Technology Integration Does Work: A Case Study of Technology Use in the Daily Work of the Mary Scroggs School-Edición Única

Abstract

This dissertation study sought to understand certain organizational conditions and administrative practices that may have facilitated technology integration in schools and supported it long term. Offered is a literature review covering the predominant topic in the field, that of the failures associated with computers in schools at all levels. Much of the literature tends to fault the instructor and largely ignores the institution. Key aspects to be noted in this study are the evolving relationship between technology and the work of schools, the teacher as an employee of the institution, and the teacher as a knowledge worker. Rather than viewing the instructor as a stumbling block to the inclusion of technology, this investigation focused on the organizational conditions and practices that may be of importance in a successful school in what could be viewed as the new work of the teacher. The emphasis is on those conditions and practices that facilitated integration in one exemplary public elementary school in North Carolina. Instructors and staff appear to have done what few manage: integration of technology into their daily work and that of their students. A single case study using the methods of Yin (2009) and Stake (1995) was chosen due to the uniqueness of the success studied. The conclusions note that the success is likely based on 3 administrative practices: money and resource allocation, decision-making, and recognition, combined with 3 organizational conditions: work arrangements that favor knowledge work, classroom organization based on differentiation, and the schools reputation.