ORONO - Blue sky, 85 degrees. A perfect day to be outside on the University of Maine campus, taking in the summer. But Jason Bicknell and a classmate are oblivious, hunkered down in a dark, stuffy room doing research - and enjoying it.

The secret lies in the humming computer equipment surrounding them. Jason and several other teen-agers are part of a university experiment in which high school students get to pick a topic, study it, then create an Internet site using images, text, sound and video to show off their knowledge.

Educators have found, perhaps not surprisingly, that students learn a lot when they think they're just playing with computers. ''It is a lot more interesting to learn the way we are,'' Jason says.

most schools in Maine use computers for little more than teaching students to do word processing or use spread sheets, education experts say.

This is true despite the fact Maine has spent millions of dollars to hook schools up to the Internet, provide them with the latest video conferencing technology and place thousands of computers in classrooms.

The problem has a simple explanation that is frustratingly difficult to solve: Technology changes a lot faster than schools do. Not enough teachers are being trained to keep pace.

''When we just do word processing or do work sheets, we've completely failed to make use of the tool, or teach kids to make use of the tool,'' says Jeffery Wilhelm, an assistant professor of education at UMaine who trains teachers how to use computers. ''It's like using a car as a shelter to get out of the rain.''

Some schools are using computers to their full potential and have students creating Web sites and working together on multimedia presentations.

But it shouldn't be too surprising that schools, especially in the secondary level, are still generally geared to teach students more basic skills, experts say.

Just a few years ago, that was all that was needed.

Then the world changed.

More powerful computers, equipped with CD/ROMs and capable of running multimedia applications became common by the mid-1990s. In 1993, Mosaic - the first popular Web browser - was introduced and Internet use exploded.

Maine, like every other state in the nation, rushed to get schools plugged in. By 1996, 9 percent of Maine schools had Internet access. One year later all schools had access.

Computers are still being used primarily as fancy typewriters because teachers have not been trained to make full use of the technology, educators said.

School districts often don't make the connection between buying computers and training teachers to use them, said Idella Harter, president of the Maine Education Association.

''They forget, that for a person without a computer (of their own), plugging it in and putting it together is an issue,'' she said.

A model for the state

Jason Bicknell doesn't need anyone to show him how to turn on a computer.

He arrives early and stays late to use computers on the fourth floor of UMaine's Chadbourne Hall. Jason, who is 15, works with several other high school students. They're creating a multimedia Web site on the history of jazz.

The students are building the site with some direction and technical help from university staff.

Educators have watched the students to see what they're learning and why, and hope to use the project as a model for classes across the state.

''I've learned a lot with this because you have to work with it,'' Jason says. ''We had to pick out the most influential jazz artists of the times. It took a lot of research.''

Jason says he and the other students went to the local library and read books about jazz, then combed the Internet for sites with additional information as well as pictures.

The teens worked as a team and split up their duties. After doing all the research, they wrote up a history and added pictures, animation and music.

''Now every picture that pops up, I know the name of the performer and their history,'' Jason says. ''It surprises me. This gets all your senses tuned in.''

It would not be difficult for schools across the state to duplicate the project that Jason and the other students are working on at UMaine, says Mike Scott, a computer specialist running the program.

The computers the teen-agers are using this summer are nothing fancy, he said. Most of them are several years old.

''It's too bad (students) don't have that outlet in the schools, they'd be so far advanced by the time they came to college,'' Scott said.

And the students aren't simply learning how to use computers, he said. They also have to do research, compile the information, then organize and write it in a fashion that can be used on the Internet.

In addition to that traditional work, the students have to use multi-media elements, such as sound and animation. ''It is still a very difficult process to go through,'' Scott said. ''You have to know when to use an image and when to use audio and video.''

Teachers need teaching

Teachers need to know how to use computers themselves before they can help students to do similar work.

Harter, with the MEA, says she's heard horror stories, such as new computers arriving at a school and staying in their boxes because teachers did not know how to put them together.

Only about 14 percent of Maine teachers have had nine hours or more of training in the use of technology, according to a UMaine report that compiled information from several publications.

A UMaine survey of schools in six central Maine districts earlier this year asked teachers how many hours of technology training they received each month. About 67 percent of the teachers surveyed reported zero hours of training.

Harter said that when school budgets become tight, professional development for areas such as technology is one of the first things that school districts consider cutting.

''It's an easy piece to cut out of the budget,'' said Harter, a third-grade teacher with 23 years experience. ''You can count how many computers a school has. That is a concrete fact. It is hard to trace the benefit of professional development.''

Teachers not only need basic training in how to use computers, they need to learn how to use them as teaching tools, education experts say.

Robert Goddard, a social studies teacher at Brunswick Junior High school, says he uses computers a lot in his classes. Students use the Internet for research and work on multimedia projects, he said.

But Goddard says he learned how to use computers as a teaching tool largely on his own, through trial and error.

Goddard says he and other teachers find it tough to keep abreast of changes in technology and how to apply it in the classroom.

''The technology progresses so quick,'' he said. ''While you are involved in your lessons, it is really tough to take days and weeks to upgrade your skills.''

Robert Cobb, dean of the College of Education at UMaine, said early adopters of technology, like Goddard, find that they are in a ''perpetual state of being early adopters.''

''Those who not investing energy and time (to learn how to fully use computers) are falling farther and farther behind - by the minute.''

Cobb said his college is attacking pieces of the problem by training more than 100 teachers each summer in how to use computers at a technology institute.

The college also hopes to start offering a master's degree in instructional technology beginning in the spring of 1999.

In addition, the college is collaborating with other campuses in the University of Maine System to apply for a $10 million federal grant that would pay for regional training centers throughout the state. The centers would train teachers how to integrate new technology into the classroom, he said.

All 15,000 of Maine's teachers need to be fully trained in using computers, Cobb said. It's not just a matter of teaching students to use technology.

Increasingly students know more about computers than teachers do. Because of that, teachers need to be versed in the technology just to be able to relate to the students, he said.

''It is a form of communication (students) are quite accustomed to and we could be left out of the loop. That is not a loop we want to be left out of.''