N.B. premier gets firsthand look at Maine laptop initiative

READFIELD – New Brunswick Premier Bernard Lord said Wednesday he is impressed with Maine’s laptop computer program and is interested in pursuing a similar program in his province.

Lord visited Maine to get a firsthand look at the state’s laptop initiative by visiting classrooms at Maranacook Community Middle School. He, along with other Canadian officials and Gov. Angus King, talked to pupils and teachers to see how they use the computers.

“I saw it in their eyes, I saw it in their faces. [Pupils] were happy,” Lord said.

Thousands of laptops have been delivered to more than 200 Maine schools. Within two years, 33,000 students are scheduled to have computers.

Lord and King signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Wednesday, pledging to work together on border development, pharmaceutical drug affordability, fishing issues and helping each other in times of emergency.

But both made it clear that Lord was in Maine primarily to learn more about the laptop program.

Guidance counselor Maggie McKinney said she could see a difference between classrooms that use laptops and those that don’t.

“The learning in the two seventh-grade classrooms with laptops is far deeper than what I’m able to do without it,” she said.