Students at Lawrence Township Public Schools in New Jersey now use video conferencing to learn French from Canadian students, said Andrew Zuckerman, director of instructional services for the district. Students rely on the Internet for research and collaboration throughout the day, he said.

"We can no longer use 20th-century skills to teach 21st-century learners," Zuckerman added.

Within the next 13 months, the state of Maine will have more Web-enabled devices available for students than it has students, according to Jeff Mao, learning technology policy director at the Maine Department of Education. Maine began providing laptops to seventh-graders in 2002, he said, and schools often purchase the used Apple laptops after their leases expire.

In some Maine schools, there are now 1,400 concurrent broadband users, Mao said. "Fourteen hundred concurrent users are not going to live on a 10-megabit pipe, they're not going to live on a 50 -- they need a much more robust Internet connection," he said.

Students also need to have access to broadband outside school, Fox said. "Students need to be able to leave school without wondering, 'Can I watch my teacher's algebra video when I get home?'" she said.