Our vision is to use classroom technology to engage students in asking questions and choosing tools to facilitate real world problem solving.BYOT in Action


Our core work includes: 
 
School-based Instructional Technology Staff (ITS and Media Specialist): Each school is assigned a instructional technology support team which includes an Instructional Technology Specialist and a Media Specialist.  Both have experience using a wide variety software and hardware as a classroom teacher and in preparing and conducting technology-related professional learning classes. This team is innovative in the way they integrate technology to enhance the educational process. Both members of the team are leaders in the building and in the district. The school-based Instructional Technology Team serve as the conduit for planning, communicating and achieving district initiatives and often serve as a member of the school’s leadership team. The instructional technology department is involved in the selection of the school-based staff, initial training, ongoing professional development and evaluation.
 
 
Bring Your Own Technology (BYOT) - FCS is working with schools and teachers throughout the district to implement the practice of allowing students to bring their own technology to use in the classroom.  Several trailblazers have worked through the issues of how to manage the classroom if some students do have a computing device while others don’t as well as ways to make effective use of the technologies.
 
Digital Resources: Textbooks must be treated as one resource, not THE resource and certainly not the curriculum. Digital, web-based educational resources are now of higher quality than content found in most textbooks, and content offered by streaming video services like United Streaming and Safari Montage, is far superior to the examples in textbooks. Since carrying forty pounds of books have caused students to suffer permanent damage to their backs and feet, we would like to substitute a three pound notebook computer with ubiquitous Internet access for every student within the next few years. The savings in textbook cost and inventory control would be significant.
 
Interactive Classroom Technologies: Having established a system-wide standard of providing a 21st century learning environment in every classroom which includes an interactive whiteboard, a ceiling mounted projector, teacher notebook computer, sound system and connections to the closed-circuit broadcast system, the instructional technology department works with the ITS and Media Specialist to provide professional learning and model best practices in the use of these technologies. In addition, student response systems in a ratio of one system per six classrooms are available to increase the formative assessment tools available for teachers.

Online Education: addresses the VISION 2010 goal of providing the opportunities for students to achieve their highest potential. It is our strong belief that such opportunities will only come through second-order change. Second-order change demands that we use technology not as a tool for “doing what we do better” but for doing something better.
     Work on the NOBLE concept is an ongoing collaboration with the Office of Academics and Accountability and includes establishing a variety of learning environments that allow students to become authentically engaged in quality work (see our Online Learning Continuum). Although online courses, apprenticeships, and alternate scheduling are major parts of the NOBLE endeavor, the long range goals are broader in scope and include seamless integration of technology into all content areas, a greater interaction with the business community in developing student career paths and an individual learning plan for each student.
     NOBLE maximizes the communication, pedagogic and information handling capabilities of the school system by rebuilding the infrastructure with a Learning Management System (LMS). With the adoption of the ANGEL Learning Systems platform as our LMS, we have a mechanism for the practical implementation of a standards-based curriculum that uses high leverage teaching strategies with triangulation of student assessment through product focus, conversation and observation.

Technology Orientation for New Educators (TONE): As a fast growing county, Forsyth is constantly employing new educators. It is critical to these new educators and to the district that the instructional technology induction is of the highest quality. As a result, a major focus is put on TONE. This year long program seeks to ensure Forsyth educators are well prepared for the core work. TONE is delivered via our learning management system with leadership from the School-based Instructional Technology Team (ITS & Media Specialist).


Forsyth County Schools provides teachers with access to the highest quality educational technology resources. Each classroom has access to a wealth of technology resources. A classroom visit reveals:

  • Teachers and students collaborating on learning through the use of interactive whiteboard technology.
  • Learners accessing appropriate software to help accelerate comprehension in math and language arts. In addition, the school's network provides access to a wealth of productivity resources like word processing, presentation tools and connection to the media center holdings from anywhere in the school.
  • Students produce and broadcast the morning announcements each day over the school's two-way video distribution system.
  • Students accessing the Internet via high-speed connection and teachers communicating within the school, district, community and the world via email.
  • All classroom computers are part of the school network and all schools are connected to a high-speed fiber optic network.

Being technology literate is a necessity in order to be a successful educator in Forsyth County Schools.

For more information, please contact Jill Hobson, Director of Instructional Technology at jhobson@forsyth.k12.ga.us.

Last Modified on December 19, 2011