Students will be supporting other students this year as Cape Elizabeth Middle School readies for the Maine Learning Technology Initiative.

Under the initiative, every seventh-grader around the state will receive an iBook laptop computer manufactured by Apple.

Cape Elizabeth staff have been readying all summer for the initiative, but this week they were joined by 17 students entering the seventh grade who will serve as peer support for their classmates.

Members of the "iTeam" met for training with District Technology Coordinator Gary Lanoie and staff Thursday.

Although staff anticipates a certain number of "glitches" as the laptop project unfolds, Middle School Principal Nancy Hutton told the School Board Thursday night that everyone involved has readied for the challenge.

All seventh-grade teachers attended training this summer, either at the MacLeadership workshops held in Yarmouth, or at the state-sponsored training sessions. Each teacher was introduced to their iBooks at the end of June and had their machine to work with over the summer.

"As a system we were really trying to make an effort to make sure this is going to go well," Hutton told the board. She said Cape Elizabeth was one of the few districts in the state to offer training before distributing laptops to the teachers for the summer.

Parents will play a supporting role as well, Hutton said. One has volunteered to organize a group of parents to help the Middle School communicate the initiative's progress as it unfolds.

Hutton said the school plans a fall workshop where students will demonstrate how they are using their machines. "We are going to use our students as messengers and as part of the information about how this is becoming an educational tool," Hutton said.

Technology also touched other curriculum work over the summer, Hutton said, particularly work by foreign language teachers on Web site creation and use of the World Wide Web. The laptops and the school's mobile computer lab will be useful in implementing the curriculum work, she said.