BYU student Eva Armendariz can now use her laptop outside for homework and research and to browse fashion and style Web sites.

"I probably spend around an hour a day online using wireless on campus," said Armendariz, of Lewis, Del. But e-mail, blogs and MySpace.com are tough competition for professors. Many, such as BYU communications professor Chris Cutri, ban wireless devices in their classes.

"For me as a professor, I put a lot of time into my lectures and hope students will pay as much attention as possible to the lecture," Cutri said. "I've seen in other classes where students say they are taking notes, but people have their laptops open, checking e-mail and surfing the Internet."

Internet distractions are such a concern that Nyle Elison, responsible for network access in BYU's Office of Information Technology, cites it as one reason his office has wired only 30 percent of the campus. Professors can purchase their own "consumer-grade" access points if they choose, and he estimates the faculty provide another 30 percent of campus wireless access.

However, even attitudes at BYU are changing.

"I foresee in the next 10 years that most, if not all, of campus would be covered by a wireless signal," he said.

Online learning, either through courses offered exclusively on the Internet or through "hybrid classes" that require students to meet both in classrooms and online, are growing in popularity. At Weber State, on average, 9,000 students are enrolled in online classes each semester.

At the University of Utah, laptops are required for students in the Executive MBA program, said Kevin Taylor, planning and policy director at the U.'s Office of Information Technology. Students in the law school may soon be required to have laptops, too, though many already have them.

University Hospital provides wireless access for patients and visitors. Most parking lots at the U. also have wireless access because campus police officers use laptops in their cars, Taylor said.

The number of students with wireless access relieves the burden on computer labs. But students are demanding computer labs become specialized.

"If you're in geography, you're probably using GPS software and that's not necessarily something you can afford to buy on your own machine," Taylor said.

There are concerns, however, with opening a wireless network to the general public. Unidentified users may seek to access a college's internal servers, packed with sensitive information.

At Utah State University in Logan, the school is in the middle of a $400,000 project to fill in the gaps in wireless coverage.

"We have to be very secure, so we're proving easy access, but the access is secure and controlled," said Eric Hawley, a USU vice president for information technology.