Staff members with the Ventura Unified School District's Adult and Continuing Education program and the founders of Open English share a vision.

Both see a future where language courses use technology to speed Latinos and other English language-learners toward fluency. In fact, the adult education program and language-learning business recently teamed up to help accomplish that.

With Open English providing the Internet platform and Ventura Unified's program supplying the academic expertise, a multimedia studio and students to test new content, the two have begun sculpting an interactive language-learning system.

During a media event Wednesday at the adult education offices in Ventura, school officials joined representatives of Open English, Latinos in Information Sciences and Technology Association, or LISTA, and Microsoft to discuss language, technology and the importance of boosting technological knowledge in the Latino community. LISTA is a national nonprofit group that aims to help Latinos in math, science and technology.

The partnership began several months ago when school officials learned Open English was looking for academic partners and the private business learned about the technological bent in Ventura Unified's program, said Steve Thompson, supervisor of the district's adult English-as-a-second-language programs.

Students in those programs began using Open English's Web site as part of their instruction this week.

For Open English, the partnership offers a way to create English lessons that aim to improve specific job skills and test the effectiveness of those courses, said founder and CEO Andres Moreno, also a regional president of LISTA.

Founded in 2006, Open English is a Web platform with video, podcasts, software, electronic magazines and live coaching, Moreno said. The business aims to create an educational aid that fits a language-learner's goals and skill level.

That fits well with Ventura's adult education program, which already uses Internet and language programs such as Rosetta Stone, Thompson said.

"If you're teaching people to be a functional member of society, this society today requires that you have a level of tech expertise," he said.

The partnership is targeting students like Alex Vences, who attended Wednesday's event. Vences, 23, of Ventura has been taking English classes for about two years. A native Spanish speaker, he said he's working to improve his English to find a good job, maybe as a landscape designer.

He doesn't have a computer at home, although he hopes to buy one when he can afford it, he said. Using computers during his English classes has helped him improve, because he can repeat language exercises until the content sinks in.

"Most jobs in the future are going to require computer literacy," Thompson said. "The fact that he doesn't have a computer yet makes it all the more important that we provide him with access."