Franklin County Public Schools

Instructional Technology Resource Teachers (ITRTs) are licensed teachers who assist teachers with the integration of technology into the classroom, train teachers and students to use technology in an effective manner, and assist with curriculum development and data analysis.  The Five Cs are skills that have been identified by the United States-based Partnership for 21st Century Skills as the most important skills required for 21st century education.  ITRTs help teachers and students use technology tools to develop lessons and classroom experiences that develop these skills: critical thinking, creativity, communication, collaboration and citizenship and prepare students for lifelong learning.

The information systems staff have the task of working with all administrative software packages in the school division.  These packages have grown significantly in the past two years and now consist of a student information database, fund accounting database, library administrative software, curriculum management administrative software, and much more. Reporting at the state and federal level have increased significantly.  Reporting at the local level is proving to be the major method behind instructional decision making.  Through the multitude of information systems packages available we truly can be Data Driven Decision Makers.

Technology is used in some form by all organizations and groups in the school division.  The services and the systems mentioned only cover a small portion of the existing technology and technology services available in the Franklin County School Division.  Technology Representatives, Resource Assistants, and Library Media personnel all represent additional personnel who are actively involved with the implementation and use of technology.  The Technology Representatives serve as a liaison between the technology services department and the school.  They also perform minor technical assistance at the building level and may perform additional training in areas covered by ITRT's or technology services support personnel.  They are the first point of contact from the school to the technology services department.  They have the task of promoting the technology used in their school to the rest of the school system and in the community. 

Library Media Specialists are the librarians from years past.  Their tasks are still the same; however, they are now responsible for a completely different type of media.  Film strip projectors, 16mm video projectors, record players, tape players, Polaroid cameras and many other types of media of yesterday have passed on by and now have been replaced by today's technology.

The Technology Resource Assistants (TRA's) comprise the final group of Technology partners in the schools.  These individuals operate the specialized labs at each school.  As a result of this, most of them are very proficient with numerous software titles.  They normally see several classes of students on a daily basis and must cover a variety of programs with different classes.  The technology partners are very valuable in helping the technology department provide the best assistance possible to the end users in Franklin County Public Schools.