If nothing else, the Maine laptop initiative certainly has a lot of people talking. Some are excited by the opportunities it will afford our young people. Other people think it’s lame or can list other ways to spend the money. Some teachers are raring to go, others are nervous. Many of the concerns are understandable as this will be quite a change to the schools we attended or work in. We haven’t been through anything like this before and most of us can only guess about what the problems will be or where the successes will come.

The good news is that the project is poised for success. Although we are the first state to give our students laptops, we aren’t the first schools to do so. Australia has given its students laptops, as have several large districts across the country. The educators at the heart of this project, such as distinguished educator Bette Manchester, are learning from them (and 20 years of research) about what works and what doesn’t, and are working to design a better system. For example, schools get to decide if they will let students take the computers home, and, according to the RFP, tech support will be provided by the vendor (not put back on the local schools).

More importantly, the state has made a strong commitment to teacher training and development. This isn’t a project about equipment; this is an initiative about teaching and learning. It will only be successful if the teachers are supported and, unlike some initiatives, this project has the funding and resources to back up the teachers in a variety of ways; everything from training on the equipment, to workshops on teaching with computers, to connections to educational resources.

There is a lot of hard work ahead and there will be ups and downs, but our children deserve this opportunity and there are a lot of educators ready to help them make the most of it.

Mike Muir

University of Maine

at Farmington

Fairfield