Reflections on Online ELT, Part 2

The 1990s: The Web is Born

In 1990, I left Oregon to be with family in Phoenix. By then, the Net existed; it grew very quickly and constantly added new features. In Phoenix, I began to teach secondary-level ESL at a now-defunct private boarding school. It had a computer lab, and eventually e-mail surpassed faxing there as a way to communicate internationally. In early 1994, I left the boarding school to take a job at Arizona State University's intensive ESL facility—where I was introduced to everyday use of e-mail. By late 1995, the Web had become well-established and was expanding geometrically. By 1996, I began to be interested in having my own website.

I remember that ELT-focused sites were among the earliest WWW venues, and some pioneers from the early days (e.g., Ruth Vilmi, Charles Kelly, Randall Davis, Dave Sperling) are still active today. Some pioneering websites (e.g., EX*CHANGE from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) have, however, disappeared.

It was also in 1995-1996 that Dave's ESL Cafe was created. I first communicated with the founder, Dave Sperling, via e-mail. We met face-to-face in 1996 at the TESOL convention in Chicago, and I began my involvment with "The Cafe" shortly thereafter. In the early days of Dave's site, I did the content work for subsites on phrasal verbs and idioms and Dave handled getting them online. We also worked together to create a number of online quizzes for learners of English, and Dave opened an online Help Center; for a while, only he and I responded to queries sent there. All of these subsites still exist, and the materials I created almost 10 years ago are still there (and largely in unmodified form).

By the late 1990s, Dave had added another content-focused subsite, "Hint of the Day." All of the Hints were created by Dave or me, though I did the majority. I remember doing new ones almost every night for about three years. They eventually evolved into several hundred "mini-lessons" covering such topics as verb tenses, use of articles, use of quantifiers, easily-confused words, sound-spelling correspondence, "conversational language," and cultural information (mostly on holidays). At first, my Hints were done on a rudimentary html editor (I don't remember the name), but I later used Claris Homepage.

By the end of the 1990s, sound and graphics had also become commonplace on the Web. Digital cameras were also available. I remember buying my first one (with a "cutting edge" 2.1 megapixel resolution) for nearly $1,000 and putting hundreds of photos (mostly of students at the IEP where I worked) online. At first, this was at a couple of different photo-sharing sites. Later, the photos were on my own website.

I also became interested in working with sound—largely because of the innovative materials Randall Davis and Charles Kelly were creating. I didn't create my own sound-based materials until late 2002 (if I remember correctly), though.

Reflections on Online ELT, Part 1

As I look back on the online presence of ESL- and EFL-focused materials over the years, I realize that there have been a lot of changes.

The 80s and early 90s: Computers Become Established

From 1977 to 1983, I worked for a for-profit chain of ESL schools at its (then) headquarters in the Los Angeles area, first in materials development and teacher training as part of its Curriculum Development department, later as a textbook editor for its publishing division. Of course, computers existed then, but during the 70s, they were big and bulky. I remember that toward the end of my time with the company, it bought desktop PCs for the top managers and eventually installed a word-processing system (with a single operator for the entire company!). That was big stuff then. By the end of the 70s and the early 80s, however, computers as we know them today were beginning to come into their own.

In 1983, I left Los Angeles and went to the Oregon Coast to work for a well-known ESL/EFL author on a materials-development team. Although I originally expected to be in Oregon for only about two weeks, I decided after seven weeks to move there—and stayed until 1990.

The author was interested in gadgetry and had been using a computer for some time to create his manuscripts, but there was more: almost everyone on the team used a computer for writing, creating logs, and other tasks. I didn't; fearing the unknown, I was reluctant to give up my trusty typewriter. In time, though, I had no choice but to use one of "those machines" because it was the only way I could keep up with the work.

Eventually, I became comfortable with computers. At one point, when my task was to use an indexing program, I even used two monitors simultaneously! Also, my boss lent me his Kaypro "portable" (or, as one source described it, "luggable") to use at home. All the computers I used at that time were DOS machines. I did text-based work almost entirely then, and used WordStar (with its hundreds of keyboard commands) for word processing.

Desktop computers were becoming popular by the 80s, and a lot of educational software (most of it of the "drill and kill" variety) was developed. The Net and Web didn't really exist for the public at large, however, and e-mail wasn't used much outside of the military and research institutions. The author that I worked for, for example, used a telex for his overseas communication.

When I first moved to Oregon, I lived and worked on the coast. Later, my boss opened an office in Portland. For a while, I stayed on the coast and drove to Portland once a week. Later, I moved to Portland and worked in the author's offices there.

By the late mid 80s, desktop PCs were pretty common in business and schools. Not long after I moved to Portland, I remember having to learn how to use a Mac because a new program called PageMaker had just come out and the author wanted to use it to create camera-ready copy for his books instead of word-processing the manuscripts, inserting special codes for different font styles, and then sending the floppy disks (and yes, they were still floppy) to the publisher as he had done previously. I didn't like the Mac at first: it seemed too "cute" to be "a serious computer." Because Macs were at that time the tool of choice for people involved in text work and graphics, however, I began using one exclusively.

By the end of the 80s, desktop computers were fully established, and I had bought my first computer (a Mac SE) and, shortly thereafter, my first laser printer (an Apple LaserWriter IINT). The Web and Net, however, were still things that only "visionaries" were talking about.


How things have changed!