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I think that the distance thing is important, especially if Kaurentian has other disctance "content" courses which require WC support. We set up a system whereby students taking distance courses could fax or e-mail drafts (preferably the latter but given most people's difficulty with attachments we were willing to go with the former in a pinch.) Tutors would either reply in kind or set up a time when the students could call for telephone advice (their quarter). Ihinking about it now, I would ask students to number their paragraphs for reference in an e-mail reply. I don;t know how many students have ever used this service (Jo-Anne?) but I think it's important that it exist. Maybe we need to do more PR as well. It isn't exactly high-tech but in the application you could gloss over the fax/phone alternatives and focus on the glories of e-mail. Specific tie-ins with distance ed courses would get you letters of support from other faculties--not a bad idea. We also hold writing classes in the computer lab (21 workstations--a little on the low side but better than the alternative, a barn-like lab with 90 workstations and no room to walk between rows of desks.) Again, it's very low tech. The idea is that students can produce easily editable drafts faster and more legibly than with pen and ink technology. Some instructors like it more than others but it seems to be useful support. Philippa Spoel wrote: > > Hello, > > I wonder whether members of CASLL would be able to help me out with > suggestions for a proposal I have to write in the next week. It's a > proposal about how we can integrate technology into our Centre for > Academic Writing. Primarily, I'm interested in ideas about > computer-assisted writing support. We have a peer-tutoring program that > is extremely popular with students, but up until now we have functioned > without any kind of computer support for this service. Our tutors > provide 50 minute individual consultations. As well, we offer a variety > of in-class and out-of-class workshops for students and for faculty. > > We aren't interested in technology that will do away with people, but > rather ways that we can enhance what we already do. In particular, we'd > like to set something up for distance writing support (that is, for > students off campus). > > I have no idea what if anything we will get from this proposal, but I > want to "think big" for now. I'd love to know what CASLL members would > ask for if you could have whatever you wanted for this kind of pedagogy. > > thank you! > > Philippa -- Doug Brent Co-ordinator, Undergraduate Program in Communications Studies Associate Dean, Academic Programs and Faculty Affairs Faculty of General Studies, University of Calgary (403) 220-5458 Fax: (403) 282-6716 http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~dabrent