One byte at a time

Paper is on the way out at Waynesboro’s Wenonah Elementary School.

This year all 20 students in fifth-grade teacher Jessica Skeens’ class will use Macintosh computers to prepare PowerPoint presentations, receive videos that help them learn science concepts and e-mail math buddies in the classroom to compare notes on solving math problems.

The students also will use interactive gizmos on the computers to do science experiments such as manipulating the moon around Earth.

“Sure, there will be kinks,’’ Skeens said. “We’ll have to work through them. But the ultimate goal is learning.”

The paperless push is catching on in schools across the country as school boards in places like Georgia and Indiana increasingly rely on laptops rather than seemingly endless reams of paper and students read from online textbooks instead of hardbound books, according to Education Week, the industry trade journal.

While there still will be some use of paper at Wenonah, Skeens said the computers will create the closest thing to a paperless environment in her classroom where her students will learn math, science and language arts.

The teacher expects challenges during the school year that begins today, but said the only way to succeed “is by trying different things.”

Beyond learning the basics, Skeens and other Waynesboro educators hope the students will develop lifelong skills such as working better with others, solving problems and setting goals.

The kids, Skeens said, already have a jump start. They have taken computer labs and many use computers at their homes, she said.

She read about paperless classrooms in an educational publication, and pitched the idea to Waynesboro Schools officials last spring.

Sue Wright, the director of instruction for Waynesboro Schools, said it’s a matter of taking technology and using it to its fullest, something students do when they leave school.

“When they go home they are Twittering and communicating constantly. When they come to school they have limited access,’’ she said.

Wright said the format “is not just technology. It’s a different way of creating projects and demonstrating what you know.”

The role of teachers such as Skeens is critical.

Wright said teachers previously had all the information to offer students. Now they must help students access the information on the Internet properly. It is important for students to develop skills in the paperless classroom that will serve them in the future, Wright said.

That means helping students “to work in teams, problem-solve and set goals.”

Both Wright and Skeens said more will be known by the end of the school year when the students are tested for their proficiency on the Standards of Learning, the state’s standardized exam, and when the projects they produce can be more fully evaluated.

Skeens anticipates many visitors in her classroom over the next nine months. She thinks they will be eager to see how the experiment is working.

She is confident they will like what they see.

“I’ve been told many people will come through to visit,’’ she said. “My classroom door is always open.”