Forsyth County Schools discovers new ways to collaborate and save time with Google Apps for Education

My team is able to save a lot of time and money because Chromebooks are inexpensive to maintain, compared to PCs and laptops, as well as less expensive to purchase. But the biggest cost-savings we’ve experienced is time and resources.

Dr. Lessell Martiny (Marty) Bray, chief technology and information officer, Forsyth County Schools and Dr. Jill Earman, coordinator of instructional technology, Forsyth County Schools

Challenge

Sharing information and exchanging ideas can get lost in the hustle and bustle of daily school life. Forsyth County Schools wanted to use technology to increase productivity and communication. The district also wanted to give teachers and staff access to the same collaboration and professional development opportunities available to employees at innovative businesses. The school district wanted to help students develop their collaboration skills as well as give them an easy way to access and save assignments. Given limited funds, the district needed a solution that was less expensive and easier to maintain than their current solution of PCs and laptops.

Solution

After much research into workplace and learning technologies, Forsyth County Schools decided to introduce Google Apps for Education and Chromebooks across the district. Dr. Jill Earman, coordinator of instructional technology, found that Google outpaced other technology solutions, like Microsoft, in training and ease of implementation. Other tools would take weeks or months to launch across the school district, without the same level of access to information and online training that Google provides. Forsyth piloted Google Apps with 8 schools in the early spring of 2015 and then with the rest of the schools before the school year ended. They then deployed 1500 Chromebooks to the middle schools when students and teachers returned to school in the fall of 2015. Staff soon began to experiment with creative ways to save time and share information using Google Apps.