The Use of Smartphones by K-12 School Administrators: A Gratification Study
Abstract
The changing roles of school principals are inevitable. As their roles evolve, principals are expected to lead the implementation of technology for teaching, learning, and leading. Digital and mobile technologies are becoming the primary conduit of student learning experiences (Lieberman et al., 2019). Smartphones are the leading handheld device supporting this digital movement (Miakotko, 2017). There is limited research on how school leaders use smartphones to lead their institutions. The focus of this quantitative study was to examine the relationship between the frequency of smartphone usage and satisfaction in school principals. The Uses and Gratification Theory served as this study’s theoretical framework. The methodology used in this study was Pearson’s correlation coefficient to measure the strength of the relationship between the frequency of smartphone usage and satisfaction of using the smartphone by school principals. Descriptive statistics were used to determine factors that influenced smartphone usage. The Mann Whitney U test was used to investigate if there were differences in smartphone usage among school principals based on gender and years of experience. Alpha level .05 was used to determine statistically significant correlations or differences. SPSS software was used to analyze data collected from the survey administered. The findings revealed that there was a statistically significant correlation between school principals’ usage of smartphones and satisfaction, and there were no statistically significant differences in how school principals use smartphones based on gender and years of experience.
Subject Area
Educational leadership|Educational administration|Educational technology
Recommended Citation
Ashley D Thomas,
"The Use of Smartphones by K-12 School Administrators: A Gratification Study"
(2021).
ETD Collection for Tennessee State University.
Paper AAI28410097.
https://digitalscholarship.tnstate.edu/dissertations/AAI28410097