The Coweta County School System has always been on the cutting edge of incorporating technology into classroom teaching and day-to-day administrative functions. During the past two years our school system has developed a multi-year plan to not only encourage greater use of technology but to ensure that we do this in a cost-effective way. That phrase - “cost-effective way” - is always our greatest challenge. Our ultimate goal is to prepare our students for success.

Here is what we are doing:

We formed a committee responsible for developing a plan. This committee is comprised of principals, teachers, curriculum staff, technology staff, and administrative leaders who are in tune with what our goals are and what we need to do to move forward.

We researched current and proposed standards developed to measure student achievement in the use of technology. The committee looked at standards from the International Society for Technology in Education; the National Education Technology Plan; the State of Georgia Department of Education Technology Plan, all of which were used to develop our system’s current three-year Technology Plan.

We set our goals. A few of these goals are listed below.

Learners will have engaging and empowering learning experiences in and outside the classroom to prepare them to be active, creative, knowledgeable, and ethical participants in our globally networked society. Equip every classroom with a projector to improve student engagement Increase the usage of interactive responders at all grade levels to improve student achievement Increase technology available at schools through a system matching-funds initiative Increase online instructional opportunities for students through virtual classes to improve course pass rates and graduation rates

Educators will be supported individually and in teams by technology that connects them to data, content, resources, expertise, and learning experiences that enable and inspire more effective teaching for all learners. Provide technology chairperson at each school with the tools they need to coordinate training and provide support Provide professional learning and training for all teachers on ethics in a digital world in order to support teachers Provide training for all students on ethics in a digital world in order to support students Provide parent online tutorials in content areas in order to assist parents with providing assistance to their child

Redesign processes and structures to take advantage of the power of technology to improve learning outcomes while making more efficient use of time, money, and staff. Utilize social networking applications for instruction and for communication in order to better serve our stakeholders Implement student BYOT (Bring Your Own Technology) in order to improve student engagement Review and revise existing policies in order to improve processes and structures for technology uses

Students and educators will have access to a comprehensive infrastructure for learning when and where they need it. Upgrade all sites to 1 gigabyte (campus to campus, building to building) Upgrade workstations – whole school – and new systems for teachers and staff Provide wireless access for all schools Increase technology support personnel/data management personnel We are implementing our plan. Within this first year of our three-year plan we have:

Provided 23 sites with wireless connectivity Distributed 800 student responders to schools Upgraded 6 sites to 1 GB Distributed 302 workstations to schools Distributed 218 new projectors Added 2 technology support personnel Added 1 additional data management person Piloted six schools in our BYOT Project Upgraded our current policies