Students with laptop computers can produce class projects as impressive in their depth as they are flashy in their design. On the other hand, the machines are prone to glitches, vulnerable to damage - and the old problem of forgetting your homework can be replaced by forgetting to charge your battery.

Nearly two years after an experimental program put laptops into the hands of thousands of students across the state, teachers say it's too early to fully assess the educational benefits. But they report exciting results, mixed in with frustrating problems, and they're learning a lot about how to apply a new technology in the classroom - and how not to.

One of the key lessons of the experiment, according to an education professor monitoring the project: For a laptop program to succeed, teacher training and technical support should be in place before the program gets going.

The Seattle, Federal Way, Snohomish and Peninsula school districts are involved in the project, which is funded, in part, by grants from Toshiba, Microsoft and the state. In Eastern Washington, the Pasco and Freeman, Spokane County, districts are participating. Among private schools, Forest Ridge School of the Sacred Heart in Bellevue and Overlake School in Redmond are using the program, and the Seattle Academy implemented a laptop program this school year.

Jeffrey Fouts, a professor at Seattle Pacific University, said in a preliminary evaluation of the project that while most schools offered training for teachers, they varied widely in scope - some last hours, others, weeks. Fouts praises programs such as the one in the Snohomish district where officials this year started offering computer classes to the 630 families in the laptop program so parents can better help children with laptop homework.

And at Thomas Jefferson High in Federal Way, students in the laptop program must take a technology course and can opt to take an after-school class in how to rebuild hard drives and repair damaged computers.

Most schools involved with the experiment are happy enough with what they've seen that they're expanding their programs, in some cases doubling the number of laptops. And despite some problems, educators are working hard to smooth out its wrinkles.

Teachers in some subjects, such as foreign languages, initially struggled to find ways for laptops to complement the curriculum. Others, such as Joe Gotchy, who teaches history at Thomas Jefferson High in Federal Way, have learned to maximize the machines.

In one of Gotchy's classes, 17-year-old Aaron Unger created a 67-slide project on the Civil War using PowerPoint software. Besides sleek graphics, Unger downloaded volumes of information on heroes and battle sites, read through it all and then condensed it into two paragraphs of text for each computerized slide. One slide contained the entire Gettysburg Address, he said, "because it's a good speech."

Gotchy is pleased with his students' projects but says he expects them to be even better in the future as students become more familiar with laptop learning.

"I'm not positive we're going to learn more. We're going to learn differently, in a way these young people are going to need to learn in the future," he said.

Fouts agrees that the jury is still out on the pure educational value.

"Is the content better? That is the ultimate question," said Fouts "It certainly looks better, but do the kids know history better because they did a report on a laptop or gathered information from the Web? I don't think anyone has answered that."

Some participants do ask whether the costly experiment is worth it. The goal was for students to buy or lease their computers; for lower-income families who can't afford the $1,800 to $2,500 per laptop, districts were to work out special rental arrangements.

"What I'm finding is laptops are much more vulnerable, they're portable, they're fragile and they're expensive," said Robert Radford, principal of Seattle's Meany Middle School.

At Meany, too few students could afford the computers, so the school purchased them. After finding money for 170 laptops, the school deemed insurance too costly and decided students shouldn't take them home.

Radford preaches desktops, not laptops. He is working on deals with city offices and corporations to donate or slash prices on older desktop computers for Meany. He wants to train students to upgrade the them, then give them to kids to take home permanently.

Even supporters of the program acknowledge it's possible for the medium to obscure the message - students can spend more time creating a snazzy looking title page for their research project than on its content.

"Because students can produce work that looks more professional, we really focus on and struggle with making the content meaningful," said Andrea McNeely, an English teacher at Thomas Jefferson High. "Sometimes I won't even grade their technology skills. I'll say, `No fancy titles.' "

Teachers remind students they need to talk when giving an oral report, not just click on a mouse.

Overall, the laptop project has meant more work for everyone involved. Teachers have spent hours outside the classroom devising ways to incorporate the laptop into traditional curriculum. Students stay after school or take special classes just to learn how to operate the hardware and software. And, in ideal situations, administrators consistently revise schedules for teacher training, making sure everyone has enough technical support to keep things running.

The logistical and mechanical problems are many. Students complain of having to carry two backpacks - one for their books and one for the delicate computers. Instead of forgetting their homework, some students forget to charge laptop batteries. The tiny modem cards that slide into the machines break constantly.

In some schools, students in the laptop program are integrated into classes with students who don't have the computers. The laptop students, who have Internet access at their fingertips, work on the same assignments as students who have to compete for time in computer labs, or who must use less comprehensive forms of information gathering.

Most schools have strayed from the original plan to allow one student one laptop that could be taken home at night.

At some schools in the Peninsula School District in Gig Harbor, where 713 students and teachers use the machines, laptops are placed on carts and wheeled from room to room as a sort of a portable computer lab. The fifth- and sixth-grade students can't take them home, but teachers incorporate the laptops into class assignments.

"We like the portability and ease with which you can move the cart and say, `Grab a laptop. Let's get going on a project,' " said Patrick Cummings, the district's administrator for research and assessment, who said the district's ultimate goal is one laptop per student.

For all its quirks and inefficiencies, supporters say the project has clear benefits. Students are proficient in computer programs that could give them advantages in college or careers in technology.

In addition to the work Fouts is doing evaluating the project, several participating districts have asked him to make local reviews. Tom Vander Ark, superintendent in Federal Way and an advocate of computers in education, has commissioned Fouts to evaluate the district's technology program, including the laptop program. Snohomish administrators have hired Fouts to study how laptops affect writing skills. And Microsoft and Toshiba have hired a San Francisco firm to study the project in Washington and at 39 other school districts nationwide.

All those evaluations please even critics of the project such as Ann Murphy, president of the Federal Way School Board, who thinks laptops may be valuable for classrooms of the future but has doubts about spending money on them now.

"To me, it means more than how do kids feel about their computer and how do they like it," Murphy said. "It means is there a significant difference in academic gains. It will take several years to get a good feel for that."

Dionne Searcey's phone message number is 253-946-3977. Her e-mail address is: dsea-new@seatimes.com