Maine Middle School Laptop Program Leads to Better Writers
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Debra Lau Whelan -- School Library Journal, 10/30/2007 2:05:00 PM
Does using laptops make kids better writers? That seems to be the case in Maine, where every middle school student now has a laptop, thanks to a five-year-old program aimed at getting kids ready for 21st-century learning skills.
In fact, since all of Maine’s seventh- and eighth-grade students were given laptops in 2002, students’ writing scores statewide have improved significantly, says a new report, “Maine’s Middle School Laptop Program: Creating Better Writers.”
In addition, students scored better the more they used laptops to develop and produce their writing, according to the study by David Silvernail, director of the Maine Education Policy Research Institute at the University of Southern Maine. Overall, using laptops helped kids “become better writers in general, not just better writers using laptops.”
Studies tracking the Maine Learning Technology laptop initiative in 243 middle schools found that in 2005, the average writing score was 3.44 points higher than in 2000. “Thus an average student in 2005 scored better than approximately two-thirds of all students in 2000,” the report says.
Another study revealed that how laptops were being used in the writing process also influenced students’ writing performance. Those who said they did not use their laptops for writing had the lowest scores, but those who used their laptops for all kinds of writing—from drafts to final copies of assignments—had the highest scores.
What does this all mean? “Taken together, the evidence suggests that policymakers and others should reasonably expect to see improvements in students’ writing achievement over a period of time with the implementation of laptop programs,” the study concludes. Equally important is having teachers on hand to integrate the technology into their curriculum and to help students use their laptops as writing tools, the study adds.
