It seems like a class such as this, so formless in a way, shouldn’t work. There are no restrictions on who can join, no particular kind of creativity that is privileged. Talent is admired, but not really required, to make something cool. The Internet is full of fun applications now that make notions into striking products, like a word picture (Wordfoto) or a Voodoo Doll Maker (yeah, I tried it, and ended up making something weird but sweet. So sue me.) I cannot draw or sing well, or code, and my cooking is pretty rudimentary. But I can express my spirit, and sometimes that seems sufficient. As Peter Elbow says, “Everybody can write.” But everybody writes something new, even when it’s been said before. I realized earlier this year that the matter on the Internet is becoming a sort of emotional alphabet for the current generations. One of my students is a very gifted kid: medical researcher at 20, concert violinist, straight A student. In his digital story (Ying Tang’s digital story) he did an interesting thing. He found pictures of babies on the Internet to express emotions, so they became a kind of abc of feeling. He’s a pretty taciturn guy, but he figured out that he needed something other than words to share. Other students, too, will scour Google (hopefully, Creative Commons but whateva) to find images that evoke feelings: memes or sunsets or children or animals. It has to feel right or they discard it.