BLEND, a district initiative that creates a learning management system for student use based on the canvas network, was implemented at the beginning of the school year.

“It’s for teachers to create a blended classroom online and a presence online to match their presence here in the physical building,” history teacher Cherry Whipple said. “It is a tool for students to use to access their content both at school and outside of school.”

BLEND is a LMS, or Learning Management System, that was created by Canvas, a commercial LMS, specifically for AISD.

““BLEND is a place online that teachers can interact with students,” Whipple said. “It’s kind of like a website, only it’s interactive. It’s not just static, where you just look at it. You actually go there and do stuff.”

Students are able to access material that teachers post online thought BLEND, along with a master calendar and electronically turn in assignments.

“It’s a faster way to check what you have with your assignments, sophomore Colby Monkey said. “My teachers will post assignments daily on there.”

BLEND was introduced to teachers the week before school started.

“Some teachers have less experience with technology, so they struggle to know how to do it,” Whipple said. “They need support, which wouldn’t typically be a problem if we had more time to spend with those teachers.”

In addition, features like online quizzes and activities and direct links to turnitin.com come with BLEND.

“It benefits students by helping them learn time management skills and it helps them learn the technical skills that they need to be successful in the grownup adult post-secondary world, Whipple said. “So we’re are trying to move towards the 21st century learning skills that kids might see outside of school because you don’t really use colored pencils in your job. You do powerpoints and presentations on the computer.”

Freshman Michaela Ontiveros said that she thought BLEND was confusing and didn’t know where to check for her homework.

“Last time I actually forgot my homework because I didn’t know it was on BLEND, so I would rather have it on paper,” Ontiveros said.

English teacher Stacy Webster has found some issues with the gradebook settings in BLEND.

“Right now, the grading component on BLEND doesn’t easily allow teachers that use a level system, like the entire english department, so I’m hoping that they will re-code that so we don’t have to manipulate our points and make it confusing to kids,” Webster said.

Before BLEND, many teachers used class websites to provide students with information.

“I thought my Weebly was really well designed, and I liked the way it looked and it had all the graphics that I wanted, so I was frustrated when there was going to be this brand new system,” Webster said. “After I spent some time, I realized that it can actually do most of the things I need it to and then there are some extra things that it does that I never knew I needed.”

The district has payed for six years of BLEND.

“I hope that more teachers begin utilizing it and that they climb on the BLEND train and they get blended,” Whipple said. “And that the students are able to achieve more through this technology than what we have been able to achieve without it.”