Lots has been written lately about technology in Maine classrooms, especially the Maine Learning Technology Initiative, a program that puts Apple iBook laptop computers in the hands of every seventh and eighth grader in the public school system. Even the New York Times weighed in this week with a favorable review. To further challenge Maine students to explore technology, the good guys at Bath’s own Maine Hosting Solutions have come up with a great idea – the First Annual Maine Student Web Design Awards. The contest runs from March 1st to May 1st, and is open to any student currently enrolled in an accredited Maine Middle or High School.

Here’s how it works. Students design a web site about anything related to the great State of Maine: outdoors, wildlife, recreation, culture, history, science, etc. Once the design is complete and a host is found, the site is submitted for judging. Each entrant’s site will be judged on functionality, usability, creativity and Maine content. Contest rules forbid explicit materials and plagiarism. Any information or images that are not the property of the student must be properly cited.

The Design Awards web site has an abundant list of resources for aspiring web designers to use in creating their sites. In fact, both of the heavyweights of commercial web design, Adobe’s GoLive and Macromedia’s Dreamweaver, have downloadable, fully-functional trial versions available.

The Awards are being promoted throughout the Maine school system, and the growing list of sponsors includes WPXT (WB51), WPME (UPN35) and MaineToday.com.

What are the prizes, you ask? An Xbox, Portland Sea Dogs gift certificates, snowboards and clothing, mountain bike rentals, movie passes, to name a few. The full prize list, and everything else you need to know about the program, is available on the Awards web site at: http://www.mainehosting.com/contest/home.html.

Once the judging is complete, links to all entrant sites will be posted for public viewing, and an awards ceremony will be held May 15th at a to-be-announced location. Kudos to Chris Bartlett at Maine Hosting Solutions, for coming up with this great idea.

That’s all for this week. Keep those emails coming to petez@macmaineiac.com, and, as always, Semper Mac!

© 2003 Peter F. Zimowski