Laptop learning under way
Copyright © 2002 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
Despite a budget crisis and fears of manhandled computers and dubious downloading, Gov. Angus S. King Jr.'s laptop-for-seventh-graders program is under way throughout the state.
Staff photo by DAVID LEAMINGWaterville Junior High School teacher Linda Bruce, right, assists a seventh-grader with a new laptop at the school on Wednesday. Floyd Wygant, center, a technology information specialist, works with other students. click to enlarge
Waterville Junior High School seventh-graders received their Apple iBooks Wednesday, a day after Skowhegan Area Middle School students activated their laptops for the first time.
At Hodgkins and Buker middle schools in Augusta, laptop distribution day arrived Thursday. And at Gardiner Area Middle School, the much-anticipated event happened more than a week ago.
Joanne Steneck, the state's project manager for the laptop initiative, said schools received the laptops by the third week in August. But each school is free to distribute those computers at a time it deems appropriate.
"I know of some very large schools that don't plan to distribute (their laptops) until the end of the month," Steneck said. "They just feel it will take a lot of time to set them up."
But even though the computers are here and largely in use, controversy continues to surround the initiative, particularly the issue of committing $37.2 million to a new program when the state faces a major budget shortfall — estimated most recently at $240 million.
"When roofs are leaking and there are schools with air quality issues, I'm not so sure this is the best use of money," said Sen. Kenneth T. Gagnon, D-Waterville.
Along with the money concerns, there are the Internet worries. Will students get into Web sites not appropriate for their eyes? Will they waste time on sites of little educational value?
News out of Henrico, Va., where a similar laptop experiment started a year ago, suggests such fears are warranted. Students in that state used their computers to download pornography, listen to music, play games and engage in hacking.
Maine education officials, however, insist that measures have been taken to prevent inappropriate use of the laptops. The contract also puts an emphasis on teaching training and technical support, two areas identified as weaknesses in the Virginia program.
Laptop proponents, chiefly those in the education community and certainly the governor, argue the portable computers are an invaluable education tool, one that will help equip Maine students with the skills and the know-how they need for the 21st century economy.
King, in his larger vision, wants to see the laptop initiative extend to high school students.
For now, however, the challenge may be to make it last the length of the four-year contract with Apple. King initially had $50 million in the Maine Learning Technology Endowment — the program's primary funding source.
The original idea was to use the interest from that endowment to pay for the laptop program indefinitely.
But beset by fiscal problems, the state began to draw from that fund to address its growing budget deficit. King spokesman Tony Sprague said the endowment could be down to $15 million by year's end.
Meanwhile, King's plan to raise $15 million for the program from private sources has struggled.
Although both the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and credit giant MBNA have donated $1 million, the fund-raising effort has yet to reach $3 million.
Still, Sprague expressed confidence that the contract would run its length — money from the Maine School and Library Network also is being used to fund the initiative.
"The contract that is currently in place for the program is based on the funding that is available," Sprague said.
That contract is a lease-purchase agreement that also included installation of a wireless network, technical training and support and professional development services.
But the pact does mean Maine will own the laptops. Assistant Attorney General William Laubenstein said to gain ownership the state has the option to buy the computers at $40 a machine at the end of the contract — or $1.44 million to purchase the 36,000 iBooks.
Those 36,000 laptops, incidentally, do not all go to students. Instead, the plan calls for 33,000 for seventh-graders and 3,000 for teachers.
Under the agreement, Apple also supplies spare laptops at no cost, according to Steneck. Steneck said 3 percent of the total, or 600 machines by the second year of the contract, would be available as backups at no additional cost.
So far, Steneck said reports from the nine schools chosen as demonstration sites — they received the computers last spring — have been encouraging. Steneck said she has received no reports of laptop abuse or any other significant problems.
"It has been amazing," she said. "It has gone very well."
The true test, though, comes now, although some sections of that test will take time to get to.
Internet access at home, for instance, is on hold.
"At this point how they will get access at home has not been worked out," Steneck said. "We are looking at all the various aspects. We are working on that this fall, and we are telling the schools it will probably be until January before we have it worked out."
Colin Hickey — 861-9205 chickey@centralmaine.com