The Dog Ate My vSlate.

• Author: Harding, Becky
• Position: Brief Article

"No more pencils, no more books, no more teachers' dirty looks."

When Utah schools convene this fall, thousands of schoolchildren may well be singing this old ditty traditionally saved for the beginning of summer break, not the end. According to Randall Waters, senior vice president at Orem-based InterActive Learning Systems, at least 15 school districts in Utah will pilot InterActive's vSlate, the latest in high-tech educational gadgets, this fall. The vSlate replaces pencils and books, and could give teachers something to smile about.

Looking remarkably similar to the ever-popular Etch-A-Sketch, the battery-powered vSlate is activated by touching graphics and words on the screen. It has a built-in dictionary, encyclopedia and calculator, and can store up to 40,000 pages of downloaded...