Learning with the e-poets network

Learning.e-poets.net

about us: in education

e-guide: videoconferencing

in schools: Voces y Lugares

related sites

e-poets: Network homepage

spoken word: Book of Voices

poetry video: Videotheque

The e-poets network celebrates celebrates the poet's voice. But as poets, we know from experience that a voice is learned, so we commit ourselves to education. Young poets have been communing through our two-way videoconferences with the supervision of e-poets network founder Kurt Heintz since 1995. Today, we're expanding and solidifying our Network's activity among students, educators, new media, and the living language arts.

The e-poets network encourages the study of language arts by bringing vital poetry to the desktop, library, and home. Our library lives wherever the web is visible. We partner with schools and after-school community programs to produce videoconferences with significant writers, putting the authors' experiences directly in the classroom, thus un-mediating poetry and prose for young readers. Our experience with youth peer videoconfereces (e.g.: teen-to-teen poetry workshops) extends back well before the Internet was commonplace.

Our web features, such as the Book of Voices, give students and educators direct access to the texts and voices of esteemed poets. Teachers are free to build lessons and workshops around our web content. You can be confident that e-poets.net will be stable on the web, easy to access, and maintained with a critical eye for the quality of writing and the diversity of culture.

Voces y Lugares: Hispanic Poets in Chicago

Sometimes, we approach language arts education with a special goal in mind. Our Voces y Lugares Project, co-produced by the Chicago Public Schools, introduces Hispanic writers from Chicago to students across the city using videoconferences, poetry and support materials in print, and spoken word both as CD and online streaming audio. This rich environment of language in text and sound helps Anglophone and Hispanophone students alike get into the poetic dialogue, while underscoring community issues, cultural awareness, and broadened literacy.