As case studies demonstrate, leading-edge schools are already clearing these hurdles, even in relatively poorly funded districts. And it must be leadership sustained over time. Through every stage of that deployment period, dedicated leaders will need to provide direction and maintain momentum. Connecting schools to the information superhighway involves a systemic process of change, demanding new styles of teaching and learning and new priorities for funding and resource allocation. To launch and sustain this process, leaders need to provide a compelling vision of success and a sense of urgency, pull together funding from multiple sources, create an environment where teachers can learn and be rewarded for using the technology, and ensure adequate support for both initial deployment and for ongoing operations.
Leadership needs to come at many levels, from both the public and private sectors.
At the same time, individual schools clearly need top-down help in marshaling the resources to overcome these challenges. In the schools we visited, the district superintendent often has taken the lead role, bringing together community leaders and school boards, teachers and administrators, as well as private industry and government leaders to make change happen. Local community and school leadership is the most powerful and important source of energy for driving deployment. Without the commitment of teachers, administrators, and parents, little change can happen in the classroom or the school. School boards, superintendents, principals, and other community leaders need to establish a clear vision and agree on concrete goals.