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Davis Presents Innovation & Technology Component Of Education Platform At SXSWedu

Wendy Davis says her education policy will contain a greater use of technology even amongst poorer school districts -- the Democratic nominee for governor was one of the keynote speakers at this week’s South by Southwest Education conference.

In a packed room at SXSWedu in Austin, Davis provided a sneak peak at another component to her education platform: Innovation and technology.

“What we need to do to embrace innovation and technology and to make it a more vibrant part of the Texas learning experience," Davis said. "We have the ability to move forward in excellence in education by embracing every tool available to us. As governor, it’s one of my education planks that I will encourage our school districts to be innovative in the use of these tools and that they will be rewarded when they show innovation.”

The Democratic candidate for governor said this component of her education platform was inspired by a visit to a Rio Grande Valley school district in Pharr, Texas.

“I was told that every student in their elementary school, from pre-K all the way through, has an iPad," Davis said. "So when the teachers want to talk to her students about a moment of history, being able to have her students look that up while she’s talking about it has been a real valuable tool in helping the students get excited about what they’re learning and to be speaking to them in a way that connects with today’s students.”

Davis also said that charter and magnet schools played a vital role as a laboratory of learning excellence that helped transform Texas traditional public schools, which she said is also part of her education platform. 

Davis was also asked if she supported the federal education standard commonly known as "Common Core."

"Texas has always embarked on it's own journey in terms of what we think is right for us and that's not a bad idea and better than what we see on the national stage," Davis said.

Ryan started his radio career in 2002 working for Austin’s News Radio KLBJ-AM as a show producer for the station's organic gardening shows. This slowly evolved into a role as the morning show producer and later as the group’s executive producer.