Code-happy students who know HTML and PERL are custom-writing programs for producing online school newspapers. As the students learn journalism, they're teaching their teachers about technology.
"We were trying to think of a way to improve the process and make the online edition available as quickly as possible," said Tim Cassedy-Blum, the managing editor of the Black and White, the newspaper at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Maryland. Cassedy-Blum was one of the three students who wrote the program for the online paper.
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"My generation is especially advanced in embracing the Internet, so it's advantageous to have our newspaper online so they can read it," Cassedy-Blum explained.
Some teachers are happy to let the students take the lead on putting the paper online, because they don't have the time to learn programming themselves.
"I've just relied on brilliant students," said Marcie Pachino, a journalism teacher at Jordan High School in Durham, North Carolina.
Two years ago, an ambitious student created The Clarion, the newspaper for Connersville High School in Connersville, Indiana.
Journalism teacher Lisa Morris said she was lucky to have a student who wanted to build the site. As it went live, more students became interested in the Web edition.
In addition to the fundamentals of journalism, Morris teaches her students Photoshop and Pagemaker. In turn, they have taught her a little about building a Web site.
Morris said her students have been inspired by the online paper and they have "big ideas" for the coming year. They want to add art, more interactivity, and build a story archive.
Putting students in charge of a Web site is not without its pitfalls, however.
Last semester at Connersville High, the student who built the page decided to pursue other activities, so the site was not kept up to date. This year, the work will be divided among three students who are committed to maintaining the site.
The one student who knew HTML at Alief Hastings High School in Houston inserted hidden obscene messages into the Web pages. Journalism teacher Dianne Smith found an alternative with Highwired.net, a site that publishes high school newspapers online for free.
Tammie Rogers, an English and journalism teacher in Monroe, Louisiana, said going online revived the newspaper at her school, and inspired her to learn HTML.
Students are so interested in writing on the Web, her staff has jumped from eight to 16 students this year.
"It's taken a program that was basically dead in the water and breathed so much life into it," Rogers said.
Even budding journalists at schools without newspapers can publish on the Net.
Student reporters can submit articles to Bolt, a student news site that pays US$25 for each story it accepts. Bolt aims to be a voice for students and includes articles that some high school newspapers have censored.
Shawn Anderson, a senior from Spencerport, New York, likes the site because he thinks it encourages students to keep up with the news and gives them a comfortable environment in which to do so.
"There's better content overall because [Bolt] has many more people submitting articles to them from all over the world," Anderson said. "The main reason I write for them is that I can reach a wider audience."
Smith, at Alief Hastings, said students can learn from each other by seeing what kinds of stories others report and by critiquing what they like, and what they don't.
"Any time you can see the writing in other schools it does nothing but strengthen your own program," Smith said.
And schools are finding that parents and alumni use the Web to read student articles as well.
"It's nice to know the students are being read by more than people at school," said Pachino.
Lycos, Wired News' parent company, has a marketing agreement with Highwired.net.
