The value of the announced gift to Maine last week from Electronic Data Systems, putting aside the enormous price tag for a moment, is that it takes the Maine Learning Technology Initiative far beyond the laptop program by which it is known. The gift greatly expands opportunities for learning in the kinds of fields Maine is desperate to encourage and confirms the original premise of the program.

The $400 million value of this gift and the link to the laptop program may leave the impression that this will load up school computers with features best left to engineering firms. The gift’s value is reported as the commercial worth of the licenses for the software – some of the individual packages, according to the governor’s office, cost $300,000. Whatever the assessed price, the more important question is how Maine will use this generous donation.

Not in the new laptops. The gift dramatically expands the meaning of MLTI by providing advanced software for vocational-technical, for the technical colleges and for the university system in addition to being useful in middle and high school computer labs and physics and math classes. One Waterville area teacher said he would update the longtime assignment of having students build a model bridge and then test its design for strength. The software has commercial applications in manufacturing, aerospace and medical technology among other fields, bringing the world’s latest in design capabilities to Maine.

The donation from EDS will supply hundreds of seat licenses around the state, including at Maine Maritime Academy, the Maine Technical College System and the University of Maine System. There will be no debate at these institutions over whether young teens will drop the software in a mud puddle or whether Maine would be better off saying no thanks to EDS and that what the students need is a good pair of winter boots and a chain saw – both subjects in the debate that came up when the state technology program first was proposed.

The public troubles of EDS -investigations ongoing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, a fallen stock price – are worth consideration by Maine, but the importance of the gift should not be. This is a real step forward for Maine, and it would not have arrived without the laptop program and without Maine students doing so well on national tests, both factors cited by EDS in awarding the software.

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Though still in the planning stage, a second valuable addition to the MLTI could come from author Stephen King, who recently said he would like to teach writing via the technology offered through the initiative. Mr. King is known not only as the author of 30 best-selling books but for offering one of his short stories, “Riding the Bullet,” over the Internet.

The offer of his expertise and the fact that he personally can be in only a limited number of classrooms, makes the laptop program a natural answer for giving many Maine students a chance to learn from a masterful writer. Both gifts are the result of creating the opportunity through the initiative for good things to happen.