The role of technology specialists in rural unit districts in Illinois: An assessment of the perceptions of superintendents and technology coordinators

In the age of information, small unit school districts in Illinois find filling the position of technology coordinator difficult. The Illinois State Board of Education's Performance Indicators for a Technology Coordinator defines the role of technology coordinator using performance indicators and knowledge base indicators. Two groups, superintendents and technology coordinators, were surveyed and their responses compared in order to determine whether the groups differed in their perceptions of the role of technology coordinator as defined by ISBE's Performance Indicators for a Technology Coordinator.;The study focused on the perceptions of superintendents and technology coordinators with regard to how important 12 performance indicators and 19 knowledge indicators were in performing the role of a new technology coordinator. The target group of administrators and technology specialists from 256 rural unit districts was identified from data compiled from the Illinois State Board of Education. Results from this study indicate that although differences exist in the perceptions of superintendents and technology coordinators, the differences were not significant.