WATSONVILLE -- Today's students live in a digital world, chatting, playing games, exploring via smartphone or other mobile device.
In most classrooms, however, they return to the land of pen and paper.
That's no longer the case at Lakeview Middle School. The Pajaro Valley school has distributed 700 Google Chromebooks to its students, the first public school in Santa Cruz County to provide one-to-one, 24-7 access to computers.
Principal Ken Woods said the project is not about updating technology, but rather moving into the 21st century, where education doesn't stop at the end of a teacher's lecture or when the bell rings at the end of the day.
"It's a different way of teaching, a more effective way of learning," Woods said.
Chromebooks are small laptop computers designed to work mostly online in the Cloud. Teachers and students can use them to create and share documents, chat about assignments and conduct research on the Internet.
Sixth-graders received their Chromebooks on Monday, sitting quietly at tables in the school library, engrossed in learning how to set up virtual folders, get apps and access assignments. Seventh- and eighth-graders picked up theirs last week. Within a few hours, a student had reviewed an upcoming lesson plan about World War II and took the initiative to find and recommend a relevant video to his teacher, Woods said.
"It helps students take learning as something that's up to themselves, not just imparted by the teacher," said Tim Landeck, Pajaro Valley Unified School District technology director.
Landeck said the approach fosters collaboration and project-based learning, key principles of Common Core, the new language arts and math standards adopted by 45 states, including California. While Lakeview's the first to embrace it, he hopes it won't be the last in the district or county.
"We hope (other schools) will see the success and they will prioritize the resources," he said.
The Chromebooks cost $310 each, or more than $200,000 for the entire school. Lakeview used a state grant it received as a low-achieving school to cover most of the purchase. A districtwide school bond covered the rest.
In teacher Christian Woods' language arts class Monday, each eighth-grader was assigned a separate passage to read in a article about the Holocaust, and then to contribute the main idea to a shared document. Woods said students are more engaged working with the Chromebooks. She's not worried that they'll lose interest once the novelty wears off.
"I'll try to keep challenging them with assignments, and I hope to connect them with students from other schools and other countries," said Woods, who is married to the principal. "It just broadens their world. They're not just in Watsonville anymore."
There are limits to exploration. To access the Internet, no matter where they are, students must go through a district portal that blocks some sites, such as Facebook or those with pornography and violence.
A group of students stopped briefly as they left Woods' class for morning break. They said the Chromebooks help them stay organized since their assignments and work are all online rather than on easily scattered papers. They like that they can work together on homework, even in the evening at home.
"It helps you get it done faster," said Itzel Godinez, 13.
Anissa Diaz, 13, saw only one downside.
"You can't use the excuse that your dog ate your homework," she said.
Follow Sentinel reporter Donna Jones at Twitter.com/DonnaJonesscs