Matt Long (left), 13, and Spencer Miller, 14, read during an online assignment in Latin class at Blacksburg Middle School. A few eighth-graders are taking that class from an instructor in Hampton because the middle school couldn't find a Latin instructor.

Sheila Reyna, a Spanish teacher at Blacksburg Middle School, checks in on Spencer Miller (right) and Matt Long during an online assignment in Latin class.

Photos by JUSTIN COOK The Roanoke Times

Freshman English teacher Liz Edwards checks on Matt Wade's progress on an online assignment at Christiansburg High School. Montgomery County schools are beginning to use technology-driven tools to engage iPod-toting students on their own terms.

ELLISTON -- Like most 15-year-olds, Matt Collins spends much of his evenings toiling in front of a flickering screen.

Whether the Eastern Montgomery High School freshman is scouring the Internet or working on homework, one thing remains the same.

"I like to talk to my friends," he said.

These days, Matt types notes to some of those pals during class, too. And he's not worried the teacher will bust him for it. She allows it and wants students to message her as well.

Matt is one of 11 Montgomery County freshmen taking part in a pilot program this semester that allows the English 9 class to take place entirely online from a teacher based a town or two away.

The program, initiated with students at Eastern Montgomery and Christiansburg High schools, is the beginning of a growing trend in Montgomery County: using technology-driven tools to engage iPod-toting students on their own terms.

The county receives $520,000 in state funding -- $26,000 for each of the county's 20 schools -- and schools' technology director Harvey Goodwin applauds using the dollars to move teachers beyond the traditional books and desks.

"I say technology can be great if it's used properly," he said.

He spends about $800,000 annually to help ensure teachers can learn how to use technology. A group of nine technology resource teachers travels from school to school, instructing classroom leaders how to use their new technologies, whether they be remote sensors or new software, webcams or streaming video and audio.

Although well-rooted teachers sometimes resist new teaching methods, Goodwin said the technology instruction is working.

More than 200 teachers countywide use Moodle, the school's content management system that allows students to track grades and assignments online.

"This is their world now. They live in the world of remotes," said Auburn High School science teacher Allison Goforth.

She uses a group of handheld remote sensors -- called a Classroom Performance System -- for a lesson so all students can answer questions she poses to the class. Because students tend to be more active with gadgets, they're more willing to participate, she said. In addition, the system lets her see who is being active without the need to single out students who do not answer aloud in class.

"You know how it is with kids, usually it's the best ones who answer," she said.

The county schools own two of the remote sets and schools can check them out when teachers want to use them, although individual schools have also purchased them. The county also has spent about $8,500 on three mobile videoconferencing units that connect schools inside and outside the county.

That doesn't mean everyone gets a peek at the new tools, though.

The school system's technology dollars are placed into one pot, and decisions on which schools receive equipment from that fund are based on need and enrollment, Goodwin said.

But if more programs such as the English 9 class take off, Goodwin envisions a different kind of school that won't need add-ons for bricks-and-mortar classrooms

Don Simpkins, the county's virtual education coordinator, is working on ways to make more general education classes virtual -- or based online.

Students have been taking language and Advanced Placement courses through the state's online school, Virtual Virginia, but because those are limited to the advanced courses or languages students cannot receive at their home school, most of the Montgomery County's 58 students taking classes are not taking general courses.

Bill Thomas, director of educational technology for the Southern Regional Education Board, said he doesn't see online education and technology growth slowing. In the 16 Southern states his nonprofit advises, nearly 200,000 students take courses online.

He suggests that counties that provide their own general education classes are making solid progress. Integrating other technologies into those courses, or traditional classrooms, is a way to bolster the trend, he said.

"Anyone that tells me you can't teach something online doesn't know what they're talking about," Thomas said. Teaching online "is a way of leveling the playing field" for students who otherwise wouldn't have access to some courses in their schools, he said.

Justin Cook | The Roanoke Times

Kelly Knachel, a technology resource teacher at Auburn Middle School, shows science teacher Alison Goforth how to use software for the Classroom Performance System, a remote control-like device that students use to answer questions in class.

However, he does caution that teachers and even students must be taught to interact properly online, such as making sure they respond to e-mails or messages quickly and answering questions fully.

"Even though we say that kids are the 'now' generation and that they can do anything online, the reality is they're not any different than we are," he said.

Montgomery County's current pilot online English class, a non-advanced section whose students earn average grades, takes the typical freshman literature coursework with William Shakespeare and Edgar Allen Poe, adds commonly used Web 2.0 tools such as instant messaging invites and video and then integrates them with a course-management system that parents can also access.

The result is a class the students, and their instructors, praise as easier and more effective.

"It's better than in a regular class because you can talk to the teacher," said Matt, a C-average student in past English classes. "You're not, like, rushed to do something. You can take your time to do it."

In traditional classes, he said often teachers just don't have time for everything he needs. And with the online component, he can ask questions in private.

Liz Edwards, who instructs the course largely from her home in Blacksburg while taking care of a new baby, said she likes to hear that her methods are working. She's looking at on online model for upperclassmen.

"An engaged learner wants to learn," she said. "As an English teacher, that's all I want."

Edwards visits each of the classes face-to-face weekly. Despite students' familiarity with a keyboard, online instruction isn't perfect.

Students in other online classes in the county sometimes miss losing the tangible contact they would get from a classroom teacher.

The teacher "isn't always that clear," said 14-year-old Emilee Tu, who is taking an online, high school-level Latin course at Blacksburg Middle School. Class members phone the teacher as a remedy, she said.

A few eighth-graders are taking that class from an instructor in Hampton because the middle school couldn't find a Latin instructor. When the course began this fall, 25 students signed up, Simpkins said. But when the novelty of online learning wore off, nine remained.

Still, some enjoy the independence the online environment affords them. Edwards allows students to skip ahead two weeks out, and often students complete their work at home.

"This is a tool I think a lot of teachers would use if they could," she said.