|
Thursday, August 15, 2002
Expert expects laptops to stay
©Copyright 2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. | ||
 |
||
A professor who will welcome educators to a University of Maine conference exploring the benefits of laptop computers on Thursday is confident that Gov. Angus King's program will move forward despite a budget shortfall.
As educators gathered in Orono, thousands of Apple iBook computers already had arrived in Maine and were awaiting delivery to schools.
Those laptops will be in the hands of more than 17,000 seventh-graders across the state long before an anticipated special session of the Legislature is convened to deal with a $180 million budget shortfall, said Seymour Papert, a founder of MIT's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.
"By the time the special session happens, the computers will be there in the schools and it's hard to imagine that someone will come with a big truck and round them up and take them away," Papert said.
Scientists from as far away as Costa Rica and Australia will be leading discussions today and Friday at the University of Maine conference entitled, "Learners, Laptops and Powerful Ideas."
Altogether, 180 Maine teachers will be attending the conference that features policy makers and educators from eight countries.
Papert, who will deliver the opening remarks, is a mathematician and one of the early pioneers of artificial intelligence. He currently serves as distinguished scientist at the University of Maine.
Other participants include Alan Kay, a founder of the Xerox research lab in Palo Alto, Calif.; Clotilde Fonseca, executive director of an education foundation in Costa Rica; and David Loader, principal of the first school to equip students with laptop computers in Australia.
Educators are excited about the Maine program, the first in the nation to equip students statewide with laptop computers.
But there are no guarantees that lawmakers won't tap into the money to help balance the books as they face a $180 million shortfall.
Attorney General Steven Rowe has advised lawmakers that they can break the contract, but that it would be bad public policy to do so.
Three thousand teachers already received laptops and seventh-graders will see them this fall in 241 schools. Within two years, 33,000 students in the seventh and eighth grades will have computers.
Papert said he believes funding is secure for the first year, and it will be up to the program to show results to continue down the road.
The governor said Wednesday that he's convinced the program will win over skeptics based on the experiences in nine demonstration schools that received computers last spring.
At Boothbay Elementary School, for example, absenteeism and tardiness for seventh-graders dropped by more than half when laptops arrived last spring. At the same time, the number of students on the honor roll grew.
"Once the program is under way, it will be very difficult to undo simply because it will prove its worth," King said.
Papert, too, is convinced that the program will be a success. The question of how big of a success depends on how well school administrators and the state bureaucracy adapt to change.
|
||