Nation's Governors Brainstorm on Education Tech Strategies

The National Governors Association next week will hold the first of two working sessions to brief governors on how to shape statewide visions for education technology and bolster state education programs with enabling technology.

California Gov. Gray Davis (D) will host NGA's Center for Best Practices' "Transforming Learning Through Technology" program in San Francisco May 20-21. The meeting is geared toward discussing strategies to use technology to improve student performance, and it will feature models for areas such as developing state budgets for technology, ensuring professional competency and determining whether investments produce outcomes.

"There will be several different presentations, including some made by students using technologies in the classroom. It will be a session geared toward state policy-makers and serve as a sort of discussion on how states can get past wiring-the-schools issues and include different technology in their curriculum," NGA spokeswoman Terrell Gregovich said.

NGA's second technology learning session is slated for mid-July in Nashville. The association has declared education its top issue of the year, and NGA's chairman, Delaware Gov. Thomas Carper (D) has divided the topic into several key areas, including technology in education.