SETDA Interviews
Interview with Bette Manchester
As part of SETDA's Leading in Technology Course, EDC produced an interview
with Bette Manchester, the Director of Special Programs and the Learning
Technologies (Laptop) Initiative at the Maine State Department of Education.
During the interview, Bette answers these questions:
- What is your role with the ME Department of Education?
- How does your position fit within the ME Department of Education?
- What led you to accept the position as Director of MLTI?
- What happened after Governor King proposed the laptop program?
- What convinced the task force members to go from skepticism to unanimous support of MLTI?
- What do you recommend to your colleagues about advocating for technology funding?
- What were the major challenges you faced when you first assumed leadership of MLTI and how did you address these challenges?
- How would you describe the role of teachers in the Maine laptop initiatives?
- What is the role of the school technology directors?
- How did you use the regional leadership meetings to gain commitment to the project?
- Did you ever worry that the MLTI project would not succeed?
- Are there schools in which it has not gone well?
- What have been the most exciting results of the project for you?
- What do you hope to see in Maine middle school classrooms in five years?
- Is this unique to Maine? Can it be done in other places?
Launch Interview
