Students come together for organized seasonal parties to exchange email addresses, share food, and have a more traditional classroom experience. Students meet each other via the Internet at a website with pictures and autobiographies of program participants. Students are also encouraged to visit the site to participate in a discussion board. The school or agency provides a community room or space where students can meet during study breaks to talk, have lunch together, or meet with tutors. In a distance learning setting, instructors are afforded the opportunity to uncover new methods of reaching students, while students are given the chance to improve their computer literacy and bridge the digital divide.
Support is a key factor in the success of any distance learning program.
With the appropriate support system in place, programs like ours can offer an abundance of learning opportunities for adults who are still waiting to cross the bridge into the classroom. Jennifer has spent the majority of her professional life in the classroom as a foreign language and ESOL instructor. She enjoys the process of helping ESOL learners discover the relationship between language and culture as they attain language proficiency and learn to advocate for themselves. Prior to working as the Distance Learning Coordinator at the International Language Institute of MA, Jennifer had few opportunities to integrate technology into the curriculum she was teaching. When the opportunity presented itself to become a part of this statewide ABE initiative, she was eager to take part in the project.