<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; "><div></div><div><br></div><h5 style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(1, 102, 255); font-size: 1.3em; "><br></h5><h5 style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(1, 102, 255); font-size: 1.3em; ">Maine to more than double its Apple MacBook program to 100,000 students</h5><span style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-size: 0.9em; ">Thursday, March 12, 2009 - 05:46 PM EDT</span><div style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 1em; ">"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, said<a class="iAs" classname="iAs" href="http://www.macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/maine_to_more_than_double_its_apple_macbook_program_to_100000_students/#" target="_blank" itxtdid="8317230" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 1px !important; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(0, 100, 0) !important; text-decoration: underline !important; font-weight: normal !important; font-size: 14px; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 100, 0) !important; border-bottom-width: 0.075em !important; border-bottom-style: solid !important; background-color: transparent !important; ">Education</a> Commissioner Susan Gendron."<br style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><br style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">"Gov. John Baldacci hinted at an expansion of the laptop <a class="iAs" classname="iAs" href="http://www.macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/maine_to_more_than_double_its_apple_macbook_program_to_100000_students/#" target="_blank" itxtdid="8317157" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 1px !important; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(0, 100, 0) !important; text-decoration: underline !important; font-weight: normal !important; font-size: 14px; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 100, 0) !important; border-bottom-width: 0.075em !important; border-bottom-style: solid !important; background-color: transparent !important; ">computer program</a> 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.<br style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><br style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">"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 <a class="iAs" classname="iAs" href="http://www.macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/maine_to_more_than_double_its_apple_macbook_program_to_100000_students/#" target="_blank" itxtdid="7752051" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 1px !important; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(0, 100, 0) !important; text-decoration: underline !important; font-weight: normal !important; font-size: 14px; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 100, 0) !important; border-bottom-width: 0.075em !important; border-bottom-style: solid !important; background-color: transparent !important; ">laptops</a> 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."<br style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><br style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">"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."<br style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><br style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">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."</div><div style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 1em; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 1em; "><b style="font-size: 19px; "><a href="http://www.bangordailynews.com/detail/101299.html">http://www.bangordailynews.com/detail/101299.html</a> </b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: 24px; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: -1px; ">Laptop program to expand in grades 7-12</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 1em; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 1em; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 1em; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Lucida Grande'"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><br></font></font></div></span><div apple-content-edited="true"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; 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font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Lucida Grande'">````````````````````````````</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Lucida Grande'">Dave Sevick Consulting</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 18px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Lucida Grande'" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; "><b>Apple Certified Support Professional 10.5</b></span></font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Lucida Grande'">Apple User Group Ambassador</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Lucida Grande'">Apple Recycling in Pittsburgh</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Lucida Grande'">Helping people use technology i</font><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Lucida Grande'">n Pittsburgh</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Lucida Grande'">Western PA, WV, OH, MD ... </font><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Lucida Grande'">S</font><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Lucida Grande'">ince 1988</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Lucida Grande'"><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Lucida Grande'">724.779.0099 </font><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Lucida Grande'">mobile/office</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Lucida Grande'"><a href="mailto:dave@davesevick.com">dave@davesevick.com</a></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Lucida Grande'"><a href="http://www.davesevick.com">http://www.davesevick.com</a></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Lucida Grande'">````````````````````````````</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; 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