Greene County Student Testifies Before Congress
Abel Real, a sophomore at East Carolina University, and graduate from Greene Central High School in Snow Hill, NC recently testified in front of The Committee on Education and Labor at the U.S. House of Representatives.
The hearings focused on the Future of Learning: How Technology is Transforming Public Schools. Real discussed how participating in a one-to-one program helped him to overcome hardships and achieve his goals.
"Technology helped me to create, learn, explain, document, and analyze the different aspects of my life," Real said during that testimony.
“Since Greene County schools provided change with the one-to-one program, school life is very different than the traditional high school my brothers dropped out of,” said Real. “Students work collaboratively in groups, they are challenged by projects and thoughtful questions and the best part is everyone participates and pays attention. In addition to the laptops, students use digital cameras, video cameras, and interactive white boards. Students are being prepared for college and 21st century careers.”
“It’s clear that technology and innovation in the classroom not only helps make lessons come alive for students, but can help them gain the skills needed to compete in a global marketplace,” said U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), the chairman of the committee. “Technology allows teachers to better understand the needs of their students on a real time basis, which in turn can make a dramatic difference in the way teachers teach and students learn.”
Other witnesses told the panel that investments in technology in the classroom can help give students a 21st century skill set to prepare them for 21st century jobs.
You can see Abel’s testimony here and a listing of the other June 16 testimonies at the committee’s YouTube Channel.
For more information and resources related to Learning Technology Initiatives, visit these sites: