Jan. 7th news "Maine and Apple Sign Historic Contract for Maine Middle School Computer Initiative. Apple to equip 33,000 students and 3000 teachers with iBook notebook computers, wireless networks, training, and technical support in order to transform teaching and learning through the Maine Learning Technology Initiative."
Jan. 23rd news "Nine Maine Middle Schools Selected As Advance Demonstration Schools for Learning Technology Initiative. One Middle School in Each Region Will Receive Wireless Networks and iBook Notebook Computers in February, Serve as Sites for Observation and Exploration By Teachers in Preparation for Scheduled August 2002 Deployment to All Maine 7th Grade Students and Teachers."
Jan. 29th news "Seventh-graders at Maranacook Community Middle School have asked Principal Mary Callan the same question for days. "When?" Her answer? "Probably the last week in February." The students wanted to know about the laptop computers the school was expected to receive from the state Department of Education as one of the nine demonstration sites in the state. The sites will help other teachers learn how to prepare for using Apple iBooks with seventh-and eighth-graders next fall."
Jan. 31st news "Recounting opposition from constituents, some lawmakers say they are ready to tap the state's $25 million laptop fund and shift the money to social services."
Feb. 1st news Originally, the state planned to set aside $50 million for a permanent laptop fund, but that was cut to $30 million last year. King has proposed using $5 million of the remaining amount to help bridge the budget gap.
Feb. 6th news "Gov. Angus King says the search for more money to help finance his struggling school-computer initiative is about to pay off. King said Tuesday he will announce in the next few days that he has lined up additional private contributions to supplement a previously announced $1 million gift from Microsoft.
Feb. 7th news "To some, such as conservative activist Mary Adams, the "lapflop" program in Virginia shows that "the Maine Legislature should pull the plug" on King's plan before it is too late. But to others, including state officials who are promoting the program here, the Virginia experience underscores the need for thorough planning before such a program is launched. "I think most of the issues that have proven problematic there were anticipated" here and are being dealt with before the computers go into the schools, said Yellow Light Breen of the Maine Department of Education. If Apple can solve problems after the fact in Virginia, Breen said, "we know they can do it beforehand for us."
Feb. 9th news "Teachers and school administrators from across Maine will descend upon the new Williamson Fine Arts & Technology Center Saturday for a daylong conference on the state's laptop computer program. The day will feature training programs for teachers, demonstrations and brainstorming sessions on the pros and cons of the program, said Lawrence Junior High School principal Jennifer A. Haney, who is hosting the conference."
Feb. 15th news "The Maine Center for Educational Services selected 75 teachers across Maine as SEED Developers who will devise approaches that use technology to achieve learning results."
Feb. 16th news "Maine's education commissioner announced Friday that all 239 middle schools will participate in the laptop computer program. The school districts are not required to participate in the laptop program, so Commissioner Duke Albanese viewed the 100 percent participation as validation by educators of the program's worth."
Feb. 21st news "The two-year-old conflict over whether to equip middle schoolers with laptop computers intensified Wednesday, as both sides waged a war of words to build support in the Legislature. The most visible face-off occurred when about a dozen opponents of the computer initiative held a midday news conference in the Hall of Flags at the State House to denounce Gov. Angus King's proposal, which would equip seventh-graders with laptops in the upcoming school year and eighth-graders the year after that. At the same time, supporters of the governor's plan held a silent vigil a few feet away, using laptop computers as props. The dueling appeals came as supporters and opponents buried the Legislature in a flurry of letters touting the plan's virtues and shortcomings."
March 5th news "Gov. Angus King has landed another big contribution to his laptops-for-students program, but he still has a long way to go before he hits his $15 million target for private funding. King announced Monday that the MBNA Foundation, which is affiliated with the credit-card issuing MBNA Corp., has pledged $1 million to the computer initiative over the next five years. The foundation would provide the money in annual installments of $200,000, King said."
March 14th news "A group of Maranacook Community Middle School seventh-graders scrambled to their classroom in record-breaking time Wednesday morning. The laptops had arrived. White Apple iBooks rested on each desk, with tags listing a student's name. The previous class, foreign language, is held at the other end of the building. "I've never seen them get here so quickly," said Melanie Mason, a seventh-grade teacher."
March 19th news "Portland schools are delighted to be part of Gov. Angus King's new laptop computer giveaway - but say it could entail significant costs for local taxpayers."
March 25th news "Students learning how to use their new laptop computers at Auburn Middle School can surf the Internet and exchange e-mail without tripping over network cables or power cords. Fast-growing wireless technology means there is no spaghetti-like jumble of cables in the classrooms here....The same wireless technology that keeps people connected on Palm Pilots and lets a family surf the Net on the porch will allow students to stay connected in class, in the lunchroom, and even outside on the basketball court. Without it, the Maine project, which already carries a price tag of more than $30 million, would have been too expensive to fathom, officials said."
March 26th news "Gov. Angus King signed a supplemental state budget package Monday night that offsets a General Fund revenue shortfall of nearly $160 million and preserves the laptop program he's championed. During a televised program with legislative leaders, King put his signature on the thick document after the Maine Senate gave its final approval by a 29-5 vote. The final House tally was 109-29."
April 1st news "It took two years of wrangling to get this far. Now, Matthew Oliver hopes the political infighting is over and the state will fully implement Gov. Angus King's plan to equip middle-school students with laptop computers. "The program should go forward unimpeded," said Oliver, the superintendent of schools in Guilford-based SAD 4. He commented days after the Legislature passed a pared-down budget that spared a $25 million fund for the project."
April 8th news "Now that the contentious debate over laptop funding appears settled, a new question is emerging: Should students be allowed to take their Apple iBooks home? Several demonstration schools in the laptop program plan to follow Lyman Moore's lead and let students take the laptops home, perhaps in a few weeks, after parents can attend orientation and training sessions. They feel that the educational value outweighs any concerns. Being able to use the computers for homework and research at home is an integral part of the laptop initiative, Begonia said. "We're going to show (other schools) how it should be done.""
April 24th news "...launch of the MLTI (Maine Learning Technology Initiative) Summer Teacher Training...available to seventh grade teachers in the summer of 2002. Eighteen two-day sessions will be offered throughout the state between June and August."
May 3rd news "...the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland unveiled its own newly purchased laptops...With the help of corporate sponsors, each school will get one wireless base station and 21 laptops - complete with Intel Celeron processors, Microsoft Windows XP operating systems and wireless networking..."
May 10th news "Even though a potential $180 million shortfall looms in the state budget, money set aside for Gov. Angus King's laptop program is safe...at least for now.... The money is in a special reserve account that's off-limits unless the Legislature, which has adjourned, decides otherwise. If lawmakers return, the situation could change.... Maine has awarded a $37 million contract to Apple Computer Inc. to provide iBooks for every seventh- and eighth-grader by the beginning of the 2003-04 school year. Some schools are already getting their laptops."
June 11th news "Apple CEO Steve Jobs made his first visit Monday to the state where schools are implementing a vision he shares with Maine Gov. Angus King: a laptop computer for every student.... Before Jobs' speech, seventh-graders from the Maine demonstration schools showed off work from their white iBooks, including video poems and parts of a video documentary about the changing face of Maine industry."
June 20th news "Gov. Angus King outlined his plan Wednesday for dealing with about half of a $180 million budget shortfall in the fiscal year beginning July 1. King said the Legislature would have to delay tax cuts and approve money transfers from the state's tobacco fund and its laptop computer kitty to make up the rest of the deficit."
June 21st news "Gov. Angus King's recommendation to attack a budget shortfall by reducing state aid to public schools has some lawmakers ready to raid his pet program to equip schools with laptop computers.... Shifting the contents of the laptop fund to general aid might not be as simple as some lawmakers wish because Maine has a four-year, $37.2 million contract with Apple Computer. Apple will provide more than 18,000 iBooks to seventh-graders and their teachers in the next school year and more than 17,000 iBooks to eighth-graders and their teachers in the 2003-2004 school year. Rep. Richard Nass, R-Acton, a member of the budget-writing Appropriations Committee, said members who want to gut the computer fund need to investigate the contract's escape clause first. King said it would cost the state as much to try and void the contract as to finish implementing it."
July 10th news "Two state lawmakers have asked Attorney General Steven Rowe if the state could break its laptops-for-students contract with Apple Computer without incurring any financial liability. Reps. Philip Cressey Jr. of Baldwin and Brian Duprey of Hampden, both Republicans, posed that question Tuesday in a letter suggesting that the Legislature might want to get out of the Apple contract because of the state's budget shortfall....But some lawmakers say that probably would not happen, for two reasons: One, the program already has been sharply scaled back since King proposed a $50 million plan two years ago; and two, the program already is under way, thanks to the spring startup at the pilot schools. "This has some momentum," said Education Commissioner Duke Albanese. "We're moving to implementation. Let's see the effects on teaching and on learning.""
July 11th news "LEARNERS, LAPTOPS, AND POWERFUL IDEAS CONFERENCE! In coordination with the Maine Learning and Technologies Initiative. This August the University of Maine will be hosting a landmark conference addressing issues relating to the 1-to-1 computer environment in education.This exciting event is a prelude to the September 2002 launch of the Maine laptop initiative in which every seventh and eighth grade public school student will be issued a laptop computer. The two and a half-day conference will showcase five "firsts" in the evolution of the principle of a personal computer for every student: 1) The Maine Learning and Technologies Initiative, the first state in the world to enact a law providing every seventh and eighth grade student and teacher with a personal computer; 2) David Loader of Australia, principal of the first school to adopt one-to-one portable computing (1989); 3) Stephen Costa of Australia, probably the first teacher in the world to lead a laptop classroom (1989); 4) Alan Kay, the first scientist to describe a laptop computer (1968) and pioneered the idea of the graphical user interface (GUI) that led to the Apple and Windows operating systems; 5) Seymour Papert, Professor Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (recently named by Newsweek as one of ten national innovators in education) and the first educator to advocate the use of personal computers in learning (1968). Teachers from around the world and every Maine school district are invited to the conference to join internationally respected experts to discuss aspects of education and transformational change with personal computers."
August 12th news "The 2nd Maine International Conference on Technology and Learning--Learners, Laptops and Powerful Ideas II will be held August 4th to 8th, 2003, D.P. Corbett Business Center, Orono, Maine. Next years conference will be held here at the University and we have started planning for that event. Seymour Papert will again be our chair for the conference and we will be seeking speakers and workshops over the next couple of months."
August 15th news "Scientists from as far away as Costa Rica and Australia will be leading discussions today and Friday at the University of Maine conference entitled, "Learners, Laptops and Powerful Ideas." Altogether, 180 Maine teachers will be attending the conference that features policy makers and educators from eight countries. Papert, who will deliver the opening remarks, is a mathematician and one of the early pioneers of artificial intelligence. He currently serves as distinguished scientist at the University of Maine. Other participants include Alan Kay, a founder of the Xerox research lab in Palo Alto, Calif.; Clotilde Fonseca, executive director of an education foundation in Costa Rica; and David Loader, principal of the first school to equip students with laptop computers in Australia. Educators are excited about the Maine program, the first in the nation to equip students statewide with laptop computers."
August 21st news "Seventh-graders will have the opportunity to take laptop computers home after they and their parents get instruction on how to use them. Vassalboro Community School Principal Kevin Michaud told the School Committee Monday night that 70 computers arrived that day. Teachers received their laptops earlier, and most of them have attended training sessions, he said. The computers belong to the school, not to the students, who have the use of them this year, Michaud said. However, he thinks students should be allowed to take the computers home to maximize their use and to achieve Gov. Angus King's goal of closing the gap between families that can afford computers and those that can't. To make home use work, Michaud said, students will receive instruction and then parents will be given a three-hour course and asked to sign an agreement accepting responsibility for them. He expects not all students will take computers home — some parents may refuse the responsibility — and the school will reserve the right to revoke home-use privilege if a computer is misused or abused."
September 3rd news "Nearly 17,000 of Maine's seventh-graders are expected to get new laptop computers this month, and chances are that some of the kids will learn to use them faster than their teachers. But not to worry, advise educators who piloted use of the laptops at nine demonstration schools last spring. They say teachers can use that youthful expertise to benefit both themselves and students. "You need to be able to say to the kids: 'I can't do this. You figure it out,' " said Mark Gunter, a seventh-grade teacher at Shapleigh Middle School in Kittery, one of the pilot schools. "For a 12- or 13-year-old kid to show someone my age something - I'm 46 - a kid really has a feeling of success."
September 4th news "Three MLTI Teacher Training Sessions will be offered in October to 7th grade teachers who have received their iBooks (see dates & locations below). PLEASE encourage those teachers who received a state-issued laptop but did not participate in the summer training to register for one of these sessions. Online registration begins September 9th at noon and is on a first-come, first-served basis The registration deadline is September 30th."
September 4th news "The Class of 2008 will be unlike any that came before it in Maine. That's when the current crop of seventh-graders graduates from high school. These are the first students who, on a statewide basis, will have had the benefit of using laptop computers full-time in middle school."
September 5th news "Seventh-graders at Williams Junior High School will finally get their new laptop computers next week as the school launches orientation sessions on how to use the state-supplied machines. Pam Tatham, the school computer teacher and the district coordinator of the laptop effort, said more than 220 students split into two groups will begin learning how to care for and operate the laptops. "Hopefully on Monday we will start working with the two student teams," Tatham said. "I plan to do four days of instruction with each group of kids." Tatham updated directors of School Administrative District 47 about the plans for the laptops at Wednesday's regular board meeting. Williams is one of scores of middle schools across Maine receiving the $1,000 computers this fall in a pioneering effort to supply one entire grade level of students with the machines and tie them into the regular seventh-grade curriculum. Gov. Angus S. King Jr.'s vision of a laptop computer for every middle-school student in Maine is taking its first step this fall, as Apple iBooks are being given to all seventh-graders. The state's eighth-grade students are due to get the laptops next fall."
September 6th news "Gov. Angus King's initiative to put a laptop computer in the hands of every middle school student got under way this week despite budget problems that once threatened to derail the program before it started. On Thursday, King heralded the arrival of 17,000 laptops for seventh-graders at 239 schools while warning the students to take care of the new computers and not to misuse them. At Shapleigh Middle School, he told students they will be under scrutiny as the project unfolds. "The whole world is watching you. They're watching. They're watching Maine, they're watching Shapleigh Middle School," said King, who sported a tie with a computer motif at a school assembly."
September 14th news "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....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."
September 15th news "Kennebec Journal reporter Colin Hickey spoke with Dana Merk-Wynne, a seventh grader at Waterville Junior High School, who received her Apple iBook laptop in September as part of the $37.5 million state initiative to equip all middle school students with laptop computers....Q: "Tell me why. What's so exciting about having use of a laptop?" A: "It's easier. If we were to have something to do like a research project or something like that we'd have to go to the library ... Now we just plug our laptops in and go to this particular site." Q: "How will your iBook help you as a student?" A: "It helps organize a little bit, putting like a paper that you've done and being able like to e-mail it to a teacher instead of having to bring it into class and remembering not to leave it at home or something like that. And you can also type it at home."
October 5th news "Although the laptop computer initiative is statewide in scope, local control still reigns in regard to determining how the Apple iBooks are used. Waterville Junior High School, one of 239 middle schools across the state participating in the program, has specific guidelines for its laptops. Recently, the school held a meeting with parents of seventh-graders to distribute those guidelines and to obtain parental permission for students to take the iBooks home and, ultimately, access the Internet outside the classroom. More than 100 parents attended the meeting in the junior high auditorium and all save one parent authorized permission. Now, plenty of seventh-graders are taking their laptops home regularly."
October 8th news "Janet Waldron, commissioner of the state Department of Administrative and Financial Affairs, outlined King's proposal, which uses a blend of cuts, transfers and deferments to eliminate the budget deficit. Waldron said although the revenue gap is $240 million, a hiring freeze and budget savings have narrowed the deficit to $228 million. Most of the state's budget —75 percent — goes toward education, the state Department of Human Services and the state Department of Behavioral and Developmental Services, she said....King's proposal includes the following changes: 1) Save $48 million this year by changing the filing date for business equipment tax refunds, 2) Generate $13.7 million with a 6 percent licensing fee on hospitals, nursing homes and group homes, 3) Transfer $10 million from the state's operating capital fund, 4) Transfer about $10 million from the highway fund, which includes money saved from the three furlough days, 5) Transfer about $8 million from the Fund for a Healthy Maine, 6) Transfer $9.6 million from the state's laptop fund, and 8) Transfer $2.5 million from the Clean Election Fund. Waldron said the proposal doesn't call for any broad-based tax increases, reduces K-12 education funding by only 1.4 percent, and reduces higher education funding by 2 percent."
October 10th news "Windsor 7th-graders iBooking It: Revolution in the Classroom. After having opened her new Apple iBook laptop computer, one of many provided by the state for the 29 members of her seventh-grade class, Lauren Dancer was trying to figure her way through a maze of commands as teacher Jana Diket introduced the new computer functions....The school has adopted policies governing the use of the computers, Principal Donna Sawyer said. Students will not be allowed to take them home, at least until later in the year after school administrators have some experience with their use...."Can you imagine the impact these will have when the teachers have 29 students with computers on their desks, and the teacher won't be lecturing for 45 minutes. It will be interactive," Sawyer said. Computers on all the students' desks, she said, will revolutionize instruction in her classrooms."
October 31st news "New Brunswick Premier Bernard Lord joined Gov. Angus S. King to tour Maranacook Community Middle School on Wednesday to get a first-hand look at the state's laptop program. Lord and several other Canadian officials spent time in seventh- and eighth-grade classrooms to see how the students use the computers....Lord said New Brunswick is thinking of adopting a similar program and commended King for his leadership in making the laptop program a reality....In the eighth-grade class, students did presentations about the upcoming elections. Will Longfellow and Jeff Googin shared a Web site they created about U.S. Rep. Tom Allen, who is running for re-election in the 1st District. During the classroom tours, Lord asked the students whether the laptops make learning more engaging. Students in both classes said they do."
October 31st news "Guns, gay rights and gambling were among the issues up for discussion Wednesday night as Maine's four gubernatorial candidates held their final televised debate before next week's election. Each of the four stressed his particular message. Democrat John Baldacci and Republican Peter Cianchette focused on their economic plans, Green Independent Jonathan Carter emphasized his single-payer health care proposal and Independent John Michael highlighted his distaste for government....On Gov. King's laptop computer program, Carter said there is no money left for it, and that he would have schools create technology centers. Cianchette said the program should be evaluated like any other state program, and continued if it works. Michael said he would ditch it and Baldacci said he supports it and would attempt to get foundation money to continue it."
November 3rd news "Previously, 13-year-old Kyle Huard would have had to lug several textbooks into class to research a science project on organ transplants. Now, the Biddeford Middle School seventh-grader just has to sit at his desk and open his new Apple iBook laptop computer to have a wealth of scientific information at his fingertips. He said his laptop not only makes studying easier, but more enjoyable. "It's a lot more fun with a laptop," Kyle said last week, his eyes intent on the computer's screen.... Last week, the premier of New Brunswick, Canada, toured a middle school in Readfield and was so impressed he wants to start a similar program in his province. Delegations from Scotland and France have also visited the state in the past few weeks to see how the program is working. The funding for the laptop initiative remains in limbo in Augusta, with lawmakers as yet undecided about how much of the $25 million set aside for the program should be used to offset a state revenue shortfall of about $240 million....Sen. Jill Goldthwait, a Bar Harbor independent who chairs the Legislature's Appropriations Committee, said there is a "fair amount of support" for the laptop program on the committee, including her own enthusiastic endorsement of it. Goldthwait said the shortfall likely will necessitate some reduction in the laptop fund. "At this point I don't think we're going to find any other money," she said."
November 7th news "A tired governor-elect John Baldacci [the first Democratic governor in 16 years] said Wednesday that he will work closely with the current administration before he takes over as governor and inherits a daunting state budget deficit. Baldacci defeated three other men in Tuesday's gubernatorial election, capturing 47 percent of the vote, according to unofficial results. With 99 percent of votes calculated, Republican Peter Cianchette finished second with 41 percent, Green Independent Jonathan Carter earned 9 percent and independent John Michael got 2 percent of the vote....Baldacci said he looks forward to working with Gov. Angus King in the coming months to prepare for the transition. King, in turn, made a bold prediction, "This is going to be the best transition ever in the history of the state of Maine," he said. "We're going to provide complete information from every department." King, an independent who is prohibited by term limits from serving another term, described government as an unusual business that changes major players with little or no overlap. And because he's an independent, he sees no reason not to help Baldacci....Baldacci said he plans to learn what he can from King and his advisors. "I'm going to utilize his eight years of experience, which I think is invaluable," he said. "I think the governor has a lot to offer.""
November 8th news "Its attention drawn by Maine's middle-school laptop program, a Texas company said Thursday it's giving Maine schools software valued at $400 million to help the state implement its pioneering effort. EDS will also make software available to high schools and the Maine Technical College and state university systems so students using it will be better trained to work for precision manufacturers. Gov. Angus King said that to his knowledge, the gift, with a commercial value of $400 million, is the largest ever made to the state of Maine.... The cutting-edge software has applications in manufacturing, aerospace, medical technology and other fields."
November 13th news "If best-selling author Stephen King has his way, the Maine laptop initiative could have one more benefit next year: his writing instruction. King told a group of Freeport Middle School seventh-graders Tuesday that he would like to set up an interactive, Internet-based system through which he could teach writing to students....Stephen King, who grew up in nearby Durham and now lives in Bangor, said all students in time will have computers as part of their learning arsenal. "There's never been a class that has had what you have before you," he said. "When I was in the seventh grade, I was given a pen."... King told reporters that he can envision establishing a dialogue with students, giving them assignments and posting good writing examples online for others to see just like in a classroom.... The Legislature is scheduled to convene today to begin addressing the shortfall, and cutting the laptop plan is one area that has been discussed. Under Gov. King's emergency budget plan, the laptop initiative faces a cut of $9.6 million. Stephen King said he doesn't see any viable reason for legislators to stop the program. "It comes down to the question of what's fat and what's muscle," he said. "If you consider teaching Maine schoolchildren to be 'fat,' I suggest you have to go back and rethink your situation.""
November 21st news "Maine Laptops, IT Takes a Village," a Wired News feature: "MOUNT DESERT ISLAND, Maine -- Even in the face of occasional choppy water, two schools on this small island are confidently navigating the tides and currents of a new technology program...."
November 28th news Edinburgh Evening News, Scotland: "School chiefs in Edinburgh are set to adopt a United States-style scheme to provide a laptop computer for every pupil over nine after being "inspired" by an overseas field trip. City education leader Ewan Aitken today claimed early indications from a pilot project under way at 239 middle schools in the American state of Maine had shown the portable computers improved discipline, behaviour, attendance and attainment. The local authority now plans to commission a £15,000 consultants’ report examining how to roll-out a similar initiative across Edinburgh."
