Our participant numbers have ranged from 20 to 120 since the program's inception. Currently a group of World Literature high school students are participating from a nearby district using the online forums to augment their regular school course. In addition, students enrolled in a graphics arts course in Virginia share their work with the writing students which sometimes spurs collaborative arts work between them. We currently have a proposal submitted in conjunction with the virtual College of Exploration for a teacher workshop involving participants in a project in Ireland. Writing a story or a novel is one way of discovering sequence in experience, of stumbling upon cause and effect in the happenings of a writer's own life.
Connections slowly emerge.
Like distant landmarks you are approaching, cause and effect begin to align themselves, draw closer together. Experiences too indefinite of outline in themselves to be recognized to be recognized for themselves connect and are identified as a larger shape. And suddenly a light is thrown back, as when our train makes a curve, showing that there has been a mountain of meaning rising behind you on the way you've come, is rising there still, proven now through retrospect. Such an environment has the capacity to cross cultural, age, class, gender, race and content area boundaries. The online environment fosters the possibility for participants to become co-learners and teachers.