The University of Maine College of Education and Human Development has announced plans to require students working towards Maine teacher certification to have Apple iBooks. The program dovetails with the state of Maine’s own Learning Technology Initiative, where all students and teachers in seventh and eighth grades in Maine public schools also have iBooks.
The requirement kicks in for first-year teaching students with the Fall 2005 semester. In addition to the Maine Technology Learning Initiative, the Teacher Education Faculty at the school cited Mac OS X’s reduced vulnerability to viruses compared to Windows PCs as a contributing factor in their decision.
College Dean Robert Cobb said that Maine was setting the standard in education technology reform. “Clearly, it is essential that aspiring teachers understand and know how and when to use wireless laptop technology in the teaching and learning process,” said Cobb in a statement.
The College has specified 12-inch iBooks equipped with 512MB RAM, 30GB hard disk drive and CD-RW/DVD-ROM “Combo” optical drives. The systems will be equipped with Apple’s standard suite of software including iLife, iChat AV, Safari and AppleWorks 6, World Book and Quicken; a software suite assembled by the College will also be provided, including concept mapping software Inspiration, NoteTaker, Web site and online presentation tool eZedia, Microsoft Office, First Class and GIMP, an open source imaging package.