INTERNET GIVES A.V. STUDENTS HIGH-TECH EDGE : WILSON AIMS TO BUILD ON KIDS' COMPUTER SKILLS.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Daily News Staff Writer

Cramming for the Los Angeles County Academic Decathlon competition, Highland High School's team turned to computers and the Internet for enlightenment.

At school, students clicked on information about the Greek legend of Pygmalion and the geography of Africa. Others with computers at home found competing schools' Web sites and learned how they were preparing for the rigorous contest.

``They used it like a library for getting information,'' said Craig Fulladosa, a ceramics teacher and adviser for Highland's Academic Decathlon team. ``It's amazing how much you can find on any topic. The library is limited with what you have. When you get on the Internet, it's the biggest library in the whole world.''

The educational information superhighway will widen with a $1 billion plan introduced by Gov. Pete Wilson last week to make computers in the classroom a reality for every high school in California over the next four years.

The ``Digital High School Initiative'' would make $50 million available next fiscal year for school districts that can provide matching funds or equipment - with the goal of pumping an average of $1 million in computer training and technology into some 100 high schools.

Although this state is the birthplace of high technology, it ranks 45th out of the 50 states in student access to computer technology, Wilson said.

A 1996 report by the California Education Technology Task Force found that the state's schools provide one computer for every 14 students - compared to a ratio of one computer to six students in leading states.

Antelope Valley Union High School District has one computer for every 10 students and is wiring all its campuses to provide access to computer networks in every classroom, officials said.

At the end of 1995, the district offered $70,000 in grants to teachers to fund technology projects in different subject areas, officials said.

Music teachers, for example, used their grant to buy computer equipment that will enable students to compose music using a special keyboard.

The high school district is a participant, along with the Palmdale School District and Antelope Valley College, in a $1 million grant awarded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to create an interactive, multimedia curriculum to encourage math and science education.

Highland High offers an example about how students use computers.

Computers have enabled Highland students to venture into the worlds of computer-controlled manufacturing machines, the design of race cars and completing work for independent study.

In Larry Noble's industrial technology class, students learn about computer numerical-control machines. They program computers to operate a lathe that cuts chess pieces out of cylinders of aluminum and brass.

The school has annual car races where students design and build foot-long wooden cars powered by carbon dioxide cartridges, Noble said. They use an engineering computer program to help them design and understand the physics in building a race car.

``For industrial technology, the whole focus has moved from manual arts or manual skills,'' Noble said. ``We've made a giant leap into the cutting edge of technology, and technology is changing rapidly. We are teaching highly technical skills. They need this to be competitive.''

About 150 students at Highland are on independent study and spend at least an hour a week on computers working toward class credit, said teacher Gary Roberts.

The school is hooked up to Nova Net from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, which developed a computer curriculum.

In algebra, for example, ``the kids can do problems on the computer and get feedback immediately on how they are doing,'' Roberts said. ``They put in answers using a mouse or keyboard. If it's wrong, the computer gives feedback that way.''

Each of the high schools in the Antelope Valley Union High School District has a Nova Net center for independent study, Roberts said.