The Power of Technology in School Leadership during COVID-19

This book discusses school leaders' ability to use digital technologies successfully through specific approaches and techniques. It also discusses the technological challenges arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, and the obstacles derived from the lack of digital capacity of school leaders in various contexts. The work addresses school leaders' experiences, confidence, competence, skills, and practices to use digital technologies effectively. Also, it explores how the COVID-19 pandemic influenced school leaders' role in establishing effective processes towards educational digital transformation, and provides further knowledge as part of school leaders' digital professional development aspect.The book draws information and knowledge from the thematic areas of technology and school leadership in educational practice and includes both conceptual and empirical information on autonomous and less autonomous educational systems (centralized and decentralized education systems). Overall, this edited book fills the gap with information on the connection between school leadership and technology, as an aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic in school organizations.

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Dr. Antonios Kafa is an Assistant Professor in Educational Leadership at the Open University of Cyprus and Academic Coordinator of the Postgraduate program "Educational Leadership and Policy". Dr. Kafa was elected as the new Link Convenor of the Educational Leadership Network (N26. Educational Leadership) of the European Educational Research Association (EERA). In 2016, he obtained a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Policy from the Open University of Cyprus. His doctoral thesis was awarded the International Doctoral Thesis Research Award "Highly Commended Award Winner"-Emerald/EFMD Outstanding Doctoral Research Awards 2016 (Educational Leadership and Strategy) by the Emerald Publishing Company. Previously, he obtained a Master's Degree (MA) in Educational Leadership from the European University of Cyprus and a BA in Philosophy, Pedagogy and Psychology from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in Greece. His research interests primarily revolve around the practice of successful school leadership, school leaders' personal value systems and authentic leadership, and, most recently, school leaders' responses to emergency situations/ crises and the building of technological capacity. Dr. Kafa has published his research work in various international scientific journals, written chapters for books, and participated in various international and European conferences. Previously, Dr. Kafa had worked as a researcher and research associate at various universities and research centers. Additionally, during the period 2016-2019, he worked as a member of the collaborating teaching staff at Frederick University, while during the period 2019-2022, he worked as a Lecturer in Educational Leadership and Management at Frederick University, where he coordinated and taught in the Master's Program "Educational Leadership and Management". Dr. Kafa is a member of the Board of Directors of the Cyprus Educational Administration Society (CEAS), a member of the British Educational Leadership, Management and Administration Society (BELMAS), a visiting lecturer at the Cyprus Police Academy, a reviewer for various international scientific journals and a member of various international research teams.

Dr. Nikleia Eteokleous holds a PhD in Educational Administration with emphasis in Educational Technology, M. Ed in Instructional Systems, and M. Ed in Educational Administration from the Pennsylvania State University and BA in Public and Business Administration from the University of Cyprus. She works as an Associate Professor in Educational Technology at Frederick University. She is also the Head of the Distance Learning Committee and the Director of the Open and Distance Learning Center (ODLC). Her research interests focus on technology integration in the educational practice; teacher education and technology, designing learning environments enhanced with technology and online learning environments. She currently focused on research activities related to open and online distance learning, and the integration of robotics, makerspaces, maker education in the educational practice. She is the co-founder of Frederick' University Robotics Academy, a research and educational unit that promotes and conduct research in the area of robotics education. Numerous papers, book chapters and conference papers are published in regards to educational robotics, STEAM and the development of problem-based skills, 21st century skills, creativity, computational thinking skills, disciplinary learning objectives. She has published articles in established and well-known international scientific journals, book chapters as well as conference proceedings. She has presented various scientific papers in international and national conferences. In addition, her academic activities include participation in numerous research projects having different roles and responsibilities. She has been working on several projects on designing and delivering DL programs of study, DL professional development trainings and MOOCs. Finally, she has been appointed by the Cyprus Minister of Education as member of the Digital Technology Exploitation in Education advisory board.