Thousands of Maine students participate in 19th MLTI Conference

NEWPORT, Maine (WABI) - Although they were apart, the use of technology was used to bring Maine students together Thursday morning.

We were in Newport for the 19th annual Maine Learning Technology Initiative.

Nokomis Regional Middle School students were just some of thousands of Maine students taking part in a robotics competition followed by virtual workshops.

They competed against other schools from one site to the next, showing the value and use of the technology the students were putting to work.

“It was really exciting, and I hope that it takes me somewhere in the future,” explained 9th grader Abby Caron. “I hope that the people are able to see my ability to drive these robots, and I hope it gets me somewhere someday.”

“Knowing that there’s a lot of people that are at higher levels to come in and support us in this is a lot,” added 8th grader Rayonna White. “Meaning that they care that we’re doing this. Yes, it was a fun experience, like they’re like controlling the robot basically going against someone trying to help people out the with robots.”

“Age old question, what am I learning this for and why are we doing this,” said the Maine Department of Education’s Beth Lambert “You see exactly what you’re learning this for. When that robot loses a wheel, somebody’s got to come in and know how to put it back on. When there’s a breakdown, when there’s a lag, they’ve got to understand that they’re problem solving in the moment, which are the skills that they’re going to need, and we hear time and again, from stakeholders outside of education, this is what students need when they come out.”

This year’s MLTI conference was the biggest ever.

55 schools took part.

That included nearly 700 educators and more than 5,600 students.