While technology has to be planned centrally to assure compatibility, training and cost effectiveness, it has to be implemented locally to assure ownership and usefulness to users. Knowing what to control centrally, such as hardware standards, and what to give control and accountability at the school level, such as instructional software, are not easy to sort out. In light of paradoxes and problems and the issues discussed above, there are three areas within the educational, political, and financial domain that competent superintendents should know because to do that will make a difference. The most important thing a superintendent can do is to identify critical educational problems and to establish mechanisms for focusing technology on these problems. The important thing is to pick a large problem not being effectively addressed and to develop a means of addressing it.
Most school systems buy technology rather than solutions to problems.
By focusing on a problem and identifying an effective solution, there is a significant chance technology will be employed correctly. An example of this would be identifying low-achievement, a year behind grade level as a problem that would encourage staff to seek a curriculum planning, delivery and assessment system as a solution. The first step in getting positive results is assuring new technology is implemented and having measurable standards for implementation and effectiveness. From our experience, systems that are more complex than e-mail or word processing such as student information systems, groupware or curriculum planning systems are not well implemented in schools about 50 percent of the time. The low implementation rate of technology is caused by a lack of effective organizational and technical change processes, lack of effective organizations to support users and lack of defined standards for effective use.