Maine Schools Order Up 71K MacBooks

July 1st, 2009 at 9:28 AM - News by Jeff Gamet

The state of Maine is will be outfitting high school students this fall with MacBook laptops as part of its Maine Learning Technology Initiative, making the state the first with a laptop for every student program. The state placed an order for more than 64,000 Apple laptops for students and faculty, and plans to order about 7,000 more laptops in the coming weeks.

The laptops are earmarked for students and faculty in 7th through 12th grade. The state already provides laptops to middle school students as part of a program launched in 2002.

We have seen incredible success with our middle schools showing increased student engagement and achievement with MLTI in place and we want to bring this same opportunity to our high schools," commented Maine Education Commissioner Sue Gendron. "This is not just about technology -- it's about using the technology to support education."

The state chose to issue Apple's MacBook to students because the laptop is "durable, flexible, and goes with students to all points of learning," according to Ms. Gendron.

Along with the laptops, Apple will be providing state schools with educational software, professional development, repair and replacement, along with technical support.

The deal is good news for students that otherwise wouldn't be able to afford a computer, and good for Apple as well since its laptops will make it into even more homes.