Last modified: Saturday, January 17, 2004 1:39 AM EST No more pencils? BY JOHN WINTERS / SUN CHRONICLE STAFF WRENTHAM -- Matthew Glebus was beaming Thursday morning. Not beaming in the way of most 8-year-olds, with a big smile and rosy cheeks, but beaming in the electronic sense -- using a new hand-held computer that's being introduced to some of the third grade classes at the Delaney Elementary School. Matthew had just used one of the school's new hand-helds (think specialized Palm Pilot) to read a story about a bushy-tailed squirrel. He then answered questions about the story on the small screen, and sent his answers to the teacher where she can see how well he did. The quiz and the answers were beamed back and forth via an infrared light between a desktop computer at the back of the classroom and Matthew's hand-held computer. The hand-held is placed on top of the computer during this transference. Students can't sit in their seats and beam across the room -- not yet, anyway. The new technology isn't new to the business world. Palm Pilots, personal digital assistants and electronic planners have been used for years by working professionals. By bringing them into the elementary classroom, Wrentham is a pioneer of sorts, joining a number of other schools throughout the U.S. that make use of hand-helds. The technology is currently being rolled out to a class of 21 third graders at the school in a pilot program that's testing the efficacy of using hand-held computers in local classrooms. Thursday's project was part of the learning curve for the students, who seemed to enjoy the new technology. `` I like doing things with the stylus,'' Matthew said, referring to the small pointer that's used to operate the hand-held computer. `` Plus you can do math problems and read stories on it.'' Becky Stockbridge, technology systems administrator for the Wrentham school district, said the students not only love using the hand-helds but took to them, well, like a squirrel to a tree. In fact, the third graders sometimes jump ahead of the curve, Stockbridge said, as they've been learning the new technology very quickly. `` They get so excited and really enjoy using it,'' she said. The program was funded by the district and some grant money. Each miniature computer costs about $170 and is loaded with $50 worth of software. rdrtrdrsrdrw15rsp160 see no book, page 2 e Stockbridge said the beauty of putting a hand-held in the hands of so many students allows more of them to learn about technology. Otherwise, the youngsters have to share time on one of the five computers in each classroom. `` They help us to more effectively teach all the students,'' Stockbridge said. Teachers involved in the program seem to like being on the cutting edge. `` I think the potential is incredible,'' said Delaney third grade teacher Sarah Shaw, who's class is currently learning how to use the new technology. One thing she's looking forward to doing is downloading educational Web sites onto the hand-held so she can teach from them and have all the students literally on the same page. The hand-helds also allow students to work at their own pace in many ways. Once they master something, they can move to the next lesson, Shaw said. While there will always be those who wonder why students can't simply stick with books, pencils and paper, the hand-helds do things that these old pieces of technology can't, Stockbridge said. For instance, in the squirrel story, some of the more difficult words, like `` nimble,'' that the third graders may have yet mastered, were highlighted within the text. This allowed students to point with their stylus and get the definition. A different stylus maneuver brings up a thesaurus function giving students synonyms for the highlighted words. Also, if students are working together on a project, they can beam their notes and other material amongst each other. During a recent class, the Delaney third graders diligently followed the story as Shaw read, and then beamed the quiz questions into their hand-held, sat, took the quiz, and then beamed their answers back to one of the main desktop computers. The beauty of this, Stockbridge said, is that the teacher will get an instant report on how well each student did on the quiz. The question-by-question report will show her who's struggling and with what. `` The teacher can go in and see them all and how they're going,'' she said. The quiz is a study aide in much the same way that flash cards are, Stockbridge said, only more flexible. And certainly it's more captivating to the young users of the technology. `` I like to use it to do drawing,'' said Amanda Young, 8, one of the Delaney third graders now mastering the new technology. And indeed, she soon will get her wish, as the students will be asked in future lessons to draw pictures from the stories they read. The hand-helds even have an animation feature that lets students turn their once-static drawings into cartoons. In the future, there are other ways the students may be able to use the hand-helds. Little cameras can be attached so they can record their field trips with digital photos. And a weather probe will soon be purchased, which will connect to the hand-helds, record the temperature, and barometric pressure, and then allow students to make graphs on the little computers showing the results. The goal of the pilot program is to get three third grade classes up to speed with the technology this year. Soon, 42 teachers in town will attend a professional development course to learn more about the hand-helds, paving the way for them to lead more students down this new information superhighway. At the end of the school year, a survey of teachers will tell Stockbridge if plans to roll the hand-helds out to the fourth grade should go forward. If the technology has real value, she said, one day, every student in grades three through six in town will be using them. JOHN WINTERS can be reached at 508-236-0434 or at jwinters@thesunchronicle.com.