A LEADERSHIP APPROACH ON TECHNOLOGY LITERACIES

ICT-based skills that might be called digital and visual literacy are likely to be as important as literacy and numeracy have been in the past” (DfES, 2002: p.10). It is proved that assumptions about today’s literacies may not hold for tomorrow’s innovations. It seems that the whole world has dramatically changed since 2000’s; Information Communication and Technology (ICT) has indeed brought a shift in educational philosophy changing the ways we enhance, promote and improve learning. In today’s information, communication and technology driven world, a whole new set of skills is required. ICT has been established as the most critical currency for efficiency, creativity and success challenging are requiring new innovative products and services; and that is the case in the world of business, industry, science and governance. In the case of education, the role of technology and the impact of leadership on meaningfully using and managing ICT is still not so obvious. As a matter of fact, the case is not technology literacies themselves but leaders’ vision for what these literacies need to do and how leaders use, manage and lead them.

In a broader scheme, our paper aims at conceptualizing the theoretical framework on those leadership practices that enable school principals managing, using and leading technology literacies. Particularly, the literature review, as the chosen methodological approach of this paper, underlines the crucial role of leaders in supporting and leading the effective use of ICT in their schools through building capacities and sustainable learning communities and embedding ICT structurally in teaching, learning, planning and managing. Also, our paper shows how transformational and distributed leadership can take full advantage of technologies’ affordances and can do a lot on transforming teaching, learning, managing and leading. However, arguments and data should not be considered oversimplified. Integrating ICT into teaching and learning is far a much more difficult task than integrating it into school’s management and administration. Organizational change demands a whole set of successful leadership practices in using, managing and leading technology literacies to maintain that change. All in all, the ultimate goal of this paper is based on the concept of such administrative and leadership practices and the related affective factors focusing and shedding light -from a theoretical perspective- on transforming planning and managing, teaching and learning in an online world.

References:
[1] DfES. (2002). Transforming the way we learn. A Vision for the Future of ICT in Schools. London: DfES.