McWhorter Elementary Demonstrates Technology for State Legislators

Students from McWhorter Elementary attended the Texas Capitol Schoolhouse onJanuary 31 at the Capitol Rotunda basement in Austin showcasing the innovative use of technology in the Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District (C-FB ISD). “The participating schools clearly demonstrate their effective day-to-day use of educational technology in teaching their students and preparing them for the 21st century,” Schoolhouse organizer and Executive Director Dr. Deborah Jolly said. “We bring the schools together to show our legislators the wonderful things their technology funding has done for Texas classrooms. Each time the event becomes more and more impressive as the technology use becomes more and more sophisticated,”
Jolly added.

At the beginning of each legislative session, a number of schools are invited to bring a small representative group of their students along with their teachers with current applications of educational technology. Teachers and students set up their classrooms in the Capitol. Throughout the event, they conduct class just as they do every day in their home districts. This year, students, utilizing both PCs and Macs, will be working with video & sound editing, robotics, iPods, iPads, online virtual learning environments, 1 to 1 laptop computing, on-line interactive learning and other educational technologies. Legislators and invited guests had the opportunity to venture through actual classrooms to observe and experience educational technology in use by teachers and students.

“Educational technology brings schools high tech education tools deployed by our teachers and used by our students to prepare them to succeed in the 21st century. These students are eager to show their Representatives and Senators how these tools are used in the education process and how much they benefit from their use,” Dr. Jolly concluded.