Apart from the fact that it is built in WordPress and just happens to use the same template as this jebswebs’ blog, it should be a welcome addition to the program and to Maine educators.

Most noticeably the blog will feature a section discussing “accessibility and Universal Design for Learning (UDL).” We are pleased that this “theme” is important to the MLTI program and look forward to the potential for collaboration.

BTW, a little background. The MLTI program is Maine’s “laptop program;” designed to get laptop computers into the hands of students and teachers. The program started in fall of 2002 with Apple iBook G4s deployed to every student and teacher in Maine’s middle schools. Eventually the program was expanded to include administrators and support staff and most recently, it was expanded into Maine’s high schools. About 64,000 Apple MacBooks were sent out this summer making it one of the largest 1-to-1 educational technology programs, of its kind, in the country. Read the MLTI history

~j

According to the Maine Department of Education website:

The expansion is part of an agreement the state Department of Education negotiated with Apple Inc. for a reduced rate on the laptops, allowing the state to lease 100,000 machines within existing funds dedicated to educational technology. Under the agreement, the state will provide new laptops to all high schoolers and replace older machines at the middle school level.  School districts are not required to participate in the program, though superintendents have indicated overwhelming support for the laptop expansion.

The MLTI program began in 2002 with deployments of  Macintosh i-books to all 7th and 8th graders and their teachers. The program has been renewed once in the interim with laptops also being provided to high school teachers and some central office staff.

The newest iteration of the MLTI program was announced to include the capacity for families to be able to use their student’s laptop to access job and labor information from the state’s Department of Labor (DOL). I presume this means it will provide a link to the DOL Career Center website and not mean the state will provide home internet access to these families.

“We are going to revamp our laptop program and turn it into a powerful tool for the entire family,” Governor Baldacci said. “Every night when students in seventh through 12th-grade bring those computers home, they’ll connect the whole family to new opportunities and new resources.”

Read the entire news release

~jeb