New software will track students, not send info to the 'cloud'

The Algoma District School Board (ADSB) is in the early stages of using new software to consolidate its information on students.

The software, known as Edsby, will also be available to teachers, principals, board staff and ‘all employees involved with students,’ said director of education Joe Santa Maria following Tuesday night’s ADSB board meeting.

“What this does as an enterprise solution is create a safe environment through an internal application that allows us to house the information, and it’s not on someone else’s server,” Santa Maria said.

Parents will also be able to communicate with ADSB employees using the software.

Santa Maria says that the new software - which also has a mobile app - will replace the school board's old methods of using multiple programs to track students, using just one login in order to access a number of applications - including student performance.

“This product could eventually consolidate some of those other products that are out there,” Santa Maria said.

While it’s unknown at this time exactly how much money it will cost to implement Edsby in schools across the Algoma District, Santa Maria says the cost is “reasonable.”

“If we invest in any of our software, we like to see a return on on investment, and the consolidation of products definitely, as we get to the end of that life cycle of some of our other products that we’ve been using, that consolidation would be seen as a net benefit to the board,” he said.

When asked about the potential for data privacy breaches, Santa Maria said the information in Edsby will be housed in the school board’s internal servers, as opposed to a ‘cloud system.’

“That’s at the forefront of our team meetings with manager of IT, with our program team, and the communication out to teachers about how to make sure that those situations are considered private within the organization and respected that way,” Santa Maria said.

Pilot projects for the software were rolled out at F.H. Clergue Public School in Sault Ste. Marie and W.C. Eaket Secondary School in Blind River back in September 2017.

All other schools within the district will be able to use Edsby on a voluntary basis beginning next month.

The board will monitor what the usage rates look like for all its schools, with the hope that usage of the software will grow during the 2018-2019 academic year.

Additional information on Edsby can be found here.