Laptops greeted with broad grins

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BAR HARBOR – For 13-year-old Scott Bracy, getting a laptop was a momentous occasion that shouldn’t be consigned merely to memory.

So there he was Thursday with his father’s camcorder, documenting the broad grins and exclamations of “Awesome!” as the computers were handed out to his seventh-grade classmates at Connors-Emerson School, one of nine schools chosen to blaze a path for others this year in the state’s great laptop experiment.

“I want to look back when I’m old and see that we were one of the first schools to be successful with laptops,” he said.

The only thing rivaling the optimism of students and teachers Thursday was their excitement.

“I’ve waited for this for so many years,” said Rick Barter, the school’s technology coordinator. “You know this is something that kids ought to have. There are no scientists at Jackson Lab who don’t have a computer when they need them and there are no writers who don’t have a computer when they need them. Up to now it’s just been students who haven’t had that tool.”

Connors-Emerson is one of the nine schools named “exploration and demonstration sites” for Gov. Angus King’s laptop plan, which calls for placing the machines in the hands of all seventh-graders next fall and with all seventh- and eighth-graders next year. Other demonstration schools in eastern and northern Maine include Piscataquis Community Middle School in Guilford, Pembroke Elementary School and Skyway Middle School in Presque Isle.

The demonstration schools are getting their Apple iBooks now so that staff from area schools can visit and see firsthand what’s in store for them.

The Department of Education signed a four-year, $37.2 million contract with Apple in December to provide notebook computers, wireless networks, servers, technical support and maintenance and teacher training.

Rollout day

“Rollout” day, as Barter called it, began Thursday morning with the 54 seventh-graders sitting in the cafeteria waiting expectantly to try out their very own laptops.

“Are you guys excited?” Assistant Principal Mike Martin-Zboray asked. A resounding “Yes!” followed.

“The world is watching you guys and us to see how we do this,” he said. “It should make you feel proud that an adult thought it was a great idea for seventh-graders to have laptops. Let’s use them wisely. We have confidence in you.”

After listening to the school’s rules and policies and instructions about how to handle the laptops, the pupils were ready for their technology adventure to begin.

Whoops of joy erupted as they were handed the devices. Some cradled them tightly against their chests, while others grasped the handles so they could see what it would be like to carry them.

Soon Barter was showing the pupils how to turn the machines on and off, open programs and install their passwords and screen savers.

A glitch occurred as Barter found that the hole in the carrying case for the recharging cord was too small. That’s why there are demonstration sites, he said coolly. “As an exploration school we’ll report this to Apple who will take it to the people who made the cases. We’re going to discuss the problem.”

In the classroom

Back in class, Kim Smallidge had her pupils use their laptops to make name tags and print them out. Most of the pupils already were computer-savvy and proved whizzes at changing fonts and letter size.

“This is like Christmas all over again,” said Andrew Veilleux, who had been worried that the snowy weather forecast would delay the distribution of the laptops.

Some sixth-graders were hoping for a snow day, but Andrew wouldn’t hear of it. “I want school,” he told the others. “We’re getting our laptops and I can’t wait.”

Waiting for her laptop to recharge, Megan Harding stood on the sidelines happily surveying the scene.

“It went to sleep on me,” she said. “I’ll go play around with somebody else’s.”

Paige Woodfin was trying to figure out how she’d keep her father from taking over the device. “He’s wanted an iBook for so long,” she said.

Woodfin was looking forward to using the laptop for her writing assignments. Now she can do her editing on the computer and then e-mail her papers to her teachers.

“I think this is a really good choice for kids to have these things,” she said. “A lot of people say we’re not old enough, but we are.”

Meanwhile, Smallidge already has thought of some exciting science projects using the laptops.

Researching the dwindling lobster population, investigating the pros and cons of hydroelectric power and examining salmon farming were just a few she mentioned. Videotaping interviews with residents about the severity of the current drought and then making their findings into a movie for the computer was another idea.

Training session

Smallidge was recalling the training she and other demonstration-site teachers received last week at the University of Maine.

Teachers were encouraged to assign real-life projects that can’t be done without the up-to-the-minute statistics available on the Internet. Later, they’d publish their findings on the Web and even present them to community officials.

The two-day workshop was a trial run for the Department of Education, which will provide training for the rest of the seventh- grade teachers in Maine this summer.

Facilitator Bernajean Porter, a Colorado consultant, said teachers once simply sought to feel comfortable using computers.

Having passed that stage, many teachers now are using computers to automate their instruction – for word processing or studying math facts.

But by assigning “authentic” tasks that can’t be done without technology, they will be using computers to their greatest advantage, she said.

Pupils learn how to be independent thinkers by deciding what they need to know and by “struggling with tough questions that don’t have automatic answers,” she said. They enhance their communication skills by passing their learning on “so it’s useful and benefits others.”

Smallidge said she came away with a new point of view. Education isn’t about memorizing facts or having the teacher dictate what pupils should learn, she said. “It’s accessing information, evaluating sources and making up your own mind – not taking my word for it,” she said.

In addition to the two computers in each classroom that the children took turns using, the K-8 school has two computer labs. But trying to schedule time in the busy labs often proved difficult, said Smallidge, who is looking forward to the convenience of having a laptop for every student.

But the teacher said she hopes the community doesn’t expect teachers to “go into this knowing all the answers.”

“There will be a lot of mucking around and some frustration,” she said. “That’s how you learn.”

For his part, teacher Marc Chappe said he hopes that turning on the laptop eventually “feels as natural as picking up a pencil.”

But he doesn’t plan to use them during every lesson. “There will be things that they’re perfect for, but it’s fruitless to force them into a situation when they’re not a good fit,” Chappe said.

“I still want kids to use dictionaries and thesauruses,” he said. “I like to see kids be personally responsible. They ought to know how to spell correctly, write compelling topic sentences and structure paragraphs.”

‘Lord of the RIMS’

Rick Barter finds himself in the thick of things as one of the nine “regional integration mentors.” His job now – and after the laptops are delivered to all the schools in August – will be to help design and provide teacher training and solve computer glitches.

“There’s so much to do,” said Barter, whose pupils have dubbed him “Lord of the RIMS.”

“No one’s ever done this before and that contributes to the excitement,” Barter said. “The entire country is watching us. Everyone’s committed to making this successful.”

The system Maine pupils will be using is “wireless.” Antennae built into the laptops pick up radio waves from the “airport,” a saucer-shaped object mounted on the wall of every seventh- and eighth-grade classroom and the library. The airport, in turn, is connected to the Internet. It enables the laptop to be used from as far away as 150 feet “so kids can take it and sit on the lawn and write,” Barter said.

As a demonstration site, Connors-Emerson has been fielding questions from area schools asking what they need to get ready, how the laptops will be used in classrooms and when training dates have been scheduled, Barter said.

At the end of the month, teacher leaders from schools in Hancock County will spend the day at Connors-Emerson, picking up their laptops and working with Bette Manchester, who is overseeing the laptop initiative for the Maine Department of Education, and Apple representatives.

Selected by their schools, these teacher leaders will work with administrators, technology coordinators and other school personnel to implement the laptop program. They’ll collect data to be analyzed and coach teachers and notify them about training dates. Smallidge is the teacher leader at Connors-Emerson.

Spare laptops are available both at the Department of Education and at each school in case a machine is out of commission. Since the contract says no pupil will be without a computer for more than 24 hours, Apple has given schools air-express boxes for overnight shipping, Barter said. Turnaround will be quick, probably 48 hours but perhaps faster, he said. The repair facility is in Houston.

Local school systems will decide whether the seventh-graders will use the same machines next year as eighth-graders or whether they will get new devices.

In Bar Harbor, pupils likely will retain the same laptops since they will contain their passwords as well as their stored notes, Barter said.

Principal Barbara Neilly told the children Thursday they will be able to take the laptops home after April vacation. There, they’ll be able to access the World Book Encyclopedia as well as word processing and other programs that are on the hard drive.

They will be able to connect to the Internet by next fall through family phone lines that will give them free access via the Maine School Library Network.

The school committee “feels strongly” that laptops should go home “because there are kids who don’t have them [at home],” said Barter, pointing out that one of the laptop initiative’s guiding principles is student equity.

Unfazed by Virginia problems

Staff at the Bar Harbor school appear unfazed by recent problems in Henrico County, Va., where students used their laptops to log onto pornographic Web sites and download entertainment videos.

The MSLN has a filter that keeps children from accessing inappropriate Web sites, but if parents decide to use their own Internet provider it will be up to them to monitor their children, Barter said. The laptop contains security software that doesn’t allow pupils to install games, he said.

Further precautions will be in place in July when a federal law called the Children’s Internet Protection Act takes effect, Barter said. The law mandates that all schools getting federal money will need a plan to protect children from pornography and other inappropriate sites.

The Connors-Emerson School has been providing computers for use by pupils for six years without filters, and there’s been “pretty much no problem,” Barter said.

Pupils can’t be on the Internet unless a staff person is monitoring them. In addition, they’re taught about “responsible use,” Barter said.

“We tell them, ‘you may bump into garbage, but hit the ‘back’ button and tell a teacher,'” he said.

People shouldn’t paint all seventh-graders with a broad brush, pupils said.

“It’s not fair for people to judge us by what others do,” said Chelsea White.

Evans Goff said he wouldn’t think of misusing the laptops. “I know from experience that if I break something, I get in monster trouble,” he said.

Using computers is “such a privilege” that accessing inappropriate sites is the last thing children are thinking about, said Kristie Rechholtz. “The privilege would be taken away,” she said.

The children said they were looking forward to using laptops for keeping science journals and displaying photographs of plants taken during field trips to Acadia National Park.

Reading maps for social studies assignments is much easier online, Sam Cunningham said.

The devices will be a boon on another front, too, he said. “I’ve been bothering my parents to get a laptop. This will ease things for a while.”