It's been a decade since Maine began handing out laptop computers to every 7th and 8th grader from Ft. Kent to Kittery. The Maine Technology Learning Initiative was the first program of its kind in the nation and now gives computers to high school students too. Shortly after the program began, students started gathering once a year to compare notes on how their laptops are changing what they learn, and how. This year's conference at the University of Maine featured, among other things, a unique feat of technology and musicianship.

Jay Field: "So we're now in the auditorium at the Collins Center for the Arts at the University of Maine, and there are 1,000 students, all of them with MacBooks open on their laps. And in a minute, we're going to see what it sounds like when 1,000 students play a single composition of music."

"I want everybody to open Garage Band. Everybody open Garage Band," says Steve Garton. Garton is head of education technology at the Maine Department of Education by day, a musician himself by night, and the conductor for this experiment. It's called the Uber session. Garton stands at a keyboard on the auditorium stage, surrounded by a drummer, a guitar player and a horn section.

"Now. The thing is, when we have this many people playing, there are going to be times where you say, 'Oh you can't hear me. It's just one..." NO! Every single thing will be heard! Every single thing will be there. It's the power of the ensemble that's going to make this," he says. "And you're going to be part of the world premiere of the piece that we're playing today."

Garton leads the students through some tweaks to Garage Band. Find the instrument setting called synthpad angelic organ, he tells them. Garton then divides the auditorium into three sections, shushes the crowd and orders them to start pressing keys on the music program.

"Shh.....shh....shh. Play the letter A," he instructs in a whisper. "Group 1 move to the letter S. Group 2 move to the letter G. Group 3 move to the letter K." The music gets louder. "Beautiful!" he says. "Give yourselves a hand."

It's been a lot of fun. We've met a lot of new people," says Emily Morris. "And it's interesting to see what other people have done with their MacBooks," says her twin sister Katie.

Emily and Katie Morris are two of the older members of today's ensemble. The twins, both 17, are attending their first laptop conference. They both go to Machias Memorial High School, where Emily Morris says technology has allowed them to take a foreign language that isn't offered Downeast.

"Well, we take Japanese courses online, using our MacBooks, through the University of Missouri and currently we're doing it through Brigham Young University," she says. "So we're currently on our third year and we hope to keep doing it until we get out of high school and continue while we're in college to study the language."

If you haven't figured it out by now, the technology at this conference is all Apple. The company inked a $37 million contract with the state of Maine in 2002 to begin providing laptops to students. Before the group composition, kids spent the morning in various workshops, learning how to use their notebooks to--among other things--design video games, do animation, learn about astronomy, make movies and devlop apps.

Jeff Maa is the learning technology policy director at the Maine Department of Education. "Some of the things we're doing is really trying to give kids an opportunity to interact with professionals and each other," he says. "And really trying to give kids an opportunity to learn more about how they can leverage technology to pursue their interests."

Inside the auditroium, it's showtime. The musicians wait, poised, as the Garage Band ensemble plays the intro. The horn section comes in, joined by two students from New World Symphony, the orchestral academy in Miami, playing live over the Internet.

The music pulses and throbs forward, anchored, on the low end, by all those laptops.