Technology-Literate School Leaders in a 1:1 iPad Program and Teachers' Technology Self-Efficacy

Purpose Of The Study And Research Question

This qualitative action research study reports the results from a two-part interview process and makes recommendations for schools launching 1:1 programs. The researchers conducted an interview with the school’s principal, who also teaches an AP course at the school, and a focus group with five full-time faculty members. Their perceptions of the efforts undertaken during the 1:1 iPad program’s launch and the impact those efforts had on the faculty were the focus of the group interview. The researchers were guided by two research questions:

• 1.

  What efforts were involved in implementing the 1:1 iPad program?

• 2.

  How has teachers’ technology self-efficacy been influenced as a result of the efforts undertaken to implement the 1:1 technology program?

Methodology

This qualitative case study used an action research design to investigate the steps taken in implementing a 1:1 iPad program in a high school and how that implementation influenced teachers’ technology self-efficacy. One of the goals of this action research study was to determine if the efforts undertaken during the course of this research site’s 1:1 technology implementation might be useful as a guide in helping other schools attempting similar programs, adding to the growing body of knowledge influencing decisions related to implementing 1:1 technology-based programs. Berg (2007) defines action research as “a method of research in which creating a positive social change is the predominant force driving the investigator and the research” (p. 224). A focus group was held with the teachers that allowed for open-ended responses to record the experiences of the participants involved in initiating this change at the school (Akengin, 2008). The aim of the researchers was to use data collected from the focus group interview to provide material to help meet the study’s second goal of discovering how teachers’ technology self-efficacy was influenced as a result of this program’s implementation. Similarly, a semi-structured interview was held with the building principal so that the researchers could determine his perceptions on the process of implementing a 1:1 iPad program. Descriptive and pattern coding techniques were employed in the analysis of the interview transcripts and field notes (Saldana, 2009).