Running head: LEADERSHIP ISSUE

Leadership Issue First name, middle initial(s), last name Institution

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Abstract The current paper is dedicated to the exploration of a leadership issue, which is integration of the internet into the school curriculum. The analysis identifies the steps, which the leader takes to perform this integration and the strategies used by her, as well as the barriers, which she faced. Based on the principals practice, her leadership style is identified. The description of benefits for students and teachers follows. Finally the key lessons, learned from the principals experience, are pointed out. The research shows that the principal of the school is a good leader and her experience can be used as an example for other leaders. The main aspects of her success are as follows: gaining support, teambuilding, inspiration, and control. It is also pointed out that internet integration with the curriculum is a factor, which can significantly improve the level of education in schools. Keywords: Internet, integration, curriculum, leadership, secondary school.

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Leadership Issue The management of any organization sooner or later faces some leadership issue. It might concern different aspects of activity. It takes a skillful leader to deal with it. If it is managed properly, the organization can benefit. This paper is dedicated to analysis of a leadership issue, which is integration of the internet into the school curriculum. In course of the paper I am going to reflect upon this issue. I am going to describe the strategies of dealing with it, as well as benefits and problems, which it can bring. In the end of my research I am going to formulate the lessons learned from this leadership issue. In the modern society informational technologies play a very important role. They have become a significant part of our daily activities. They make our lives easier and expand our opportunities. The internet is one of the most advanced technologies. It is hard to imagine our lives without it. People use internet for work, entertainment, information, and studying. Lately, it has become an important issue to integrate the internet with the curriculum. It has been a subject of many recent studies (e.g. Mohammed & Al-Karaki, 2007). The internet integration into the educational process has already changed the educational system of many developing countries, such as India (Viswanathan, 2008). In a secondary school it is a matter of a great concern of a principal and administration. It is necessary to study this process and find out what actions should be undertaken in order to make it as effective as possible. The principal also needs to make sure that everyone benefits from such integration. It is also important to identify the barriers and ways of eliminating them. Before integrating the internet with the curriculum the goals should be identified. A principal must have a clear vision of what he or she is trying to achieve by this integration. In my school the leader has set the following goals: enhancement of the learning process,

LEADERSHIP ISSUE development of basic skills of internet usage, stimulation of independent research, optimization of teachers work, and curriculum extension.

The next step that the leader undertook is choosing the subjects, with which the internet should be integrated in the first place. One of such subjects is foreign language, particularly English. It is practiced in many schools all over the world. However, in the Arab countries, the integration of the internet with foreign language learning is not very popular (AlMekhlafi, 2004). There are many reasons why internet-based learning of foreign languages should be implemented in schools. The internet provides the learners with plenty of information, visual and audio tools, which improve comprehension and pronunciation (Kilimci, 2010); it also adds some elements of entertainment to the learning process and creates a feeling of involvement into the global community (Al-Mekhlafi, 2004). The other subjects, such as physics, chemistry, mathematics, history, and biology were integrated with the internet in the second place. The decision about the integration was made based on teachers opinions and availability of schools financial resources. It is obvious that not all the internet content is reliable and truthful. Moreover, some sites contain material, which is inappropriate for children. That is why it is important to choose web-resources, which are good for using by the students. There are different ways to reduce access to undesirable resources to a minimum. They are as follows: parental acknowledgements and permissions, blocking access to inappropriate web-sites, restricting the students from an independent research, and discussions with the students (Karchmer, 2001). The principal encourages the teachers to use these techniques. However they decide which one is the most appropriate for their classes. There are different criteria, according to which the sites can be evaluated (AlqudsiGhabra, 2003). The principal of Private Glory School has chosen the following set of criteria: purpose, sponsorship, content, stability, and navigation. The list of appropriate sites was

LEADERSHIP ISSUE created and the teachers were informed about it. They were instructed to encourage students to use these resources in their studying. Meanwhile, a list of prohibited sites was created, and the access to them was blocked.

However, there are various web-tools, which make research and learning more exciting and effective, such as WebQuest, telecomputing activities, and Waldens Paths (Betz, 2000). These web resources create an interactive environment, where the students can get information, complete tasks, and receive instructions. It should be marked, that according to research conducted by Segers, Droop, and Verhoeven (2010), integration of WebQuest has a positive impact on students academic achievements. The principal should suggest that the teachers use them in their class activities. An important issue, which the principal had to deal with, is computer literacy of the teachers. It turned out that not all of them knew how to work with computers and the internet properly. That is why special classes were organized, where the teacher received the relevant basic knowledge. The teachers must be able to deal with the software, which is used in class in order to get the maximum benefit from it. As the next step, the teachers were required to integrate the internet with their particular courses. They had to develop an academic program of their courses which would include the internet usage. The course descriptions had to be approved by the principal. Each course had to involve a certain amount of hours, dedicated to the research on the internet. The teachers were instructed to assist the students in their researches. The next measure was establishing a system of control. As any novelty, integration of the internet with curriculum needs to be controlled. It is important to diagnose any deviations from the initial plan and eliminate them as soon as possible. If it was evident that something is not working as it should, or some measures are ineffective, the relevant changes were made. Both teachers and students participated in giving feed-back.

LEADERSHIP ISSUE In order to enable all these steps of the process to work, the principal of Private Glory School implemented certain strategies. The strategies involve the following aspects: cooperation with the teachers, concern with students needs and preferences, establishing of control and feed-back system, and implementation of the best practices of integration of the internet with curriculum. In the following paragraph I am going to describe the principals strategy in details. In the first place the principal prepared the ground for an upcoming innovation. She realized the importance of everyone understanding the advantages of the internet integration.

She needed support from the teachers of her school. The measure, which she undertook was a creation of an orientation program. It is a very important strategic move. The innovation is always more effective, if it is accepted by the subordinates. If the principal had not done the orientation program, the teachers probably would have rejected the integration process. Another important part of the strategy is teambuilding. The work of the principal of Private Glory School is based on co-operation with the teachers. That is why she always makes sure that everyone is involved. In her team everyone performs certain functions, which are ultimately aimed at the common benefit. To enable the process of the internet integration to work, the principal created a team of professionals within her school, including deputy headmaster, school register, the head of computer and since department, and three senior teachers. Together they worked out the steps of the internet integration and controlled this process. A necessary part of a good leader's practice is inspiration. A leader must not just make the subordinates do something, but make them want to do that. As a good leader, the principal of Private Glory School implemented this concept. She shared her vision of how the new system should work like. She inspired the teachers and the student to use a new approach to learning.

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The final part of the principals strategy was the establishment of a feed-back system. It is important to know, how the subordinates react to the innovation. The best way to find this out is to organize a survey, which would illustrate the attitudes of the teachers and the students. The survey conducted by the principal showed, to what extent the goals of the integration were achieved. It also helped to measure the success of the innovation. The survey also helped to point out the deviations from the plan. As suggested by Bingimlas (2009), the barriers to the integration of the new technologies can be classified as teacher-level and school-level. In Private Glory School the teacher-level barriers are as follows: lack of skills of teachers and their sequential resistance to integration. School-level barrier is lack of time. However, these obstacles were successfully managed by the principal. The main barrier was that not all the teachers were familiar with the internet technologies. They were not willing to accept the novelty at first. The old-fashioned way of getting information seemed more convenient for them, while the perspective of introduction of a new system was confusing. However, the principal eliminated this problem by establishing special training courses for teachers and students. Another barrier is the lack of time to implement new technologies. This is a common problem, which has been a subject of research (Almekhlafi & Almeqdadi, 2010). Teachers are already loaded with a lot of work. Integration of the internet requires time and effort, since the teachers have to familiarize themselves with the technology and adjust their curricula to it. The principal delegated the personnel of the computer department to assist other teachers while they make the adjustments to their curricula. The teachers played a very important role in the integration process. Their role is to be the link between the internet and the students on one hand and the internet and the curriculum on the other hand. The teachers should act like guides while the students perform internet-

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based activities. Such practice is exemplified by Brandl (2002). According to his suggestions, the teacher should act like a facilitator of a learning process. The importance of this approach is also pointed out by Snider and Gershner (1999). In the school the like system has been applied. The teachers are supposed to identify the relevant internet resources for each topic and give the task, which is to be completed with the help of these resources. At the same time the students are encouraged to use some independent research within the boundaries, determined by the teachers. On the other hand the teachers determine the specific ways of integrating the internet with the course programs of their own subject. They know the best the specifics of their subjects and therefore can work out the best ways of using the internet in the learning process. They are also able to sort out the most appropriate and reliable internet resources which can provide the students with the most accurate information. Moreover, the teachers know the students needs and abilities as regards to their subjects. Therefore they can choose the information, which would be adequate to the students level of knowledge. The matter of teachers concern is reading level of the web pages. Some of them can be too difficult to comprehend; the others may be too easy (Karchmer, 2001). The teachers have to study the content of web sites carefully and choose the appropriate ones according to this criterion. At the same time the teachers are responsible for making sure that the leaning process is not interrupted by inappropriate use of internet resources and that the students receive all the necessary information. Regarding the actions, undertaken by the principal her leadership style can be identified. The relevant literature specifies many different styles of a leader (Marturano & Gosling, 2007). I would identify two leadership styles, which correspond with my leaders practice in the best way. They are as follows: participatory leadership and transformational leadership. As a participative leader she involves the teachers in the decision making

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process. She creates a team of adherers, who put their efforts in order to achieve the corporate goals. The principal appreciates the participation of each teacher in the integration process. She also pays attention to their opinions and makes improvements according to them. On the other hand, the principals leadership style can be described as transformational. That means that she strives for changes and innovations. Her number one priority is to improve functioning of the organization. The principal puts a lot of effort to promoting the level of her school. She has implemented some innovations to the learning process before. For example, she integrated the Smart Board into the learning process. She shares her vision and passion with the subordinates and in such a way she stimulates them to work hard and show significant positive results. The combination of these two leadership styles assured the successful integration of the internet with the curriculum of her school. The students usually welcome the integration of the internet technologies with the curriculum (Mohammed & Al-Karaki, 2007). The results of this specific study are not unique for that institution. They represent the tendency, which is common both for schools and universities. The integration of the internet with the curriculum in Private Glory School brought a lot of benefits to the students. First of all, they got an access to the most sophisticated information resources to use in their studying. The new system enables them to find the most up-to-date information on any topic right in the classroom. It is a great advantage for them, because before that they had to search for the information in books, many of which were outdated. Researches show, that the traditional methods of learning are not very effective; student-centered learning environments with internet integration give much better results (Cubukcu, 2008). Moreover, the process of learning becomes much easier and more enjoyable with the help of internet technologies. It is no more limited to the course program, outlined in books. Now the students can use online courses with video and audio aids which improve the comprehension.

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Another advantage of the internet integration is that the students received the access to many online databases, which offer a great number of articles on various topics. They can be used for in-class discussions, which improve the students understanding of the particular subject. The researches show, that the students, who use the internet in their learning are more motivated to solve difficult problems (Capper, 2003). The innovation also gives the students freedom to choose what information to use and what to leave out. The teachers only specify what resources to use; the rest of the research is done by the students. This approach improves the students analytical skills and stimulates independent thinking. The teachers of Private Glory School also benefited from the integration of the internet into the curriculum. First of all, they dont have to collect the papers with assignments, which they receive from their students any more. Now the students have an opportunity to submit their homework and class work via e-mail. On the other hand, the teachers can make some corrections and send the graded assignments back to the students. It becomes easier for the teachers to review, store, and keep track of the students written assignments. The new approach to educational process gives the teachers more freedom for creativity and initiative. It also gives them an opportunity to reveal and develop their potential. They can enrich their lessons by introducing to the students the most up-to-date information found on the internet (Schofield & Davidson, 2002, p. 215). For example, in natural science classes the teachers can encourage students to discuss the most recent discoveries; in geography class they can use online satellite maps instead of traditional ones. Those, who achieve the best results, will surely be recognized by the principal. They will feel proud of their achievements and enthusiastic about doing their job even better (Schofield & Davidson, 2002, p. 224). Having studied the process of integrating the internet with the curriculum in Private Glory School, we can point out the key lessons, learned from the leaders practice. The study

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has shown that the principal of this school is a good leader. Therefore, her experience can be a good example for other leaders. The most significant aspects of her dealing with the issue are as follows: gaining support, teambuilding, inspiration, and control. These aspects were the composites of her strategy, which ensured its success. Now I am going to identify the lessons, which can be learned by others based on the steps of the integration process, undertook by the principal. 1. Before introducing any novelty, it is important to define the goals which are to be achieved. In order to do that it is necessary to have a vision of the desirable outcome of the improvement. Without specific goals it is impossible to measure the success and identify the possible deviations. Moreover, the vision must be delivered to the subordinates in order to establish an appropriate climate in the organization (Sanak, 2010). They should understand their specific role in the innovation process and be willing to perform it. 2. Technological innovation is a very important aspect of a leaders practice (Gregory-Mina, 2009). In order to make sure that innovation is going to work and be successful, the trial measures should be undertaken. They will help to identify how the system can be improved. They will also help to avoid confusion and misunderstanding. Only when a leader sees that the probation is successful, he or she can move on to the overall implementation of an innovation. 3. A good leader always cares about safety. That is why before integrating a new technology, the leader has to make sure that it is not going to bring any harm to the users. The principal of Private Glory School took measures to secure the students against undesirable and harmful information, which they might receive via internet. 4. Finally, it is necessary to establish control over the integration process. All the members of the organization should be involved in it by measuring the results and giving

LEADERSHIP ISSUE feedback. The leader must trust and appreciate the opinions of his or her subordinates, and maybe make some corrections to the plan. In the current paper I have analyzed a leadership issue, which is integrating the

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internet with the curriculum in Private Glory School. The principal of this school has done an immense work enabling this innovation to function to the benefit of the teachers and the students. Internet integration into the curricula of secondary schools is becoming more and more popular. If administrations of schools use smart integration strategies, they will be able to promote the level of education in their schools and improve learning processes, as it was done in Private Glory School.

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LEADERSHIP ISSUE Sinder, S. L., & Gershner, V. T. (1999). Beginning the change process: teacher stages of

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concern and levels of internet use in curriculum design and delivery in one middle and high school setting. Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED432300.pdf. Viswanathan, R. (2008). Recent impacts of internet on English language training in India. The Electronic Journal for English as a Second Language, 12(3). Retrieved from http://www.tesl-ej.org/wordpress/issues/volume12/ej47/ej47int.