UMaine Hosts Second Annual State Laptop Learning Initiative Conference May 13
Contact: Kelly Arsenault, Maine Learning Technology Initiative, (207) 592-1824; Bette Manchester, Maine Dept. of Education and MLTI, (207) 592-3993; George Manlove, (207) 581-3756
ORONO — More than 400 middle school students, teachers and parents from throughout Maine are on the University of Maine campus today for the second annual Maine Learning Technology Initiative (MLTI) iTEAM Conference — a series of more than two dozen workshops and seminars about laptop computers, the Internet and education.
Co-sponsored by the Maine Department of Education, the University of Maine and other educational entities, the day is about professional development for school students and teachers to learn tips, tricks and educational concepts involved with the state’s laptop initiative.
Kelly Arsenault of the state Department of Education’s MLTI program says the conference is about more than laptops. It also is focused on using laptops as a tool through which students and their teachers can navigate educational goals through technology. The conference is held once a year.
Morning and afternoon sessions, being held throughout the Orono campus and ending at 2 p.m., include topics that range from setting up a local help desk to deal with hardware and software questions to using laptops for manipulating photographs, making movies and even “podcasting,” one of the newest applications for computer users to create home-based Internet broadcasting programs, essentially a personal radio program.
Leading the sessions are representatives from Apple Computers, the Department of Education, various public schools and colleges in Maine and UMaine students and faculty from the New Media and other departments, including music, art, math and sciences, according to Owen Smith, associate professor of art history at UMaine and a conference co-organizer.
Arsenault says that organizers want to include middle school students in the conference as they have a major role in the laptop educational initiative, now in place in Maine schools for about three years. “Kids have a role in learning about technology,” she says, which includes troubleshooting and innovation when it comes to educational use of laptop computers.
She says the response to today’s conference was overwhelming, with schools from throughout the state sending more than 400 students to Orono. Initially, about 350 were expected, she says.
A sample of the workshops includes: learning about individual school projects and software applications; screen recording and music technology; exploring digital art; creating digital video; Internet safety; computer-use and ergonomics; bringing Maine history to life; crating databases; GIS technology; web design and storytelling; email etiquette; and help desk management.
Many adults think that young people are well-informed and educated about computers, Arsenault says, but that isn’t always the case. Hence, the department of education holds the annual conference to try to bring both students and their teachers up to date with the latest applications of laptop and digital technology. Holding the conference at UMaine provides another opportunity for young people to visit the UMaine campus and give them a friendly introduction to the University of Maine, says Smith.
The conference headquarters is in the atrium of the D.P. Corbett Business Building behind the Maine Center for the Arts. A scheduled of workshops is available by calling UMaine Office of Public Affairs at (207) 581-3756.