Research shows the computers improve learning success.

As a state, we need to find a way to fund the continuation of the state learning with laptop initiative, especially moving the project into our high schools.

I am a professor at University of Maine Farmington and have worked with many of the middle school teachers throughout the state that are part of the initiative, and they have clearly disproved many of the fears that existed in the early stages of this project. The computers are being used to excite and engage students in learning their academics, they aren’t an expensive GameBoy, and although there are a handful of stories of students who have deliberately abused their laptops, there are 33,000 cases of students taking careful and mature care of theirs.

Research shows, too, that the laptops are good for Maine’s students. The Maine Education Policy Research Institute has shown there is evidence that student interest in school and learning has increased and behavior problems have decreased.

My own research, conducted with the help of colleagues at the University of North Texas, looked at last year’s 8th-grade Maine Educational Assessment test scores. Of all the 8th-grade students, the only ones who have been part of the laptop initiative are those who were attending one of the nine Exploration Sites. Those students all showed significantly higher test scores in math, science and social studies than the rest of Maines middle schools, even though the same schools scored much lower before the laptop initiative.

We’ve also conducted a case study of one of the middle schools using laptops and found that students there showed a significantly higher attitude toward school than students in a comparison school in Texas. Further, students in the Maine school who did not have a computer at home and were not allowed to take a laptop home scored lower on computer skills, on attitude toward school, and on self concept than other students.

More than just academics, this project represents a huge economic development initiative for the state.

Education is everything to our future economy. We may not be able to identify what jobs will be important to Maine in the next 10 years, but I can say with certainty that they will involve both education and technology. Even two years ago, before the learning with laptop initiative, 34 percent of Maine’s workforce needed to use a computer daily, but only 4 percent of students had daily access to technology.

Further, our students will be a trained and competent workforce, helping to attract new jobs to Maine. We know other states will follow in Maine’s footsteps, regardless of what Maine chooses to do with the initiative. New Hampshire has announced that they will have a laptop initiative similar to Maine’s, and Massachusetts is working on one, as well. Our students will have to compete with those students for jobs. I want Maine’s students to win.

We cannot afford to ignore the benefits that this learning with laptop initiative has brought, not just to our students, but to all of Maine. We need to find a way to continue funding for the middle school project and to extend the project into our high schools.

Mike Muir is assistant professor of middle/secondary social science at the University of Maine Farmington and lives in Fairfield.