Verizon Foundation President, Patrick Gaston, Joins Education Leaders to Discuss Innovation in Education

Innovation in Education Panel (Left to Right): Murugan Pal, co-founder & president, CK12 Foundation; Patrick Gaston, president, Verizon Foundation; Shawn Covell, vice president, government affairs, Qualcomm; Danny Bowman, president, Integrated Solutions Group, Sprint-Nextel; Karen Cator, director of education technology, U.S. Dept. of Education; Julis Genachowski, chairman, Federal Communications Commission - at the USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership & Policy, and PBS Kids Back to School: Learning in a Digital Age Conference.

Verizon Foundation President, Patrick Gaston, recently participated in a panel discussion on innovation in education at the USC Annenberg's Center on Communication Leadership & Policy's Back to School: Learning & Growing in the Digital Age Conference.

Gaston, who stressed the importance of broadband technology in education, was joined by an elite group of technology and education leaders including Julius Genachowski, FCC Chairman; Karen Cator, Director of education technology for the U.S. Department of Education; Shawn Covell, Vice President of government affairs with Qualcomm; Danny Bowman, President of the integrated solutions group for Sprint; and Murugan Pal, Co-Founder and President of CK-12 Foundation.

With today's issues facing education, the purpose of the panel was to provide a public forum for leaders from Silicon Valley and Washington D.C. to meet the issue head on. Strategies and ideas were discussed in an attempt to utilize technology innovation to expand educational opportunities that benefit students, parents, and teachers.

"Broadband technology can help level the playing field to ensure that every student, whether they go to school in a suburb, an inner city, or rural America, have access to world-class educational resources, putting them in a better position to succeed in the classroom today and in the workplace tomorrow," said Gaston.

Thinkfinity.org, Verizon's signature education program, is aimed at improving teacher effectiveness and student achievement with new, innovative tools designed to engage learners, and provides thousands of free educational resources for teachers, students, and parents by the click of a mouse.

"Education is an important issue for our company and our country. It is an issue that impacts every business and one that will require all interested parties to use their skills and expertise to help drive positive change," said Gaston. "With Thinkfinity.org, every teacher in reach of the Internet has access to a continually updated stream of exciting, interactive educational resources to help students succeed."