Around 300 kindergarten students in the Maine city of Auburn, will get to use the iPad2 in learning the alphabet, counting numbers, drawing, and music. The move received support as well as opposition from both parents and educators.

Sue Millard, a parent of a fourth grader and a high school student, hoped that the proposed $200,000 budget of Superintendent Tom Morrill for iPads used on some other school programs. She believes that a kindergarten might still be too young to understand the technology. Morrill, on the other hand, said that the iPad is a revolution in the field. He said that it has effective education tools and loaded with several teaching applications.  Morrill added that the iPad is simple to use and can make learning lively.

Maine spearheaded the move to provide students across the state with computers when it gave out Apple laptops to its seventh and eight graders in 2002 and 2003, respectively. Since then the program has expanded with the laptops being distributed to half of high school students.

Maine’s Department of Education says that Auburn would be the pioneer district that will use the iPads in teaching kindergarten students. The program received a unanimous vote from the school board and will start next fall.

Trudy Muller, Apple spokeswoman, said that a dozen school districts are already using the iPad in teaching kindergartens. Among these educational institutions include schools in Omaha, Nebraska; Columbiana in Ohio, Huntington, Western Virginia, to name just a few.

Former Maine governor Angus King, the man who spearheaded the laptop program believes that using iPads in kindergarten will improve the learning process. He said that it is capable of getting the attention of pupils because they are engaging.

However, Larry Cuban, Professor Emeritus of Education at Stanford University and the writer of “Oversold and Underused: Computers in Schools,” the benefits of using computer in teaching young students still needs to be proven.

Peter Pizzolongo from the Washington-based National Association for the Education of Young Children said that iPads can be the perfect supplement to three-dimensional objects. Nick Sauers from the Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education of Iowa State University said that the iPad can be most effective in the elementary level as well as in special education classes because it has hundreds of education apps.

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