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Seretta picked FirstClass to serve as the school's unified messaging and collaboration solution. Accustomed to paper and more traditional means of communication, many staff members and faculty were reluctant to embrace the new system. Seretta didn't give in. "We went from zero to 90 percent adoption within three months, so there was no time for hand wringing or debate," said Seretta. "We simply said no more paper, unless it involved internal documents that require signatures."

According to the latest data, the U.S. "adoption rate" for mobile phones stands at 85 percent. That's higher than the percentage of Americans who have DVD players (84 percent), home PCs (80 percent), digital cameras (69 percent) or MP3 players (40 percent), according to the Nielsen Co. "The concept that within my lifetime we'd have the kind of penetration we have today is unimaginable," says Martin Cooper, 79, the former Motorola researcher who invented the portable cell phone in 1973.

Teachers are often portrayed as being clueless about technology, but ever more of them are putting that stereotype to the test.