Oct. 10, 1996, p. 1A

Keys of knowledge

Students toting a new book: notebook computer

Metro: Two Dallas-area schools are among 29 public and private schools in a nationwide program that's putting laptops into students' hands. Officials at the schools don't believe computers will completely replace paper and pencil, but the high-tech tool is clearly changing student life.

Keys of Knowledge

Ursuline's freshmen use new tool: laptops

It's easy to tell most freshmen from other students at Dallas' Ursuline Academy. They're the ones trudging through hallways carrying book bags on their backs and knapsacks containing laptop computers strapped to their chests like life preservers.

Cristina Rodriguez prefers the double-shoulder approach: a bright green book bag over one shoulder and an Army green-and-tan backpack containing her laptop over the other.

Ursuline and another Dallas-area school, Liberty Christian High, are among 29 public and private schools nationwide in a program that's putting laptops into students' hands this fall.

All 208 ninth-graders at Ursuline are now required to have laptops, with their parents generally paying more than $2,000 apiece for them. Officials at the Catholic girls' school don't believe computers will completely replace paper and pencil, but the high-tech tool is clearly changing student life.

"The first time I heard about this, I thought it was the coolest thing," says Cristina, 14, a shy girl with large brown eyes and braces. "I thought, 'We're the class of 2000, and we're already getting into the next century.' "

Teachers at the school say their goal is for students to use the laptop for everything from writing to making graphs and doing research on the Internet. They say the laptops are less obtrusive than a desktop computer - and the sense of ownership, they say, will make students want to use them more often.

"It's a big leap for teachers and kids alike," said Ursuline principal Shaun Underhill. "But we want the laptop to be used like a pencil. We believe the day of the computer lab is over."

Getting organized

Cristina uses the computer to organize her life by the hour, day, week and month. She set one program to remind her to do her debate homework with a message and a beep. She keeps friends' addresses and phone numbers on the machine, too. Lugging a 20-pound backpack and 12-pound laptop sack can get annoying, Cristina concedes. "You bump into people in the hallways," she says.

On this day, Cristina arrives at school at 7:40 a.m. She heads to the cafeteria, where dozens of students are socializing or studying in groups, some with laptops open to homework assignments. Several are playing games, showing off screen-savers or showing how they decorated the laptops with multicolored stick-on hearts. The latest John Michael Montgomery song is playing on someone's CD-ROM.

Dean of instruction Barbara Ashley hovers around, trying to help the girls with computer problems. "We are taking a big step, right off the precipice into the 21st century," Ms. Ashley says after helping a girl pull up her computer "toolbar."

At 7:57 a.m., Cristina takes a front-row seat in her first class, health. She plugs her laptop into a floor socket near her desk.

Dr. Nadira Sayed asks students to turn down the volume on their laptops.

Most of the students have done their homework assignments on the computer, which they use to take notes on the class discussion. Most listen intently to Dr. Sayed. But one girl in the back row plays computer solitaire.

Dr. Sayed says she is excited about the laptops. Her greatest concern is that students are too engrossed with the computers. At one point she asks a question about amoebas, and no one answers. "Are we lost in our laptops?" she asks. "Having so much fun with them?"

Computer crash

At 9:53 a.m., Cristina files into debate class. Jessica Crenshaw tells friends her latest war story: "I had a mental breakdown and forgot my password."

Cristina and most of her classmates type notes furiously on the computers in the small basement classroom. From the back row, it's difficult to hear the teacher above the whirring of hard drives and incessant tapping of keys.

At 11:45 a.m., Katie Stark has a crisis in Cristina's biology class. Students are typing notes about how to identify organic compounds when her computer freezes up.

"Oh, I hate it when it does this!" Katie says, throwing up her hands. By the time the problem is solved, the discussion is over. Cristina lends a hand by copying her notes onto a disk for Katie.

Some students say that despite insurance policies on the laptops, they don't want to be responsible for caring for them. "I can see myself losing it," says Kelly Zander. On most mornings, Kelly will have to drag three bags to cross-country practice - backpack, laptop sack and gym bag.

Chelsea Richards says she has never been comfortable with computers and is worried she will fall behind her classmates.

"Everybody can do everything in the world with these things but me," Chelsea says. "I'm scared. I always had this image of turning into a computer nerd so I never got into them."

No more paper, pencil

But teachers are universally excited. Biology teacher Tom Avery says he hopes to scan labs onto disks so that students can take them home and reduce their knapsack load.

Educators in Australia - where laptops are mandatory for students in dozens of schools in the fifth grade and higher - say that paper and pencil use is declining.

"One of the teachers in Australia told us that when they wanted students to have paper and pencil, they had to make sure and tell them to bring it," said Ursuline technology director Susan Bauer, who toured the country in November.

While students are no longer complaining of hands cramping up from writing, Mr. Avery says that typing on the laptop is almost too easy. He says he has had to repeat himself in class more often since the laptops arrived.

"I have never had so much attention to taking notes in class," he said. "But right now they are so concentrated on the computer they are missing a lot of my explanation, stuff I am saying."

Karin Burk shares a common concern about laptops: "The battery charger never seems to charge," she says. And the computer's internal battery doesn't last the whole school day, several students say.

If Ursuline is any measure, computer games may replace doodling in class. The laptops come with several games and there's nothing stopping students from putting others on their hard drives. When teachers walk by, a student can close down the game with a mouse click and quickly return to a note-taking program.

"Instead of passing notes, we play games," Karin says.

"Note-passing is not dead," counters Katie.

Expensive investment

During lunch, the freshmen are required to lock their laptops in school lockers. At one table, a group of Cristina's friends jokes about their parents' early anxieties about the laptops' fragility.

"They're like, 'Don't touch it, don't touch it!' " Karin says.

"It's like a baby," mocks Cristina, her arms formed as if holding an infant. "It's so gentle."

Laptops are an expensive investment. Parents of Ursuline freshmen pay an average of $2,636 for color Toshiba laptops with Pentium chips and built-in modems. That's in addition to Ursuline's annual $6,200 tuition.

"It's an expensive moment," Sandy Zander said recently as she cut a check for her daughter Kelly's computer to CompUSA, the school's vendor on the project. "But it's probably a better opportunity than she can get anywhere else around here."

David Link, whose daughter Roberta is a freshman, said that Ursuline is lucky to have parents who can afford to take the laptop plunge. "I don't think this is a tool only for those with money," Mr. Link said. "It is a tool for mankind."

More to learn

In Cristina's last class of the day - beginning Spanish - one student's battery loses its charge. Teacher Jean Underwood spends the first hour of the class teaching students how to write Spanish symbols on their laptops.

Ms. Underwood says that she is awaiting a CD-ROM version of the Spanish textbook, complete with practice exercises that will make paper workbooks almost unnecessary. Students will also be able to do their oral lessons on the computer. Characters will talk in Spanish and move in full color, she says.

"You have to have it," she says, "because we are competing with television."

After school, Jose Rodriguez waits in the parking lot for his daughter, Cristina. The environmental regulation specialist says it's great that the laptop is helping Cristina become more organized.

"Will it help her clean up her room?" he asks.

He says his biggest fear about the laptop is that teachers will become consumed with using it.

"I would like to see them use it as a tool, really integrated into the curriculum," he says. "I don't want the teacher to forgo the academics to teach them how to move files around."

By Alexei Barrionuevo / The Dallas Morning News