As I am thinking about how to design appropriate and exciting interactions for my new students in the CDE I've been reading a lot about other distance education programs in Nth America and other parts of the world and am becoming increasingly interested in access and feasibility issues for people in remote and rural areas - and in timezone and lifestyle differences and how to deal with these. It seems to me that communications and other emerging technologies are providing us with a lot of possibilities these days for creating communities of learners and practitioners, as well as opportunities for autonomous learning through a variety of new modes and means.