I chose to teach a classic expository writing format to verify a long-standing belief that writers should be judged by their efforts to formulate thoughts clearly on paper (substitute "screen"); by their ability to revise, through feedback from the teacher and peer editors (via e-mail and within the Netscape course); and by the skill of the final draft. Although I'd prefer face-to-face, daily contact, I wanted to try to communicate only through printed words and to interact with students from afar, in this case California, Washington, North Carolina,Massachusetts and Ohio--all without leaving the Rutgers Preparatory School (New Jersey).

One of the toughest aspects of "virtual teaching" is that you have to write everything down--from the detailed outline of the course to "off the cuff" comments. Although I've taught for nearly twenty-five years (mostly writing courses), I had never realized how much "off the cuff" instruction occurs separate from the official course of study. But the Lotus Notes™ software helped. It enabled me to structure a schedule, to design an area for discussion questions about the readings from the essay anthology, and to provide private areas where each student could confer with me or a peer editor privately. There were also some adjustments for the students. They had to read and follow directions without me being there in person to answer questions and clarify confusion. They also had to motivate themselves to participate in class without a bell ringing or an adult shooing them into a physical room.

That said, I think teaching in a virtual environment offered distinct advantages to counteract the unquestioned strengths of flesh and blood contact. Because we had to type every word, to send it electronically, I could take advantage of Lotus Notes' sixteen-color text palette. My personal notes glowed in dark green; important reminders appeared in purple; and the private conference area displayed a rainbow of color-coded progress reports. My best serious use of colors was to mark punctuation mistakes on final drafts in one color, questionable syntax in another color, positive remarks or neutral questions in a third color, and so on. Because peer editors could use a private area to remain confidential in assessing rough drafts, student writers could take risks more freely and respond to the positive support of teacher and student feedback.

With asynchronous time, no 3:00 bells exist. A week's worth of classes started Wednesday morning and finished the following Tuesday midnight, but we never met altogether at a specific time. Students did have to post work on specific days and had to meet deadlines, especially when peer editing, but did not have to attend writing class "first period." Some worked during an assigned lab period at school, but others preferred a more leisurely pace after school and quite a number worked at home, late at night or on the weekend. Students established their own habits. As Dom observed, after posting a reply from California, "How many people normally sit in your English classroom at 2:30 a.m. on Saturday morning?" Although we had a few "technical blizzards," in the first few weeks, no snow days prevented students from submitting work.

In fact, the Virtual High School's greatest appeal may be that students earn grades based on merit, to a far greater degree than even the scrupulously fair teacher might assume possible in a physical classroom. People were not tall or a particular skin color or "attractive," and no one talked with a foreign accent, or a Southern drawl or an East Coast staccato. I graded them on the response to the assignments, on how they expressed their thoughts in their writing, and their ability to meet deadlines and interact with their peers. I am embarrassed to admit that for almost four weeks, because one girl had an unfamiliar first name, I didn't realize she was a she. Upon further reflection, I decided that it wasn't such a horrible mistake after all. I literally had been "gender blind."

I also found that geographic distance supplies energy and fresh audiences. Jeff's description of a hike through the icy New England woods with his father brought the same sensory rush as Aaron's mountain biking and swimming experiences in the "Devil's Punchbowl" in northwest Washington. Dom's casual question, "What's sleet like?" or her mentioning that she was going to school in a tank top and cut-offs in December amused and infuriated Sara, as 18 inches of Massachusetts snow slowly buried her school. Other writings only reminded us how universal and constant human behavior and emotions are, from Lisa's description of teenagers skinny dipping in California to Kelly's account of a student caught shoplifting in Disney World. Dom portrayed an eccentric and lovable teacher who could have been managing a class on either coast, just as both Chris and Jim captured the triumphs and agonies of earning a football championship in Ohio and struggling to recover from injuries from that same sport. There's the hard stuff, too. A marriage dissolved. An out-of-control former boyfriend stalked his ex-girlfriend. And a friend's drug overdose inspired one writer's non-generic warning about speed.

My students wrote about a world so real and tangible, I would emerge from their final drafts "geographically disarrayed." I would look out the window to see the Rutgers Prep campus, to remind myself I still sat in a small independent school in New Jersey.

Virtual schools can work. It's still teachers and students interacting, however sophisticated the technology. As Dom noted, "It was still high school. We just didn't have a seating chart or bologna sandwiches sticking open-faced to the ceilings of the hallway."

In a way, I think writing to fellow students whom you don't see prompts greater honesty, like confessing your deepest secrets to the person sitting next to you on a plane. Perhaps students brave and strong enough to share their stories and perfect their craft don't need physical classrooms, so much as they need supportive peers, diverse audiences and attentive teachers.

John Kendall teaches English at Rutgers Preparatory School in New Jersey. He thanks Dom Brassey and Lisa Brazie for their editing.

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