Harvard Partners With Boston, Cambridge Schools For Internet Network

In line with a new Harvard partnership with Boston and Cambridge, University President Drew G. Faust visited a Boston public school today to launch a new high-speed network connection.

Harvard will host an network connection to all 148 public schools in Cambridge and Boston at no cost to either city. The connection will be provided through Internet2, a not-for-profit advanced networking consortium that is used by more than 200 universities and 45 government agencies across the nation.

Faust, with City of Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, and Boston Public Schools Superintendent Carol R. Johnson, attended a ceremony at the John D. O’Bryant School of Math and Science in celebration of the school’s new connection to Internet2 and new interactive technology.

“Putting cutting edge technology in the hands of Boston teachers and students is an exciting new chapter in Harvard’s long and fruitful partnership with Boston schools,” Faust said in the press release.

The O’Bryant School in Boston and the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School also received Cisco TelePresence equipment that will “enable the students and teachers to connect with people around the globe and put them at the forefront of teaching and learning,” according to a University press release.

The attendees of the ceremony received a live demonstration of the TelePresence technology that combines live video, audio, and interaction to allow real-time face-to-face collaboration experiences.

The O’Bryant School’s headmaster, Steven C. Sullivan, held live virtual conversations with students and teachers in and outside of Boston.

“We see this as moving into the future with a new  kind of partnership with technologies that those folks 375 years ago could  never have imagined,” Faust told the students, according to University spokesperson Lauren Marshall.

“We now, together, will have  new ways of imagining what this technology can mean,” she said.

—Staff writer Xi Yu can be reached at xyu@college.harvard.edu.