082

82 1/15/2010 4:30:10 withdrawn per Mary D; 1/25 -byk

General Session - Conference Presentation Only (no formal paper)

Stuart Kenny, Central Community College, Hastings, Nebraska, USA, skjpm@yahoo.com
 * Reaching Out in the Heartland: Improving Extended Learning with Online Tools**

Central Community College in Hastings, NE is one of the few colleges to offer extended learning services. Students in rural areas can meet at local centers, work with center directors, and then hand in their essays. These essays are delivered to the home campus where the instructor reads and evaluates the essays. The instructor then sends them back to to the center where the student picks them up. I have been trying to improve this process by creating a community of writers through a message board and other online tools. I am trying to change extended learning from an isolated instructor/student interaction to a discussion between students who all live in the same large area but who don't meet as a class. I want to create a model for this unique kind of distance learning which will allow students to combine extended learning centers with online tools to create a vibrant, interactive classroom

Novice extended learning, writing community