Randall Davis

[Dennis Oliver]

03-12-07

I know all of you are interested in the online listening materials created
by Randall Davis and have seen a photo of Randall and Carlinha.

Here's a photo with me and Randall and also some other people. The photo was taken at a big conference in Vancouver, BC, Canada in 2001; we were all (with Dave Sperling) part of a well-attended colloquium (group presentation). The presentation was featured in an ESL Magazine article, "Six Internet
Pioneers Teach English to the World."

Others in the photo (L to R):

Charles Kelly (Japan), Elaine Hoter (Israel), Ruth Vilmi (Finland), Randall
(Utah, U.S.A.), Charles Kelly's brother Larry (Japan). I'm hiding in the back,
behind Ruth and Randall. Not in the photo: Dave Sperling (California, U.S.A.)

Dennis

[Dennis Oliver]

Oí, my friend.

" . . . When everybody in my school thought I was an e-ET!": That's funny . . . now, but I know how it was "way back when."

Oddly enough, it was just the opposite for me. When Charles, Elaine, Ruth, Randall, Dave, and I planned the colloquium for TESOL, I was at Arizona State University—which had a very forward-thinking (maybe too forward-thinking!) attitude toward IT. The expectations of the IT people were high—they used all the latest bells and whistles, and what I did was not what they wanted.. The major online things that I created, at that time, were almost 300 daily mini-lessons on a variety of topics, but mostly grammar and cultural things like holidays, plus the Phrasal Verbs page and the Idioms page—all at "Dave's ESL Cafe." The phrasal verbs and idioms are still there, but the mini-lessons had to be removed because the software that supported them degraded. One of these days I'll do a new and improved version for Dave, but first I've got to find some time.

There was an article about us "pioneers" in ESL Magazine. It's archived online. You can see the ESL Magazine cover that highlights the article,plus an abstract of the article HERE , and you can download and read the entire article (in a .pdf of an ERIC reprint) HERE.

By the way, you know me and my many "stories." I have several stories connected with the "Six Pioneers" colloquium. I'll tell you about them sometime.

Beijos na bochecha!

Dennis

[Carla Arena]

Dear Dennis,

You are all certainly Internet Pioneers in the English Teaching cyber-world! All these names are so familiar and dear to me as they've always provided me with invaluable resources for the classroom when everybody in my school thought I was a e-ET!