Nov. 5--HIGH POINT -- It's hard to be a technology academy when nearly half your students don't have computers. That's why more than 160 students at Welborn Academy of Science and Technology received a free computer Wednesday.

"I think it will just make the class more interesting for them and help them focus more," said Sara Briley, whose granddaughter Raven Dines couldn't keep her eyes off the dark red Dell she received.

Students will keep the small computers for the school year and take them home like a textbook. They will return the computers to the school at the end of the year. The sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade students will use the laptops, or netbooks as these lower powered units are called, in their elective science classes.

Courtnie James teaches science classes such as forensics, physics and geology at the school. James is fresh from college where this type of "paperless" classroom is common now. She said the new laptops will allow her students to access information online, use message boards for class discussions, perform experiments using simulators, and file their work electronically.

"I hope the kids really transform their work, I hope they use the computer like a notebook or a textbook," she said.

James, who has had her netbook for about two weeks, will spend the next week or so helping the students get to know their new computers.

Brian Lehman, Welborn's magnet program coordinator, said the netbooks also are a great recruitment tool.

"Next year we can say, 'If you come to Welborn, you get a computer,'" he said.

The school conducted a survey of its nearly 500 students and found about half did not have a computer at home. The students have plenty of computer access at the school -- the cafeteria even sports an Internet cafe -- but Lehman said there's a piece missing without that connection at home as well.

"Without the access of the technology at home, there's a disconnect between home and school. By us sending it home, it kind of bridges that gap," he said.

Raven couldn't wait to get home and start working with her computer.

"It's just fun having a laptop," she said.

Lehman said he expects the computers also will become the family computer, and that's fine so long as they're used appropriately. The school sees that aspect of the experiment as part of its community outreach.

The 200 computers and software were bought with federal grant money for about $200,000, Lehman said.

And to make sure the expensive classroom tools don't disappear, they're loaded with software that will allow the school and law enforcement to track them down if they're stolen.

If the program goes well this year, Lehman said the school hopes eventually to put a netbook in every student's hand.

Contact J. Brian Ewing at 373-7351 or brian.ewing@news-record.com

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