Computer development in educational administration

Computer Development in Educational Administration Toward the end of the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s, educators came to realize the revolutionary turn that computer technology could give education. Institutions of higher learning set up planning committees and taks forces in attempts to keep up with the dynamics of this revolution. Their aim was to undertake some conscious, rational planning and exert some control over the process. This same exploratory, inquisitive urge began to affect the thinking and planning of those in educational administration. Nationality, the education literature began to reflect the necessity to utilize the technology and narrow the gap between education and business and industry. As a result, the importance of keeping abreast of technology, with perhaps an underlying emphasis on microcomputers, soon came to be includes as part of the mission and goal statements of many educational administration departments. Educational Administration As the rapidly growing computer technology embraced more centers of learning, procedures became necessary to respond to the influx of demands generated by faculty, students and administrators. One common procedure provided for a departmental coordinator of computer services. The coordinator was typically responsible for the department's interests with respect to the various functions normally associated with the technology. These were: coordination of and control over mainframe computer access; representation on technology committees; and coordination, at the departmental level, of microcomputr acquisitions, maintenance, training efforts and security efforts. Initially, the coordinator was primarily active in the many committees and task forces that were set up and would try to ensure a "fair share" for departments in any broad-based equipment-funding efforts. An early (and continuing) development in the computer literacy of administrators was characterized by a widening of horizons to include a section of practical hands-on applications. In educations administration, the popular marketplace programs of word processing, spreadsheets and databases seem to mesh well with many aspects of an administrator's job description. A potential for usefulness seemed in sight if not in grasp. The emphasis shifted from using computers to learning about them. However, adequate computer laboratories were still relatively scarce, and learning sessions had to be planned well in advance if any meaningful results were to be obtained. Concurrently with the "computer literacy" phase of instructional department, planning had to be initiated for the acquisition of apropriate equipment. One particular approach was based on the following concepts: the development of a representative inventory of popular micro-computer hardware which might typically be found in public schools and used by public school administrators; the development of modest instructional laboratories which would feature hardware of a uniform type to facilitate the hands-on segment of formal computer instruction; and the acquisition of appropriate facilities to house these learning centers and also provide for storage and security of the equipment and supplies. After the initial "newness" of the technology wore off, departments of educational administration were often faced with a question: In which direction should they take the development of skills in the new technology? Should this specific skill development receive a special focus of its own and become yet another of the multiple of "needs" which were already crowding the administrator-preparation programs? Or should the assumption be made that primary exposure to the technology be gained elsewhere, and that specialized "applications" become the focus of technology instruction in administrator development? What should be the mode of instruction? Should it be formal or informal; and should it be given course status or be subsumed as an aspect of other instructional units? …