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Technology plays a vital role in our schools' ability to serve instructional, operational and administrative needs. Every day we hear about another way in which technology and its applications are changing our field.

While many of us are just getting comfortable with the Internet and e-mail, Web 2.0 technologies are already changing the playing field for education. Though definitions of Web 2.0 vary, the one constant is that Internet users are now content providers rather than content receivers. The top-down approach of the Web we grew up with now has been replaced with users who build information from the bottom up. With Web 2.0, the focus is not on software or hardware, but on practices such as sharing thoughts and information through self-publishing and harnessing the collective intelligence of all users to generate information and solve problems. These technologies are creating huge changes in how educators and students receive and respond to information.

As the use of personal and instructional technology becomes increasingly embedded into day-to-day operations, superintendents need more than ever to be intimately involved in the direction, decisions and deliverables of a school district's technology initiatives.