BOSTON - FROM online courses to kid-friendly laptops and virtual teachers, technology is spreading in America's classrooms, reducing the need for textbooks, notepads, paper and in some cases, even the schools themselves.

The Lilla G. Frederick Pilot Middle School in Boston has no textbooks. Students receive laptops at the start of each day, returning them at the end.

'The dog ate my homework' is no excuse here.

Teachers and students maintain blogs. Staff and parents chat on instant messaging software, and assignments are submitted through electronic 'drop boxes' on the school's website.

Students work at vastly different levels in the same classroom, and classwork is using Google's free applications such as Google Docs, or Apple's iMovie, and specialised educational software such as FASTT Math.

Computers also track a range of aptitude levels, allowing teachers to tailor their teaching to their students' weakest areas, said Ms Debra Socia, principal of the school in Dorchester.

However, the school makes one concession to the past: A library stocked with novels.

Average attendance climbed from 92 per cent to 94 per cent, while discipline referrals fell 30 per cent. And parents are more engaged, said Ms Socia.

The experiment at Frederick, which is located in a tough Boston district prone to crime and poor schools, began two years ago at a cost of about US$2 million (S$2.7 million), but last year was the first in which all 7th- and 8th-grade students received laptops.

US enrolment in online virtual classes reached the one million mark last year, 22 times the level seen in 2000, according to the North American Council for Online Learning, an industry body.

According to Mr Michael Horn, executive director of education at Innosight Institute, a non-profit think-tank in Massachusetts, projections show that 50 per cent of high school courses will be taught online by 2013, compared with 1 per cent now.

Mr Horn expects demand for teachers to fall. He also expects virtual schools to boost achievement in a US education system where only two-thirds of teenagers graduate from high school - a proportion that slides to 50 per cent for black Americans and Hispanics, according to government statistics.

K12, which provides online curriculum and educational services in 17 US states, has seen student enrolment rise 57 per cent from last year to 41,000 full-time students, said its chief executive, Mr Ron Packard.

Virginia-based K12 recently opened an office in Dubai to expand overseas, expecting strong offshore demand for American primary and secondary education tailored for foreign nationals who want to enter US universities.

Online tutoring is also expanding rapidly.

Bangalore-based TutorVista, which launched online US services in 2005, estimates its average global growth in active students at 22 per cent a month - all taught by 'e-tutors', mostly in India.

REUTERS