The Maine Idea: A Computer for Every Lap

Via e-mail, The George Lucas Educational Foundation asked science teacher, Ken Williams, at Nobleboro Central School, to share his thoughts on Maine's laptop program. Here is his reply:

Nearly two years into Maine’s laptop program, which has provided one-to-one laptop computing for all of the state’s seventh and eighth grade students, my conclusions are quite clear: One-to-one computing and wireless access to the Web have transformed the way learning occurs in my classroom.

The seventh- and eighth-graders I work with are finding their own answers more than ever. I have become more of a facilitator and guide as students pursue their learning and document their discourses. The one-to-one computing has enabled them to become even more engaged in their learning opportunities. The MLTI iBooks have leveled the playing field for all involved, and since students can take their laptops home from Nobleboro Central School, work generated by students is not subjected to the difference between the haves and have-nots. This has been a miracle!

Communication between students and me has actually increased. Part of the laptop initiative in Maine included the creation of a statewide e-mail system that provides electronic communication among all networked computers. I can e-mail students, send voice messages, and text chat while they work on assignments in class. The text chatting has been a real revelation for me. When the iBooks were issued and I first heard of the possibility of chatting with students via the network, I was completely against the idea. Over time, however, it became quite apparent that text chatting while the class worked would provide a silent, non-interrupting method of communicating with individual students about their work. Instant messaging is the way students communicate with each other after school hours, and it follows that I should utilize that arena during the school day. The chatting has not replaced verbal communication with students. It has provided an additional avenue of communication, and I can easily conclude that my contact with students has increased. This also allows them to see -- and send -- chat messages that are properly spelled and that read like letters rather than abbreviated “chat” language.

Laptops have also provided a way to create easily implemented, uniform quality parameters. Students can easily follow quality rubrics around formatting, word requirements, and grammar and language conventions. I have witnessed firsthand the conversion of reluctant writers to people who want to communicate via the written word. If we add to this the thrill of presenting their writing using electronic publication, then one-to-one computing is a winning formula.

This year, technology integration in our eighth grade Nobleboro classroom was documented by The George Lucas Educational Foundation. The piece followed a class activity made possible both by technology and partnerships. Thanks to a partnership with the Maine Lakes Conservancy Institute, Nobleboro students can now upload their scientific and creative expressions about Maine lakes onto the Web directly from the classroom. Data, photographs, film, and writings from Nobleboro kids can be found on the Web, which is not that unique. The unique part of this relationship, which caught the foundation’s eye, is that students can put their creations onto a third party Web site directly from the school site. Furthermore, the laptops are integrated into the data collection as they accompany students on Conservancy boat cruises.

Maine’s citizens benefit immensely from lake-generated economics, and in order for Maine to have a bright economic future it is imperative that the current generation of students become good stewards of Maine’s fresh water gems. The partnership of one-to-one laptop computing with an organization such as the Maine Lakes Conservancy Institute is being watched closely as a possible model for future organizations of how they might partner with schools. Partnerships following the Maine Lakes Conservancy model will provide students with real world opportunities, and in our case, help create stewards for an environmentally and economically valuable asset in Maine.

I have joked with friends and colleagues that the Maine Learning Technology Initiative’s laptop program has translated into less work for me. The reality is that education has been transformed in my classroom. I’m not really working less, but I am working differently. I’m talking less, yet communicating more. I’m witnessing learning that is being generated by student initiative, direction and drive. It’s a no-brainer. The laptops must stay.