VG was designed primarily to serve as an active learning component in the literature classroom where the works of women writers of color are read and studied. In addition to using VG as a research tool, students participated in shaping the site by researching and writing artist and writer pages. In this way student work, rather than ending up in a file drawer or the wastepaper basket, contributed creatively and collaboratively to a global community of students, teachers, scholars, and artists. VG was founded in the strong belief, sustained by experience, that students who are involved in this kind of real-world, collaborative project more deeply engage with their work. The essays below describe different ways teachers can incorporate VG into the classroom, presented both in pedagogical essays and in sample syllabi.