It’s been two months since Auburn Middle School in Maine was selected to help pilot the state’s new program that gives a wireless laptop computer to every public school seventh-grader.
Since that day over 90 Auburn students and their teachers have received iBooks to use in the classroom. Now, two months after the laptops arrived and just about a month before the school year ends, teachers, parents and kids are calling the program a huge success, according to a Lewiston Sun Journal article.
“The laptops have become an integral part of life for those involved in the pilot program,” the article said. “Old-fashioned trips to the library have been replaced with surfing the Internet. Handwritten essays have been replaced with polished reports typed and e-mailed directly to teachers.”
Without the laptops, English teacher Linda Penley told the newspaper that she would feel “like I lost my right arm.” Other teachers report that grades have improved and attendance is up. And some kids even say they come to school now because of the iBooks, Principal Kathleen Cutler said.
The newspaper reports that teachers have experienced few of the problems predicted before the computers arrived. None of the iBooks have been stolen, and only one has been broken. And, according to the Lewiston Sun Journal, just one student has been punished for going to Web sites deemed off limits.
Students and parents have also praised the Apple laptops. And all say that they’ve seen few drawbacks to the new machines.