The district is also developing a single sign-on platform to better integrate applications and data.<\/p>\n
With nearly 60,000 students and a mix of traditional, charter and pilot schools, CIO Mark Racine is always looking for ways to make educational technology go farther for the faculty and families of Boston Public Schools. <\/p>\n
Like many CIOs, Racine has his eye on cloud computing as the future of data management. <\/p>\n
But with limited funding preventing an immediate full-on move to the cloud, Racine and his infrastructure team are still banking on a hybrid approach, he said in a recent interview with EdScoop. The approach provides scaling opportunities to relieve stress on the network, especially at certain high-traffic points during the school year. <\/p>\n
He likened it to the 1-800-Flowers approach, the way flower companies will need to scale up for Valentine's Day, and then come back inside, Racine said. <\/p>\n
We would move to the cloud tomorrow if we could, he said. <\/p>\n
View more of EdScoop's interviews with innovative school CIOs.<\/p>\n
Among other edtech initiatives, Racine said he and his 50-member IT team have also invested heavily in single sign-on technology, geared towards increasing connectivity across the district. <\/p>\n
The technology is also aimed at building toward greater data integration. The platform will take authentication to all kinds of different learning apps, and allow us to take our Ed-Fi database and scale that data to all educational platforms as well, he said. <\/p>\n
When an educational technology platform is working well in a classroom or school, we want to be able to bring that up to 130 buildings, he said. <\/p>\n
Another big initiative underway for Boston Public Schools, according to Racine, is finding the best way to support the districts school choice program. <\/p>\n
Boston schools offer parents the flexibility to walk into a family resource center, explore all the schools that are available to them, learn about the educational programming that's in that building, and then be able to make a choice on where they want to send their child. <\/p>\n
The ultimate goal of this is to, as Racine says, Eliminate the amount of lost-learning time, through the process of integrating technology into school choice programs. <\/p>\n
Ryan Johnston contributed to this report. <\/p>\n
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Boston schools CIO Mark Racine takes hybrid approach to cloud computing - EdScoop News (press release) (registration) (blog)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The district is also developing a single sign-on platform to better integrate applications and data. Continue reading