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Maine Laptop Program a Success
Myoglobinologist writes "The New York Times has an article about how the State of Maine purchased $37 million worth of iBooks from Apple. The article states that the kids have adapted quickly to the laptops, attendance is up, and there is even heart-warming testimony from some politicians that were opposed to the project." We've done several previous stories about this initiative (they were originally considering custom-designed thin client machines - probably a good idea to go with off-the-shelf systems), and it's interesting to see how it has panned out.
I'm sure everyone would prefer to read the article here since it doesn't require a username or password.
For those of you who don't want to register:
FREEPORT, Me., March 4 -- Attendance is up. Detentions are down. Just six months after Maine began a controversial program to provide laptop computers to every seventh grader in the state, educators are impressed by how quickly students and teachers have adapted to laptop technology.
In a language arts class at Freeport Middle School, for example, muted howls could be heard recently as students researched projects related to Arctic stories, including "The Call of the Wild" by Jack London. Following Internet tracks created by their teacher, Janice Murphy, some students, inspired by the story, were researching wolves.
"Look," said Doug Hoover, 13, double-clicking on a wolf site. "Here's a picture of the sound waves the wolf makes when it howls."
Here and at the 239 middle schools around the state, students, teachers and parents say they are finding unexpected benefits.
No one seems more surprised by the early success of the program than Angus King, the state's former governor. When he announced the plan in the summer of 2000, motivated by a $50 million budget surplus and a pressing need to attract new business to Maine, Mr. King was stunned by the vehemence of objections.
The statewide effort, the first of its kind in the nation, "was more controversial than abortion, gay rights or even clear cutting," Mr. King said. "People hated it. They thought it was extravagant; they thought the kids wouldn't take care of the computers."
An early opponent was Chellie Pingree, then the State Senate majority leader and soon to be the president of Common Cause, a government watchdog group based in Washington. "It was about the allocation of resources," Ms. Pingree said. "We were struggling with construction issues: schools needed to be built; there were leaky roofs and not enough books."
Though she now sees the program as a success, others still say it is misguided.
"The state was flush at the time the laptop program was inaugurated, when it should have been providing for the rainy day that we're living with today," said Sumner Lipton, a lawyer in Augusta and a former state legislator. "There's a certain degree of irony in giving all the seventh graders laptops in a day when we're talking about cutting state employees back to four-day work weeks."
Before the program began, legislators trimmed its cost and scope. Envisioned as a $50 million effort that would let seventh graders take the computers with them through graduation, the plan was limited to seventh and eighth graders.
Laptops will follow their users to eighth grade next year, while seventh graders will get new iBooks, for a total of 33,000. When students leave the eighth grade, they will turn them in.
The cost of the four-year program is $37.5 million, which includes leasing the laptops, installing wireless ports throughout schools so students are always connected to the Internet and training teachers. It translates to about $300 per user a year, said Tony Sprague, project manager of the laptop program, the Maine Learning Technology Initiative.
To bolster the program, Mr. King sought support from beyond the state government. The author Stephen King (who is not related to Angus King) toured the Freeport school and offered to teach an online writing course. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation donated $1 million for more teacher training. The technology giant EDS pledged $400 million in software for Maine schools, the biggest gift the state has ever received.
Educators say that problems have been minimal, with little breakage, theft or loss. The rewards, teachers say, have been impressive.
"These laptops are changing the way learning happens and the way teaching happens," said Chris Toy, principal of Freeport Middle School. Such a transformation, Mr. Toy said, can happen only when each student has a computer. "We don't have a pencil lab or put eight pencils in the middle of the room and have kids take turns using them, Computers are tools, and when every child in every school has one, it levels the playing field."
Though an estimated 90 percent of the homes in Freeport, near Portland, have computers, the laptops go home with the students at night. "We needed to make sure that level playing field is extended to the home," Mr. Toy said. "Now, no one's computer is better or faster."
That sense of equality is felt keenly in the state's poor and remote schools. At the tiny elementary school in Pembroke, about 240 miles northeast of Portland in Washington County in the Down East region, children and teachers seem to be using the laptops as effectively as those in more affluent areas, the principal, Paula Smith, said. Washington County is the state's poorest, and Ms. Smith estimated that perhaps 35 percent of her students had a computer at home.
As at other schools, she said, seventh graders seem more focused and less mischievous. Last year, Ms. Smith said she handed out about 30 detentions to Pembroke's seventh and eighth graders. This year, there have been two.
Parents also welcome the program.
"When the plan was announced, a lot of people thought the money should have been put into buildings," said Alison Bennie, the mother of a seventh grader in Topsham, next to Brunswick near Portland. "My husband and I both work at Bowdoin College, and we see the rate of students bringing their own computers to campus. It's virtually 100 percent. So the sooner kids learn the language, the more adept they will be at computers in high school and beyond."
Ms. Bennie's point is critical. By some measures, Maine's public schools are considered quite good: the National Center for Education Statistics ranks Maine as having one of the highest high school graduation rates in the country. But when it comes to students going on to college, Maine ranks low in the region. And in term of Ph.D.s earned in the state, Maine ranks dead last among states and Puerto Rico, according to a recent report from the National Science Foundation.
Improved college attendance five years from now would be a measure of the program's success, but for now, educators are collecting all the information they can and are awaiting year-end test scores. In other parts of the country, smaller programs have had a significant effect: In Henrico County, Va., where 24,000 students in grades 6 through 12, have laptops, test scores have risen and dropout rates have fallen.
But many Maine educators worry less about how success will be measured than about what will happen when they tell ninth graders in 2004 to surrender their iBooks.
"Because I see their skills building, the biggest concern is what will happen when they enter high school and lose their laptops," said Diane Parent, the principal of the middle school in Caribou, more than 300 miles northeast of Portland in remote Aroostock County.
Teachers are crossing their fingers that schools will be able to secure funds to ensure that laptops stay with students through high school, as they do in Henrico County, Va.
Sorry, but my karma just ran over your dogma.
The bane of 2nd hand mac collectors could then turn into a bonus for schools.
Macs hold their value to ridiculous levels, some because the hardware is quite decent to start with, and part because there are less 2nd hand macs to go around than say, 2nd hand Dells.
In any case, schools should either be able to get a decent amount back from selling the things to upgrade when it's necessary, or if the machines are leased from apple it's likely there are planned upgrades in there.
But you can get thin client machines with COTS systems! Check out the linux terminal server project
You can use it with laptops.
It can be a HUGE cost-saver. Schools have shown time and again that students can be very quick to adapt to new environments/OSes. I hope some advocacy group takes up the cause to get schools to consider this option.
The computers are leased, not owned, so their is no upgrade. They'll simply lease better machines in a few years when they turn these back in.
OK, Since I was at least vaguely 'in the loop' on this at the time it started ...
The issue was a State initiative to increase higher salary high tech jobs in Maine. Diggin potatoes, pickin blueberries, and selling tourists McDogchow and T-shirts are basically minimum wage jobs. Data entry, programming, WP, and the like are usually more than Min wage. In a review of WHY Maine wasn't attracting more high tech the result was: little infrastructure and unskilled workforce.
Result, a 'bold' plan to increase workforce skill level over the long haul by integrating computer skills in the standard school curiculum and hopefully haul some fiber into the state, at least the southern part to start.
Running one off worker retraining was seen as too short sighted, the school plan ensured a 'steady stream' of skilled workers. The fiber issue was thought to eventually resolve itself but a one time kick in the pants to start it rolling was considered.
Unfortunately, I was 'out of the loop' by the time this thing actually started forward so I have no clue on the actual implementation, or where the initial discussions actually wound up.
These were the Hawthorne Studies... they specifically tried to determine the effect of lighting levels on worker productivity. Increasing the amount of light appeared to improve output. But decreasing the amount of light did the same thing. I don't think anyone knows for sure why the workers responded to the change in light instead of the absolute value of the lighting level. Prehaps they felt management was taking care of them. Prehaps they were more auspicious about being observed by the guys conducting the study.
And yeah... a similar thing is happening in Maine. Are they really being effective with those laptops? Will it really pay off for Maine in the long run? Do we have any confidence that these laptops are being used effectively?
I don't think I'll hold my breath.
-1, Too Many Layers Of Abstraction
Actually, that is entirely incorrect. The laptops were purchased, not leased. The kids have the opportunity to purchase them, in turn, at a severely discounted price when they leave middle school.
[I have posted this generally, but repeat it here as well:]
/rr
I'm sorry, there are just some very *wrong* things being said about this program both by people who claim to be from the state and via those from "away." So to clarify a number of things that have been said elsewhere:
1: The money for this program was privately generated and tagged specically for this program.
2: No general fund tax dollars are involved in this project...that is, no money that would otherwise go to other educational goals was diverted fund this.
3: Apple absolutely loss-lead this project...there is no doubt where the future is heading and a successful project here in Maine will pay off when NY or CA rolls out the same thing.
4: There is money being spent on teacher training and on technology integration into daily education.
5: This is an issue of equity of access and equity of opportunity. As Gov. King so eloquently explained, [paraphrasing] "My family was wealthy, when I was in school my father bought an Encyclopedia Brittanica for the house. Every other student in my class had to share the dog-eared one in the school library. Did this give me an advantage, absolutely. As of this moment, every single 7th grader in the State of Maine has their own World Book Encyclopedia because there is one on every single laptop." This program is about putting the single greatest educational TOOL since the printed book in the hands of those who need it most. It is about creating a structure within which those tools can be utilized to their highest and best use. It is about, frankly, the future of education.
6: The argument that kids can not be responsible is bunk...they are the exact same arguments that were being made when the debates about whether kids should be allowed to bring their textbooks home in the '30-40's...they were wrong then and wrong now.
I, for one, am very proud of this program. A decade from now, kids having laptops as part of their education will be a non-issue...like not allowing kids to bring books home, we will wonder what all the fuss was about. Will it go smoothly at every turn, no...is it the right path to go...absolutely. Maine's motto is Dirigo..."I Lead." Welcome to the future of education.
--
I do not fear computers. I fear lack of them.
- Isaac Asimov
but you gotta love those PBS ads where they pat themselves on the back for educating the teachers on how to use the laptops.
another thing nobody seems to be talking about here is the fact that the $50mil that King set aside was originally supposed to last forever: just use the interest for capital purchases. somehow, I don't think that's going to be the case.
and another thing: apparently the the law the state legislature passed had clauses in it related to the amount of private donations that the fund needed to accumulate in order to stay in action (as in, if they didn't meet goals the money went back to general fund). apparently, there's been some suspicious accounting involved --- like using discounted value of the purchased iBooks as a multi-million dollar "donation" (i.e. apparently buying in bulk didn't buy us anything, we paid full retail for all those laptops, but apple gave us a "donation" of several mil to help cover the cost).
[Posted generally, applied specifically]
/rr
I'm sorry, there are just some very *wrong* things being said about this program both by people who claim to be from the state and via those from "away." So to clarify a number of things that have been said elsewhere:
1: The money for this program was privately generated and tagged specically for this program.
2: No general fund tax dollars are involved in this project...that is, no money that would otherwise go to other educational goals was diverted fund this.
3: Apple absolutely loss-lead this project...there is no doubt where the future is heading and a successful project here in Maine will pay off when NY or CA rolls out the same thing.
4: There is money being spent on teacher training and on technology integration into daily education.
5: This is an issue of equity of access and equity of opportunity. As Gov. King so eloquently explained, [paraphrasing] "My family was wealthy, when I was in school my father bought an Encyclopedia Brittanica for the house. Every other student in my class had to share the dog-eared one in the school library. Did this give me an advantage, absolutely. As of this moment, every single 7th grader in the State of Maine has their own World Book Encyclopedia because there is one on every single laptop." This program is about putting the single greatest educational TOOL since the printed book in the hands of those who need it most. It is about creating a structure within which those tools can be utilized to their highest and best use. It is about, frankly, the future of education.
6: The argument that kids can not be responsible is bunk...they are the exact same arguments that were being made when the debates about whether kids should be allowed to bring their textbooks home in the '30-40's...they were wrong then and wrong now.
I, for one, am very proud of this program. A decade from now, kids having laptops as part of their education will be a non-issue...like not allowing kids to bring books home, we will wonder what all the fuss was about. Will it go smoothly at every turn, no...is it the right path to go...absolutely. Maine's motto is Dirigo..."I Lead." Welcome to the future of education.
--
I do not fear computers. I fear lack of them.
- Isaac Asimov
....And now from a Student
;)
... now its real fun to go download that 200 meg file by standing on the sidewalk outside the school. Another breif point on this I want to make is that of the new iBook 'image' the supposedly secure desktop shell to make sure we do not modify the system and install games ect., every new installment of this image is broken within an hour of re-issuing.
;)
Yes I am a studen in a school with the iBook initiative,ect ect. although I am not in Maine I am in Virginia, now i bet you are wondering how i am posting so early on a school day...well im on my iBook bored in the middle of project presentations. Now on to comments
A breif history of pr0n: Yes that did happen at a wide spread effect in the first year of the initiative(last year) students were filling up thier astounding 8 gb Hdd with massive movies and pictures of pr0n. and you guessed it they intended to beat off in the middle of class while thier teacher explained why x = y^2 . This I see as completely a waste, because i enjoy my masterbation in the privacy of my own house
A Breif History of Security: The school board did not know what they were takeing on when they put laptops in the hands of teenagers, especialy my school. I remember last year at the very begining, Grades, attendance, and teacher share folders were available freely on the school's great new WiFi-network. You wouldnt even need to bee at 'l33t h4xor' to find it, being as it is readily available in a un-passworded appleshare network. It was also freely available to make your own filesharing network, and trade that pr0n you downloaded last period through an un-filtered webserver. Now though after a bit of experience they have filtered most all in-appropriate matterial, of cource changing your proxy settings to an older proxy dns name yeilds porn games and email(a major issue at my school). When Students moaned about slow speeds and inability to connect, they boosted the power of the AirPorts(apples answer to a WiFi terminal) and upped the bandwidth
A Breif History of H4x0ring: where there is a will there is a way, what better way to do that then to hand computers to teenagers and tell them not to do anything bad with them. Last year a student introduced a virus onto the network which infected the entire county, by traveling through the unsecured filesharing networks. With this he crashed entire schools, forcing our fledgeling tech support to re install OS9.1 on every book in the county. how fun.
These thing Break...Alot...Apple being the sweet-hearts that they are allowed some of us to return thier defective chargers. Accept for the ones that werent broken at the time which are now SOL as it were. Screens coming off. keyboards, airport cards, hd's, power circutry. Ive seen them all fried shattered and just plain busted.
Sure it makes it easyer for us to do school work and use web resources otherwise not accessable to us. I like having these iBooks, they give me something to do when im bored in class besides sleeping.
Jonas
You should feel lucky! 20 lbs! Why in my day...
... maybe laptops can help with this rather pressing issue of weight. They sure would've made me nervous to leave my backpack unattended, though. Maybe the computers should come with leashes, or ignition keys. Nad maybe they should bring back school lockers, perhaps in plexiglas.
No seriouslt, NYT recently had something about how certain grade schools are now evaluating textbook candidates for weight. It seems that as books have gotten fatter to cram in pointless pictures and factoids many are clearing the 1,000-page mark and students are literally suffering back injuries toting them from class to class, and home and back.
Now, like you I thought this is silly, why aren't these dumb kids planning a head a litte, just carrying the books they need and knocking off the "heavy" subjects in study hall. Well, a separate development is that these schools have eliminated student lockers, to reduce problems of drugs, weapons, and forgotten lunch meat. These were relatively affluent school districts, too (heck, they can afford new textbooks).
So
You know, when I was a kid they didn't even give us pencils.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Did you even read the article? They have a cost equaling out to about $300 per student. Support and maintainance on Apple machines can easily be carried out by students (that's what my highschool did, 3 of us after school each day, $5.15 an hour (minimum wage) and on top of that we maintained the PCs and ran cables for the network.
Software was being donated, and IIRC, when you lease computers from Apple, if something goes seriously wrong, Apple replaces free of charge.
T Money
World Domination with a plastic spoon since 1984
Where were you three years ago when everyone else was arguing about this?
NetInfo connection failed for server 127.0.0.1/local
I live in Portland Maine. I have met with former Governor King when he was pushing this program. My wife is a middle school teacher. I have listen to a lot of material on this issue.
It's unlikely the state will fund the laptop program again once the current lease is up. Maine has an enormous state budget deficit. The economy is getting worse and our legislature is making cuts everywhere. School systems in Maine are cutting all non-core programs including foreign language, sports and music. If they could have backed out of the laptop program they would have.
-==-
until the most basic needs of students are met, laptops shouldn't be integrated into the curriculum.
This reminds me of when President Clinton made the comment in South Africa that he wanted to see the Internet in every school in South Africa. The response: that's nice, but perhaps we should get electricity first.
I believe in de-evolution. God made the world perfect, man fell, and its been going downhill ever since!
As a tech guy in a Maine school....they're not being stolen....damage has been very light (report in Dec. 30 laptops damaged out of 30,000...theft is 'nil due to machines being tagged, tracked, locked down...etc. Kids can't do anything other than what we've given them permissions to do...all other stuff locked down. I had visions of kids going nuts and laptops going to hell....but it hasn't happened. The kids...commmuntiy and all are doing just fine.
or
http://tinyurl.com/6wud
I prefer a void in conversation to a vacuous one.
Last year I was a teacher at a school in the Richmond VA area, and we were the first school to have the "Apple iBook initiative". At the end of the summer, every HS teacher was given his/her iBook (The clam shaped ones), then at the beginning of the school year every HS student was given an iBook (the white square ones) [NOTE: The teacher books were bought by the SD, the student books were leased]
The first half of the year was a MESS. The students were originally given stock iBooks. We had students file sharing, piracy, missing and deleted apps, you name it. Since the school had purchased an anti-virus program from a company that went belly-up shortly afterwards, we had viruses running though-out the schools wireless network. A lot of the kids were using their iBooks in school to listen to music, share porn that they got while at home and play games. Then when they were caught, the iBooks would be confiscated. This made things very unreliable from the teacher perspective. I can not count the number of times I made a lesson that was going to use all this wonderful technology we had, only to find that over half the class did not have their iBooks cause- 1) they were being fixed, 2) been confiscated, 3) low battery, 4) missing apps, etc. This became the norm, so at the time when the teachers were the most "gung-ho" to use the iBooks, they were unreliable. I should note here that, as with everything else in life, there were many students (and teachers) used the iBooks as planned, and acted very respectable towards the entire project. But we had enough "bad apples" (excuse the pun) to ruin the experience.
The second semester saw a lot of improvement as the SD learned from the mistakes. They bought new anti-virus software and "locked down" the student's iBooks so that a lot of the non-educational things were not available. But by now, most teachers had returned to using standard methods of teaching. The use of the iBooks became equivalent to use of a computer lab. Yes, we used the iBooks more then a lab since we did not have to sign-up 3 wks in advance or waste time moving class, etc. but I do not think that was what the SD really wanted.
I have mixed feeling toward laptops in school. I think student should be able to use as much technology as possible, BUT only when it is better then, and supplements the standard methods. I think that laptops should be limited to the HS, were students are more mature (for the most part). I think that teachers should be heavily trained on how to use the computer as a supplement to their teaching. Schools should have "test groups" before issuing out laptops to the entire school. And these test groups MUST be a mix of the school population, not just the "good students".
If it is done right, I think it can be a great tool for education, but I have seen/read too many times it is quickly implemented so that the politicians (both government and school board) can get a new feather in their caps.
Just my 2/100 of $1.00