Dear Schools,
The opt-in deadline for the next generation of the Maine Learning Technology Initiative is just two days away and we know many of you have already made your solution selections, or are finalizing that choice. That said, we’re committed to bringing you the latest updates related to MLTI and the various solutions as they happen to inform your decision-making.
To that end, yesterday at Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (commonly known as WWDC), the company released its new MacBook Air. That device, which is included in two of the five solutions that Maine schools can choose from as part of MLTI, will have a next generation processor that improves performance and power management. As a result, we are now expecting battery life of up to nine hours on the MacBook Air 11” and up to 12 hours for the MacBook Air 13”. They did not release a new iPad, so the specifications of that device stands as originally announced.
These upgrades to the MacBook Air solution come just a few weeks after we announced upgrades to the Hewlett-Packard ProBook 4440 preferred solution, which will now ship with a faster Intel i3 processor, include 4GB of RAM and run Windows 7, with the option to upgrade to new versions at no cost.
MLTI has updated participation packets to reflect the new technical standards of the devices. Those and other deployment-related information are available on the MLTI website at www.mlti.org/deployment/.
We look forward to receiving your online opt-in forms by the close of business this Thursday, and to placing orders next week to ensure devices ship in a timely manner. Please contact MLTI with any questions.
Sincerely,
Stephen L. Bowen, Commissioner of Education
Jeff Mao, Maine Learning Technology Initiative