JOURNAL ARTICLE REVIEW TEMPLATE

North American University

Education Department
M.Ed. in Educational Leadership and M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction
EDUC 5324
Name: Zehra Ceylan

Date: 7/12/15

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 administrators 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:
Examining the impact of receiving specific iPad training on school administrators
attitudes toward iPad use in their professional lives and in the classroom by teachers.
METHODOLOGY
What is the methodology for the research or approach used to understand the
issue? Provide information regarding the following:

Participants:

Elementary and secondary school administrators (i.e., principals and assistant

principals) working in one of the largest public charter school systems in a
southwestern state were the target population for the study.
Fifty-one participants who owned iPads volunteered to complete the pre-survey

out of approximately 120 school administrators in the school system.

While 58.8% (n = 30) of the pre-survey participants were male, 41.2% (n = 21) of
the participants were female.
Additionally, 37 of pre-survey respondents completed the post-survey, yielding a
response rate of 72.55%. Twenty-one (56.76%) respondents in post-survey were
male, and 16 (43.24%) were female.
The average age of school administrators who participated was 34.16 years. The
average years of experience in education was 8.45, and the average years of
experience as a school administrator was 2.04. The average school size of
participants was calculated as 618.50.
All participants in this study owned an iPad. While 27.45% of participants
purchased their own iPads, the majority of the iPads (72.55%) were given to
school administrators by their school district.
While all participants used Microsoft Windows Vista, 7, or 8 as their computer
platform, 52.94% used the iPhone (iOS) as their mobile platform, followed by
Android (37.25%), Black- Berry OS (1.96%), and other (7.84%).
The majority of participants schools were classified as elementary, middle, and
high school (K12) (62.75%), followed by elementary and middle school (K8)
(19.61%), middle and high school (612) (9.80%), and elementary (K5)
(7.84%). Participants were also asked in the pre-survey about the highest level of
education that they had attained.
According to the results, 50.98% of school administrators held a bachelors
degree and 49.02% held a masters degree.

Procedures:

The criteria for study participation included being employed as a school

administrator and having an iPad provided by the school system.
Participation in this study was voluntary.
Survey instruments included multiple choice and Likert-type scale items.
Researchers provided technical support to school administrators via e-mail and
telephone.
Collectively, 51 subjects were selected through a purposive sampling from the
target population: A specific population was targeted and only its members were
included in this survey.
Participants were asked to complete consent forms prior to the study as required
by the school district and the universitys Institutional Review Board (IRB).
The initial communication included information on the purpose, structure, and
schedule of the research study along with information on training and resources
to be provided throughout the spring semester of the 20122013 school year.
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.
Training was designed based on feedback from participants and delivered
through an interactive webinar session.
The training of school administrators included topics intended to develop iPad

skills and use certain workflow, note-taking, calendar, productivity, file-sharing,

remote-desktop, presentation, and screen-sharing applications covered
specifically from a principals perspective.
The pre-survey also included questions measuring if and how school
administrators were currently using their iPads for their daily school-related tasks,
their beliefs about the effectiveness of iPads for administrative tasks, and if and
how school teachers should be using iPads in the classroom.
Designed as a closure to the study, the post-survey instrument included
questions intended to measure self-reported improvements in certain tasks after
completing the training, as well as items regarding the evaluation of training
session and resources provided to school administrators during the study.

Data Collection Methods/Data Source:

Participants in this study were contacted by email through the school systems
central office, after securing approvals from the school district and the university.
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.
The instruments were reviewed for face validity by two education faculty
members and then were piloted using a group of school administrators in a local
school district.
Surveys were finalized after the feedback on the pilot versions.
Demographic information collected on the pre-survey included age, years of
experience as a school administrator, years of experience in education, highest
degree earned, school classification, and school size.
The survey responses were reported as frequencies. In addition, paired sample ttest data analysis was conducted to understand the differences in the responses
between the pre- and post-surveys.
A one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) test was conducted to see whether
there were any differences in school administrators responses by gender, age,
years of experience in school administration and education, highest degree
attained, school classification, and school size.

Data Analysis:
Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software was used to conduct the
data analysis.
The data analysis of this study is categorized into five main groups: analysis of
demographic and contextual data; impacts of the training process on school
administrators use of iPad and iPad applications; impacts of the training process on
school administrators beliefs regarding how teachers should use iPads in the classroom;
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); and evaluation of training process.
A descriptive analysis of the demographic and contextual data for the pre-survey
participants was conducted.

RESULTS
Findings or Results (or main points of the article):
School administrators reported that iPads were effective tools for administrative tasks
and personal organization. Results also suggest that school administrators in this study
had positive views regarding the potential of iPads current and future use in the
classroom by teachers. Furthermore, the training process had a positive effect on the
school administrators development of iPad skills and knowledge.
The level of the iPad knowledge and skills prior to and after completing the training
process is as below;
Beginner 31.37% (before the training) - 18.92% (after the training)
Intermediate 64.71% (before the training) - 70.27% (after the training)
Advanced 3.92% (before the training) - 10.81% (after the training)
66.67% of the participants said they use specific iPad applications such as Eduphoria.
They see the best feature of iPad being mobile (21.43%), touchscreen (20.88%),
being able to use various applications (15.93%), compact and light (13.74%), digital
camera feature (10.44%), connectivity (9.89%), and camcorder feature (7.69%).
School administrators use the most those types of applications; education (23.84%),
communication and books and reference (both at 11.92%), productivity (4.64% in
pre-survey vs. 7.87% in post-survey) and tools (5.30% in pre-survey vs. 7.87% in postsurvey).
Participants mostly agreed with that iPads are effective tools for principals regarding
administrative tasks and personal organization.
All participants in both the pre-survey (98.04%) and the post-survey (97.30%) stated that
they would like to see their teachers using iPads for teaching in the classroom.
Participants found Google Drive storage and sharing files most useful application
(22.30%). And syncing Google Calendar to your iPad (16.55%), Dropbox for storage
and sharing files (13.67%) and Go Tasks with Google Tasks (10.07%) followed.
School administrators indicated that they would like to continue receiving training and
resources on the use of iPads for administrative tasks (81.08%).
Furthermore, 48.65% of participants found the training session and the resources
provided afterward very useful, followed by 43.24% finding them useful, and 8.11%
finding them somewhat useful.
DISCUSSIONS

Conclusions/Implications (for your profession):

According to results, school administrators believed that iPads were effective tools for
administrative tasks and personal organization.
Research suggests that professional development programs can help teachers integrate
new technologies into their instruction (Sivin-Kachala & Bialo, 2000).
In conclusion, overall results of this study suggest that 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 affect the successful implementation of
iPads by teachers and students.
REFLECTIONS
Students Reflections (changes to your understanding; implications for your
school/work):
The research clearly demonstrates the importance of using iPads in school systems by
the school administrators and the teachers. And we can obviously see the importance of
trainings through their positive impact on the development of school leaders. Since
iPads are portable and can be moved place to place easily, communication,
demonstration, teaching, searching, and many of actions can be done right on time and
conveniently. Thats why most of the participants said yes that in the future computers
will be replaced by iPads. The young aged administrators are involved in technology
more than the older administrators. But still, as technology is improving so fast, trainings
are the only way to catch the innovation.

References
Dogan, B., & Almus, K. (2014). School Administrators Use of iPads: Impact of Training
and Attitudes Toward School Use.Computers in the Schools, 31(3), 233250.
doi:10.1080/07380569.2014.932660
Sivin-Kachala, J., & Bialo, E. (2000). 2000 research report on the effectiveness of
technology in schools. Washington, DC: Software and Information Industry
Association. Retrieved from http://www.siia.net/estore/ref-00-summary.pdf