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North Carolina's Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) perfectly illustrates both the power of effective teacher training and technology. Since 2008, CMS has provided digital science resources to Title I schools -- schools with a high concentration of students living in poverty. Along with digital content, the district provided teachers with ongoing professional development designed to show them how to build engaging lessons, enhance their current curriculum and inspire students by integrating digital media, hardware and software. The professional development, however, was not mandatory. The results could not have been clearer: The students of teachers who opted into the professional development not only closed the achievement gap between themselves and students from Title I schools that did not have the same technology, they also outperformed the non-Title I schools, amassing a 57 percent passing rate on the state's end-of-year standardized science tests, compared to the 43 percent passing rate of those from wealthier schools. These are some of the most disadvantaged students in the state, remember, and yet they caught up to -- and surpassed -- students from more affluent schools.

"The digital divide, once seen as a factor of wealth, is now seen as a factor of education: Those who have the opportunity to learn technology skills are in a better position to obtain and make use of technology than those who do not."

This refers to literacy, not only with hardware and software but also with the vast global conversation that the Internet enables.

Only when there's equal opportunity for everyone to become literate in these technologies so that they're creating and not just consuming content can we begin to imagine closing the digital divide.

It's whether communities can leverage the capacity of networks to make learning more authentic and powerful for students.