In an article from MSNBC, I was surprised to hear about the up-and-coming Laptop program implemented by the state of Maine. The first statewide Laptop program started back in 2002, and has been growing all these years. Since the program started, its been evolving; and the country is starting to notice.

Bette Manchester was the original director of Maine’s laptop program. In 2008 the program she started has grown by leaps and bounds. Originally the program was aimed at 7th graders, but now 8th-graders and some high schools have joined. The opinions of the program so far have been mixed, but have been providing great results.

The biggest question coming from most education experts is, ‘How will this program help states with Standardized Testing scores?”

A study by a Maine professor, David Silvernail found that 8th grade children provided with a laptop scored significantly higher on Maine’s state test scores. Another great aspect of the laptop program is that it has been closing the gap between quality of education for fortunate, and less fortunate children. With the internet and laptop technology at everyone’s fingertips, the playing field is more equal. Instead of trying to rely on keeping up to date with teaching materials. Probably the best aspect of the program is how its preparing children more for what the world is like outside school.

After reading this article and diving deeper into the ins-and-outs of the program, I’m liking it so far. Probably the greatest obstacle is overcoming how much it costs to provide a child with a laptop for an entire school year (including summers). Of course there are definitely worse things to spend tax money on. If there’s one thing I wouldn’t mind spending more taxes on it’s the education of our children. Maybe spend less money putting our kids through worthless testing. I grew up during the height of the ‘testing’ era, and I can’t think off the top of my head the one time its helped me. Of course all of the knowledge I have about computers, the internet, programming have helped in nearly every job I’ve had. America should be trying to stay ahead of the curve in education, and more programs such as these would be a definite start.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 4th, 2008 at 7:23 am and is filed under Internet. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.