Few schools are doing a good job of infusing computers into the daily lives of teachers and students. That was the conclusion of Teachers and Technology: Making the Connection, a 1995 report from the federal Office of Technology Assessment (OTA). Teachers, the OTA researchers concluded, rarely entice students to use computers for desktop publishing, computer simulations, or electronic mail. And school administrators are often impediments to change.

Those findings are troubling, but they don't really surprise me. The reality is that if your district leaders don't think through why and how they want to introduce technology throughout schools, you will be left with battalions of expensive computers that nobody uses and a missed opportunity to improve student achievement. On the other hand, if you take the time to think the enterprise through carefully, you can create a vibrant community of technology users.

When I was a superintendent in an Indiana school district, I saw firsthand the importance of studying both the potential and the pitfalls of implementing technology and then taking the risk to build such a community. Now, as a college professor and educational consultant, I have an opportunity to share the lessons I learned as a school administrator. Those lessons -- which I call the Seven Realizations of Technology -- are the result of on-the-job experience and professional reflection.

1. Technology will not transform a mediocre school into a good one.

Even so, many educators hold the mistaken belief that it will. The reality is that if you don't have a strong curriculum as a foundation, technology will do little to improve your schools and might even have a negative impact. For that reason, it is important to conduct a rigorous examination of your district's curriculum before embarking on a major technology program.

The success of technology implementation is contingent on a number of factors, including curriculum, instructional leadership, personnel evaluations, staff development, and school environment. In the Westfield Washington Schools, in Westfield, Ind., we assessed those factors by observing teachers, examining programs, and creating an ongoing dialogue between teachers and principals and the central office. For instance, central office administrators methodically reviewed each teacher's evaluation and discussed the results with the appropriate principal to determine what kind of help various teachers would need to improve their technology skills.

Unfortunately, some schools lagged behind others when it came to adopting technology. Matters were made more difficult if the principals themselves resented the school board's technology initiative or feared the changes technology would bring. In those cases, the district's director of technology had to provide additional support to the principal.

At each school, we created educational technology teams -- composed of teachers, parents, and administrators -- to plan site-based technology programs. In a couple of instances, the principals did not even show up for the team meetings, which sent a discouraging message to team members. The teams that had to deal with that kind of administrator resistance were less effective than the others. In my experience, putting technology into a school where the principal is not supportive is like throwing money away.

2. Understand why you are investing in technology.

It sounds like a simple maxim, but in my experience as a consultant, I have seen school boards approve millions of dollars in technology spending without first making sure teachers and administrators understand how technology will affect instruction.

This is a serious problem. When you introduce technology into a school, I've found, you have only a small window of time to develop enthusiasm for the new tool before teachers (and administrators) become cynical. And once they grow cynical, you're going to have a hard time turning them around.

Fortunately, the Westfield Washington school board spent a good deal of time asking critical questions about technology and how it was going to be used to support the district's curriculum. Plus, the district sent 18 teachers to spend five days at a local university exploring what could be done with technology in classrooms. Using video and computers, these teachers developed presentations that they shared with colleagues. These teacher leaders also visited schools in other districts to witness firsthand how educational technology is used.

We also made sure technology was a high-visibility issue in the district. The director of technology briefed the board and me regularly on what teachers and administrators were learning about technology. Consequently, technology was usually an important topic of discussion at most board meetings, and it was definitely high on the agenda of topics at the board's annual retreats.

3. Be aware of school culture -- it is either a friend or an enemy.

Most of us support change so long as it does not disrupt our established conventions. That in itself is a bit of a contradiction, but it also points up the impact of school culture on the adoption of technology. In our district, the school culture varied from highly authoritative to highly collaborative, depending on which building you were visiting.

In one school, the principal used a digital camera to take pictures of teachers and other employees, and then displayed the pictures on a computer monitor at staff meetings. His enthusiasm for technology was infectious: Soon after he showed the pictures, nearly every teacher wanted a chance to use the digital camera.

As that example suggests, the principal's leadership is an important factor -- in fact, I'd say the most important -- in making change happen. If the principal is enticing teachers to use technology, rather than browbeating them to use it or resisting it altogether, more and more teachers will soon be integrating technology into their daily lessons.

4. Principals with technology skills have the edge.

It's unrealistic to expect your principals to be technology masters. They have far too many other things to do. But a minimum level of technology skill, combined with enthusiasm and willingness to learn, can go a long way.

The skill levels of the principals in my former district varied from outstanding to mediocre. Outstanding principals demonstrated technologies, helped teachers overcome their fears, and asked the critical questions that would help teachers choose the right technologies and use them effectively. Some of the principals were skilled Internet users, and most used e-mail and word processing effectively.

To encourage more computer use by principals and teachers, we computerized the procedure for ordering supplies, and everyone was expected to request supplies using this program. Although there was grumbling at first, the procedure wasn't difficult, and before long, most staff members had taken it in stride.

Of course, it is incumbent on the superintendent to assess the principal's skills and abilities and, if necessary, provide extra training and supervision. After all, the principal remains the key to technology reform. To do this right, I spent a good deal of time with principals in their schools, watching them work with technology and asking them critical questions about how technology would support the curriculum. In addition, we asked principals to work with each teacher to develop individual technology goals. These goals would be used later as a piece of each teacher's evaluation.

5. Hire technology support staff now, or pay a high price later.

Technology requires more, not fewer, staff members. My board hired a director of technology to coordinate district efforts and a media systems supervisor to coordinate and support ongoing staff training -- at a cost of about $100,000 a year. We also hired a computer repair specialist at an annual salary of $35,000 to manage networks and fix problems caused by the district's 1,200 computers. Building-level technology support persons were paid $8 to $10 an hour, depending on experience.

Obviously, it's cheaper not to hire a technology support staff. But if you don't provide good technological support, then teachers and administrators -- and ultimately students, too -- will stop using the technology. That happened in my district, which has a computerized distribution system through which teachers can schedule equipment to be delivered to their classes. When some teachers had trouble using the system and help was not available, they abandoned the system and relied instead on walking to the equipment room with a cart, wasting precious time.

6. Don't start until a staff development program is in place.

In many districts, one piece that is often missing from technology initiatives is a good staff development program. The OTA recommends spending 30 percent of total project funds on staff development. But according to the OTA, most districts allocate no more than 15 percent of their technology budgets for training and development.

In the Westfield Washington schools, principals developed needs assessment profiles for each teacher by meeting with teachers one-on-one. Instead of blanketing the staff with generic in-service training, administrators targeted programs to address individual teacher needs. For instance, if a teacher was proficient using spreadsheets or a digital camera, then in-service training in those skills was not scheduled for those teachers. But if teachers said they needed to learn more about using scanners or machines for editing digitized video, they were given individual training in those skills. Also, principals made sure that teachers were learning the technology skills that matched well with their content areas.

I also recommend that principals keep a staff development training record for each teacher. These records should include the type of training employees have received, major goals they have set and accomplished (or failed to accomplish), time spent in technology training, and comments by the employee and the principal.

Our district began using these staff development training records just before I left the superintendency. We also reengineered staff development by moving to a "teacher as trainer" model that involved training a group of teachers to help other employees. (Each classroom in our district has a telephone, so these teacher-leaders are usually just a phone call away for employees struggling with a particular technology application.)

I can't say enough about the power of the teacher-as-trainer model. After all, consultants come and go -- as I can attest -- but teacher-trainers remain in the schools providing ongoing support, encouragement, and expertise.

7. Recognize that once you invest in technology, you have embarked on a fast and open road.

Technology implementation is not a one-shot matter. As school boards and administrators soon discover, once you enter the technology race, the need to reinvest grows, and schools are pressed to find new ways to use those older computers.

The rapid pace of change in technology has budget implications -- and implications for equipment use as well. Software upgrades herald hardware obsolescence, and the birth of new technologies seems to be happening at an ever faster pace.

Take the simple example of the personal computer. It now has a useful life of only about five years.

As a consequence, district officials must develop long-range plans for using older equipment. In my former school district, we found that the older computers (which have much smaller memory capacity) could still be used to meet individual student needs if they were loaded with only one or two software programs, as opposed to the vast array of programs that are loaded into the newer computers.

A group of five computers might be loaded with a math program, for example, and students who need to work on math that day could use those computers. Students who are interested in a history software program, on the other hand, would have to find a different group of computers.

It's really just a matter of getting the most out of the computers you already have. If you can do that, everyone will benefit.

These seven realizations can help you frame critical questions as your district pursues its technology program. Technology, more than any other recent educational innovation, has the power to accentuate a district's strengths or weaknesses. That's why it's so important to think long and hard about how to infuse technology effectively into the schools.

As I have seen through my own experiences as a school administrator -- and by working as a consultant for several districts -- the road to success is often fraught with frustration, anger, and even hostility. It takes time and patience to build a community of technology users, but if you persevere, you can find a way to get there.

Van E. Cooley, a former superintendent, is an associate professor of education at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Mich.