Boerne Middle School North students Aryn Mangiafico, Leslie Pierce and Katie Upham build their own Web sites. (Photo by Scott Mahon)

Boerne Middle School North students are participating in what is becoming a growing movement among the nation’s secondary educational institutions, where Web-based course management systems are seen as a way to more effectively engage students and better leverage teachers’ most valuable skills.

If ninth-grade business programming teacher Jesse Cravens’ vision comes to pass, this scenario may become the norm as fellow teachers and administrators become more familiar with the benefits of a collaborative learning environment. Cravens, who spearheaded the effort to bring this new set of tools and techniques to Boerne’s classrooms, has been a long-time believer in embracing the internet as a mechanism for improving education.

“Especially when it comes to a class like business computer programming,” Cravens explains. “We need to be showing kids hands-on the value of the skills we are teaching.”

The new course management system being piloted by Cravens consists of a web-based software application called Moodle, which has gained recognition and popularity because of its rich features and because it is “open-source;” that is, the program is freely available to anyone who wants it.

Moodle is praised by educators for features like web-based grade books, online essay writing and grading, feedback loops with instructors and a host of other features that make collaboration between students and teachers relatively easy. Additionally, the tool supports educational philosophies that claim, among other things, that students learn best when they interact with their learning environment, and when they are part of a larger community of learners.

However, Cravens’ first attempt at putting Moodle in the classroom failed. To make the tool accessible to all his students, Cravens first tried using the services of an inexpensive Web hosting provider. Cravens said that Moodle just wouldn’t run fast enough on the provider’s under-powered hardware.

Discouraged, but not defeated, Cravens turned to the local business community for help. Having spent the previous summer working at Digett, a Boerne-based Web marketing firm, he successfully pitched the benefits of his ideas to Digett President Mark Figart. Cravens walked away from that meeting with a commitment for a high-performance hosting environment worth around $6,000 per year that has bridged his last technology hurdle.

“Our own experience with the Web has shown us the potential value of online collaboration and community,” said Figart. “And within our own company we see that people generally learn best when they learn together. Applying these principles in education seems like a natural, and I’m excited to see where Jesse takes it from here.”

BISD Superintendent Dr. John Kelly said he appreciated Digett for giving this unprecedented opportunity for instructional innovation to BISD classrooms.

“With Jesse Cravens providing the teacher spark and with dynamic local business involvement, this donation is teaching students the power of collaboration between academics and business,” Kelly said.

Cravens named the new Web site Boerne Virtual School, and is introducing his students and fellow teachers to its benefits. He also has developed an introductory course on computer languages, tools and techniques used for developing web sites and programming internet applications. Student reaction has been overwhelmingly positive.

“I can access assignments from home, and classroom resources are always accessible,” said ninth-grader Wyatt Canavan. “It also helps visually organize our work all in one location.”

Leslie Pierce agreed.

“The online agenda makes it a lot easier to know what is coming up in class, and it’s a lot easier because you don’t have to keep up with an assignment sheet,” she said. “You can get ahead in class if you have extra time and it helps organize our resources on the Web, so Mr. Cravens can post a resource on the Web for us all to use. It’s really awesome.”

Currently, the Boerne ISD Special Education department is using Boerne Virtual School to demonstrate how to use the Web site “findingmyvoice.org,” an online community that aims to help students with disabilities discover their strengths and manage their needs. Other efforts are in the works, said Cravens, who hopes to see widespread adoption of Boerne Virtual School over the coming months.

For more information about Cravens and his class, visit his class Web site at bcp.bmsn.org.

More information about Boerne ISD can be found at www.boerne-isd.net.  

For more information about Digett, visit its Web site at digett.com.