When a school or district rolls out new technology, the instinct is often to turn to the IT department or a tech coach to lead the charge—not the principal.
That makes sense on the surface. Principals juggle a lot: supporting teachers, managing student discipline, overseeing budgets, engaging with families, and more.
But in a session at the ISTELive 25 + ASCD Annual Conference 25 in San Antonio, Saicy Lytle, an instructional technologist for the Clyde district in Texas, argues that principals’ vision and leadership have a big role to play in technology integration. Technology integration is the use of digital tools in teaching and learning to achieve academic goals.
Education Week spoke with Lytle ahead of the conference about the role principals play in rolling out technology and the challenges they face in stepping up to that role.
The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What are some responsibilities a principal has when it comes to tech integration?
If [principals] have a vision and they plan and talk with the staff about things like digital citizenship, it actually can help with the teachers’ technology acceptance. If [teachers are] accepting of [technology], then they’re more likely to use it. In some of the research, you can see that if the principals push the digital instruction or the technology tools, then the teachers are more likely to have the motivation to use those tools themselves, and that has a direct effect on the perceived student training.
How can principals do that?
Develop a clear tech plan. It’s hard to involve the staff in that planning if there’s not a detailed plan. It’s hard for new teachers coming in to know what the expectations are. It’s hard to align your instructional goals.
Another thing is professional development—for the principals to be going themselves and being trained on technology tools, and not just sending their staff to it. The principals need to understand how to use the tools just as much as anybody else in the building.
Also, resource allocation and prioritizing. What does your campus actually need? … Some schools want to pay for things because every district around them is using that tool. But when it comes down to it, you don’t have the budget for everything.
One of the most important things is that the principals are modeling the way—making sure that they’re actually using the tools that they’re trying to tell the teachers to use. … Make sure that you’re fostering an innovative culture. If a teacher does something really innovative, celebrate that win and share [it] with the other teachers.
Ultimately, [there should be] monitoring and evaluation. At the end of the year, look at: What tools did we use? How did they support students? What does the data show in making those informed decisions?
What challenges might principals face in stepping into this role?
Having the buy-in from the teachers can be really tough. Teachers [need to] feel confident enough in the tools that they’re using, which all comes back to the training that they had, and giving them the time and the space to learn the tool and ask the questions before they’re expected to use it in their classrooms. It is challenging to juggle all of those things when you look at the scope of what all does a principal deals with.
What support might principals need?
Tech integration involves everyone in some way. Teachers—be vocal about what you need and have those conversations with the principal of, ‘Hey, we’ve been using this tool for five years, and maybe it’s not working, and there’s something better out there.’ Sometimes it could just be that the teachers are sharing with the principal what they need PD in.
For technology coaches, help bridge the gap. They’re kind of the liaison between people in leadership roles and the teachers. I can have conversations with the teachers, and sometimes it’s less intimidating for them to tell me what they need, because I’m not seen as their boss, so to speak. And then I can have those hard conversations with the principal. I can help facilitate professional development, and then it’s not one more thing for the principal.
We can all work together as a team and realize where there are gaps and try to meet those without it just all being on one person. Ultimately, we’re all here for the same thing, and we want the students to do their best and to learn.
