Will Hochman writes:

When I initiated the owl at Southern Colorado, I worked with a USC graduate and some very talented computer folks to create a user friendly interface and responding system. We went through several stages. Birthing the owl was like flying by the seats of our pants, but we were able to devise practical ways for students to access us and for us to respond quickly. We felt that the 'hybrid' approach of f2f+online response was best and still do. In the Infant stage, we expanded to covering selected high school students since we needed funding, and I hit up a local superintendent for the amount to fund and staff the owl for both high school and college students and he agreed. Unfortunately, that was last year and I left. The young lady who staffed the owl now runs the whole writing center, and she has hired another former student of mine to staff the owl. Both are talented creative writers and well schooled in workshopping and responding to writing humanely. Our tutor training program consisted of monthly meetings and workshops each term. I did this work with Sharon Hatton-Montoya, who also left her position at USC but took another one there in a related area dealing with students with disabilites.

The primary goal for my work at USC was to expand coverage and outreach. The High School connection was at first a funding source, but at the same time, we had been working on helping our "feeder" schools get teachers more hip to process writing instruction and this was an ideal bridge. As far as I know, it still works as an effective way to get high school teachers and college writing folks talking.

At Saint Joseph College, I started an online "Grammar Hotline," but it hasn't really taken off. The learning community here is not very electric and I answer only a few email requests per week.

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