While most American high schools are missing the digital news revolution, Providence High and other N.C. schools are leading the way, a journalism professor said Thursday.

The Prowl, Providence's online news report, is an example of how high schools should teach journalism, said University of Tennessee professor Jim Stovall, who spoke to about 100 student journalists at a gathering of the N.C. Scholastic Media Association.

"I want to change the focus of what we do, because we are focused on print and it's not where the future of journalism is," said Stovall, who created a network that lets schools set up online news sites and share their stories. So far, he said, North Carolina has the largest number of participants.

Only one-third of U.S. high schools have any kind of online media, according to the just-released 2011 Scholastic Journalism Census, which polled 4,000 schools nationwide. Far more common are yearbooks (94 percent of schools surveyed) and student newspapers (64 percent).

"These data suggest many scholastic media programs are neither exposing students to the media landscape they will confront once they graduate from high school nor teaching students the skills they need to succeed in a multimedia world," says the report by the Kent State University Center for Scholastic Journalism.

Stovall came to The Charlotte Observer to speak to the meeting of teen journalists from the Charlotte area. He praised Providence journalism adviser Candace Brandt and her staff, and said Lake Norman Charter School also recently joined the online news network.

Stovall urged the young journalists to think about the potential for story ideas and resources that comes from reporting online and sharing stories. His network currently links about 45 high school news sites, but he said there are about 26,000 public high schools and 10,000 private high schools in the country.

"The mind boggles here, right?" he said. "What if there were just a few of those? What if there were 1,000 producing stuff and sharing it?"

Next year's Democratic National Convention in Charlotte would be a prime opportunity for student reporters to share work of national interest, he said.

Journalism opportunities vary within Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, driven partly by the efforts of faculty. East Mecklenburg High has a print and online version of The Eagle.

Alan Vitale launched a print and online newspaper at the small Olympic Renaissance when he taught there in 2009, using about $2,000 of his own money to supplement a grant. This year he transferred to Hough High, a newer and larger school that doesn't have a newspaper. Olympic Renaissance's news has gone to online only, he said: "I think this boiled down to expenses. Online production is cheaper."

Vitale said he'd love to start some kind of news report at Hough: "I will always be a passionate advocate for high school journalism."