A World of Ideas

I bought my first laptop in Singapore in 1988 and brought it to the refugee camps in Indonesia and Thailand. I created systems, initiated new program protocols, and wrote teacher feedback and reports all at rapidfire pace. That touch-typing course I took in high school came in handy as I became more and more productive and creative in my job during those years in the camps. It was also helpful that I was in graduate school in 1983-85 where I had to do homework from a mainframe and become reasonably fluent in using early technology.

Fast forward to 2000 and I learned to teach a philosophy course online through the Virtual High School. I learnd a lot about creating a secure online environment for groups to know and trust each other. For three years I taught that Eastern and Western Thought course and absolutely became addicted to functioning online. I felt closer to those students, who hailed from from Venezuela to Japan, from Oregon to North Carolina, than those I was seeing everyday in school. It was a very intimate atmosphere, and one rule we had in the class was that although we posted a detailed profile, there were no photographs allowed. So the overweight student, the short kid, the non-white kid, and the blonde bombshell all stood on equal footing by the power of their words. There was no one interrupting when the low-status kid wanted to say something. His thoughts, his poetry, his opinions would elevate him to the one everyone responded to and wanted to interact with. This is one thing I love about the idea of blogging too.

Here we go. Now that I’ve named by site ELL, I see that it is somewhat limiting. Maybe a title that is more all encompassing would be more appropriate and allow for a wider availability of ideas. Let’s just freewrite for a minute on what the purpose of this blog could be. Well, it would be nice to write about ideas and activities related to writing, technology and working with ELLs. But perhaps a section for vacation reflections would also be good. A spot to post photos and video clips for family to tune into. Also a section on spiritual and feng shui reflections. Am I looking for an audience? What audience? As far as experimenting for using this as a teaching tool with my students,