Anne Holton on Tuesday praised initiatives like Manassas Park’s eBackpack program that puts tablet computers in the hands of students.
Holton, who is Virginia’s secretary of education and wife of Senator Timothy Kaine, said this effort also known as “flipping the classroom” is giving students a new way to learn.
“It’s a new way of learning. The students are having the resources at their fingertips as to be able to problem solve together as opposed to an old way of looking at it: “turn the machines off, you’ve got to memorize everything,” said Holton.
Business leaders gathered Tuesday at the Manassas Park Community Center to hear the state’s top education official speak on the state of schools in the Commonwealth. Holton said using more technology in the classroom allows students to learn where to find information, how to communicate better and present that information to their classmates, and to problem solve.
Holton said the use of technologies like giving students tablet computers is an idea that is catching on across the state. Not all jurisdictions will be able to implement the technology programs to due to school’s inability to fund such improvements. There is some help from state education officials, said Holton.
In many places, the classroom still looks as it did 100 years ago, she added.
“It’s everywhere we have a structure that says ‘kids are supposed to sit in their seats for literally for 140 hours per course, per school year, and that’s just one example of way in which are not traditionally geared to the type of individualized education we can be doing with technology,” said Holton.
She adds more students need to have the ability to leave the classroom and connect with businesses in the community.
Recent Stories
Prince William County’s Board of Supervisors easily approved the fiscal year 2025 budget with a few changes on Tuesday, April 23, 2024, to take effect on July 1.
School officials in Prince William County say Antisemitic symbols were found painted on the side of Coles Elementary and Benton Middle schools near Woodbridge.
Manassas City Council held a public hearing on the city’s budget, as residents once again are facing the prospect of paying more in taxes.
On April 22, 2024, at approximately 2:16 a.m., the Manassas City Police Department responded to a 911 call for shots fired in the 9100 block of Winterset Drive.
To celebrate Air Quality Awareness Week (May 6-10, 2024), Clean Air Partners is working with A Few Cool Hardware Stores to exchange DC, Maryland and Virginia residents’ gas-powered lawnmowers, trimmers, and leaf blowers at select Ace Hardware locations in the region. DMV residents who turn in their gas-powered lawn tools will receive a FREE Ego Power+ replacement including batteries and chargers, while supplies last.
Compared to gas, electric lawn equipment can reduce emissions, noise pollution, health risks and maintenance costs and time. The program aims to remove about a hundred gas-powered polluting tools from yards in the greater Baltimore-Washington region.
The exchanges will take place the weekends of May 17-19, 2024, and May 31-June 2, 2024, at A Few Cool Hardware Stores network of employee-owned Ace Hardware stores in the DC and Baltimore metro areas. To participate and get your free Ego Power+ lawn tool, sign up at https://qrco.de/CAPExchange to reserve your tool and select your trade-in date and location.
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Free Irish Music Concert
Welcoming Spring with music from the Emerald Isle, the New Dominion Choraliers offer a FREE concert on Saturday, April 27 at 7:30 p.m. at the First United Presbyterian Church of Dale City.
Joined by Legacy Brass and members of Old
Spring Ceili: An Irish Music Festival
The New Dominion Choraliers of Prince William County and McGrath Morgan Academy of Irish Dance invite you to join them at our Ceili, a grand celebration of Irish music and dance.
A gathering of performance groups throughout Prince William County
