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From Kindergarten to
College
Elminating the Digital Divide
With Gov. Angus S. King, Jr.
Governor of Maine
Thursday, Aug. 30, 2001; 1 p.m. EDT
Beginning in August of 2002, Maine will provide all 7th and 8th grade students and teachers across the state with laptops. Every middle school in Maine will be equipped with a wireless internal network that ties in with the existing broadband connections to the Maine School and Library Network.
Join Maine's Gov. Angus S. King, Jr. to talk about his Learning Technology Endowment plan that was approved this past June.
Submit your questions and comments before or during today's discussion.
With the approval of the plan, Maine stands as the first state to eliminate the digital divide and provide computing equity to its students. King is serving his second term as governor. He is one of the only two independent governors in the country.
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New York, NY:
Gov. King,
First let me thank you for speaking to the Washington Post's audience and addressing my question today. I am a volunteer 4th and 5th grade teacher in New York's inner city schools and have read about Maine's education initiative. What strategic importance is Maine trying to fulfill by supplying laptops to their students rather than more traditional desktop computers or even server based computer terminals? And, if time permits, do you forsee an increased cost-of-ownership over these other computing options due to the portability of these laptops?
Gov. Angus King: We are going with laptops for two reasons--one is because we want them to be in the classroom and involved in the curriculum in all classes, but there will times when the teacher needs the kids to have desk space for other activities. In other words, 25 desktops in each class would be pretty bulky. Secondly, we want them to go home, to be able to work there and to, not so incidently, take a real whack at the Digital Divide.
North Monmouth, Maine:
Exactly how do you plan to make these students responsible for their laptops? Do you expect children of this age to take care of them, not lose them or break them? Who is going to pay for damage? Are parents going to be the scapegoats in this senario? Or are the tax payers going to be as usual?
Gov. Angus King: The laptops will belong to the schools and the school will control when and under what circumstances they will leave the school (liike a library book). In all the cases around the world where this has been tried (including Guilford, Maine where they went 100% laptop in their 8th and most of their 7th grades last Fall) the much anticipated breakage issue has turned out to be a non-problem. After 6 months in Guilford (which was the last time I checked) they had had one device dropped and damage was minor.
Bridgton, Maine:
With this plan it should be assumed that graduates will be more qualitifed to get and keep jobs in the future. This should cause a reduction in the cost of many social services such as welfare. What is the estimate of this impact?
Gov. Angus King: We certainly expect the effect to be as you anticipate--although nothing is a panecea--but we have not been able to quantify those savings. Certainly if a higher percentage of our citizens are employed and making a decent wage , social costs should go down. The basic theory is that if we have the most digitally literate society on earth, we'll have more and better jobs, because employers tend to follow the trained and capable workforce.
Reston, Va.:
I'm sure everyone wants to ask about the per pupil cost of such a outlay and I would like to know that too, but I am also interested to know how much weight the kids will be hauling back and forth. A quanitity buy of basic laptops would certainly reduce the cost, but a basic laptop is a heavy item to lug around, especially after school in the afternoons. Why not just provide a terminal at school and at home and make the kids carry bricks in their bags?
Gov. Angus King: Weight is an issue--we're shooting for six pounds or less; probably sooner rather than later, the on-line materials will replace some of those heavy books that are now in the backpacks. The problem with the terminal idea is the space it would take up on the classroom desks and that they would be difficult to move when the desk is needed for something else.
Chesterfield County, Virginia:
In Virginia, some localities where high speed internet capability does not exist or at best is very limited, have tried to offer this service to buisnesses and individuals. The telecommunications industry strongly objects and has said they will serve these areas eventually. Why shouldn't rural communities be able to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps and provide the services if neccessary and does Maine allow for this?
Gov. Angus King: Through a combination of encouragement from guys like me and very aggressive leadership in our cable and telephone businesses, we have probably the best network in the country. For example, we have Road Runner service in one of our most rural counties and DSL is spreading rapidly. I think high speed access is now available to about half the homes in Maine which is pretty high, considering the rural nature of our state. All the schools, by the way will have high speed and high capacity service, T-1 or better.
Washington, DC:
Will laptops be given to 7th & 8th grade students with physical and learning disabilites?
Gov. Angus King: All public school students is the plan and private schoolers and home schoolers, we hope will be able to buy in at our reduced cost.
Los Angeles, Calif.:
Given children's curiosity for inappropriate materials, doesn't it make sense to have a central server where software/web capacity can be controlled?
Gov. Angus King: Yes, and that's the plan--web access will be through our existing school and library network and the intention is to filter.
New York City:
Governor King, is there any plan to expand the program to other grades if it's successful? Do you foresee schools providing laptops for every child one day, and if so, how far off in the future would that be?
Gov. Angus King: Our first phase is 7th and 8th graders; assuming good results and additional finacing, the second phase would be to continue on through high school. I have no doubt that some kind of digital device for each student k-12 will be the norm within the next decade or so. About 70% of the jobs in Maine (and everywhere else) now involve computer use every day, and yet only about 5% of our our kids have daily access. What's wrong with this picture?
Portland, Maine:
Gov. King
Have you decided or has it been brought to your attention what our state quarter will like like.
Gov. Angus King: We're going to let the people decide--as soon as we get clearance from the mint, we'll be putting three or four proposals out for a public (probably on-line) vote.
Washington, D.C.:
Do you think your technological approaches to education will earn you the title of the "Independent Education Presidential Candidate?"
Gov. Angus King: Why would anyone want to leave Maine to live in Washington?
Sunny Valley, Ore.:
How will you expand the curriculum and course
material after you distribute the laptops?
Gov. Angus King: We are doing a lot of work on the issue of teacher preparation and integration of the technology into the curriculum. This is easily as important as the device itself. Our plan is for a "classroom-up" approach, also calling on the best thinking being done everywhere on this, over the course of the next year, before we deliver the first machine next Fall. There an amazing amount being done on this; Austrailia is one of the leaders.
Kennebunkport, Maine:
How will school systems pay for
maintenance and technical support?
Businesses with lots of PCs and laptops
have full-time tech support staffs.
Gov. Angus King: Most of our schools already have tech coordinators and part of the plan is to strengthen this network; part of the repair strategy is 1) warranty, and 2) expanding the capacity we have already developed in the corrections system, where we have already refurbished over 1,000 donated pc's for the schools. "Help, I'm being held prisoner in a computer repair factory">
Manassas, Va.:
Will the laptop or notebook computers that Maine is considering have to have the ability to operate most of the "popular" softwares used in education and business today, or will these devices be strictly for Internet browsing? There certainly will be a cost difference per seat. Can you comment?
Gov. Angus King: The current plan is to have the capacity for most, if not all, applications. Maybe not CAD, but certainly a basic productivity suite as well as internet and related applications (Java, streaming video, and the like). We don't intend to replace, but rather comp[liment, the computer lab that already exists in most schools.
Woodbridge, Va.:
How will your state determine if the program is effective? Will you develop metrics and benchmark results?
Gov. Angus King: Yes--we are intend to put in place an independent assessment mechanism to look at student achievement, primarily. Don't forget, however, that one of the purposes is to achieve a level of digital profeciency (in the broadest sense) which is, in itself, an important piece of student achievement in this world. By the way, while we're talking about achievement, spelling was never my strong suit and I'm flying without spell checker here, so cut me some slack in that department.
Arlington, Va.:
My first reaction to this is that it's a gimmick. And my second reaction is the same. Yes, most people use computers in their jobs, but most people only use the word processing, spreadsheet and possibly database functions -- skills that an adult can easily learn in a few months.
Why not put the money into hiring more teachers, and reducing class size? Or adding new courses? Or updating the science equipment?
Gov. Angus King: Here's a suggestion--get a copy of your local 8th grade history texbook and find the passage of the Battle of Gettysburg, then check out which is a site our ed people developed. The depth and richness of material that can be made available is so much greater than the dry textbook, there's no comparison. It's as if every teacher suddenly has an unlimited materials budget, presented in a format the the kids find engaging (a key word).
Chicago, Ill.:
If students will not an assigned laptop because they will be "checking out" a laptop like a library book, how and where would they store their work?
Gov. Angus King: On the school network.
Chicago, Ill.:
How do you see kids using the laptops immediately and in what ways are the schools equipped (either from a hardware or software or technology training perspective) to help them make the most of the new tool that they have?
Gov. Angus King: We're going to spend the next year preparing the teachers for this; we have a school district that implimented such a plan last year, and they have found that the internet resources are useful in virtually every class--English, math, science, social studies. Think of it as a constantly updated, million (maybe billion by this time) page textbook, where the pictures move.
Bangor, Maine:
I apologize if this is submitted twice. I had some technical difficulties.
I ran across a web page for a new nonprofit called Cognolgy that is trying to get technology to all kids in the rural areas. Are you aware of their work? If so what do you think of their hands-on approach?
Gov. Angus King: Haven't heard of them, but will check it out. Thanks. We are just scratching the surface of the materials and teaching technologies available. It's amazing. For example, check out webquest.com.
New York, NY:
Good afternoon, Gov. King.
What is the cost per student of this program, and how is it paid for? Do you think other states with radically different economies from Maine's can adapt such a wide-reaching program? I'd love to see it here in New York, where my dauhter attends public school, but it seems prohibitively expensive.
I think it's a brilliant idea, by the way. I wish the state of Maine had been as generous toward public school students when I was growing up there in the 1960s and 1970s.
Gov. Angus King: We're looking at a device cost of about $500 and per seat cost about equal to that over four years. As a percentage of overall school budgets, it's about one-half of one percent. Nothing else I can think of will have remotely this impact at the price. We're talking educational transformation here. Why don't you come home?
Machiasport Maine:
Does your plan include teachers? If students have laptops but minimal guidance on how to use them they will learn little about how to use them most efficently and properly.
Gov. Angus King: Yes; we're going to spend the next year on teacher preparation.
Machiasport Maine:
Why is your laptop plan aimed at 7th and 8th grade students? Wouldnt it be more effective and useful to students in high schools across the state?
Gov. Angus King: The educators told us that that was the best place to start--it's when kids are the most ready to absorb. The plan is to extend into high school, pending the results from the middle schools.
Jefferson, Maine:
With laptop theft being a major problem in the business world, the fact that Maine suffers from a large abuse of Oxy-Contin and the normal lack of responsibility of children in teenagers, what guarentees do we have that we will not be wasting our money? Maine kids should be learning educational basics in the classroom not toting expensive laptops. Why not put the money instead into an large uptodate computer lab instead?
Gov. Angus King: Part of the plan will be hard-wire security solutions into the devices, similar to celluar phones, which have no value when stolen, once they try to connect to the network. This has not been a problem where this idea has been tried, including in Guilford, Maine.
Chicago, Illinois:
Outside of higher test scores, how would you determine the success of this initiative? In other words, before the tests are given, what signs would you look for in determining if the program is working well? Also, what kind of timeline are you looking at in terms of evaluating the success of the initiative?
Gov. Angus King: We are still in the process of figuring out the assessment mechanism; all I can say now is that doing so in part of the plan.
Sterling, Va.:
I find this approach fascinating and look forward to the end of the first year results. Could you please tell me if Maine receives more than $6,000 additional dollars for each student that is classed as learning disabled as does Virginia? Is the money being made available to purchase the computers partially because of this added income?
I have a concern that too many students in Fairfax County are being labeled "learning disabled" and kept in the program, even when corrections to their learning have been made and they are performing at and above grade level, as a means of providing funds to the school district. Does anyone else know why learning disabled students increase by approximately 10 percent per year while student enrollment increases less than 3 percent per year? Is it the extra $6,000 per student provided by the Federal and State governments?
Gov. Angus King: Can't really answer you questions on special ed in this session, except to say that escalating costs are a problem here as they are in other states. If the Feds would fund special ed at the 40% that was contemplated when the IDEA law was passed, instead of the current 12%, lots of good things would happens at the school district level.
North Monmouth, Maine:
It has been shown that students do not read enough or do enough homework. Can you explain how making more of their time at home computer time that this will improve? Reading a book and reading something online are not the same thing at all. In this age of televisions, computers, and MTV, our children are distracted beyond belief. If we promote computer use aren't we adding to our children's inability to focus, and if so, how will they improve their concentration and attention skills?
Gov. Angus King: Every study of kids and writing has shown that kids who write on computers write more and write better than their pencil and paper colleagues. You can do ten drafts in the time it used to take to do two. Reading on line is still reading and if the kids are more engaged, they'll read more.
New York, NY:
Do you have any idea whether or not your 7th and 8th grade curricula will better prepare your students for a nationally standardized test? Is it possible that your focus will be different from the one other less technologically equipped students will be on, and that your students will somehow do -worse- on such a test?
Gov. Angus King: The technology is a tool to help help our kids gain mastery of the curriculum, not a curriculum itself. We will still be aligning our teaching (whatever tools are used) with the Maine Learning Results which should hold us in good stead in the national tests. We're not teaching computers, we're using computers to teach. By the way, on the "won't they be stolen or broken" arguments that have come up today, I'm told the identical arguments were made about a hundred years ago when the radical idea was broached of giving school kids those expensive, fragile books.
Portland, Ore.:
Governor King,
I agree that technology and the Internet excite students and enhance their learning experiences. As a teacher, I've witnessed it firsthand.
In addition to teacher preparation, are you focusing any effort toward administrator preparation? I've learned that to have support from the top level, the administrators need to understand the technology and its benefits.
Gov. Angus King: Yes; we're already into a laptops for principals program that started last year. If the leaders don't get it, it won't work.
Portland, Maine:
Governor King,
I realize that you feel that providing laptops to students is a great idea. This has been quite a controversial issue. I personally do not agree with you and feel that there are more important things that we could be doing for the area of Education in the State of Maine -- for example, pay our teachers competitive salaries. Why is this laptop issue so important to you?
Gov. Angus King: I's a question of bang for the buck. The laptop program will cost about $5 million a year; the total school budget in Maine is about $1.6 billion, so we're talking one-third of one percent of the budget here. If we put this same money into teachers salaries, it would represent a raise of about one-half of one percent or about $3.00 a week. Teachers' salaries is a legitiamte issue, but it's not either-or with this proposal. This is a huge, transformational opportunity at a relatively modest cost, especially when looked at in the context of what we are already spending.
Chicago, Illinois:
As the program expands to high schools, would you consider looking at potential ASP solutions to keep infrastructure and support costs down?
Gov. Angus King: Absolutely; whatever works.
Machiasport Maine:
What type of software package would be included with the laptops?
Gov. Angus King: Don't know yet, but at least a basic productivity suite and internet access.
Gorham, Maine:
My thanks to Gov. King for his leadership.
1.What steps have been taken to prepare the teachers for having this resource available to their students?
2. Will internet access be part of the package?
3. If not what percentage of these students will have Internet access?
4. What is the plan to use these computers to support the development of basic math and writing skills.
Many more questions...
Thanks Sticks
Gov. Angus King: Sticks--1)the next year and a significant amount of money is dedicated to teacher preparation. The design of this aspect of the project will be getting underway in the next several weeks. 2) Yes. 3) 100% is the plan. 4) can't see 4
Winthrop, Maine:
Who will be paying for the internet access at home in the individual homes if these children do not have it already? Especially if they are required to do research at home?
Gov. Angus King: The current plan is that it will be free, at least at certain hours.
East Waterboro, Maine:
Computer resources for students will only be fully utilized if teachers understand the technology and can implement it in their classrooms. What steps are being taken on the state level to increase teacher technology training opportunities? I belong to our district's technology committee and would like to know what's out there.
Regards,
-- Mark F
Gov. Angus King: Agree with your premise and the intent is to spend the next year on a major teacher preparation project. You'll be hearing more shortly.
Lewiston, Maine:
How did you decide what grades would receive the laptops?
Gov. Angus King: The educators we talked to said that 7th grade was the place to start--that's when they are bright-eyed and eager. The intent, however, subject to funding, is to extend through high school, eventually.
Prospect Heights, Illinois:
You spoke about some ways that teachers will be using the web to teach. How else do you envision teachers using these laptops with the students?
Gov. Angus King: The same way conventional materials are used ("open your laptops to Hamlet.org and tell me about the king's relationships with his mother. Then we'll look at streaming video clips of how John Guilgood interpreted this issue as opposed to Kenneth Brannaugh") and in hundreds of ways we can't now imagine. Lots of work being done on this all over the world.
Gov. Angus King: Unfortunately, they tell me that I have to go back to work; sorry to not be able to answer all your questions, although several have been answered already, if you can get the past answers (won't they break them? and how will we prepare the teachers?) Appreciate the widespread interest in this idea (and the questions from right down the road in Maine); this is but one piece of a stategy to broaden our economic base (making semiconductors, by the way, is now a larger segment of our economy than lobsters) and provide all our kids with the tools they need to compete and prosper in the economy of the 21st Century. Thanks to all, and the the Post for this opportunity. Have a great weekend. Angus
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