SAD 47 laptops go out next week
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OAKLAND — Seventh-graders at Williams Junior High School will finally get their new laptop computers next week as the school launches orientation sessions on how to use the state-supplied machines.
Pam Tatham, the school computer teacher and the district coordinator of the laptop effort, said more than 220 students split into two groups will begin learning how to care for and operate the laptops.
"Hopefully on Monday we will start working with the two student teams," Tatham said. "I plan to do four days of instruction with each group of kids."
Tatham updated directors of School Administrative District 47 about the plans for the laptops at Wednesday's regular board meeting.
Williams is one of scores of middle schools across Maine receiving the $1,000 computers this fall in a pioneering effort to supply one entire grade level of students with the machines and tie them into the regular seventh-grade curriculum.
Gov. Angus S. King Jr.'s vision of a laptop computer for every middle-school student in Maine is taking its first step this fall, as Apple iBooks are being given to all seventh-graders. The state's eighth-grade students are due to get the laptops next fall.
Tatham said the machines are being readied for students along with charging terminals and other technical support in the school.
Each laptop comes with a carrying case, charger, and a standard series of programs including search engines, Appleworks, audiovisual, and Internet attachments.
The iBooks even have a computerized World Book Encyclopedia with unique additions that would not be possible in a print form, Tatham said.
"That is going to be a wonderful tool for teachers and students to be able to use," Tatham said.
Nearly all of the 24 teachers who will be using the iBooks in classes received training in their use over the summer, and most are excited, but a bit overwhelmed right now, Tatham said.
"We don't know a lot of things, but we will persevere, and learn as we go," Tatham said. "A lot of the guidelines will change, because no doubt there are many things we haven't thought of yet."
As the year progresses, teachers will receive additional training and the policies and practices surrounding the laptops will be fine-tuned, Tatham said.
One question raised during the board meeting was whether the school is prepared to deal with ergonomic issues surrounding the use of the machines.
Ergonomics is a science that seeks to adapt working conditions to the needs of the human body, and keyboard operation on small laptops can require adjustments in computer position, desk and chair height, and user posture.
"That may be something that we need to think about," Tatham said.
Some 17,000 seventh-graders in Maine are receiving laptops this fall.
Jonathan Humphrey — 861-9252 jhumphrey@centralmaine.com