Notes from Millie D

I’ve been very fortunate in my technology experiences as I’ve been involved with the Maine Learning with Technology Initiative (MLTI).  MLTI provides every 7th and 8th grader and their teacher with a leveled classroom no matter where you are in the state of Maine.  Each classroom is equipped with a wireless connection to the Internet and each teacher and student has a wireless laptop chock full of software.  Leaders in the program are very quick to let you know that this is not a technology project but a teaching project that uses technology.  A lot of time and effort has gone into professional development.

Last week, MLTI and eMints collaborated together to hold a Summer Institute in which David Warlick was a featured speaker.  The Summer Institute featured technology but it didn’t feature how-to session but rather how-can sessions.  It didn’t start that way.  In the first two years professional development integrated the how-to and how-can sessions.  At a certain point there was a conscience decision to make the shift.  The ownership of the how-to needed to be on the local level.  The end results of the project so far as shown the depth of professional development.

If people just look at test scores they would claim 1:1 has not been the best use of tax dollars, much like in NYC did earlier this year.  1:1 has meant access to resources that children may never have received due to tight budgets and the lack of resources.  1:1 has meant good teaching has developed into great teaching.  Students are more engaged in classes, less abscenses, and less disciplinary referrals.  Parents in some cases have had access to technology in the home when they wouldn’t be able to afford it for their own children.  These successes have not gone unnoticed.

People from all over the world have visited Maine classrooms.  Teachers have spread their success stories to a worldwide audience.  Schools have changed their views of education in the 21st Century.  It has taken four years but these success have extended to the high school level.  This fall each high school teacher will be getting their own laptop in anticipation of high school students across the state of Maine getting laptops next fall.