Maine middle schoolers get own laptops

FREEPORT, Maine -- The end of the school year is near and children are playing baseball outside. But the students in Shawn Favreau's classroom are focused on their laptop computers.

For their final social studies project, they're using the computers to create multimedia presentations on ancient Greece. Some of the Freeport Middle School students find it hard to imagine going back to using just pencils and paper.

"We still do the same things. We just do it differently. The teachers are winging it. They're looking for ways to make it more interesting," said student Kaitlyn Beaule. "I think it's a lot more fun."

Maine's first-in-the-nation laptop program, which covers all 241 public middle schools, has received high marks as the first full year ends this month.

The program began last fall with 17,000 seventh-graders and 3,000 teachers using the laptops. Next fall, it will be expanded to eighth-graders for a total of about 33,000 laptops in use.

In Favreau's class, the students use the computers for research, reports and e-mail. Gone are the days of turning in handwritten reports; assignments are more likely to call for students to make movies or Power Point presentations.

Next door, in Alex Briasco-Brin's math class, students used laptops for a project building model rockets. A teacher in Pembroke used the laptops to communicate in real-time with a deep-sea submersible off the coast of Africa.

Eye on the screens

One of the first things Favreau learned last fall was to sit in the back of the class instead of in front. That allows him to keep an eye on the screens to make sure kids aren't surfing or playing games.

On a recent day, his 16 students were grouped in twos as they worked on their presentations on Greece. Three were without computers: Two computers were broken and shipped off to Apple for repairs, and a third student lost his computer privileges after gaining access to the administrative password.

There have been other cases where school officials had to crack down. Soon after the program started, Freeport Middle School technology coordinator John Lunt sent an important message when he caught a student playing a computer game in class. He used his link to the student's laptop to shut down the game and trash it as the student wondered what was happening.

The laptops aren't used all the time. On a command of "lids down," the students close the computers and pick up textbooks or listen to lectures.

Freeport Middle School Principal Chris Toy said this is the first truly successful innovation he has seen in 23 years as an educator. He said using computers comes naturally to most students.

"Kids are digital natives, having grown up with computers," Toy said. "They're not afraid of it."

A midterm report showed students were more engaged and that absenteeism dropped with the introduction of laptops. Teachers, some of whom were leery of giving computers to students, have largely picked up on students' excitement about the program.

In one sign of high hopes for the program, state lawmakers facing a projected $1.2 billion budget shortfall at the start of the legislative session made no attempt to dismantle it.

But legislators will have to provide more money in the next session if there's to be a seamless transition when the current crop of middle school students enter high school, officials say.

Gov. John Baldacci said he's determined to see through the project that was the brainchild of his predecessor.

The state does not yet have the money, but Baldacci said he'll "turn over every stone" to find a way to expand the program. A four-year contract with Apple for the first phase in middle schools cost the state $37.2 million.

Already, some school districts are looking at private funding for pilot programs in high schools.

"I'm optimistic. You can't hold this back. Parents have told me, 'You better not touch that laptop fund,"' he said. "It's almost like the students and families are going to be demanding that it be continued and expanded."

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On the Net:

Maine Learning Technology Initiative http://www.state.me.us/mlte/index.html