The Role of the School Administrators in Supporting Teachers in the Integration of Educational Technology Into K-12 Classrooms

While the role of the administrator has been regarded as significant in school improvement activities, little information exists which describes the specific roles and responsibilities of the administrator as a technology leader. This study is based on the premise that the role of the school administrator is crucial to the successful introduction and use of technology in the K-12 classroom. The purpose of the study was to examine relationships that may reflect the influence school administrators have on teachers’ technology integration competencies. The study used transformational leadership theory, specifically Kouzes and Posner’s (1985) five leadership practices, to examine the leadership by school administrators. Data obtained from a U.S. Department of Education Technology Literacy Challenge Project was used in this study. The sample consisted of the K-12 teachers and administrators who participated in the North Dakota Teaching with Technology Initiative (ND TWTi). Participants included 89% of the K-12 teachers and administrators from 423 public and private schools throughout North Dakota. Data was collected using the Professional Competency Continuum surveys for both teachers and administrators developed by the Milken Exchange and the North Central Regional Technology in Education Consortium. Data from the administrative competency ratings of administrators and teachers’ technology integration competency ratings were tested using the Pearson correlation. The administrative competency indicators were (a) modeling effective use; (b) leading professional development; (c;) leading and managing systemic change; and (d) maintaining a knowledge base. The teacher competencies included: (a) core technology skills; (b) curriculum, learning, and assessment; (c) professional practice; and, (d) classroom and instructional management. The correlations were significant beyond the .001 level between all administrative competencies and teachers’ core technology skills and between teachers’ professional practices. The correlations were significant at the .05 level between administrative competencies and teachers’ curriculum, learning, and assessment, and teachers’ classroom and instructional management. The correlations indicate that the administrative competencies of school administrators are likely determinants in the technology integration competency ratings of teachers under their leadership. As a result of the study, 14 recommendations for further study were made. Five recommendations for practical applications of the study were also provided

Special education administration: what does it take?

The purpose of this study was to learn about the practice of special education administration from veteran special education administrators. Research questions include: What institutional arrangements support special education administrators’ work? What personal and professional commitments keep special education administrators engaged in their practice? How do special education administrators manage the conflicts inherent in the position? What roles and functions are enacted by special education administrators in their school districts? A brief history of special education and the laws that have shaped the provision of services is given. Case law is examined in relation to components of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (2012) and how the results of case law have altered interpretations of the law. The multifaceted and complex roles of special education administrators are discussed. Eight special education administrators in North Carolina were interviewed individually. The interviews were audio recorded. Each participant verified their information by reading the transcript of their interview. Data was organized by codes, categories, and themes. Each theme was then viewed through Bolman and Deal’s (2013) four frames. Describing, examining, and explaining the practices of veteran special education administrators provide rich information to inform local school districts and preparation programs on the required skills and qualities to be successful as a special education administrator. Four major themes emerged across all the information: focus on the individual student and his/her needs, collaboration among school level personnel, effective communication and trusting relationships, and support for special education within and beyond the district. Each theme includes categories that elaborate on the complex practices of special education administrators. These practices are done with humility, patience, kindness, discernment, flexibility, self-confidence, and with a sense of humor. The skills and qualities potential special education administrators should possess or have the capacity to learn include a knowledge base of all the aspects of special education programming including the laws and policies; fiscal and budgetary knowledge; recruiting, hiring and retaining qualified personnel; and advocacy skills. Organization and program development skills are needed to implement the requirements of federal, state, and local laws and policies. Research skills are needed to stay abreast of current research and using data to make decisions. Conducting program evaluations to determine their effectiveness is needed. Providing and securing professional development for teachers, teaching assistants, parents, and all other service providers as well as finding resources are practices found in veteran special education administrators. Collaboration with a variety of stakeholders is necessary for successful special education programs. Ideas for future research include looking at student outcomes in relation to the amount of time the special education administrator has been in the position, how other central office staff turnover effect the special education administrator, and how well superintendents understand the role of a special education administrator

GSU Event Portal

This is a Hybrid Web Application that brings both business and customer on to single platform. It deals which Events, Promotion and deals by the many organization and selling the tickets online. Through this application it helps the business or an individual to publish, promote and sell their event tickets or deals to the customers and ease to do business. It also helps the event’s organizers and business to increase the market through Social Media. This application helps the customer to check the event, deals based on location, cost, type, date and buy tickets for them. It Supports both pc and mobile platforms through Web. Description: This Web application makes the event organizers, Business and customer job easier. This application helps the business to post and promote the event or deals to the customer with the all the information related to the event or business like time, place, cost and description about the event or the product. It helps the business or event organizers to improve their market and promote which helps them to increase their market. Through this application customer are able to find the event happening near to him and get information related to the event. So that, he can make a decision to attend the event without visiting and event any can buy tickets which helps him not the concern about the availability and provides comfort in buying tickets. Our application also helps to promote free event generally conducted by many social organizations, Charities etc. This is a role based application consists three different roles based on the functionalities and privileges to the roles. Below are the riles associated with the application. 1) Customer2) AdministratorCustomer: Customer are able to view to the event and deals and can sort the search based on the location of the event, Type of the event, date of the event, cost of the event. Customer can view the pictures related to the event, information or description about the event. He is allowed to rate the event for future visitors or customers to event. Customers are able to create an account by Sign up with login and password providing his information like Name, Address, email id, phone number, location. Customers are allowed to buy tickets by logging into their account. Customer gets the copy of their tickets by entering their email id. Customer are able to view his past events and registrations done through this site. Customers are allowed to create and promote the event or deal by providing information related to event like type of the event, conducted by, location of the event, time of the event, Cost of the event and Customer are allowed to post a cover picture of the event and post other photos that are related to the event. Customers are also allowed to update, edit or delete the event posted by him. Customer are able to see his previous posted event, number of tickets sold and can promote their event through social Media. Administrator: Administrator is the one who administrates whole application i.e Governor State University. Administrator are able to monitor, Enhance and maintain the application. Administrator are able to monitor the posts and check and nay malicious information is presented by the vendor and can edit the event. Administrator can delete the fraud positing’s and can control them by removing vendor privileges. Administrator are able to review the event like numbers of tickets sold for the event and can track the number of event posted or deleted. Administrator can also sort the post based on location, cost, type date etc. Administrator are allowed to enhance the application if there is anything that need to be added to application in future. Technical Requirements: Operating System : WINDOWS XP/7/10, Linux. Programming Languages : JAVA 1.7, J2EE. Framework : Spring 3.0, Hibernate. Data Base : MySQL. Technologies : J2EE, JDBC, Servlets, JSP, Hibernate, AJAX, XML, XSL. Design Methodologies : UML. Tools : Putty, WIN SCP, TOAD, Spring MVC 3.0. IDE : Eclipse. Web Servers : Tomcat. Scripting Languages : JavaScript, JQuery

Application of an Artificial Neural Network as a Third-Party Database Auditing System

Data auditing is a fundamental challenge for organizations who deal with large databases. Databases are frequently targeted by attacks that grow in quantity and sophistication every day, and one-third of which are coming from users inside the organizations. Database auditing plays a vital role in protecting against these attacks. Native features in data base auditing systems monitor and capture activities and incidents that occur within a database and notify the database administrator. However, the cost of administration and performance overhead in the software must be considered. As opposed to using native auditing tools, the better solution for having a more secure database is to utilize third-party products. The primary goal of this thesis is to utilize an efficient and optimized deep learning approach to detect suspicious behaviors within a database by calculating the amount of risk that each user poses for the system. This will be accomplished by using an Artificial Neural Network as an enhanced feature of analyzer component of a database auditing system. This ANN will work as a third-party product for the database auditing system. The model has been validated in order to have a low bias and low variance. Moreover, parameter tuning technique has been utilized to find the best parameters that would result in the highest accuracy for the model

Design and development of data base software for educational use

This thesis describes an experiment in the modular construction of data base software for an educational environment. The thesis commences with a description of the educational uses of data base software and specifies why commercially available software is often not suitable for this environment. A major review of the database software literature follows. This review examines the hierarchic network, relational and inverted models, and examines the ways in which the user is given independence from physical database storage mechanisms. The data dictionary concept and the role of the Data Base Administrator is discussed followed by a description of different types of user interface languages. The review concludes with the security aspect of database software. Next the thesis details the objectives, methods and procedures of the software implemented. The software consists of a multi-model database system {hierarchic, inverted and sequential file) with a common query/update language linking the three models. The query/update language QUILL is then described, followed by the sequential file system SEQUENT, the inverted system INVERSE, and the hierarchic system PYRAMID. Finally the thesis examines the software developed in retrospect and also comments on the feasibility of adding other models to the multi-model softwareThesis (MSc) -- University of Adelaide, Dept. of Computing Science, 198

Developing Leadership Dispositions for Preparing Urban School Leaders in Chronically Low-Performing Schools

This study originated as an institutionally sponsored research residency conducted using utilization-focused evaluation (Patton, 2008) to investigate the nature of dispositional changes in candidates pursuing National Louis University’s M.Ed. and Ed.S. degrees leading to educational leadership (EDL) state certification in one large urban school district in a Southern state. The EDL program organized learning objectives intending to develop a specific knowledge base, an operational competency set, and, as this study’s focus, leadership dispositions related to preparing assistant principals and principals to lead effectively in chronically low-performing (CLP) schools. The inquiry cross-analyzed data at the intersection of the graduate program’s disposition-related learning objectives with 13 leadership dispositions identified in The Haberman Educational Foundation Star Urban Administrator Pre-Screener. EDL program faculty administered the pre-screener to EDL program candidates twice, yielding 187 matched pairs in pre-program and post-program administrations. Statistical analyses yielded a significant difference (improvement) in overall Haberman scores at the .01 alpha level, as well as an effect size considered (Cohen, 1969) to be a medium effect size. Faculty triangulated the data with interviews of alumni and faculty with experience in leading CLP schools, who affirmed that focus on leadership dispositions serves an important developmental role in an EDL program. The study appears to validate the measurable presence and dynamic changes in EDL candidate dispositions as an element of a graduate program focused on developing effective leaders of CLP schools

Psychological type and preferred learning styles of institutional advancement officers: an initial study using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator in three geographic areas

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator was used to determine the psychological types of 545 institutional advancement officers (alumni administrators, educational fund raisers, public information officers, and senior advancement professionals) who were registered for one district conference of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) in 1988, 1989, or 1990. There were 295 respondents from the Northeast (Districts I/II), 155 from the Midwest (District VI), and 95 from the Northwest (District VIII);ENTJ (18.90%) was the most frequent type in the total sample. While the general population is 75 percent Sensing, the advancement sample was 65 percent Intuitives. There were no statistically significant differences between men and women in the sample. In the total sample, there was an over-representation of IN and EN preferences, but these were not statistically significant. Geographic comparison by district revealed significant under-representation of IS in District VIII when compared to District VI, and an over-representation of ES in District VIII, when compared to District I/II;The advancement sample was analyzed using the Selection Ratio Type Table to compare it with base populations of university teachers and business managers and administrators. Compared to the teachers, the advancement officers showed stronger preference for Extraversion, but similar preference for Intuition; compared to the business managers and administrators, the advancement officers showed a stronger preference for Intuition. The facilitation role of the advancement professional was discussed as the facilitator between these two groups, the Intuitive faculty and the fact-oriented (Sensing) businesspersons;Data were presented on the frequency of MBTI types by career classification (alumni administrator, educational fund raiser, public information officer, senior advancement professional, and other) with the recommendation that further in-depth study be made of these classifications as well as specific specialties within fund-raising (annual fund, planned giving, etc.). Suggestions were made regarding how type and learning style preferences, as reported by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, can be used to structure learning experiences and improve role perception

The Role of Appreciation in Higher Education: The Experience of Online Faculty Members with Instituional Administration

This study explored the role of expressed appreciation in an online education working environment. The research method used was a transcendental phenomenological approach in order to provide a foundational base for giving a voice to the participants\u27 experiences in higher education, based on the participants\u27 preferences for experiencing appreciation. Through assessments and interviews, this research intended to evaluate the role of appreciation in the workplace, namely higher education, and the relationships between online faculty members and their administration. Utilizing a newly created assessment tool, the Motivating by Appreciation Inventory, the act of appreciation was evaluated in terms of the Languages of Appreciation: verbal praise, acts of service, giving gifts, and quality time. The research also evaluated each participant\u27s understanding and experience of appreciation in relation to the identified language of appreciation. The study was conducted with eight current online faculty members at a large Christian university in the Southeastern region of the United States. The following themes emerged throughout the data collection process: value of encouragement through words, significance of timely interactions, a desire to play an active role within the university, the need for administrator\u27s support in decision making, intrinsic motivation, stimulation through student interactions, and the importance of monetary incentives

Ethical Development and Diversity Training for Educational Leaders

In the 21st century schools must meet the challenges of current and anticipated increases in racial and ethnic student populations. In turn, school principals must be prepared to lead diverse student populations to high levels of achievement. To facilitate adequate leadership preparation, therefore, the diversity training of educational leaders in given settings must be reworked so that the achievement gap between non-white and white students can be closed. Furthermore, restructuring of principal training is best accomplished through consensus within the profession, based on the tenets of the democratic values of respect, acceptance, and appreciation of diversity. The purpose of this paper is to add to the body of knowledge in educational leadership degree and certification programs in regard to diversity standards and social justice relevance. This paper provides an overview of a social justice agenda that includes five key elements. The first is a discussion of the term diversity and American demography. The second element is a summary of the sociopolitical context of social justice. The third element is an examination of multicultural education. The fourth element is an overview of educational administration programs. The last element is a review of the moral and ethical leadership standards for educational administrators