At first glance, Deer Park Elementary doesn't fit the profile for a 21st-century school.

Some classes are still held in the original schoolhouse, which is topped by an old-fashioned bell tower. Like hundreds of children have done before them, students ring the bell when it's time for recess. The district's offices are crammed into the tiny teacherage next door.

It's one of the oldest schools in the county - and it very much looks the part. But when it comes to technology, Deer Park is working hard to stay up to date.

"The board and the administration made technology a priority," Principal Dennis Haverlandt said.

But the district is making strides toward improving its computers and network. Like other small schools in Flathead County, Deer Park recognizes the increasingly important role technology plays in students' lives and is striving to provide them with relevant instruction.

When Haverlandt, who formerly taught in Great Falls, took the administrative position at Deer Park last fall, the school had a decent computer lab, but the teachers' computers were old and outdated. The school had a network, he said, "but it didn't work real well."

Haverlandt, who holds a master's degree in educational technology, has helped revamp the network and has secured new computers for Deer Park's teachers. He even convinced them to switch from the Macintosh computers that have been a staple in schools since the 1980s to Windows PCs.

"I was surprised at how positively receptive they were," he said.

Business applications are predominantly PC-based, he explained. "They prefer kids to come in with PC skills."

Students start learning those skills as early as first grade at Deer Park. Haverlandt is the computer applications teacher as well as the principal; he teaches first- through fourth-grade students in the lab.

The youngest students receive a basic, step-by-step introduction to the equipment, he said. They learn how to log on to computers, how to open and save files and how to manipulate a mouse.

In third grade, students begin to learn how to type. They learn how to use word-processing software and how to make PowerPoint presentations.

"Teachers integrate those kinds of skills into their regular studies," Haverlandt said. "Applications are real-world- and classroom-based."

They also learn how to do simple Internet searches, "so they're able to distinguish sites that might be good versus sites that aren't so good," he said.

Teaching children discernment is increasingly important, said Rick Nadeau, principal at Cayuse Prairie School. Firewalls and filters control students' access to some information, he said, but they still need to learn what sites are credible.

"One component of education is to teach the students how to judge the information they're getting off the Internet," he said. "I think that's an added component to education."

Two years ago, voters in the Cayuse district approved a $27,000 technology levy that allowed the district to purchase 25 laptops with wireless capability. The school also has a lab with 25 desktop computers, units in each classroom, and a couple of interactive whiteboards and document cameras, both of which have made overhead projectors obsolete.

"Cayuse is what I would say about in the middle as far as schools go in Montana," Nadeau said. "For a rural school, we're right up there. We have a smattering of all of it."

Pleasant Valley has a similar setup, Tracy Gross. She didn't expect to find a bank of computers and high-speed Internet when she interviewed for the teaching position at Flathead County's smallest and most remote school.

"I was really surprised," she said. "I was just like, oh my goodness. I didn't expect that there was going to be that kind of technology out here."

With just five students in the school, there are more than enough computers to go around. The students are online every day, Gross said.

Google Earth, an online virtual globe program, is part of their daily geography lesson. Gross' husband, a truck driver, sends the class his coordinates each day, and they look up his latitude and longitude on the Internet.

"They've been tracking him all over the country," she said.

The students often watch CNN News online, Gross said. Anytime they see a news item that interests them, they use the Internet to learn more about it.

"One day we looked up Bali," she said. "We've looked up Indonesia, China and volcanoes and earthquakes all over the world."

Most recently, the students are learning to make their own video games. They can make puzzle games or adventure programs with different levels.

"The kids set it up, program it and make the rules. It's basically elementary computer-programming software," Gross said. "I taught them PowerPoint at the beginning of the year, and they did so well that I wanted to find something to take it to the next level."

She hasn't yet broached with trustees the idea of putting an interactive whiteboard in the school.

"I don't know if it's a possibility. I haven't asked for one," she said. "Probably at some point."

Interactive whiteboards might not ever appear at Creston School, Principal Judi Hewitt said. The school is small enough that justifying that expense is difficult, she explained.

"We've got 10 to 12 kids in every class," she said. "I don't know if that kind of technology is anything we would ever look at."

Because the school only has students through the sixth grade, Creston has different needs than other rural districts. Students don't pass between classes; each grade has its own self-contained classroom.

"We did have a computer lab, but after watching it work for a few years, we decided to move the computers into individual classrooms," Hewitt said, adding that each classroom has about six computers.

"That works really well for us. We're right there to keep an eye on them, and kids can use them during the day and not wait for time in the lab."

Creston may not be as high-tech as other schools, but that doesn't mean technology isn't an important educational tool, Hewitt added. As the school's librarian in addition to its principal, she appreciates the role the Internet has played in supplying students with information.

"What we use [the computers] for is basically research," she said. "The Internet is a very important resource for up-to-date information."

The Internet has benefited teachers as well, Haverlandt said.

"Technology has enhanced teachers' ability to find resources," he said. "They can go online to find games or activities."

It enables teachers to keep up with students who are used to the constant stimulation technology provides. Schools fill in the technological gaps in kids' lives, Haverlandt said.

"They're tech-savvy in different ways … [like] text messaging and video games," he said. "School teaches them real-world applications."

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com.