Yesterday Governor Timothy Kaine hosted the Governor’s Technology Awards at the Williamsburg Marriott.
Kaine first congratulated the entire state for winning and maintaining the title of Forbes’ Best State for Business for the third consecutive year. This is the first time that any state has kept the title for three straight years.
“The strength of the Virginian economy and the advanced manufacturing accolade cannot be credited to anything other than the state’s incredible IT developments,” Kaine said.

Kaine gave special praise to the Williamsburg-James City County Public Schools, the recipient of the “Innovative Use of Technology in K-12 Education” award. The WJCC Public School System was commended for its creation of the Instructional Technology Standard project, intended to “research, design, and implement a standard set of technology tools for the classroom to better the teaching and learning environment.” This program integrates how-to technology lessons with the everyday school curriculum so that students can become more computer literate.

The other academic award, “Innovative Use in Higher Education,” was given to James Madison University for working with the August Medical Center and the Virginia Department of Health on a flu pandemic modeling system.

This conference on Government Technology in Virginia takes place over the course of three days.