The Internet has transformed America with its power to generate innovation and opportunity and by its ability to connect, inform and entertain us like no technology in history.

But we are not even close to realizing the full potential of high-speed Internet, or "broadband," access. Universally deployed broadband networks can be America's engine for enduring job creation, economic growth and tremendous improvements and savings in education, health care and energy conservation.

This vision of world-leading 21st-century broadband networks and their benefits will not occur spontaneously. While the United States invented the Internet, when it comes to broadband we have fallen behind as other nations have raced ahead. Some studies show us to be as low as 15th in the world in broadband adoption; others have us higher, but none puts us even close to where we need to be.

Our nation is at a high-tech crossroads: Either we commit to creating world-leading broadband networks to make sure that the next waves of innovation and business growth occur here, or we stand pat and watch inventions and jobs migrate to those parts of the world with better, faster and cheaper communications infrastructures.

This, of course, is not a choice -- which is why, last week, at the behest of Congress and the president, the Federal Communications Commission delivered the first National Broadband Plan -- a comprehensive strategy for dramatically improving our broadband networks and extending their benefits to all Americans.

The bad news is that we have a long way to go to meet this generation's great infrastructure challenge:

• Millions of Americans can't get broadband today. Period. With so many of our daily interactions moving online -- including job listings and job training during the worst recession in decades -- that's unacceptable.

• Tens of millions of Americans with access to broadband have not signed up. Our surveys show that they aren't connected because they can't afford it, don't know how to use it or aren't aware of its potential benefits.

• The vast majority of us don't have broadband that's fast enough to take advantage of remote video learning or medical diagnostics, or dozens of other existing and emerging applications.

• An entrepreneur can't run a small business today without broadband, but 26 percent of rural business sites don't have access to a standard cable modem, and more than 70 percent of small businesses have little or no mobile broadband.

• Just as mobile broadband becomes ever more important, we face a looming shortage of airwave spectrum -- the electromagnetic oxygen on which our mobile networks run.

The starting point to solve these problems is a set of goals that are ambitious but achievable with a national commitment.

• First, to ensure opportunity, every American should have access to all essential broadband services at home.

• Second, to ensure that we have the advanced networks we need to empower American businesses, we must substantially increase the capabilities of our networks. This means driving toward one gigabit to every community in America, through libraries, schools and community colleges; and creating the world's largest market for affordable, very high-speed broadband -- a "100 Squared" initiative of affordable 100 megabits per second to 100 million households -- so that inventors around the world will flock to our platform.

• Third, to ensure that we capture the next wave of change, we must lead the world in the speed and reach of our mobile networks.

• Fourth, to ensure the safety of Americans, every first responder must have access to a nationwide, wireless, interoperable broadband public safety network.

With smart policies, we can enable and accelerate the private investment necessary to achieve this future.

If we have the political will, we can reclaim the licensed and unlicensed spectrum our wireless networks need to thrive.

We can transform the multibillion-dollar fund that supports the universal availability of traditional voice communication to one that supports universal broadband.

We can promote competition, for example, by removing barriers, encouraging investment and empowering consumers with the information they need to make the market work.

And we can offer every American the tools to be digitally literate -- a prerequisite to participating in the new economy.

If we adopt these and other good ideas, we can harness the power of a technology with the greatest potential to advance our economic and social welfare since the advent of electricity.

Imagine a world where children in low-income neighborhoods can have access in their classrooms to the best teachers in the world and access at home to the most up-to-date e-textbooks. Picture a time when diabetic seniors living in rural areas without ready access to doctors can get nutrition counseling on home computers.

History teaches us that nations that lead technological revolutions reap enormous rewards. We can lead the revolution in wired and wireless broadband. But the moment to act is now.

outside are enormous and frightening."

As playtime has moved indoors, childhood obesity rates have soared and symptoms of ADHD and depression have risen. Time outside, or lack thereof, affects kids mentally and physically.

Kim Janocko, a mother of four who lives in Monroeville, described what happens after her kids play outdoors: "The kids get along better, they're happy and relaxed and they sleep really, really well." I've heard this from a lot of parents.

The impact is felt in the classroom, as well. Research shows that when schools have outdoor playtime, attention spans and test scores improve. Yet outdoor play is increasingly being squeezed out as schools tighten budgets or add time for tests.

Mary Modoono, a teacher at Shady Side Academy Junior School in Point Breeze, has seen the benefits of outdoor play in her second-grade classroom over the last 21 years. The skills acquired help kids learn.

"The process of learning is much like the process of unstructured play. You try things out, you use your own judgment, you stick with it and work it through," Mrs. Modoono said. As kids increasingly get bombarded with fast-paced stimulation through electronic games, computers and TV, it's even more important to cultivate skills like tenacity and patience by letting kids create and imagine through independent playtime, she says.

At the end of each school year, Mrs. Modoono takes her class to an Amish dairy farm.

"It is my favorite part of the trip watching my high-tech students interact with the Amish children. They play games together -- tag, jump rope, running and chasing each other. Sometimes they try to teach each other a new game. Some gather by the fence to coax a cow to come closer. Some children try their luck with the wooden hoops on the dirt road that runs between the farmhouse and the barn. Always reluctantly, my students board the bus to head home. At this time, I think perhaps children haven't changed that much after all.".

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Last year the National Wildlife Federation launched a national campaign aimed at getting families outside called Be Out There (nwf.org). It addresses barriers that get in the way of kids and families spending time outdoors, including safety concerns, busy lives and even not knowing what to do or how to do it.

Ms. Matyas believes moms are key. When moms learn how critical outdoor time is, they make it happen in their own families and spread the word.

Since getting to know Ms. Matyas (a mother herself) and her team at the Wildlife Federation, I've been helping them connect with moms. We recently kicked off a "Founding Moms" advisory board of influential mom bloggers from around the country.

My getting involved with this issue has sent my own family outside much, much more often, and it's made me ask myself: If my day is spent attached to a computer, why should my kids be any different?

Kim Daboo, a mother of two from Point Breeze who works in IT and is a self-professed computer nerd, helped me think this through.

"Technology is not going away, that's the reality. As long as it's managed or a certain amount of time for it is set for kids, I don't see it as a problem. And, you can always combine the two, like with geo-caching. There has to be an app for that!" she said.

Geo-caching?

Geocaching is high-tech treasure hunting, where people around the world hide things and post the locations online, including GPS coordinates. The hiders, seekers and finders can then blog about their adventures at sites like geocaching.com.

Cool!

The other night over dinner my husband and I asked the kids to name a favorite thing they've done and every one of them named something that happened outside, often when we were together as a family.

Once spring comes, when the school bus gets home in the afternoons, I'm moving my office to the bench in the driveway.

Cooper Munroe is co-founder of TheMotherhood.com and lives in Fox Chapel with her husband and four kids (cooper@themotherhood.com). A local organization that encourages outdoor activity is Venture Outdoors (venture- outdoors.org).

Cartoonist Rob Rogers does "Rob's Rough," an early look at his work and his creative process, exclusively at PG+, a members-only web site of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.