INTRODUCTION

According to James MacGregor Burns (Leadership, 1978), true leaders induce followers to act in accord with the values and the motivations of both leaders and followers. It is a dynamic relationship that, at its best, finds leaders engaged in a process of raising the consciousness of followers, or, at a minimum, engages both leaders and followers in a common enterprise. Leadership is meaningless, Burns says, without its connection to common purposes and collective needs.

An early paper (1995), Factors Limiting Technology Integration in Education: The Leadership Gap http://www.seirtec.org/leader.html states that "In spite of the agreement that technology usage and an understanding of the educational uses of technology is required by school leaders (Bozeman, Rauchert, & Spuck, 1991), few administrators at any level have received any formal preparation for instructional technology. Most have learned what they know on their own.

Kearsly and Lynch (1992) report that most administrators depend completely on teachers or technology specialists and in many cases vendors for guidance. "Educational technology leaders need to be able to use technology to solve real problems in schools." Several studies support this notion."

Levinson and Sturrat (1999) in an article entitled What Should Superintendents Know & Do With Technology? ) state that "Many of today's educational leaders grew up before technology was embedded in everyday life, and now they find themselves having to make major strategic decisions about its purchase and use.". Their article gives a number of great paradoxes, problems and issues related to technology

What is Technology Leadership and What does a Technology Leader Need to Know?

Technology leaders are those who see technology as a central tool for transforming teaching and learning

Bailey & Lumley (1997) have argued that technology leaders have to possess several skills. They include: (1) technology skills--leaders must be be able to model the technology, (2) people skills--leaders must be able to get along with other people as we learn to use the new technologies, (3) curriculum skills--leaders must understand how to integrate the technology into all disciplines, (4) staff development skills--leaders must understand the important of training to those people using the technology, (5) learning leadership--leaders must understand the "big picture" (systems thinking) as they work with others to use technology to transform teaching and learning.