The "Digital Divide" takes many forms. Students in Wetzel County,1 West Virginia, are geographically remote from big city life, and, until recently, school libraries-with out-of-date collections-constituted the main information resource.

School Superintendent Martha Dean realized that web-based learning could transform the academic opportunities and broaden horizons for her students. She wanted to build on the technology program West Virginia had put into place in the elementary schools. But she knew her high school students needed to go beyond the basic skills approach and transition to the self-directed learning activities they would need later in life.

Dean chose the learning approach offered by NETSchools, which gives every student and teacher a laptop connected to a Local Area Network through infrared ports installed in each room. Once every student has a laptop and the infrared ports are in place, the entire campus becomes, in effect, a computer lab. Students can connect in hallways, the cafeteria, and the library as well as in class.

"I never thought it would be possible that kids would give up their free lunchtime to learn," says teacher Darlene Mihalee. "It is not unusual to go down there and see kids with a sandwich in one hand and a keyboard in the other."

Infrastructure was only the beginning.

The school's T-1 connection meant everyone could surf the Web and find information. For Scott McGlumphy, a so-so student before the shift to connected laptops, Web access turned him into a student with a keen interest in anthropology and top grades. "No knowledge is now out of reach," Scott says. "Our imagination is our only limit. And there are billions of sites out there, almost like billions of different worlds you can visit."

Special education students learned to navigate the Web to plan a vacation trip and make reservations. Agricultural students use their laptops to operate the school's commercial greenhouse, enter data in the field, and follow research on plant and animal diseases.

After only six months, 80 percent of Hundred High students were accessing the Internet daily. Test scores went up. Over the course of that first year the 144 students at Hundred High scored higher and ranked above the national mean in every subject, as well as total basic skills, on the Stanford Achievement Test (SAT 9).

Dean is grateful to Congress for the funds her district received through the E-rate program, but she says that a restriction on home use of E-rate funds creates problems for students. She is seeking additional funds and modes of connection so that students can continue to dial-in from home. She is also concerned about teacher training, as well as how to provide both educational and technical support. Dean believes that higher education institutions need to step in and change their teacher preparation programs, so all new teachers have strong technological skills.

Dean also calls for a new teaching outlook.

"I believe that curricular revision must occur. Basic skills must be expanded to include the use of the computer and the Internet to accomplish the goal of enhancing a student's capacity to access, record, analyze, and report information," Dean says. "Students who lack access to technology and the Web will become the second-class citizens of the future."

Thanks to the district's efforts, the students of Wetzel County have soared across the Digital Divide.

1. http://www.netschools.net/whynetschools/cs_hundred.htm