The CEO Forum on Education and Technology was created to follow up on the excellent work done by the President's National Information Infrastructure Advisory Council (NIIAC) in the area of education technology. The NIIAC KickStart Initiative was the first major effort by the private sector to identify the importance of integrating technology into the classrooms and to develop an initiative to make it happen. Then, in February of 1996, President Clinton issued his technology literacy challenge, at which time he challenged leaders from across the country to work together to connect all schools to the Internet by the year 2000. The CEO Forum's founders were excited and energized by the President's challenge. However, many were concerned that once this issue had lost its political momentum, the important work that has been done to date would not continue. To prevent this, these chief executives from both the industry and education communities created the CEO Forum on Education and Technology.

As part of his challenge, President Clinton identified four critical elements -- these have become known as the "four pillars." These are:

• Connections -- Ensuring that all schools are connected to the Internet
• Hardware -- Ensuring that schools have adequate hardware for instructional use
• Content -- Ensuring that appropriate content exists for teachers to integrate into their curricula
• Professional Development -- Ensuring that teachers are equipped with the necessary skills to integrate the technology into the curriculum.