"I want my students to have a rich experience with words," says Florence McGinn, a poet and an English teacher at New Jersey's Hunterdon Central Regional High School (HCRHS). "I want them to have a sense of audience."

Through the award-winning, student-created online magazine ELECTRIC SOUP1 McGinn uses technology to open up opportunities for individualizing learning and challenging her students to take on fresh, empowering roles. Technology is a central tool for the students' creative writing and communications. This online magazine is both showcase for the students' talents and learning space for their creativity. It includes:

· Poetry, short stories, and essays supported by rich backgrounds, digital images, and animated graphics

· A special feature for Hunterdon alumni to demonstrate how the writing process continues after graduation

· A Community of Writers segment featuring the works of teachers, community members, and outside contributors

· A Young Writers' feature for elementary and middle school student writers as well as for those who write for younger readers

· Silicon Sound, which offers RealAudio of original student poetry, produced as song

· A Virtual Gallery that highlights student-created 3D images and digital animations

· An international feature with work from writers of all ages from around the world

· An interview section featuring writers, educators, and business leaders

Classroom computer stations equipped with small cameras, audio, electronic notebook software, and annotation tools provide HCRHS student writers with live communications links with university student mentors at Rider University. The high school students meet weekly with these university mentors to discuss manuscripts in a lively, re-imagined, electronic version of the traditional writing workshop. Feedback is immediate and focused. The university student mentors, who receive English credit for the supervised interaction, grow with the high school writers.

McGinn's class also uses technology to link students to distant schools with very different cultures. The English class is linked to a class in Asbury Park High School, an urban school in another part of the state. The students work together in cyberspace to write and publish collaboratively.

Hunterdon student Emily Judson writes of her experience as a writing mentor with the Asbury Park students:

"During our videoconferencing sessions, the Asbury Park students have the choice of either showing me a manuscript or writing a collaborative poem. [If] they choose to show me a manuscript, I provide them with feedback on areas of strength as well as suggestions to improve stylistics, imagery, and symbolism. If we choose to write a collaborative poem, one person begins by writing the first line, then the person on the other side will write the next line; this method is utilized throughout the entire poem. Since we come from two different cultural backgrounds, the collaborative poems are especially intriguing because our writing styles are very different. Yet, in this type of poem, our styles fuse, creating a metaphorically evocative piece of writing . . ."

Another Hunterdon student, Evan Machusak says his experience with Asbury Park students, "opened my eyes to a kind of courage I have never seen before. It's the courage to try in spite of the odds, the courage to reach for something more than what you see around you or what people expect of you."

Students like Evan and Emily assisted writers at Asbury Park in publishing their own literary magazine, SONGS OF HOPE.2

McGinn says her role is to introduce students to the software's potential and its vocabulary, to guide them toward challenging learning goals, and to help them achieve and innovate. "Once involved, students become active and empowered. They shift naturally from roles of learner to those of mentors, teachers, and leaders."

The teacher remains the ultimate mentor, the person who both challenges and nurtures. Student Neela Mookerjee says, "I wouldn't bother attempting a second multimedia presentation if no one had cared when I made the first one. I wouldn't pursue a new avenue of exploration or undertake a challenge if no one was enthusiastic when I talked about it."

McGinn, who was not trained in technology, learned about the emerging technologies with her students. She encourages educators to "simply start where you are to empower your students. Enable their exploration, mentor their learning, and they will empower themselves to share the rich bread of technology and its modern opportunities."

1. See http://www.hcrhs.hunterdon.k12.nj.us/esoup/welcome.html
2. See ELECTRIC SOUP's Asbury Park feature: http://homer.hcrhs.k12.nj.us/esoup/esvol10/index.html