“Attendance is up. Detentions are down. Just six months after Maine began a controversial program to provide laptop computers to every seventh grader in the state, educators are impressed by how quickly students and teachers have adapted to laptop technology.” Sarah Mahoney
According to the article, the plan was instigated as a way to draw buisiness to Maine, at a time when states had lots of money. But one critic says, “There’s a certain degree of irony in giving all the seventh graders laptops in a day when we’re talking about cutting state employees back to four-day work weeks.”
Nearby UW-Stout requires laptops for all first-year students. A recent article from the Leader-Telegram found that teachers had difficulty planning to use the laptops, because only the freshmen have them. While I love technology, I am amused by the Leader Telegram‘s reference to UW-Stout’s English chair: “Thurin said the computers cut down on wasted paper and chalkboard drawings.” We can’t waste natural resources like paper and chalk, can we? Bring on the laptops!
