JOURNAL ARTICLE REVIEW TEMPLATE

North American University

Education Department
M.Ed. in Educational Leadership / M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction
EDUC 5324 Integrating Technology into Education
Name: Ghena El Soussi
Date: 09/17/2016
Cite the reviewed article in APA format:
Dogan, B., & Almus, K. (2014). School Administrators Use of iPads: Impact of Training and Attitudes Toward
School Use.Computers in the Schools, 31(3), 233250. doi:10.1080/07380569.2014.932660
INTRODUCTION
Research Questions (if research questions are not specifically mentioned, what is the
theoretical background or overarching theme):
1. What is the impact of the training process on school administrators use of iPads for administrative tasks
and personal organization in their professional duties?
2. What is the impact of the training process on school beliefs regarding how teachers should use iPads in
the classroom?
3. Are there any differences in school administrators survey responses based on gender, age, years of
experience in school administration and education, highest degree attained, school classification, or school
size?
Purpose of the research:
The purpose of this study was to determine potential impacts in this area by involving a training process,
which included workshops, online resources, and ongoing support.
METHODOLOGY
What is the methodology for the research or approach used to understand the issue? Provide
information regarding the following:
Participants:
o
The participants consisted of 51 elementary and secondary school administrators in one of the
largest public charter school systems in a southwestern state.
Procedures:
o
The study was conducted February through May 2013 .
o
Participants were asked to complete consent forms prior to the study as required by the school
district and the universitys Institutional Review Board (IRB).
o
Study components included a pre-survey, a training session on the effective use of iPads for
administrative tasks and personal organization, specially designed resources expanding the
topics covered in the training session, on-going support, and a post-survey.
o
Participants in this study were contacted by email through the school systems central office,
after securing approvals from the school district and the university.
Data Collection Methods/Data Source:
o
Two survey instruments were developed as a mechanism to collect data, which were administered
online through the survey submission system hosted at the universitys server.
o
Survey instruments included multiple choice and Likert-type scale items
o
Sample t-test data analysis
o
A one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) test
o
Participants were asked to complete consent forms prior to the study as required by the school
district and the universitys Institutional Review Board (IRB).
Data Analysis:
o
The study was conducted February through May 2013.
o
Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software was used to conduct the data analysis.
o
The survey responses were reported as frequencies
RESULTS
Findings or Results (or main points of the article):

The data analysis of this study is categorized into five main groups:
(1)Analysis of demographic and contextual data:
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o

The average age of school administrators :(34.16 years)

The average years of experience in education :( 8.45)
The average years of experience as a school administrator :(2.04)
The average school size of participants :(618.50)
(27.45%) of participants purchased their own iPads while (72.55%) were given to school
administrators by their school district.
7or 8 participants used Microsoft Windows Vista as their computer platform, 52.94% used the
iPhone (iOS) as their mobile platform, followed by Android (37.25%), BlackBerry OS (1.96%), and
other (7.84%).
(62.75%) of the participants were classified as elementary, middle, and high school (K12),
followed by elementary and middle school (K8) (19.61%), middle and high school (612)
(9.80%), and elementary (K5) (7.84%).
(50.98%) of school administrators held a bachelors degree and (49.02%) held a masters degree.

(2)Impacts of the training process on school administrators use of iPad and iPad applications:
o

Participants were asked whether they used specific iPad applications for work-related purposes:

(66.67%) of the school administrators used specific iPad applications for work-related
purposes and they named Eduphoria as the most commonly used iPad application.

Participants were asked about the best feature of iPad in their experience :

(21.43%) being mobile

(20.88%)touchscreen

(15.93%)being able to use various applications

(13.74%)compact and light

(10.44%), digital camera feature

(9.89%) connectivity

(7.69%)camcorder feature
Participants were asked to rate their iPad knowledge and skills prior to and after completing the
training process:

Befor the training (31.37%) rated themselves as a beginner in their iPad skills and
knowledge, (64.71% )as intermediate, and (3.92%) as advanced . After completing
the training process, the percentage of participants rating themselves as intermediate
(70.27%) and advanced (10.81%) increased and the percentage of participants rating
themselves beginner (18.92) decreased.
Participants were asked to measure what type of applications school administrators use the most
on their iPads for work-related purposes
Education was the modal response (23.84%)
Communication and books and reference (11.92%)

In the post-survey

Education related applications were again the most selected response (23.62%)
Communication (12.60%)
Books and reference (12.60%)
productivity (4.64% in pre-survey vs. 7.87% in post-survey)
tools (5.30% in pre-survey vs. 7.87% in post-survey) related iPad applications
Other measured types of applications included games, business, comics,
entertainment, finance, health & fitness, media and video, news & magazines,
photography, social, travel and local, and weatherall yielding less than 5% in
the post-survey.
Data analysis of the item, I believe that iPads are effective tools for principals regarding
administrative tasks and personal organization,

Participants in this study mostly agreed with this statement.

The results suggest that the overall training process in this study had a statistically
significant effect on participants beliefs about the effectiveness of iPads as a tool for
administrative tasks and personal organization.
The analysis of the question measuring the frequency of how school administrators responded to,
I use my iPad for administrative tasks and personal organization in following areas, in the presurvey

The results suggest that there were overall increases in the mean scores of post-survey
responses for participants.

(3)Impacts of the training process on school administrators beliefs regarding how teachers should use
iPads in the classroom:

The results of their opinions regarding how teachers should be using iPads in the classroom:

(98.04%)in pre-survey and (97.30%)in post-survey would like to see their teachers
using iPads for teaching in the classroom.
The results of whether they thought that computers used in courses would be replaced by iPads in
the future:

(76.47% ) in pre-survey and (86.49%) in post-survey responded yes.

How school administrators would like to see their teachers using iPads in the classroom revealed
that there were slight increases between the pre- and post-survey in the following responses:

using iPad for class communication (e-mail, messaging, contacting parents, etc.)
(11.59% vs. 13.22%);

making specific applications (created by the teacher) that might help students
(10.30% vs. 12.07%);

using specific applications (created by others) that might help students (15.88% vs.
16.67%);

projecting/streaming lessons/presentation to the iPad (17.60% vs. 18.39%).

Requiring creative assignments involving iPad use (18.88% vs. 16.67%)

Referencing/sharing a specific content item (picture, document, video, etc.) as an

example (17.17% vs. 14.94%)

Encouraging taking notes (8.15% vs. 8.05%)

(4) Differences in participants responses by their demographic and contextual data (gender, age, years of
experience in school administration and education, highest degree attained, school classification, and
school size):
o

There was a significant difference on the item measuring the self-reported level of iPad skills and
knowledge by the school classification, F(3,47) = 3.23, p = 0.03, 2 = 0.17 (Table 3). Post-hoc
comparison using the least square difference (LSD) procedure indicated that the mean score for
the K12 school level (M = 1.59, SD = 0.50) was signify- cantly different from the K5 level (M =
2.25, SD = 0.50) and the K8 level (M = 2.00, SD = 0.50) at the p < .05 significance level (Table
4).

(5) Evaluation of training process:

o

The results of the question Which iPad applications they found most useful among those
highlighted in the training session and post training resources?

(22.30%) Google Drive storage and sharing files

(16.55%) syncing Google Calendar to your iPad

(13.67%) Dropbox for storage and sharing files

(10.07%) Go Tasks with Google Tasks

The results of the question Which applications they actually used among those highlighted in the
training session and post-training resources?

(23.53%)Google Drive storage and sharing files

(20.59%) syncing Google Calendar to your iPad

(17.65%)Dropbox for storage and sharing files

(8.82%)Evernote for note taking/organizing

The results of their evaluation to the training process that they participated in during the study:

(81.08%) would like to continue receiving training and resources

(48.65% )finding them very useful

(43.24%) finding them useful

(8.11%) finding them somewhat useful

DISCUSSIONS

Conclusions/Implications (for your profession):

o

In order for school administrators to be successful in using iPads for professional duties, especially
for administrative tasks and personal organization, sufficient and ongoing training is
recommended. As school administrators are seen as both the instructional and technological
leaders of their schools, receiving appropriate training would not only allow them to be efficient in
performing work-related tasks but also positively effect the successful implementation of iPads by
teachers and students.
REFLECTIONS

Students Reflections (changes to your understanding; implications for your school/work):

o

The most frustrating situation can be the implementation of a new technology without providing
meaningful and consistent professional development. Administrators should be wise to such

implementation by commitment of funding, proper training, modeling of best practices,

integration into daily practice, and methodical steps towards full capacity. To help teachers and
staff integrate technology, school leaders need to keep up with the latest technology. Without
this knowledge, administrators find it difficult to help teachers and staff understand the use of
technology in the school. Furthermore, schools should provide funding and opportunities for
principles to attend technology training. This could increase their technology leadership and lead
to better implementation of technology in entire schools.