In New Hampshire, Gov. Craig Benson presents first laptops to pupils – Iowa elementary and middle schools get $1.5 Million technology funding

ALLENSTOWN, N.H. — Anticipation of new laptop computers was enough to pull many seventh-graders out of warm beds on the snowy first day of school after a long holiday vacation.

The white Apple iBooks — handed out by Gov. Craig Benson in Armand R. Dupont School gymnasium — were even preferable to a snow day, some pupils said Monday.

By Stephen Frothingham, Associated Press

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2004-01-06-ibooks-for-nh-kids_x.htm

Benson helped raise $1.3 million in private donations to provide the laptops at Armand R. Dupont and five other schools. Before handing out 62 laptops at Allenstown, he urged the pupils to be patient with their teachers.

"You probably know how to use a laptop or a computer better than your teachers," Benson said, smiling.

"We’re going to have teach them how to use computers to maximize the educational benefit."

Benson presented laptops to seventh-graders in Haverhill and Canaan later Monday, and planned to distibute them to to pupils in Wakefield, Thornton and Tilton on Tuesday.

About 600 New Hampshire pupils and 40 teachers will get computers. The schools also get projectors, printers, digital cameras, a server and a wireless network connecting laptops to each other and to the Internet.

Teachers can control the children’s laptops during classes, said Benson, a former high-tech CEO and gadget lover. The laptops are loaded with Windows software, including one of Benson’s favorite programs, PowerPoint, which creates electronic slideshows.

"If a teacher wants to pick Jane in the third row and put her screen up on the wall, they can do that," Benson said.

The program was inspired by one in Maine, where all seventh-graders were provided with Apple laptops in a state-funded program.

In New Hampshire, 19 school districts with high property tax rates and low test scores were invited to apply. The winning schools were chosen based on their proposals.

Allenstown — a plaintiff in the landmark Claremont lawsuits that changed the way education is funded in New Hampshire — struggles to pay for education, and the school offers few extravagances. After Benson’s presentation, the pupils carried their chairs from the auditorium back to their classrooms.

"This wasn’t something you’d expect us to get at our school," said seventh-grader Sarah Kruczynski.

"I think it will be interesting, but not necessarily more fun," she said.

The machines eventually could replace textbooks, said Principal Betsey Cox Stebbins.

"It would be wonderful to see lighter backpacks," she said.

Pupils will return the laptops at the end of the school year, for use by the next class of seventh-graders.

Peter Letvinchuk, a language arts teacher supervising the school’s laptop program, said the machines will be used for Web research in all classes. He’s looking forward to reducing paperwork and accepting term papers, homework and tests electronically.

He still plans to grade tests by hand.

"I want to see where the kids are falling down, where their strengths are," he said.

Spell-checking software should eliminate spelling errors in homework, he said.

"Now nobody has any excuse," he said. "But I’ll have to give spelling quizzes with pen and paper."
Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Iowa elementary and middle schools get technology funding

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2004-01-05-iowa-funding_x.htm

DES MOINES (AP) — Dozens of middle and elementary schools across the state received a total of $1.5 million on Monday to improve computer technology.

The money for the Iowa Star Schools Project will give students in 64 schools improved Internet access, something that is not currently available in some districts and buildings, said Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa).

"The Internet provides a world of opportunities for education, but too many classrooms lack the up-to-date equipment and too many teachers lack the training to make effective use of this resource," Harkin said.

The schools received grants between $21,000 and $25,000.
Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.