Ky. School Tries to Go Paperless

Oct. 7 -- This week's Cybershake takes a look at how one school is pushing classrooms toward a paperless future. Plus, we note why security experts are still worried over the latest computer worm.

Course Load Of a Different Sort

Remember those good old days of school with the mimeograph machines and purple ink? Times have changed, and computers have changed the way kids learn lessons. And in some classrooms, technology is bringing the end to handwritten notes.

Administrators at the St. Bartholomew School in Louisville, Ky., are turning three of their junior high classrooms paperless. Using a $61,800 grant from the Catholic Education Foundation, 60 students will be given handheld computers to use in class and when doing homework.

School administrators hope that the move to electronic devices and the Internet will help streamline and organize learning for students.

"We'll be able to do all our subjects without pencils and we'll have reminders so we won't forget about our homework," says Alex Goffner, a 12-year-old student who is part of the handheld computer program.

Students participating in the program can't exactly ditch their book bags, since most class subjects will be based on traditional textbooks lessons. But the load they carry will be getting lighter.

Science classes for those in the handheld computer program will be completely electronic. Instead of books, lessons will be based on Internet research and classroom experiments. If the all-digital approach produces good results, school administrators say other classes could soon scrap textbooks as well.

Students aren't the only ones excited about the program.

Teacher Ross Carroll says: "It's going to change the way the kids do everything — from class work to assignments to where things are stored — no longer in notebooks and folders but on network folders on the computer."

— Michael Barr, ABCNEWS

A Bear of a Computer Bug

Internet security firms are sounding renewed and more urgent alarms against the latest computer worm called BugBear. Although it was discovered last Monday, experts say this malicious piece of software is still infecting computers worldwide.