[NPMUG] Maine laptops grow from 30, 000 in 2002 ..... to 100, 000 in 2009

[Dave Sevick]

Dear Apple folks,

It gives me great pleasure to point out this evolving story in the  
State of Maine.  In Feb - July 2002 I was invited to participate in  
the first ever roll-out of a massive state-wide Apple laptop and  
wireless Airport Network initiative in Maine.  We had a small team of  
Apple consultants based in Freeport, Maine that would get daily  
marching orders to engineer wireless networks in all the 250+ Middle  
Schools in every single corner of Maine.  It was a technical and  
cultural experience I will never forget.  We set up networks on Native  
American Indian reservations with families that lived in homes no  
bigger than the sheds in our back yards attending one room schools  
that could double as a  modest home from the 1930's .....

....  on up to large coastal school districts with fiber-optic cabling  
in all buildings.  The contrast was stark.

Seven years later in 2009 they are still reaping the benefits of the  
bold educational initiative pioneered by then Govenor Angus King ( see  
photo )  and the rest is history in the making.

Way to go Maine !!!!    You guys rock !!!!!  Maybe Pennsylvania will  
follow your lead ?




Maine to more than double its Apple MacBook program to 100,000 students
Thursday, March 12, 2009 - 05:46 PM EDT
"Maine is expanding its program to provide laptop computers to 100,000  
students," David Sharpe reports for The Associated Press. "The goal is  
to provide a laptop to every public school student in grades seven  
through 12 by the fall, adding 53,000 high schoolers to the program,  
saidEducation Commissioner Susan Gendron."

"Gov. John Baldacci hinted at an expansion of the laptop computer  
program in his State of the State address Tuesday night, and Education  
Department officials announced Wednesday that they’re negotiating a  
four-year lease with Apple Inc. for 100,000 Apple MacBook laptops,"  
Sharpe reports.

"Maine started its first-in-the-nation program by distributing more  
than 30,000 computers to each seventh- and eighth-grader in all of the  
state’s state public schools in 2002 and 2003," Sharpe reports. "About  
30 high schools also have laptops that they obtained outside the scope  
of the original program. Now, all 120 of Maine’s high schools, along  
with 241 middle schools, will have new laptops under the same program  
at a cost of about $242 per computer per year, Gendron said."

"The state hasn’t yet completed its negotiations with Apple, but it’s  
expected that the new lease will cost the state about $25 million per  
year, said David Connerty-Marin, an Education Department spokesman,"  
Sharpe reports. "The state now pays about $13 million per year to  
provide Apple laptops to 37,000 middle-schoolers and about 10,000  
middle school and high school teachers and administrators."

Sharpe reports, "A study released in 2007 by the Maine Education  
Policy Research Institute at the University of Southern Maine  
indicated writing scores improved after laptops were introduced."

http://www.bangordailynews.com/detail/101299.html     Laptop program  
to expand in grades 7-12



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Dave Sevick Consulting
Apple Certified Support Professional 10.5
Apple User Group Ambassador
Apple Recycling in Pittsburgh
Helping people use technology in Pittsburgh
Western PA, WV, OH, MD ... Since 1988

724.779.0099 mobile/office
dave at davesevick.com
http://www.davesevick.com
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