New Maine adult education website to pay dividends locally

by Staff Pioneer Times
16 years ago

    At a February 11 State house ceremony Governor John Baldacci logged onto the Web site www.maineadulted.org, officially launching the new site for Maine Adult Education. In his remarks Gov. Baldacci spoke of the importance of this new site and the role it can play in today’s economy.
     “Adult education is a tremendous resource that contributes a great deal to Maine’s economy,” Gov. Baldacci said. “This new site will enable all adult education centers, big or small, the opportunity to reach out to those who need the information most and continue to improve the lives of Mainers through continued education.”
    Maineadulted.org is a new Web site designed to make searching for adult education classes from Kittery to Fort Kent easy and convenient. Maine’s local adult education programs, including SAD 29/70 Adult Education, have individual Web pages with course listings and news. Literacy Volunteer affiliates throughout the state, the Maine Department of Education’s Adult Education team, and the Maine Adult Education Corrections Association are also represented on the Web portal.
    Local Adult Education Director Otis Smith believes the portal could not have come at a better time. “Our program is seeing strong interest in courses due to the economy and the convenience of on-line course searching presents our program as part of a statewide adult education system.”
    “This resource provides Maine’s local adult education programs with a convenient and affordable way to have a powerful presence on the Web, while offering those seeking courses one-stop shopping for courses,” said Kathi Medcalf, Sanford Community Adult Education director and project manager for the portal project.
    Individuals looking for a course simply type in a town or zip code and how far they want to travel and in a flash they have a list of offerings.
    Thanks to the generous support of community partners such as Bangor Savings Bank, The Betterment Fund and the Nellie Mae Education Foundation, the Web site unofficially went online in January. Currently there are over 3,000 courses available from York to Madawaska and from Bethel to Bar Harbor. To date there have been over 500 online registrations and 11,000 visitors.