1 to 1 Learning Transforms
Maine Students
Apple 1 to 1 Learning
In March of 2002, former Governor of Maine Angus King pledged his support for educational technology by announcing the country’s most ambitious laptop initiative to date — the distribution of wireless iBook computers to all 36,000 middle school students and teachers in the state. Since then, King’s successor, Governor John Baldacci, has enthusiastically endorsed the Maine Technology Learning Initiative (MLTI), and supports the extension of the laptops’ reach from grades 7 through 12. Educators all over the U.S. have been eagerly anticipating the results of research conducted in classrooms that have been using the laptops. Now, with two years of research and analysis completed, the State of Maine is sharing its good news with the community.
“1 to 1 learning with the iBook laptops is what’s really changing the environment and raising student achievement.”
— Dr. David Silvernail, Codirector of the Maine Education Policy Research Institute
According to Dr. David Silvernail, codirector of the Maine Education Policy Research Institute, over half of the teachers reported that they were using the laptops to manage student information, such as attendance, assignments, and grades. Nearly 80 percent of the teachers confirmed that the iBook laptops help them better individualize their curriculum to fit their students’ needs; almost 90 percent agreed that they “can explore topics to greater depth” with their students when using the laptops.
Approximately 90 percent of all teachers surveyed said that students who use an iBook “are more actively involved in learning,” and that the “quality of my students’ work increases when we use the laptops.”
“Traditionally,” Silvernail notes, “kids have to go through their teachers to get to knowledge. But when every child has an iBook, he or she doesn’t have to go to the lab, or the library, or depend on a teacher to deliver — and maybe filter — the knowledge. Instead, that teacher becomes a true facilitator, and helps the students to understand what they’re learning.”
According to all of the research, it’s clear that the iBook laptop initiative has changed the way in which Maine students learn, how they regard learning, who is now responsible for their learning, and what the quality of that learning will be in the future.
