984) emerging fi-om the course of

interviewing the technique of latent content analysis was used As opposed to manifest

62

content the surface meaning of a text latent content refers to determining the underlying

meaning of a narrative and is determined by a subjective evaluation ofthe overall

content ofthe narrative (Tashakkori amp Teddhe 1998 p 122)

The text ofthe interviews was read several times for topics that the informants

found important Those topics which appeared most fi-equently emerged as the themes

Tashakkori and Teddlie point out that this analysis scheme makes it more appropriate for

the phenomenon being studied (p 123)

Verification Strategies

Maxwell (1996) insists that validity in a quahtative study is not acquired simply

by applying boilerplate techniques and strategies but by describing specific ways and

means of mling out possible altematives to our interpretations and conclusions Maxwell

insists that validity is a goal rather than a product it is never something that can be

proven or taken for granted (p 86) Moreover validity must be determined within the

context ofthe research and not merely a property independent ofthe context For each of

three principal means of understanding Maxwell describes a specific method that I was

able to use to better ensure validity

1 Description Since the main threat to description is inaccuracy the informant

interviews were recorded on cassette tape and transcribed Each ofthe informants was

sent a copy ofthe transcribed conversation for review verification and suggestions

2 Interpretation The principal threat to interpretation is imposing my own

meanings to the informants words To combat this validity threat consistent member

checks were made during the course ofthe interviews to ensure that I was getting the

63

correct information from the informant It was important to allow each informant to

express himself or herself in their own words Several methods of eliminating personal

bias are described below

3 Theory Not paying adequate attention to altemative propositions becomes the

most serious threat to theoretical validity (Maxwell 1996 p 89-90) Altemative

propositions can be masked by researcher bias and reactivity

Elimination of researcher bias is based on understanding how my personal biases

could affect the informants and their comments and my conclusions subsequently

derived Maxwell declares that is virtually impossible to totally eliminate my personal

thinking and values from the study (p 91) By asking similar questions of informants by

allowing these informants to candidly express themselves and by consistent member

checking I controlled for personal bias

Reactivity the influence ofthe researcher on the informants is likewise

impossible to totally remove from the research as Maxwell insists

For interviews in contrast reactivity is a powerful and inescapable influence what the informant says is always a function of the interviewer and interview situation What is important is to understand how you are influencing what the informant says and how this affects the validity ofthe inferences you can draw fi-om the interview (p 91)

Lists of what to do to combat reactivity have been compiled (Marshall amp

Rossman 1989 Maxwell 1996) but all of these suggestions (triangulation member

checks audits etc) are simply the usual methods in qualitative research Since there are

64

virtually no qualitative studies ofthe research instrument available for comparison I have

relied on these procedures to control for biases

1 Feedback Maxwell (1996) encourages the use of a variety of outside observers

to examine the data analysis and give their comments to critique my logic and methods

Two individuals with experience with both technology and research methods have agreed

to assist me with this and evaluate the data analysis

a Mr Jack P Stell instmctional design manager Fairfax VA and b Dr C L Wayne Moore Assistant Professor University of Tennessee Knoxville

With differing perspectives and biases these reviewers indicated agreement that

the research methodology proposed was indeed followed and that the research questions

were answered They pointed out grammatical and spelling errors writing style concems

adherence to APA requirements etc

2 Member Checks Although informants were given repeated opportunities to

clarify themselves in the interviews informants were given the opportunity to respond to

the data analysis specifically identifying themselves

3 Rich Data Maxwell (1996) considers rich data to be detailed and complete

enough that they provide a full and revealing picture of what is going on (p 95) This

generally includes verbatim transcripts of interviews which were compiled for each of

the Consortium informants As the data was read and considered themes emerged fi-om

the data

4 Numerical Report Data This researcher used numerical and normally

quantitative data to add to the confidence level of what my informants were saying

There was particular concem with whether the efforts ofthe Consortium were making

65

any progress over the time period from its establishment to the time ofthe interviews

Publicly available data was gamered from AEIS and TAAS reports to ascertain progress

in school performance

Study Limitations

This study focused on technology implementation concems of change facilitators

of a single technology consortium limiting the representativeness ofthe study The

combined student population of these five districts is smaller than many urban high

schools Interview responses reflected a rural attitude Findings yielded reflect the

comments of those interviewed at the time ofthe study There may be a variety of future

long-range plans pending that might modify present policies These would include grants

bond issues school board elections or even newer state mandates

Nevertheless this study must transcend these limitations in order to be of interest

and find applicability by other scholars Yin (1994) hastens to point out that the case

study paradigm relies on analytical generalization not experimental statistical

generalization to generalize the results to a broader theory (p 36) Yin suggests

replication of a case study with similar sites before a general theory can gain wider

acceptance

There is also the problem of apphcability to school settings markedly different

from those studied However issues that are common to school districts in general could

be expressed by these informants (eg concems over funding student leaming staff

development or transfer of power)

66

CHAPTER IV

RESULTS OF THE STUDY

Informant and CFSoC Profiles

As discussed in Chapter III Consortium informants were sent a copy ofthe

CFSoC questionnaire and those protocols were retumed to this researcher These

informants responses have been evaluated according to guidelines established by Hall et

al (1991) This instmment does not consign each informant to each ofthe seven stages of

concem but rather categorizes the informant in a broader category of CBAM either

Awareness Self Task or Impact as was discussed in Chapter II Consequently each

informant will be designated by the general category based on their individual CFSoC

profile TheCFSoC protocols for each ofthe informants are included as figures in this

chapter

James

James Petty is the high school principal at Camden a position he has held for over

fifteen years James considers himself a practical person and professes a rather traditional

attitude toward his administrative duties The interview with James repeatedly mentioned

school discipline and teacher control ofthe classroom He readily admitted to relying on

other persons to inform him on technological issues rather than researching the data

himself

James CFSoC profile (Figure 4-1) exhibited extremely high levels of concem

with Awareness Management and Personal stages with percentile scores over 90 The

67

0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage 0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score 99 69 99 96 13 21 68

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-1 CFSoC Profile of James Petty Camden Principal

68

high Personal score suggests a concem for personal position and standing while the high

Awareness score indicates a diversity of issues facing him which to him are of greater

importance particularly classroom management Also a high Management score implies

time logistical and managerial concems The moderately high Refocusing score

indicates James has thought about altematives to the innovation and would be exhibiting

definite ideas and opinions over the technology implementation This profile suggests

James is not as likely to be involved in the change process as others might be Attempts

to intervene could intensify his current levels of concem Because ofthe high scores in

the Self array of stages I would hypothesize James to be in the SELF stage of concem

Bill

Bill Potter is the technology coordinator for the Camden schools although he

continues to teach math for much of his school day Bill leamed his present trade largely

by doing it Although relatively new to computers (less than fifteen years) Bill considers

himself to have been oriented toward technology from his military days as an Army pilot

during the 1960s to the present His formal computer training has only been in a few

junior college classes and some inservice training Bill credits his technology reputation

to being the one who knew how to operate the computer at an earlier date than his peers

Although in the technology coordinator role Bills highest CFSoC profile (Figure

4-2) score was in Awareness This is most likely attributable to having many other

professional concems at present particularly since he remains a classroom teacher for

69

0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

91 56 62 60

5 12 18

2 3 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-2 CFSoC Profile of Bill Potter Camden Technology Coordinator

70

much ofthe school day as well as his increaseingly greater role in his school district He

may also just now be beginning to envision himself as a change facilitator

Information Personal and Management scores are no more than six percentile

points apart suggesting personal status and time logistical and managerial concems are

also important to Bill An increased Refocusing score also indicates Bill has some

definite ideas about the innovation that warrant consideration Bill manifests a SELF

stage of concem for this iimovation based on his CFSoC profile

Ronnie

Ronnie Bennett has been technology coordinator at Dellwood for just a few years

but has a long reputation and a deep pioneering attitude not only toward computers but to

a wide array of technology Ronnie was the first at his school to use a computer first with

a VCR first with a CD player and first to tinker with quadrophonic sound Like Bill

Ronnie first leamed computing by doing it In addition Ronnie observed and later

worked with the various private vendors and technicians who provided technology

services to his building

Ronnies CFSoC profile (Figure 4-3) indicates several areas of concem High

Awareness and Personal scores indicate many concems other than the present technology

implementation Ronnie also considers his personal position and role in the school

organization to be important The similar scores in Management and Refocusing reflect

his concem for time and managerial issues and his definite additional ideas toward the

71

0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

99 76 97 91 39 40 92

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-3 CFSoC Profile of Ronnie Bennett Dellwood Technology Coordinator

72

innovation that might warrant consideration Ronnie appears to border between the SELF

and TASK stages of concem

Larry

Larry Beckman a former agriculture teacher has been the superintendent at

North Prairie for a few years Larry realizes his mral attitudes and folksy manner but

demonstrates by his proactive approach to leadership that advancing technology in his

district is in the best interests of his students and staff He has had little formal training

intechnology except for several workshops However Larry credits a hands-on

technology approach as most effective for himself

Larry had relatively high percentile scores for each ofthe seven stages of concem

with a low of 68 in Consequence Larrys highest CFSoC profile (Figure 4-4) score was

Management suggesting that the physical nuts and bolts and managerial concems

were most important Information scoring higher than Awareness indicates a better

understanding ofthe details ofthe innovation Larrys lowest scores in Personal

Consequence and Collaboration were only five percentile points apart suggesting

relatively lower concem for interpersonal interests He also scored high in Refocusing

suggesting that he is considering additional ideas about the iimovation that should be

considered Because ofthe high degree of management concems Larry would be best

described as being in the TASK stage of concem

73

0

100

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

87 89 73 94 68 72 92

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-4 CFSoC Profile of Larry Beckman North Prairie Superintendent

74

Mike

Mike McCoy has spent almost a decade at Sawtooth as superintendent Like

several others Mike is perceived as a doer having leamed a great deal about

technology through practical application Mike has a more direct responsibility with his

staff doing teacher evaluations and performing first-line maintenance with his buildings

technology He credits both a number of technology workshops and reading of

technology periodicals as being great sources of information

Mike as superintendent has many concems on his mind as his CFSoC profile

(Figure 4-5) indicates with a high score in Awareness His second highest score

Management suggests that he feels the cmnch of managerial and material concems for

his district Low Information and Personal scores could suggest that he feels secure in his

position and understanding ofthe innovation implementation A slight increase in

Refocusing fi-om Collaboration suggests that Mike is considering some ideas in addition

to the innovation implementation Because more personal concems are lower and the

managerial concems are high Mike appears to be in the TASK stage of concem

Vemon

Vemon Russell has well over three decades of public school service currently

finding himself as principal ofthe Sawtooth school Indeed he still teaches some science

classes and has even coached football while still an administrator Vemon is relatively

new to technology but indicates his willingness to leam by studiously reading the

manuals and attending workshops Vemon quips Ive leamed more from it in the last

three years than all the other years put together

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0 100

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

96 43 34 82 9

18 31

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-5 CFSoC Profile of Mike McCoy Sawtooth Superintendent

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Vemons CFSoC profile (Figure 4-6) shows him interested and positive about the

innovation with the higher Information score but the high Management score shows

Vemon still concemed over his day-to-day details Low Personal and even lower

Consequence and Collaboration scores and both raw and percentile scores of zero for

Refocusing indicate little concem over his facilitative role his personal status nor his

interest in exploring altematives toward this innovation At this late stage of career

Vemon appears comfortable in his knowledge ofthe innovation Vemon also appears to

be in the TASK stage of concem based on the high Management score

Renee

Renee White a mid-career educator occupies the technology coordinator

designation at Sawtooth schools Having been a secretary for twenty years Renee

considers herself adept at any technology thrown at her Describing herself as the chief

distributor of information Renee considers herself glad not to have a computer in her

home because she would play with it indefinitely

Renee exhibits similarly high percentile scores in Awareness and Management on

her CFSoC profile (Figure 4-7) These scores imply Renee has both a variety of concems

in addition to the innovation implementation and also concems over time logistics and

management of her responsibilities Similarly low percentile scores in Information

Personal Consequence and Collaboration suggest lesser concem for personal position

and collaboration needs A slight upswing in the Refocusing score suggests a concem for

articulating altemative ideas Renee seems to exhibit a TASK stage of concem

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0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

69 81 30 78 16 4 0

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-6 CFSoC Profile of Vemon Russell Sawtooth Principal

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0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

91 18 30 86 2 3

18

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-7 CFSoC Profile of Renee White Sawtooth Technology Coordinator

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David

David Jackson has been an administrator for decades and is the superintendent at

Woodlake David recognized the potential of computers and technology as soon as

computers became widely available to schools He enjoys being involved with the nuts

and bolts details of technology implementation even to the point of being involved with

the wiring for hardware implementation

David shows the same percentile score for both Awareness and Information on his

CFSoC profile (Figure 4-8) This impHes Davids concem for a variety of issues at

present and a desire to leam more about the innovation A relatively high Management

score suggests physical and managerial concems Lower scores in Personal and

Consequence imply that personal position and impact are not as important to David

Nevertheless Davids higher scores in Collaboration and Refocusing suggest a desire to

work together with others to make an impact on their leamers and to consider

altematives to innovation implementation David appears to be in the IMPACT stage of

concem very much concemed with how well he facilitates change with his staff

Stephen

Stephen Greer has been secondary principal at Woodlake for several years He has

always been interested in technology but attributes his current increased level of interest

to his rising to his present administrative post Stephen describes himself as a leamer

enjoying researching a problem and its solution A former math teacher and coach

Stephen considers himself an innovator

80

100

0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness I- Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

87 87 30 74 13 60 68

2 3 4 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-8 CFSoC Profile of David Jackson Woodlake Superintendent

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0

Percentile Score in Relative Intensity

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Stage

0 - Awareness 1 - Information 2 - Personal 3 - Management 4 - Consequence 5 - Collaboration 6 - Refocusing

0 1

Percentile Score

81 61 73 93 62 60 13

2 3 CFSoC Stages

Figure 4-9 CFSoC Profile of Stephen Greer Woodlake Principal

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Stephens highest percentile score on his CFSoC profile (Figure 4-9) was in

Management implying greatest concem with logistical and managerial concems A

somewhat lower score in Awareness suggests concems over other issues at present

Similar percentile scores in Personal Consequence and Collaboration could be

interpreted as concem for his impact for his facilitative and collaborative styles A very

low Refocusing score implies that Stephen is not considering altematives to the

innovation at this time Stephens profile best reflects the TASK stage of concem

Summary of CFSoC Data

To summarize these school change facilitators demonstrate a variety of change

facilitator strengths and had at least one individual in each ofthe CBAM stages (SELF

TASK IMPACT) Most of them score relatively high in Awareness suggesting that there

are other competing issues for that individuals time Management also scores

consistently high suggesting the day-to-day managerial and logistical details of the job is

of major importance to each informant Individuals appeared to be on a higher CBAM

stage as they held a higher position in the school district although there were some

differences which could be due to experience with the innovation

Informant Concems

Informant concems were also collected as described in Chapter III Each

informants interview was tape recorded and transcribed Copies ofthe transcriptions

were sent to each informant for confirmation prior to data analysis

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Seven overriding themes emerged across these interviews These were topics that

appeared to be important to these informants as they implemented new technologies in

their school districts in relation to the TEKS for technology applications The informants

registered strong opinions over these themes To reiterate these themes are discussed in

regard to the Consortium as a whole since the focus ofthe study was not on inter-role

relationships

Attitudes

The informants collectively expressed concems over the attitudes of themselves

their peers and their staffs There was high concem over the prevailing desire to keep

current with the technology David Jackson Woodlake Superintendent was a pioneer in

his district with implementing computer use and describes those early days

When we got our first network and put computers in the classroom that is the first keyboard many of our teachers had ever touched in their life as far as a computer keyboard Had no idea how to tum it on Had no idea how to apply software Knew nothing Scared them to death Still have a few that are very reluctant to use a computer or Intemet or any type of technology of that sort in the classroom

David feels that his some of his staff still manifest a degree of reluctance to use

technology

So the biggest challenge that Ive had is getting teachers to acquaint themselves with computer technology and cable technology all the technologies that have been made available to them You know its not going to do any good if they dont know how to use it

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Larry Beckman North Prairie Superintendent recognizes the need to keep his

district current with new technology

And I think a part of that is that a lot of us out here we know well I dont know whether we know or whatever but anyway we feel like maybe that weve got to try and stay on top of it as much as we can because we are so far away from anything And if we dont we dont stay on top of it were basically hurting our kids because you know if they graduate fi-om here and go over to Tech or to AampM or somewhere like that then they run into these situations you know theyve never seen any kind of this kind of equipment then theyre already two years behind everybody

Stephen Greer Woodlake Principal believes he is indeed on the fi-ont edge of

the curve at this point in time but credits his rising to an administrative post as a turning

point in his attitudes toward technology

Really up until the time I became an administrator we were the kind of on the back end ofthe curve there for a while but I feel were comfortable where we are right now technology wise

So much ofthe difficulty in implementing technology has centered on the fear of

change These informants encounter these fears daily both within themselves and their

staffs There appears to be a generational gap in acceptance of technology James Petty

Camden Principal considered his teachers and noted

I definitely see a difference in the age groups Those that are five years away from retiring are more difficult to get into use ofthe computer maybe a lot of times And probably the younger ones its just much easier for them to accept and to use a computer right off

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Similarly Vemon Russell Sawtooth Principal chalks it up to age and experience

level

We have one or two teachers who use it but use it sparingly you know what Im saying But we have other teachers I think that use it a lot Probably our primary grades its used less in K through 1 than anywheres But then they are traditional teachers Theyve been teaching a long time

Concurring David Jackson correctly noted

Because many of our teachers are intimidated by the fact that the students in their classroom know a whole lot more about the technology available in the classroom than they do Which is not uncommon I think in many schools

Bill Potter Camden Technology Coordinator marvels at the older teachers lack

of desire to advance in technology

Its like the older teachers you know they put that thing over in the comer and dust it off just like that F-16 out in front ofthe park you know Nobody knows how to fly it but boy we maintain it and it stays shiny Thats they way a lot of these older teachers treat their computers Theyre afraid to tum them on see so weve got to overcome that fear

Bill suggests that some ofthe more sophisticated technologies now in homes

might influence younger educators greater acceptance of technology

Of course as these people retire and theyre going to get here pretty quick I imagine in our school system and the younger ones take to more technology and the younger they get the better theyre going to be because theyve all grown up with VCRs and your microwaves

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Renee White Sawtooth Technology Coordinator would add that teachers

purchasing of personal computers improves their attitudes toward technology

A lot ofthe teachers own personal computers and so increasingly at our school theres a higher comfort level with using them and with experimenting and trying to figure things out than there was just two years ago I dont know if its a change in personnel or it its simply the exposure has increased the comfort level Maybe some of both

Larry Beckman as a district leader strongly realizes that m the face of change

positive efforts to make change happen is preferable to ignoring the need for change

It forces you you know its kind of like you can either get on the boat and help paddle or you can get off and swim Id rather be in the boat paddling and trying to stay up with it because I dont swim very fast

Ronnie Bennett Dellwood Technology Coordinator strongly rejects the notion

that change is bad After decades in the classroom and office Ronnie is aware how

attitudes shape teaching activity

A long time ago I leamed that change is not always bad And I guess back there when I first decided you know I told myself there were a lot of people that said Computers are not for me I remember that and I told myself I thought I could either leam how to do this or Im going to fall by the wayside And having always been interested in technology and all change has never been a problem for me And it is for a lot of folks People that have taught school a certam way for twenty or twenty-five years and suddenly you interject this new thing called technology or computers and some people just say Now wait a minute I didnt think what I was doing was all that bad

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Ronnie suggests that some teachers might be blinded to their own attitudes about

their teaching practices

As a regular classroom teacher I know that the way I present things and the way the kids I dont present things anything like I did when I first started teaching at all And thats because kids change times change You cant stay the same Things dont stay the same You have to be willing to you know if theres a better way to do something you know what we have is we have a lot of people that have been in this profession for twenty twenty-five some of them nearly thirty years and they taught the same lesson wrong for thirty years Just because youve done it over and over and over doesnt mean that its right

Power

In addition to changes in attitudes changes in school curricula educational

methods extemal mandates etc also bring about changes in power Who has the

authority Who decides what to do Who calls the shots These issues were on the minds

ofthe informants

Crawford Bodine and Hoglund (1993) distinguish attributes of recognized power

by de iure school leaders from perceived powerment of classroom personnel Power for

the sitting administrator is the fi-eedom fi-om being told by others what to do (p 143)

The classroom person being empowered to leadership is instead acknowledged their

power and receives fi-eedom to exercise that responsibility with a minimum of

bureaucratic or managerial constraints (p 232)

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Technology appears to be a key means of providing teachers the empowerment to

collaborate Ronnie Bennetts early vision of computers manifested prescience

I remember thinking you know This is a way for teachers to share things I remember thinking that you know that teachers had access to a machine that would allow them to communicate back and forth with teachers at other schools then would share all this information Of course now with e-mail and the Intemet thats what they want everybody to do

Not only does technology empower the teacher but also the leamer Stephen a

secondary principal would hope that his teachers realize the need to surrender some of

their perceived power with a view toward improving instmction

I have tried to push for change away fi-om lecturelisten and readtake notes multiple choice assessment And I have pushed for learner-centered self directed leaming What I couldnt achieve through preaching and bullying technology has almost single-handedly achieved for me in that area

Renee noted that often her students were akeady prepped to use the technology

She had no quahns over accepting a more facilitative role with her students

Now the fact was you know the computers were there and the kids were going to leam about them whether I helped them or not because thats the nature of children They like that technology theyll figure it out with you or without you

Not only direct instmction but also day-to-day teacher practices are being

changed due to technology Stephen related anecdotes about the changes technology

made in unbalancing teachers perceived status and power

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Ive witnessed the evolution of one of our teachers in particular that happens to be a coach that when he and I both appeared on this campus ten years ago he was strictly a traditional instmctor But Ill tell you right now its hard for him or has been hard for him but hes making the move successfully to give up the stmcture to give up the power and tum the power of leaming over to the students rather than the power being wielded by the teacher Thats been a hard stretch and technology it helps it gives you a venue to shift that power but at the same time there are sticky issues Obviously fi-ee speech issues obscenity issues those kind of things that are introduced with the advent of technology

Just getting traditional teachers to use a simple software package has tumed into

virtual showdowns in the administrative office Stephen gives an example from a

colleagues experience that echoes his own understanding

I think of an administrator fiiend of mine in a school in the Panhandle and theyre trying to move the rank-and-file in that direction And they are to the point where grades are submitted on disk at the end ofthe semester And they just have one math teacher as it tums out thats refiised you know just-was-not-going-to-do-it you know and finally his principal after two directives the third time he went down there and said Look you will tum your gradebook in on disk in May or you will not be working here in August That simple Step out But there are a lot of people that are nervous and I think its fear mostly I think its fear

The imposition of new ideas and new procedures can have an intimidating effect

on traditional teachers and administrators a relinquishing of power James admittedly a

traditional administrator relates that some of his teachers might be following his lead in

leaming new things

Its like making them do something that you know theyre required to do and theyre only doing it because they have to Maybe

90

Im like them or theyre like me in that some of us older dogs its a bit more difficuh to teach us something new or change

If leaming technology is merely a requirement for continuing teacher development

and not something that is perceived as needed then teachers will exhibit reluctance in

adoption of new technologies

As new technologies are implemented in schools there is the need for immediate

assistance in using the technology Those persons designated as technology coordinator

of a building or a district have had a modicum of perceived power bestowed on them

although each of these coordinators who have acted as informants still spends a

significant portion of their day in the classroom

Ronnie Bennett relates that his experiences with a number of superintendents

have tacitly acknowledged his expertise

Ive always been the kind of person that if something is broke that somehow ends up in my hands

Often they would say to Ronnie You tell me what you want or what to do

Ronnie appreciated one superintendent that was particularly supportive

(Conceming administrative support) but Buster (the superintendent) was like you know he wanted in there boy But he just about anything I ever wanted or needed you know he was just he was ready And he knew what I was talking about above all whereas a lot ofthe others had no idea what I was talking about

Bill found himself stumbling into his role as technology coordinator

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But as far as being specifically trained for this Im not I just picked it up as I went and I was the guy that knew how to tum the computer on so I got the job you know as the Computer Gum You know the people the powers that be many of them ofthe teachers looked at me as having expertise really that I didnt have I just had one at home and knew how to tum it on they didnt They just thought I was genius you know so thats how I inherited this job

Later Bill found himself besieged by folks wanting his specialized knowledge

As kids leam more and more of this (computers) then we have people I have people you know that call and want to What kind of computer do I need to buy Of course you know thats like trying to recommend the type of automobile (they need to buy) and you dont want to get into that

Renee would chalk up her perceived expertise to her job title She has been skilled

with computers for years but has not always had people wanting her knowledge about

computers while she officially taught another subject at another school

So anyway I knew a lot about computers before other people but (because I taught home economics) no one ever asked me anything about computers at that school The whole year I was there no one had a question about computers All of a sudden because I teach computers I am the computer gum the shift in the role simply came with the title So I think what Im trying to say is is it the title itself dictating your role Not so much at first your knowledge so thats helpful and certainly its going to keep people coming back if youve been able to help them but simply your title itself says Oh you must have explanations that will help us here

Nevertheless final authority remains in the hands of de iure administrators One

ofthe technology coordinators explains

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And another thing too is that the administrator has the authority and theres a lot of things that I can see like I see we need to be doing training and that sort of thing but I dont have the authority in order to make that happen But until you get these administrators that are you know technologically oriented you know its hard to make things like that happen

This same technology coordinator feels fhistrated with trying to get teachers to use

technology and insists that those in leadership need to take charge and lead

Weve got these people at that level like the administrative level who have to provide the leadership that have the authority to make things happen and its like convincing someone you know youve got to convince them ofthe fact that it needs to be done Theyre too comfortable with you know getting the basketball games arranged and all this sort of thing and making sure a teachers in a certain classroom but boy when it comes to technology unless that person has used a computer its foreign to them

Student Leaming

The educational leadership literature points us to student learning as the ultimate

goal in any educational enterprise These informants unanimously echoed that concem

Unless the school staff perceive that the technology hardware is adequate to provide

quality educational experiences for the students the hardware is of little value Larry a

superintendent wonders why anyone would think otherwise

(Conceming his site-based committee) And then let them kind of I guess decipher what it is that they can use what it is that we need for our students how its going to benefit the kids whenever we get this stuff Whats going to be the benefit for the kids Are we going to teach them how to use it or are we just going to put it in the comer

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Because he perceives that both students and staff are using the machinery effectively

Larry is more encouraged to plan for an increase in hardware for his district

Renee has been enmeshed in the technology for so long and has seen so much

progress with her students that they find technology use as normal

The kids who are in the tenth grade this year started school with computers They started kindergarten in Sawtooth with computers theyre the first class And when they hit my eighth grade class in computer literacy two years ago all I had to do was say Heres the program I want you to go to the menus at the top ofthe screen and see whats under each menu and get an idea of where things are Now I want you to create a PowerPoint presentation with these elements and I promise you other than probably a four or five minute demonstration on the program how it operated I did not have to tell those kids a thing It was OK where you expect them

Because of implementation of technology teachers are not only expected to use it

and thereby improve their teaching but also to increase student leaming Stephen a

secondary principal noticed the difference almost immediately

When we became connected and we put our computer labs online and when we got computers that are interfaced with televisions that are hooked into the Intemet and also to cable in the classroom Then automatically the teachers saw the convenience and the usefulness of using technology in what they do It sort of served as a catalyst to move fi-om traditional lecture instmction to student self-directed leaming To me thats the biggest change

Stephen considers technology as the catalyst in many areas of education He

integrates his technology concems with more global interests

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Technology is proving to be a wonderful thing and a wonderfijl instmctional aid and in a large sense in my mind its the thing thats driving the conversations we have in the political realms regarding charter schools home schools private school vouchers because we dont have the monopoly on education any more and I think thats a good thing I think students and their parents are going to look for the most bang for their buck and theyre going to look for education thats provided to them opportunities and experiences thats provided to them in a non-encumbering way To me the biggest question is in relation to technology is how to predict where were going

If indeed the quality of teaching is critical toward student leaming technology is

not always believed to be a positive factor in such progress David a superintendent is

not happy with some ofthe pervasiveness of technology in the classroom

I may be totally wrong but probably thats going to be the biggest area of change is the way we deliver instmction to students other than one-on-one in the classroom I see the day that the kids here at Woodlake schools will be watching the TV monitor

As a traditional administrator in a traditional school James has reservations on

how well teaching quality is exhibited when mixed with various technologies and

instmctional arrangements Traditional school procedures such as homework could be

modified or even made obsolete through technology James even suggests that his

teachers may never have the time nor the physical space in their rooms to handle all the

information fi-om the new technologies He senses a foreboding dread of technology

having the potential to replace the teacher

I see tremendous change and I think its going to continue and grow by leaps and bounds whether its laser discs or computers And I dont know where all its going but I see it coming And I dont think

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the teachers ever going to be replaced I hope they dont try because itll our quality of teaching is going to diminish I think if they do but I do see more and more technology involved in the classroom by these various kinds of things that weve been talking about

Informants have had varying amounts of time to measure the effectiveness of their

technology implementation Some of these districts have had over a decade to consider

increases in student leaming through computer technology David elaborated about what

his students at Woodlake have accomplished due to their years of experience with

technology

I feel like our students will be very prepared when they leave here to go on to college in the area of technology Woodlake has been fortunate to have (had) technology a lot longer than many other schools and weve had kiddos that have been able to use technology that they leamed here to work their way through college based on what theyve leamed and the exposure they got right here on technology

Mike McCoy Sawtooth Superintendent also has had highly advanced hardware

in his building for years and remarks how Sawtooth students at every level are integrating

technology into the curriculum

The students are just so extremely comfortable with technology I mean its just second nature with them almost You know we have computers in kindergarten you know all the way through twelfth grade and theyre in every classroom Our kindergarteners have no trouble with just going in sitting at the computer and you know being able to by themselves you know pull up a game or whatever it could be Every one of our elementary kids know that the information is available to them and they know how to get it off the Intemet They know where to go

96

Renee cautions that the changes that have been made and the progress achieved are

not just ends in themselves Despite piles of advanced technology in the classroom

Renee interjects

I still have to teach students to write I still have to teach students grammar I still have to teach students how to understand what they read I still have to get them to read I have to get them to write And I think this is tme generally technology is only a tool Its not the end result Were trying to teach students reading writing and arithmetic The 3 Rs The tools have changed the concepts have not Youre still trying to teach kids to think so they can move out into the world and be citizens ofthe greater society

Some administrators admittedly traditional in orientation have concems that

technology will dismpt the orderly progress that they have endeavored to produce in their

buildings They assume that discipline will lead to better student leaming James wonders

what effects distance leaming and Intemet use will have on both instmction and student

research when discussing the new interactive video delivered foreign languages classes

his school might offer

And to go the advanced (diploma) route its almost a necessary part of our curriculum As far as liking it I dont I think they do a poor job of teaching the course I think its just not a good way for students to leam

As for the interactive class James does not think it represents the best teaching method

He would prefer to have a live teacher in the classroom one that will be more proactive

in maintaining discipline and standard teaching activities

97

Vemon also expressed concem over intemal discipline in the use ofthe e-mail

function ofthe system

My concem is consistency on the discipline ofthe e-mail of students in our school We try not to let them use it personally and I dont think its consistently enforced throughout our school and its very hard to supervise e-mail The e-mails a problem here that I have some teachers that watch it close and some teachers that dont

Indeed while discussing student leaming all of these informants expressed

specific concems over distance leaming and about its effects on their jobs and their

leamers As a result an additional concems theme distance emerged fi-om the data

Distance

Because the Consortium is implementing an advanced distance leaming center in

each of its member schools each informant volunteered concems over its

implementation use and outcomes The very concept of distance however is not

simply limited to distance leaming but also to the significant distances Consortium

educators have between their schools and sources of school improvement

These informants perceive improvement for their school districts by being able to

bring a greater variety of activities and services to their districts Larry a superintendent

jumps at the chance to use distance leaming in his district He sees benefits in distance

leaming to both professional and student progress as well as it being a cost-cutting

measure

98

I think its going to be extremely beneficial especially to schools out here like we are that you know were an hour and a half away fi-om the Service Center or fi-om Center City or Tech or anywhere like that and itll be extremely beneficial to our students You know we can pick up some college classes We can get them some dual-credit classes Ive got some people here that want to take some classes and want to work on some graduate work and so forth that maybe we can pick up School board training and in-service training through the Service Center will save us lots of dollars and lots of time because if we dont have to travel all the way to Center City to get our in-service and even if its a half-a-day deal you spend a whole day by the time you drive over there and drive back

Mike agrees with Larrys concem over hteral distance fi-om school to service

center When staff have to do as much travel as do these school leaders distance becomes

a significant factor in what they can accomplish

Were so isolated Were a hundred miles from Center City which is where our Service Center is Instead of travel time you know because any teacher who leaves here loses a full day even if its an hour workshop

Renee echoes Mikes concems She experiences the presure ofthe distance cmnch

as she budgets her time and resources

We live a hundred miles fi-om any kind of technical support and we pay $10000 an hour for somebody to come out and fix it so you think twice before you even ask to have (a computer) looked at Can I work around this

Nevertheless there is a sense of concem registered by each informant over distance

leaming implementation As discussed in the previous section there is a fear of

99

technology supplanting the teachers role David sees distance leaming in his professional

future but also makes this prediction

My first instinct is to say that probably distance education is going to have effect particularly on mral America Im not real sure Im ready to buy that yet It may but Im not totally yet sold on distance leaming as a tool for replacing the teacher in the classroom There may come a day that that might be the only way that we can deliver some instmction to our students If and when that day comes I think thats going to be a shame and I think thats going to be a step back in education

Previous efforts with distance leaming were fi-ustrating at some informants

schools David registers his experiences

And (distance learning) wasnt that well received either fi-om the students or the parents And I know that distance leaming will be better than that because youll have two-way interactive audio and video at all times But I still have reservations and Ill have to see it work well to change my mind on it I probably cant stop it fi-om coming

Ronnie having been a distance leaming facilitator also remembers problems with

this teaching format for students and facilitator alike

But it was all these schools even as far away as Kansas that were viewing this at the same time And its hard to get through on the telephone line because you had all these people trying to get through to ask a question

When asked about the net effects of all this Ronnie explained

We had a lot of I guess youd say disillusioned parents and kids because they were expecting to get you know they thought What a

100

wonderfiil way to be in touch with computers and what have you And you know if we did work we had to bundle that work up send it to San Antonio Well by the time the guy got it graded and got it back you know it might be a week or two And at the same time we were under no pass no play mles And you had athletes that you know at three-weeks reporting period didnt know if they were passing or not And then some of them would wind up failing at the end and they didnt even really know why they were failing And so you know we had a bunch of kids that were like ineligible

Fmstrations registered by the aduh facilitators were received clearly but students

responses to the distance experience were even worse Ronnie elaborated in detail about

the legwork done on-site to facilitate distance leaming As is axiomatic in instmctional

design inadequate feedback does not promote leaming

The kids never really knew for sure if what they were doing was what he wanted or what was acceptable or till he had a chance to mark it and write notes on it and what have you And a lot of times by the time they did get feedback on it well it was too late

Renee also experienced first-hand the details of distance leaming Conceming the

possibilities of interactive video Renee questions

I guess the biggest concem has been teachers who are afi-aid that they will get dumped on How many students are you going to expect me to teach for this class that I have the same prep time that I had when I had seven kids And then all of a sudden Im teaching an interactive video classroom where I have kids fi-om Woodlake and from Dellwood and fi-om Beaverdam and fi-om Sawtooth and all of a sudden I have fifty kids instead of fifteen Im given the same amount of prep time or maybe Im given a second hour of prep I still have the logistics of having to be ready for however many my school district decides to contract for And I have to be eminently more prepared that I ever thought about having to be prepared in a normal classroom Because I cant go on the air and expect to freestyle it you

101

Renee a technology coordinator as well as a classroom teacher brings distance

leaming down to earth with her practical concems Contrasting with the concems of

teachers over the years distance leaming is bringing in new heretofore unanticipated

concems and challenges Renee relates

You know when we just had textbooks the worst problem you had to deal with was with the student who showed up in class without their books or you ran out of chalk and you sent somebody down to the office to get chalk But when you start using these levels of technology where the bugs are not quite as worked out then you not only run into you run into problems using the technology that really can cmsh your class time and cmsh your prep time

James is adamant in his dislike for distance leaming Earlier he indicated that

distance leaming might not be a good way to leam James augments this with more

mundane administrative concems Since James perceives the teacher role in a traditional

manner he has concem over classroom discipline in a distance leaming format

Well I dont think youre going to have any kind of classroom without discipline in the class And the only person that can do that is the one that is supposedly in charge the one thats taking care of grades etc So that teacher has almost got to see her classroom

Training

Unless teachers administrators and other school staff are appropriately trained to

use the new technology hardware and software will be of little use Continuous staff

training goes on in this Consortium but Vemon expressed dismay over some ofthe

preparations for early technology implementation

102

I dont think we did enough preplanning before we got involved with the computers We just sort of put them in and it became a hit-and-miss thing you understand If I had to do it over again I would want lots and lots of preplanning to see how we could do it better how to install how to implement and so forth how we wanted to use it for our curriculum

Other informants quipped that the limits of whatever training they had for some

technology applications simply consisted of Heres the computer Heres the box Theres

the desk Put it there Larry has jumped right in to get his staff trained through a variety

of sources He is looking forward to all the training perks his district will receive from

this present technology implementation and the workshops he has set up

Theres so much information and so many different benefits that can come over that that its just mind-boggling that everything that we can possibly pick up out here And so were going to get plenty of training before we ever jump in there and you know put a room full of equipment in there and then it sits there and gathers dust If we cant use it theres no need for it being out here

Larry affirms the benefits of leaming by doing

I guess I would say that probably about ninety percent of my training has basically come through the Service Center and the other ten percent is just hands-on getting one there and doing it You know I guess Ive leamed Ive leamed a lot by you know just by using it because if you dont well going to all the classes is not going to help you a bit anyway

Stephen realized a concem for the format of much of staff training He found the

typical training arrangements useless and intimidating for his staff Smaller traming

103

groups where more personal assistance can be given seems to be preferable to the mass

training activities so common to staff development

We dont herd thirty people in a room and have one person standing at a computer in front ofthe room and telling them how it can happen I mean we put five or six in the room and have somebody with knowledge about it there and then everybody has their hands on that tool They get to make their own mistakes so they get to correct their own mistakes and real leaming happens then

Now that Bill has a key role in training Camden staff in technology he realizes

that the increasing quantity of hardware possessed by the district carries with it the need

for increasing quality of staff straining

We had a bunch of stuff in quotes stuff but nobody knew anything about it you know And we got this stuff in We got it hooked up And then nobody knew how to maintain it There wasnt any training I mean you know yeah you look out here at Camden Oh boy Weve got computers But nobody knew how to tum them on and of course that wasnt where the emphasis was Wed met a requirement by having so many computers and that sort of thing and maybe doing a paper drill saying that people could do things but in reality that just wasnt there

Bill finds the attitudes of some of his colleagues fiiistrating If the computers are

seen as nothing more than expensive video games the implementation of technology

seems useless The teachers have yet to realize just what these computers can do for their

instmction

Its going to be easier there but we still have to train these people as to How do you use this thing See and most ofthe teachers dont have the time and the creativeness I guess or we dont give them the time you know to sit down and say Look at this thing You know

104

they dont go home like I used to and sit down and play with it because I enjoyed it see Id go home and play with it and say A-ha Man I can use this in my classroom

But as Bill has discovered some ofthe technology training ultimately takes hold

and teachers eventually intemahze new skills

But anything to get them to use those things You know if they just stumble on it like one of our Enghsh teachers has found all this stuff on Shakespeare and Macbeth you know and all this sort of thing Shes just going through the ceiling But thats just a little bitty part of things out there that you can find and these people dont know how to look for this stuff So weve got a lot of training (to do)

Ronnie concurs noting how his colleagues at Dellwood have been trained and

then apply the new technology

Well once they realized that this thing that got placed in their room was a tool that could be used for their benefit and could actually help them and their students you know they were ready to jump in there and start trying stuff

Unfortunately some Dellwood staff do indeed balk at modifications to their

training Citing the example of changing the district-adopted electronic gradebooks

Ronnie concluded

And some of them say Oh I just now leamed how to use the other one and here you are wanting to (change it) You know that type of change People get used to doing something and they dont want you to change them around but I think its human nature in anything

105

Infi-astmcture

With ever-advancing technological strides the infrastmcture needed to

successfully implement new curricular mandates has to also increase Our informants

pride themselves in their personal involvement in ensuring a topflight technology

infi-astmcture for their school districts

David describes himself as a pioneer in implementing new concepts in his district

When the challenge first came for implementing a computer network David relates

The maintenance guy and I sat down and said You know we can do this So we designed it ourselves and ran the wire and made the connections and totally put in the network system ourselves We did not hire it done which has helped from the standpoint of troubleshooting We put it in we know how it works and we can fix it

Mike also has rolled up his sleeves to keep hardware in Sawtooth working

efficiently If the technology coordinator is busy Mike has no qualms about getting

things fixed

We just had a problem this morning I was dealing with I went dovra there I can do the hardware things a whole lot easier than software but you know there were just two wires out of place I just kind of happened to notice it plug them back in the right places and we were back in business

Indeed Mike has stayed current with technology and maintenance

I have to stay a little more up here because if anything happens Im the guy they holler at so first I mean to fix it not just holler at Ive leamed a lot the last few years Just been forced to I guess

106

Bill laments the lack of foresight on the part of some administrators in keeping the

hardware maintained

That one-shot deal We got the computers That cost is out ofthe way We can forget about technology now weve got our X number of computers And then all of a sudden like you say weve got to have a hard drive here you know and a floppy drive went out there and a monitor goes out here well good-ness man whats the problem

Bill wonders if his leadership personnel were misled by various sales

representatives whose goals for sales were not always congment with school needs

Before I got into this our superintendent relied on a salesman and we bought a bunch of stuff we didnt need and it didnt fit in the overall plan It was like buying a Dodge engine and wed buy a Chevrolet body and all of a sudden these things werent compatible So we wasted a lot of money and Im sure school districts all over the state of Texas did This is a small community here Id like every shekel to count Theres not too many people around here that really realize that I dont guess

Stephen is concemed with making reasonable forecasts for what future

technologies he will need for his building He demonstrates that he has thought through

practical technology management issues

To me the biggest question is in relation to technology is how to predict where were going I mean just a little bit because were dropping tons of money on the hardware on the software on the training But even little issues I mean twenty years ago Woodlake was out in fi-ont on technology because they bought a bunch of Apple He computers And then they used them for eighteen years which put them way behind the leaming curve you know and then what computer do you buy Do you buy it with upgradable service contracts What kind of software are you looking for How is distance leaming going to

107

impact all this How does it impact your scheduling on a day-to-day basis How does it impact your school calendar How does it impact the people you hire

Stephen is looking squarely at the future needs of his staff and students

If we knew where it was headed we could be much more effective in our long-range planning But as it is in my mind its hard to plan beyond two years because theres no way of knowing where were going to be Weve had numerous conversations in my faculty meetings about individual laptops for students as opposed to the big stand-alone units in a big lab Theres discussions about the use of software versus hard-copy textbooks And I think were moving that way I just dont know how quickly And I dont know to what degree and thats the most perplexing thing as far as Im concemed

Money

As this present study is conducted significant changes are occurring in the

petroleum industry Since there has been a drop in petroleum prices some Chapter 41

(see Chapter Two) school districts have realized a significant drop in ad valorem

revenues Remembering that much ofthe financing for the Consortium comes fi-om two

Chapter 41 districts there exists some cause for concem Because these informants

represent both Chapter 41 and Chapter 42 districts none of these informants will be

identified by name in this section

One Chapter 41 superintendent related to us the situation regarding a loss of

funding for that superintendents district

Probably the biggest reason this last year we were able to put several million dollars of recapture money into the technology consortium Unfortunately being that most ofthe Chapter 41 districts

108

in our area are highly dependent on oil and mineral value and we lost 25 percent of our value last year Probably well lose at least that and maybe even more

Another Chapter 41 superintendent has noticed a drop of revenue but slants the

situation differently

It doesnt affect us that much believe it or not I mean it affects us some definitely but you know the higher the price of oil the more money we have to give away The lower the price the less we have to give away Because you only get to keep a certain value per student

All ofthe Chapter 41 informants indicated that they were glad to participate with

less property-wealthy districts in maintaining fimding for the Consortium

In dealing with school funding there is also the attendant concem with dealing

with government entities A Chapter 41 superintendent explains the situation as the

potential purchasing of more hardware is considered

(Conceming hardware purchasing) If this legislative session the Legislature does away with the hold harmless for Chapter 41 schools (See Chapter 2) well be in a whole different situation and well be saying Well do that when we can afford it I guarantee you

Because there are restrictions on where Chapter 41 districts can expend their

fiinds a Chapter 41 principal explains some creative strategies for retaining funds

Because the hang-up was that those monies that came out of these wealthy districts So in other words we could send our money to the Region(al Service) Center to be used for those purposes but we couldnt reap the benefit of i t (Dr Sarah McCullough) wrote grants specifically targeted at those of us that were putting money in the pot to help us get distance leaming labs up and running So its just been a

109

maze of dancing with the bear which anytime you deal with the government thats the way it is

As this is written a Chapter 41 superintendent hopes that the Texas Legislattire

will allow the legal stmcttires that made the Consortium a reality and function at its peak

to continue to exist

Now we would hope that the Legislature will realize that and possibly rewrite the current law to allow us to divert possibly more than ten percent into the technology consortium or change the way that we do it altogether to where the technology consortium can continue to benefit in the same arena of money that weve benefited for the last year or two

A Chapter 42 school leader looking at the Consortium as a whole sums up the

attitude of each of our informants

Well this consortium has been a good thing for us because I think by coming together you know I think this is people who have ideas and also have monies that they want to use for telecommunications and technology want to see that people in rural areas like ours are making an effort to pool their resources and thoughts and what have you When they see that you got seven schools that are working together to try to share ideas and help work through problems and even go so far as to share teaching personnel things like that I think thats something that people who have monies are kind of wanting they want to see that Because thats the whole idea behind you know trying to get reach some of our goals by the year 2000

Summary of Interview Data

All nine ofthe informants in this study provided candid assessments of their

individual roles in implementing technology in their districts the improvement of student

110

leaming and the training of staff to use the technology These latter points are also

suggested in the literature on staff development (Joyce amp Showers 1988) Concems over

infi-astmcture and finance were also supported in several other studies (Bailey 1997

Becker 1998 Kwajewski 1997 Maddux 1997 Texas Association of School

Administrators 1998)

New insights fi-om this study included the heavy apprehension over distance

leaming and the intensity ofthe power shift within the school system The fluctuation in

petroleum prices that occurred during this study did not completely take these leaders by

surprise but are concems with which Chapter 41 superintendents will continue to

contend

I l l

CHAPTER V

SUMMARY CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Summary of Research

As described in Chapter III quantitative data was in the form of Change

Facilitator Stages of Concem Questionnaire (CFSoC) profiles evaluated according to

Hall et al (1991) with hypothesized points on the Stages of Concem continuum for each

participant Conversations with nine informants fi-om the Consortium leadership cadre

formed a series of interviews that were analyzed and evaluated for emerging themes

Seven themes grew fi-om the data analysis and were discussed

CFSoC Profiles

Hall et al (1991) suggest that the Stage of Concem for any given innovation

varies with the change facilitator registering the array of concems Borrowing fi-om Fuller

(1969) Hall et al suggest that concems for the innovation within the individual change

facilitator begin at the level of Awareness progressing to Self concems then Task

concems and finally to Impact concems This researcher was able to hypothesize a

general stage of concem for each ofthe informants based on the methods of profile

interpretation defined by Hall et al (pp 29-42) The initial research question referred to

Stages of Concem placement for each informant

Where do these school leaders fall on the Concems-based Adoption Model (CBAM) continuum regarding TEKS technology implementation

112

The initial goal was to ascertain the position of each of these informants on

CBAM Table 5-1 provides a breakdown of this studys informants their job roles and

their hypothesized Stage of Concem

Table 5-1 Study Informants and CBAM Stages of Concem District Comparison

District

Camden

Tipllwor4H

North Prairie

Sawtooth

Woodlake

Superintendent

TASK

TASK

IMPACT

Principal

SELF

TASK

TASK

Technology Coordinator

SELF

SELFTASK

TASK

The table suggests that those in more well-defined administrative roles tended to

be more task oriented about their concems whereas those whose job descriptions are

inclusive ofthe classroom and who are also designated as change agents tended to be

more oriented to self and personal issues despite their abilities or expertise

As Hall et al (1991) have previously hypothesized the more experienced a

change facilitator is in the change facilitator process the more advanced that change

facilitator will be on the CFSoC profile The stages of concem of these informants in this

sample appear to concur with CFSoC projected norms Indeed if tiie stages of concem

are arranged in descending order (Impact Task Self Awareness) as in Table 5-2 there

113

appears to be a greater advancement along the Stages of Concem continuum based on the

more advanced job role

Table 5-2 Study Informants and CBAM Stages of Concem Concem Stage Comparison

Informant Stage of Concem

Woodlake Superintendent IMPACT

North Prairie Superintendent TASK

Sawtooth Superintendent TASK

Sawtooth Principal TASK

Woodlake Principal TASK

Sawtooth Technology Coordinator TASK

Dellwood Technology Coordinator TASKSELF

Camden Principal SELF

Camden Technology Coordinator SELF

These change facilitators fi-om the Sah Fork Consortium seem to manifest stages

of concem similar to those of other change facilitators studied through the CFSoC Two

ofthe technology coordinators seem to be more TASK oriented than a principal and one

technology coordinator is more SELF oriented The two task-oriented coordinators have

many years of experience in either office machinery electronics or staff training They

both suggested to this researcher greater confidence in their abilities to provide input to

their administrators conceming their schools technology requirements Such

114

competencies suggest that the greater stage of concem is based in part on the

individuals greater level of experience

Interview Themes

The hesitancy of new users to use new technologies is repeated with every

generation of innovation (Cuban 1984 1986 1993) Changes this extensive in

technology naturally bring about changes in how we teach and how we perceive our roles

as educators (Becker 1998 Berg Benz Lasley amp Raisch 1997 Braun 1993 Fullan

1990 Fullan amp Stiegelbauer 1991 Hope 1993) This sttidys informants repeatedly

expressed the desire to ensure that their staffs become as competent as possible in using

new technology to improve student leaming In tum these leaders affirmed that their

teachers would have it incumbent upon themselves to avail themselves of this training

As we appreciate the greater empowerment of educators who in tum empower

leamers we reahze that greater access to technology has played a major role in

developing this spirit of empowerment (Bailey 1997) Tmly continued control of

technology signifies continued power ofthe educational system These informants were

unanimous in marveling over the great things that have occurred in their schools as their

teachers adopted greater technology expertise Review of AEIS data since 1994 before

the establishment ofthe Consortium suggests improvements in TAAS scores and other

AEIS indicators (see Chapter I TEA 1995 1996 1997a 1998)

As a result schools become different places for leamers (Armstrong Davis amp

Young 1996 Mecklenburger 1989) Instead ofthe school as one-way insttiiction with

115

passive leamers the focus is now on schools led by leaming facilitators who guide the

leamer toward constmcting personal leaming (Joyce amp Showers 1988) It appears that

the wise change facilitator will recognize this power shift In the main Consortium

change facihtators certainly appeared eager to share that power

If we are not using the improved technology to improve student leaming then we

might be needing to be examine a different iimovation for improving student leaming

(Berg et al 1997 Bumiske 1998 Hope 1993 Joyce amp Showers 1988 National Staff

Development Council 1995) These informants were adamant about the power of

technology not only to foster greater leaming capabihties for students but also to provide

a heightened awareness for those charged with facilitating that leaming (Barr 1990

Hadley amp Sheingold 1993 Maddux 1997 Maddux amp Johnson 1997 Meltzer amp

Sherman 1997 Ragsdale 1997) As a resuh these school leaders and their school

boards will have more solid foundation to continue upgrading their technology Such a

massive influx of equipment as is happening now will not be needed but rather

technology purchasing with a view toward greater student achievement will not be

considered unique by other similarly situated school districts

The notion that technology could bring about needed opportunities and services to

remote sites by distance leaming has been discussed for some time and is now standard

for evaluating a schools technology program (Becker 1998 Texas Association of School

Administrators 1998) Nevertheless there appears to be a need for a semblance of

balance as the positive elements of distance leaming (services teaching physical distance

needs etc) are weighed against the pitfalls (teaching method changes impersonal

116

relationships) of these new technologies (Berg Benz Lasley amp Raisch 1997 Dillon amp

Walsh 1997) The apprehensions of Consortium change facilitators toward the

impending interactive video system were quite real They saw potential for some yet

unknown distracting factor causing havoc with the leaming process as a result of distance

leaming At least one informant voiced active disagreement with distance as a viable

means of teaching and leaming

If training activities are only instituted to meet extemally mandated directives it

seems pointless to expend so much effort in training faculty in technology (Becker 1991

1998 Dede 1997) The concept that technology remains a more advanced means of

game playing is still latent in many educators School leaders need to tmly be leaders

(Office of Technology Assessment 1995 Ritchie 1996) and should provide appropriate

training activities for their staffs (Bradshaw 1997 Davidson amp Maurer 1995 Joyce amp

Showers 1988) Because these school leaders describe the influx of interactive video

hardware as helpfiil in providing for a variety of training opportunities (school board

training college classes etc) this Consortium demonstrates a strong proactive

commitment to ensuring that the entire school community is kept up-to-date with

technology

As to funding and infi-astmcture acquisition a We can do it spirit is still found

in educators when they plan for and purchase their computer machinery Schools in this

Consortium as well as in other locales continue to demonstt-ate creative ways to provide

technology support with the resultant spirit of ownership possessed by all segments ofthe

educational community (Carroll amp Carroll 1994 McDaniel Mclnemey amp Armstrong

117

1993 Office of Technology Assessment 1995) The fact that a superintendent would be

involved in wiring his school for network capability or would do repairs on classroom

hardware suggests genuine committnent Principals with decades of experience in the

classroom and in the office in this rural area are taking the time to leam new computer

skills

Conclusions and Reflections

Because this present study is primarily qualitative it is appropriate that the

researcher does not (and really should not) know in advance all ofthe insights that might

possibly be gleaned fi-om a pending study Although this is a limited sampling of change

facilitators their CFSoC profiles confirmed that the greater the experience level ofthe

change facilitator interacting with the innovation the more advanced Stage of Concem

The Woodlake administrators with Stages of Concems ratings in IMPACT and TASK

stages for example have had the benefit of both performing hands-on technology

implementation (including wiring) and also developing technology programs fi-om Apple

computers in classrooms to vocational training over a twenty-year period

The specifics ofthe second research question require some discussion over the

importance and application ofthe concems of rural educators toward technology

implementation Three clusters of conclusions emerged fi-om the interview data

Personal concems are important in the professional lives of these informants

There is urgency for the educator to leam to use technology and to develop stt-ategies for

incorporating technology use in insttiiction Nevertheless the educator is never to forget

118

that there are still basic instmctional outcomes to be accomplished Leamers still have to

be proficient in reading writing and mathematics Day-to-day activities (lesson planning

teacher paperwork etc) cannot be neglected These informants did not allow this

researcher to overlook this fact All three technology coordinators who served as

informants emphasized their classroom duties with one in particular reminding me that

the computer is simply a tool in teaching basic educational concepts Each principal

interviewed related their technology concems in the context of administrative duties and

concems

In addition leadership personnel are to function as leaders and lead their staffs

Despite the hardware and capabilities schools are still schools Schools are having to

change their stmcture and technology seems to be key in fostering that change The very

use ofthe computer as a personal tool remains a challenge in these informants schools

Bill Potter Camden Technology Coordinator related that he continues to see his fellow

teachers using the computer as nothing more than a game machine The Sawtooth

informants noted that a few older more seasoned teachers are still not yet using

technology as a tool

As opposed to personal concems corporate concems registered by these

informants dealt with building district or Consortium issues Among these informants

there is a genuine sense of Where we are against Where we were in regard to

technology use Each superintendent interviewed expressed his satisfaction with the

improved productivity among his students as a result of technology Now more than ever

is a need to stay abreast of pedagogical as well as technological trends Stephen Greer

119

Woodlake Principal emphasized the need for him to know about technology and its

implementation in teacher practice These informants also indicated a generational trend

in that some educators eyeing retirement realize a lesser interest in leaming new

technologies Younger more recently trained educators are more conversant with new

technologies These informants indicated that the new teachers they hire come prepared to

use technology in the classroom

The informants also indicated a sense of owoiership toward technology

implementation For example several informants have trained themselves to do more

advanced troubleshooting and maintenance certainly more than is in their job

descriptions The Woodlake and Sawtooth superintendents are both adept with the

hardware These individuals want to know more and not just save their district some

funds All three ofthe technology coordinators have a history of leaming by doing

They enjoy reputations as being competent and the person to tum to when expertise is

needed

Cultural concems transcend the immediate short-term issues and are future-

oriented The change in our previously mral agrarian society to a worid filled with data

has had a heady effect on these informants North Prairie superintendent Larry Beckman

for example continues to marvel at all the activities the North Prairie educational

community can now avail themselves of because of technology Technology has assisted

in shifting genuine leaming power fi-om the educator to the student The resultant greater

ownership by students of their leaming is opening up greater avenues for insttaiction

120

There is constant uncertainty ofthe legal political and economic factors in

financing and establishing new technologies at schools The net result hinders these

informants fi-om reliably predicting what technologies might be needed in the future

Indeed it is impossible to predict what new gadgets will be invented or how fast a

computer will process ten years from now Neither ofthe Chapter 41 superintendents

believed their distticts finances were in jeopardy due to the changing pett-oleum prices

but each expressed the concem that the Legislature could modify the mles on finances

possibly making their underwriting of Consortium costs more difficult

Recommendations for Further Study

As this present research was being considered there was considerable concem for

the fact that very little research data existed for the CFSoC instmment This Consortium

had an insufficient number of participants to do a quantitative study of this instrument

with adequate factor analysis Indeed Hall et al (1991) cite themselves as those who

conducted reliability and validity studies of their own instrument A more thorough

validity study with adequate N should be conducted

The original thmst for this research was focused on staff development and teacher

training Because that initial idea was so broad it was abandoned early in this study

However since each informant referred to the teacher traming programs ofthe

Consortium it would be appropriate at a later date to review how teacher tt-aining is

planned and executed in a similarly situated technology cooperative

121

Personal impressions which emerged fi-om both the data collection and data

analysis also suggested additional avenues of study At no time and in no way were either

Consortium school distticts or school staff identified as to their Chapter 41 (Equalized

Wealth Level) or Chapter 42 (Minimum Foundation Program) stattis Nevertheless this

writer recognizes a difference in economic status for these districts that was impossible to

fully ignore and suggests that the differences in funding abilities of school districts be

explored as new technologies become de rigueur for even the smallest and most remote

school district

Also unexamined in this present study was any comparison on a rural-urban axis

Although each ofthe participating school districts was mral with a combined enrolhnent

smaller than one urban high school the available technology was up-to-date and with

more anticipated advanced technology yet to be implemented A similar study of larger

urban school technology programs dealing with identical TEKS constraints could be

instituted to ascertain concems of urban-oriented change facilitators

The professional experience aspect of each ofthe informants was never identified

as a factor in this present research The CFSoC form itself had blanks for data conceming

the number of years experience on the job in the present position etc Indeed the least

number of total years of school experience was nine years The question remains if

simply the amount of time in grade is a factor in the informants position on the CFSoC

continuum This researcher noted a trend in those in stated administrative roles being

more oriented to TASK and IMPACT concems as opposed to the technology

coordinators who by and large had duties more inclusive ofthe classroom and who were

122

more oriented to SELF concems and their personal status This could lead one to ponder

whether the role and the job title are influencing factors in a change facilitators Stage of

Concem

Moreover because ofthe contemporary trends toward school-based

management and greater empowerment of classroom personnel in decision-making it is

likely that those in change faciUtator roles would be more closely aligned to the

classroom ie more teachers may be in leadership roles We might expect the higher the

level of change facilitator position and experience the higher the level of concem (eg

IMPACT) It would be interesting to explore the possibifities and consequences for those

at the classroom level functioning as change facilitators in technology

123

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Bailey G D (1997) What technology leaders need to know The essential top 10 concepts for technology integration in the 21st century Leaming and Leading With Technology 250) 57-62

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Barr D (1990) A solution in search of a problem The role of technology in educational reform Joumal for the Education ofthe Gifted 14(1) 79-95

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Berg S Benz C Lasley T laquofe Raisch D (1997) The coordinators and the teachers A description of exemplary use of technology in elementary classrooms Paper presented at the Midwestem Educational Research Association Annual Meeting Chicago IL

Bogdan R C amp Biklen S K (1992) Qualitative research for education An introduction tn theory and methods (2nd ed) Boston Allyn amp Bacon

Bradshaw L K (1997) Technology-supported change A staff development opportunity NASSP Bulletin 81(593) 86-92

Braun L (1993) Educational technology Help for all the kids The Computing Teacher 20(8) 11-15

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Brekhus T R (1997) The SeverNet project-assessment Antiquated systems without curriculum integration The Educational Graveyard of Unfulfilled Promise [Online] URL httpwwwseyemschoolcomsevemetsevemet_assesshtml

Bristol v amp Jechow M (1998) Guidelines on interlocal agreements fi-om the Texas Government Code Texas case law and Texas attomev general opinions [online] URL httpwwwbickerstaff comarticlesinter98htm

Bumiske R W (1998) The shadow play How the integration of technology annihilates debate in our schools Phi Delta Kappan 80(2) 155-157

Campbell T (1997) Technology multimedia and qualitative research in education Joumal of Research on Computing in Education 30(2) 122-132

Carroll S R amp Carroll D (1994) How smart schools get and keep community support Bloomington IN National Educational Service

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