Over the 7 year life of the grant, the L.I.T.E.S. project served 69 schools, 1032 teachers and approximately 23,000 students across a 16-county area.  L.I.T.E.S. was funded by the U.S. Department of Education via the Technology Innovation Challenge Grant. Funding was approved for 1998-2003 school years. The project packaged 21^st Century Skills and Curriculum supported with appropriate technologies in a replicable training format and provided ubiquitous access to the world-wide learning resources.  The project  purchased and installed 1000+ desktop computers and 1000+ laptops for use in over 1000 classrooms.  Partnering districts committed to having a local area network in place with high-speed Internet access, as well as adding two more desktop computers to each classroom.   This buildup of infrastructure and capacity placed Area 5 schools ahead of most others in the state based on the Illinois State Technology Survey.