In a sense, every ESL student generated writing assignment is a collaborative effort between the student and the teacher. The teacher selects the genre, suggests topics and offers assistance in grammatical and mechanical aspects of the writing process. The student supplies the thoughts, does the research, seeks direction and physically completes the assignment. An additional step in this process can result in a student/teacher publication. That publication can then be used as an additional teaching tool with that class (or future ESL classes) and as an excellent capping ceremony for a course.

Traditional publications to date have been of the paper variety. Until recently these publications have ranged from xeroxed/stapled to higher quality (and sometimes expensive) formats.

There are now available a variety of digital publication formats that are easy to use, highly visible, portable, and easily reproduced (inexpensive). They give the student another source of continuing education for use long after the class is over - the effect of your teaching efforts can be projected into the future with each of your students (and with students unseen and unknown to you).

Four computer applications and examples of these applications will be demonstrated. These formats include READ-ROOM, NEO-BOOK, I-VIEW and WORLD WIDE WEB publishing.

READ-ROOM PUBLICATIONS - Stand alone ascii text publications (low cost)
96-04-20 ESL Writing by the Graduating ESL Class of 1996 - poems, articles

NEO-BOOK PUBLICATIONS - Stand alone text & graphic publications (moderate cost)
95-09-13 Vols' Voice Bowie High School Newspaper, Arlington, Texas

HTML PUBLICATIONS I-View Browsers (low cost/no cost)
96-04-13 Sample of E.S.L. Web, TexTesol V, April 1996, Arlington, Texas

WORLD WIDE WEB PUBLICATIONS (low cost/no cost)
Examples of student projects from WWW sources

Format: lecture, examples, handouts - paper and disks, E-mail and snail mail contacts.