The art of telling stories is interactive, common to every world culture, and long pre-dates the concept of interactive computer applications. A story told is not only shaped by the skills of the teller but also by the participation of the listeners. We created the Hero's Journey web site to meld the potential of the Internet with the innovative application of storytelling as an instructional tool. What evolved from a vague initial idea is an exciting example of how faculty, technology specialists, and students mix in a creative design process. The Hero's Journey web site provides an environment for learning the classic mythical story structure and where anyone can write original stories or analyze classic ones that follow this structure. This project at the Maricopa Community Colleges in Arizona involved three faculty members who were also part of the Storytelling Institute at South Mountain Community College and staff from the Maricopa Center for Learning & Instruction (MCLI).

The "About" section describes the project and credits. A web form allows anyone to upload an image to our library. The "Ideas" section was created for instructors to share ideas and lesson activities. A web discussion board offers threaded discussions about the site. The "Examples" area lists a current catalog of stories that have been written on our site, updated every hour. We also added a place for our faculty team to highlight a "Story of the Month".

The "Reference" section contains detailed descriptions of each step in the Hero's Journey. For each step, we provide an example from classical mythology, stories written by students, the movie Star Wars, and examples from other popular culture. The area provides print and web references as well as a summary that may be printed as a handout or guide. The most interactive section is the "StoryTool", where visitors create and edit their work. For each step, we provide a set of questions that will help the writers compose that portion of the story. They may also scan a library of images and sound files that they can add to their story.