| The use of computers in assisting in administrative tasks has revolutionized the workforce. Today, principals and administrators in many fields rely on accurate, fast, inexpensive and up-to-date information in order to make sound decisions.;The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of school principals regarding the use of the Internet for administrative purposes. This descriptive study focused on the potential benefits and problems of Internet use perceived by school principals. The research questions focused on seven areas: demographics, attitudes, benefits of the Internet, frequency of use, experience, policies and issues.;A total of 292 principals in Nebraska completed the questionnaire. Data from the questionnaire were tabulated and percentages were calculated based on the frequency of responses sorted by age, number of years served as a school principal, highest educational level achieved, size of school and the highest degree earned.;Descriptive statistics (mean, mode, median, and percentages) were computed to facilitate the analysis of the data. All demographic variables, such as age, years of experience, size of the school and highest educational level attained, were analyzed for significant relationships between demographic factors and principals' attitudes, perceptions of possible benefits of the use of the Internet, frequency of use of the Internet, administrative policies, and concerns with regards to the use of the Internet in schools. ANOVA was used to analyze the data, with a significance targeting ;The findings suggest that principals consider the Internet as a valuable instructional tool in their schools. In Nebraska, 99.9% of the 292 principals who returned completed surveys had Internet services available to students in their schools. It was encouraging to not that 89% of principals did encourage their staffs to attend Internet in-service in order to remain current on its instructional uses.;On the other hand, 73.2% of the principals surveyed had themselves received only five hours or less of formal Internet training. Also, 89.4% of principals had never used the E-mail to communicate with students, and 94.5% had never used E-mail to communicate with parents.;In analyzing variables that contributed to significant results in the study, it was determined that most differences were related to level of the school (secondary or elementary) and location (rural or urban). Few significant differences related to size or school or experience of the principal. |
