Published Thursday, November 2, 2000, in the Herald-Leader
EMINENCE There's something a little strange about Stephanie Sorrell's seventh-grade classroom.
There are no books.
There are scarcely any notebooks.
And the kids sit in unusual positions, hunched over and working furiously with little pencils on ... hand-held computers? Could that be right?
It is. Right here in Eminence, Ky., population 2,055, seventh- and eighth-grade students take notes, write papers, get homework and read books on a digital tablet the size of their hand.
Some of the seventh- and eighth-grade teachers still use textbooks and notebooks. But with the full-scale use of personal digital assistants, Sorrell is overseeing what might be the nation's first paperless classroom. It's certainly the first in Kentucky. (Well, if not completely paperless, then certainly using far less paper.)
It's so revolutionary that a group of folks from Microsoft came through Eminence Middle School last week to see exactly what a school was doing with the latest must-have yuppie accessory.
``We've realized these could do a lot more than we ever thought possible,'' said Sorrell, a four-year language-arts teacher. ``The kids are so motivated to work this way.''
Here's how it works:
Sorrell and the other seventh- and eighth-grade teachers download books and readings from the Internet to her personal digital assistant. She is able to download most of the literature she needs from free library sites on the Internet.
The coolest part of the whole scenario? From up to 3 feet away, she transfers the assignments or readings from her personal digital assistant to student PDAs with an infrared beam.
Students complete work or reading on their PDAs. They can then beam the homework back to Sorrell or attach the hand-held units to a regular computer and type it out. They can also hook a PDA up to a portable keyboard to type information into it.
David Wells studied his vocabulary words yesterday in tiny print on the PDA screen. He had defined and written sentences with those words using the stylus, or pencil, to pull up the assignments he needed.
``This is a lot more fun because we don't have to use paper,'' said David, 13, a freckled, self-described computer freak. ``I like the idea of working on computers.''
Reading the tiny screen, he admitted, can be hard on the eyes, but he can always hook his assistant up to the computer at home or in the classroom, read it there or print it out.
Students can take the devices home every night for homework, and they don't have to wait in line for computer time, like so many other students.
``When you come to school you know you get to use a computer all day long,'' said Becky Simpson, 12.
`It motivates kids'
The Palm Pilot pilot program (the class actually uses Casio, Microsoft and other versions of PDAs) started last year, when the Ohio Valley Educational Cooperative in Shelbyville got a grant to buy digital assistants for Hispanic students, who could use them to download Spanish-language materials whenever needed.
Sorrell thought the program would be good for everybody, and at $200 a pop, the grant could buy assistants for all the seventh-graders.
Last summer, she met a Microsoft employee at a conference and told her about the program. She in turn convinced her Microsoft work group to donate all used assistants to the school, so there were enough for the eighth grade as well.
The technological payoffs are huge, Sorrell says. Not only are students completely comfortable and adept with computers, they seem to be excited by the novelty of the medium.
``It motivates kids a lot more,'' Sorrell said. ``And they can see the relevance of this to real life and jobs.''
She admits she has jumped head first into the experiment. Other seventh- and eighth- grade teachers use it more sparingly.
Science teacher Steve Metcalfe still has a textbook, but uses the assistants to download information and graph it because the devices have their own version of Excel software.
Math teacher Chrissy Gandolfo uses notebooks for old-fashioned math problems, but uses the assistants for homework and other assignments.
``Students are not only learning about technology, but also about organization and responsibility,'' she said.
Nothing's perfect
Of course, Sorrell says, there are plenty of bugs in this particular system.
For one thing, students take good care of their assistants, but they are made for businesspeople, not middle-schoolers.
``We need a Rubbermaid PDA,'' she sighed.
The school doesn't have enough battery chargers, so students are constantly stopping by her classroom.
The ability to transfer information by infrared beam means students could cheat, so Sorrell still uses paper for all tests.
Students can also play computer games while appearing busy; in most offices the boss could see a solitaire board from across the room.
David Couch, who heads the state's school technology program, says he likes the idea of using digital assistants, partly because they are so affordable compared with a $2,000 or $3,000 laptop or computer.
``It is unique, and I'm anxious to see how it turns out for them,'' he said. ``You still need laptops and regular computers, but you see these digital assistants adding portability and functionality.''
Tracy Wellens, a product planner at Microsoft, led the team from Seattle to Eminence. She said her team is putting together a report on whether the Eminence program has implications for other products.
``We learned quite a lot about it,'' she said. ``It was very exciting.''
Sorrell says she's happy to be at the front of the digital frontier, but she knows that even the coolest computer program won't raise test scores.
``It's not better than paper and pencil,'' she said. ``It's just a different approach that the kids seem to like.'
By Linda B. Blackford, HERALD-LEADER EDUCATION WRITER
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