By DIANE GASPER-O'BRIEN

dobrien@dailynews.net

Alicia Brungardt well remembers her biology teacher from Hays High School in the 1980s.

Wednesday, the tables were turned.

Donna Cooper, who has taught biology for more than 40 years at HHS, was among about 20 teachers-turned-students learning how to operate their new laptop computers for the coming school year.

Hays is in the first year of a three-year lease for nearly 1,400 laptop computers from Nex-Tech, and teachers now have the assignment of learning how to use them before the middle of August rolls around.

"I prefer to go chase frogs (rather than) sitting for two hours at a computer," Cooper said, "but I need to know how to use a computer."

Allen Park, longtime principal at Washington Elementary School, agreed.

"We learn how to learn them, so we help (teachers and students)," he said. "I think (classes) are great because it helps us figure out the new system and new features."

Cooper, who has seen many a former student go on to become teachers, gave Brungardt an A-plus.

"Alicia is really patient, and she's been really helpful," Cooper said of Brungardt, instructional technology coordinator for Hays USD 489 who is teaching the classes along with her assistant, Bobbie Dinkel.

"It's really nice to have (the computers) now before we get with the kids," Cooper said, adding that she thinks classes for teachers are beneficial. "If you can't find something, someone there knows how to find it."

Dinkel, a teacher at Roosevelt Elementary School, is working on her master's degree in instructional technology at Fort Hays State University and this summer is working with Brungardt.

"Alicia has been a big help throughout," Dinkel said.

Brungardt echoed those sentiments of Dinkel, who has been helping explain the ins and outs of the new Hewlett Packard ProBook 4420s machines to the teachers.

Dinkel called the HPs a "significant improvement" over the Dell laptops that USD 489 leased four years ago.

Those older Dells underwent some improvements of their own, however, including doubling the computer memory, and will remain in the district, giving Hays schools a one-to-one ratio of computer to student from high school clear down through the third-grade level in the elementary schools.

"I think our upgrades are really going to make implementation of technology much more efficient," Brungardt said. "Efficient ties in with time, and time is always an issue."

Brungardt said that about 100 teachers and/or administrators attended at least one of the seven sessions on learning the Microsoft Windows 7 operating system and that training will continue throughout the summer and into the first semester.