There was a glow about Karsten Gronwold as he prepared his second-grade students for an exercise on taking measurements at the nearby Upper Truckee River.

With the pupils intently looking on from a patch of carpet, Gronwald, a teacher at the Lake Tahoe Environmental Science Magnet School, wrote and poked at the SMART Board, an interactive whiteboard projection screen that displays an image from a computer laptop.

"I think the biggest thing is we can record and save what we do," Gronwold said.

From elementary students using laptops to teachers creating Web pages, the use of technology is rising in local schools and facilitating classroom lesson plans.

Lake Tahoe Unified School District utilized a startup fund when it reopened Meyers Elementary as the magnet school. Most of the funds were used to purchase computer equipment like laptops and SMART Boards for every classroom.

Superintendent James Tarwater said he wants to bring technology to all the school sites and is looking into grant money to fund the upgrades.

District Computer Technician Marty Cross was busy Thursday tinkering with the school's main server in a closet-size room near the library.

The next goal is to increase the wireless capability in the school, he said.

"It's going to be like one big zone instead of little isolated zones," Cross said.

"It's not like when I went to school," he added.

One teacher said she uses e-mail to send field trip permission slips to parents to help avoid excuses from students involving paper-hungry dogs or unseen batches of water.

A new program called Cyber High is being used at South Tahoe High School for students who need class credits. First offered in the summer to 19 students, Cyber High has 30 to 35 online courses that students can take from a computer in the school's computer lab, said Principal Marcia Kaster.

"It's just another way to deliver instruction content," Kaster said.

But the coolest gadgets are the SMART Boards. Attached to a wall, it looks like a projection screen. Images from a laptop are pasted on the screen. But the similarities end there as teachers can use their finger to touch the SMART Board and scroll down a document or Web site. Special pens of different colors can be used to write on the screen.

As Gronwald used his SMART Board the pen marks he made on the screen appeared on the laptop sitting on his desk about 30 feet away.

Carol Murdock first used a SMART Board last school year for her middle-school students. She liked how students can write on the board and how those who are absent can review saved lessons.

"It will recap what happened," Murdock said.

Murdock, who is president of the teachers' union and received a masters of technology in education, said computers allow teachers to enter grades on a spreadsheet, created parent newsletters and develop classwork for special-need students.

Murdock envisions a structure where parents can log into a system using an individual code and check their child's grades online.

"I think it's great," she said. "Then parents aren't left in the dark. They're actually in a partnership with us."

Murdock is among the growing number of teachers who has a Web page for that reason. Teacher Web sites can be used by parents and students alike to check on projects and homework.

At St. Theresa Catholic School, 31 Apple iBooks are used daily by students in subjects from language arts, to social studies, to music.

"If we don't have technology in our school and raise that bar they'll get bored and won't be learning what we need to educate them on, said Liz Ferguson, the fifth- to eighth-grade teacher of science and technology.

Ferguson said she continually takes computer classes so she can keep "two steps ahead" of her students. She has a Web page she encourages her students to visit.

In Douglas County School District, Ji Wang is advocating for all teachers to have Web sites. Wang, the education technology specialist for the district, hosts voluntary training for teachers on Web site construction every month.

It's a main goal the district has this year. Since it's voluntary, teachers more at ease with technology have attended, Wang said. He believes those teachers will go back to their school sites and encourage other instructors in using technology.

Each teacher in Douglas County School District has reserved 20 megabytes in the server, Wang said. The minimal cost are those to cover substitute teacher rates so the regular classroom instructors can attend the training sessions.

Technology has provided classrooms with the opportunity to virtually dissect frogs and take virtual field trips. Joyce Hinkson, education program consultant in the education technology office of the California Department of Education, said some programs allow students to wear a headset and take a virtual tour of Washington D.C.

In its cash-strapped state, California ranks near the bottom when compared to other states in students' access to computers, Hinkson said. There has been no major state funding for school technology since the Digital High School Initiative in 1997 which brought computer hardware and software into schools.

"We don't have any state-funded grants at this point and the federal grants are being reduced," Hinkson said.

The state also doesn't have any technology standards for students although it does have requirements for teachers.

Gronwald, the magnet school teacher, doesn't seem to need training. Although his across-the-hall neighbor, Carmencita Penloza was using her SMART Board for listing words that end with -er from her class of first- and second-graders.

Cole Lyon, a student in Gronwald's class, said he likes the technology.

"There's no chalk dust," he said.

- E-mail William Ferchland at wferchland@tahoedailytribune.com