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Sunday, November 3, 2002
Impressions on laptops: A great tool for schools
Copyright © 2002 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc. | ||
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BIDDEFORD — Previously, 13-year-old Kyle Huard would have had to lug several textbooks into class to research a science project on organ transplants. Now, the Biddeford Middle School seventh-grader just has to sit at his desk and open his new Apple iBook laptop computer to have a wealth of scientific information at his fingertips. He said his laptop not only makes studying easier, but more enjoyable.
"It's a lot more fun with a laptop," Kyle said last week, his eyes intent on the computer's screen.
Supporters of Maine's first-in-the-nation laptop program had predicted that giving portable computers to the state's middle-schoolers would help expand their general knowledge and their ability to use technology. But now that the state's 17,000 seventh-graders actually have the laptops in their hands, educators are seeing another benefit: Students seem more eager to learn.
The unique laptop program is also attracting national and international attention. Maine is the only state to distribute laptops to students statewide, not just to those in a particular county or school district, as other states have done.
Last week, the premier of New Brunswick, Canada, toured a middle school in Readfield and was so impressed he wants to start a similar program in his province. Delegations from Scotland and France have also visited the state in the past few weeks to see how the program is working.
The funding for the laptop initiative remains in limbo in Augusta, with lawmakers as yet undecided about how much of the $25 million set aside for the program should be used to offset a state revenue shortfall of about $240 million. Gov. Angus King has recommended trimming nearly $10 million from the fund to help balance the budget, which would still leave enough to fund the program for the two years.
Some lawmakers have talked of cutting more, but most appear reluctant to eliminate the program now that it's under way. Sen. Jill Goldthwait, a Bar Harbor independent who chairs the Legislature's Appropriations Committee, said there is a "fair amount of support" for the laptop program on the committee, including her own enthusiastic endorsement of it.
Goldthwait said the shortfall likely will necessitate some reduction in the laptop fund. "At this point I don't think we're going to find any other money," she said.
Still, while the grown-ups deliberate about funding, Maine's seventh-graders already are eagerly pioneering the use of the laptops. And just weeks after the students first logged on, educators are reporting benefits - ranging from students expanding their knowledge to becoming more eager to learn.
"I don't know what the magic is," Ione Dakin, Kyle's science teacher at Biddeford Middle School, said of her students' enthusiasm for the portable machines. But it's rubbing off on her. A 37-year teaching veteran, Dakin had been thinking about retiring. Now, she says, "I may teach five more years."
In all, the state is distributing 33,000 laptops to students. About half have gone to all the state's seventh-graders in 239 public schools this fall. The remainder will go to all the eighth-graders next fall. The students don't own the laptops but are assigned one to use every day in school and - depending on each individual school's policy - even to take home at night.
All schools statewide were issued the laptops when school opened. But many delayed handing them out for a few weeks until they could instruct students about using them appropriately and handling them with care.
"I'm pleased people have taken the time to be thoughtful with the roll-outs," said Bette Manchester, who's been overseeing staff development for the laptop initiative for the state Department of Education.
She also said "things are going along fine" in schools across the state. Not only are the students enthusiastic, Manchester said, but the way teachers have been using the laptops has left her "really impressed."
At Biddeford Middle School, the 215 seventh-graders got their laptops just over a month ago, said Marc Bourassa, lead teacher for the school's laptop program.
"It's absolutely amazing," Bourassa said. "Teachers are using them in class a heck of a lot more than I anticipated."
Dakin, for example, said she's found that the laptops enable her to teach science in new ways. She has her students view an animated depiction of mitosis, or cell division. With a textbook, she said, students "can look at a picture, but there's no activity going on."
The laptops are a big help for students' research. One of Dakin's students, Justin Gelinas, 12, said he'd have to travel to the public library to get the wealth of information he now has at his fingertips.
"This has stuff that books don't have," Justin said of his laptop. He and other students tote the computers around from class to class in black fabric cases that look like briefcases.
Nearby, his classmate, 13-year-old Dorothy Boyer, chased down the meaning of the word xenotransplantation - it refers to animal-to-human transplants - as she researched organ transplants on her computer.
She said she likes the laptop because "this is technology and you can do more stuff" - such as play math and science games that help her learn.
Dakin and other teachers say they haven't forsaken textbooks and other traditional methods of teaching - the students still do hands-on lab work, for example. But teachers frequently incorporate laptops into the lessons, too.
In a recent current events class, teacher Alan DuTremble had his students keep their laptops closed during a class discussion on the upcoming elections. DuTremble had written the names of candidates and such information as the three branches of government on the board to aid students.
About halfway through the class, he told students to open their laptops. "Thank you!" one boy called out.
The students turned to a Maine newspaper site where they could read about the candidates and view a copy of the ballot.
DuTremble said he could have brought in newspapers for the 24 students, but that would have required armfuls of newsprint and a lot of noisy rustling of paper. And he said some documents, such as the state constitution, have so many pages he couldn't provide a copy for every student. Now his entire class is able read such information together on their laptops.
The laptops do have their temptations. Michael Goulet, 12, said that "the bad thing about laptops is that you can be going on other Web sites while other people are learning."
But Dakin, the veteran teacher, said she avoids that problem by standing at the back of the room to monitor what site each student is on.
Bourassa said there have only been one or two kids out of the more than 200 seventh-graders at the school who've had to have their laptops temporarily taken away for going to inappropriate sites.
In fact, in DuTremble's class, all 24 of his students were focused on the correct site as he led them in a reading and discussion of the state referendum questions on the ballot. That may seem like pretty dry stuff, but Jake Provencher, 12, said the fact that the material is on a laptop enhances it.
"It's, like, easier to read than the newspaper," Jake said. "The newspaper when I look at it, it makes me bored."
The laptops have their challenges. Dakin said she spends a lot of time finding science Web sites for her students and focusing lesson plans around them that give the site addresses and directions on how to navigate the sites.
"It's been a lot of hard work, but it's worth it," she said.
Also, the issue of whether to let students take the laptops home is one which schools across the state are confronting - in varying ways. One concern is that the computers, worth about $1,000 each, belong to the state and are not insured for damages unless parents buy a $50 policy from Apple.
At Falmouth Middle School, students will be able to take the computers home after their parents attend meetings to learn about laptop use and care.
Principal Deb Loveitt said that 98 percent of the 165 seventh-graders there already have computers at home. But she said system barriers prevent them from accessing files on their laptops from their home computers, so they need to take the laptops home to work on projects.
In Biddeford, Bourassa said that the school has not yet decided whether to let students take the laptops home, even though more than half of the school's seventh-graders don't have computers at home. One worry is that the $50 insurance policy is too expensive for many parents. Bourassa said he'd like to see the state negotiate a $10 policy with Apple.
Another issue is teacher training on the laptops. Bourassa said eighth-grade teachers are worried they won't be as experienced on the laptops as next year's crop of eighth-graders will be, because those students are in seventh-grade now and will have had a year's more practice on the computers than their teachers. Although the teachers will get two days of training in the summer, Bourassa said that isn't enough.
Dakin said teachers shouldn't be afraid to let their students help them. "I just have them show me," she said. "I don't mind at all pleading ignorance - and kids love to show a teacher something."
The Associated Press contributed to this article
Staff Writer Tess Nacelewicz can be contacted at 791- 6367 or at:
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