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www.eslcafe.com 许多人在那里找ESL老师， 不过也有许多人感到 -- 烤米粒 - (185 Byte) 2006-7-19 周三, 09:54 (563 reads) |
烤米粒
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头衔: 海归准将
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加入时间: 2006/02/10
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作者：烤米粒 在 海归商务 发贴, 来自【海归网】 http://www.haiguinet.com
How did Dave\'s ESL Cafe begin?
The Cafe started in the fall of 1995, but it almost never happened. After I earned my M.A., I went to Thailand for the summer of 1995 to visit friends and family, and I was almost killed in a motorcycle accident. I hit a pot-hole hidden by a puddle and landed on my head, breaking several bones in my face. My helmet saved my life. When I came back to the States after a summer in the hospital, I was in the mood to do something more with my life.
Having surfed the Internet in 1994 and 1995, I had realized that most of the ESL/EFL Web pages were not very interactive, interesting, or fun and usually consisted only of pages of information and links to other Web sites. I wanted to create something completely different.
I got a job teaching an English writing class at California State University, Northridge. My students had been in university ESL programs before and simply weren\'t motivated, so I offered to teach them writing in the context of the Internet. Reluctantly, they agreed. I got access to the campus computer lab and introduced the students to the Web, which was just beginning at that time. I bought a $99 digital camera and began teaching myself and the students how to use graphics and create Web pages.
In December of 1995 we produced our first Web page using the class\'s digital pictures and writing samples, which were humorous autobiographies. This was our first effort, and we successfully published it on the World Wide Web! We called it \"Dave\'s Writing Class.\" It\'s still there! (https://www.csun.edu/~hcesl004/ CSUN.html).
In a few short weeks my students began to receive e-mail from dozens of students around the globe, and to my surprise, they quickly became motivated to read, write, and communicate daily in English on the Net, as well as in my classroom. This was truly a stunning transformation. At the beginning of the semester, the students had barely attended class. Now they loved class! They also weren\'t writing anything before using the Internet, not even in their own language. Now they were writing daily! The students progressed noticeably in their English and began to communicate quite well. The computer really is a powerful language acquisition tool!
That was the beginning of my publishing on the Web. I thought, \"If I can do this for my class, why not do something for the whole world?\"
Originally I wanted to form a team to create a Web site for ESL students and teachers. I tried to get a programmer, a graphic designer, writers, but nobody would even consider doing it. They asked, \"What does it pay?\" and I told them, \"Nothing. At least not yet. Maybe someday!\" You have to remember that in 1995 the Web was still in its formative stages.
With no takers I had to develop the Web site myself. I experimented with some ideas, and the first page I came up with was the Graffiti Wall, which came as an inspiration from my environment!
There is a lot of interesting graffiti in Northridge-some really artistic stuff. Someone would write something and someone else would respond and add to it and so on. This interested me, and I wondered if I could do this on the Internet for ESL students by creating a site where they could express their creativity on a virtual wall. I came up with the idea on a Monday, and by Friday I had it up and running!
I had some time off that winter and continued to experiment with additional page ideas. I came up with the Question Page, where I answer questions from students and post the answers in a kind of \"Dear Dave\" column. As students began writing questions concerning methodology or TOEFL, for example, I began to search the Internet and give students links so they could get more information for themselves.
The more pages I created, the more I loved it. This became my way of publishing. I had learned that getting published was really a very difficult thing to do. I had always loved to write, but nobody wanted to publish me! I wasn\'t looking for money, I just wanted to create. So when I learned about the Internet, I thought, \"Wow, I\'ll just do it myself right here!\"
Eventually I needed a place to put all these pages I was creating, and I came up with Dave\'s ESL Cafe. A virtual place where ESL/EFL people meet.
Did you have other name ideas?
No, that was it. I have always liked cafes and hang out in them even now. A cafe is an interactive place with a nice atmosphere where people meet. So I picked the word \"cafe\" as part of the name. I considered some high-tech names like \"Virtual\" or \"Cyber Cafe\" but decided on \"Dave\" because I\'m Dave and \"ESL\" because I teach ESL!
However, I often joke with my students that I need to change my name because on the Internet in Japan my students called me Da-bu, which means \"fat.\" And in Thailand, Sperling is sometimes pronounced Super-ling, meaning \"Super Mon-key!\"
Is your Web site for teachers or students?
It\'s about 50/50. There is a lot for both, and I try to keep a balance. Teachers often use the Cafe in their classes. The most popular teacher page, however, is the Job Center, especially the Job Offers, where I post about 20 jobs a day. There is also a job discussion area and a place to post resume links. We get over a million hits a month!
At one point I wanted to create an entire course in ESL on the Web, but that is very difficult. I created individual modules instead. I\'ve got 15 teacher forums which include class activities, adult education, linguistics, bilingual education, computer-assisted learning, elementary education and employment.
We also have 15 student forums on such topics as hobbies, holidays, current news, movies, computers, literature, music, learning English, etc.The student forums are very interesting. I learn a lot about students from various countries in the forums!
Do you have any help with the Cafe?
My friend and colleague Dennis Oliver, who teaches at Arizona State University, has collaborated with me on much of the Cafe\'s content and has been a great help. He is my main writer and has written the idiom section, phrasal verb section, many of the quizzes, and the \"Hint of the Day.\" I run everything past Dennis before it goes up on the Web.
I also have a team of teachers around the world who help answer questions on my Help Center, my global virtual classroom for ESL/EFL students.
Where do you work on the Cafe?
I do most of the work at home, in my bedroom, actually. I also work from my laptop when I\'m traveling. A lot of people think I work in some slick office with computers humming all around me and assistants scurrying to and fro, taking care of Cafe business. In reality, I work from a desk in my bedroom. I\'m known on the Net as \"Papa Dave\" because it\'s common for me to work with my children on my lap and my dog at my feet!
Once I was in my hotel room at a conference in Yuma, Arizona. I had the door open and was working on my laptop on the bed. Two teachers walked by my room and did a U-turn and came back. They knew of me and the Cafe from my conference presentation and asked, \"What are you doing?\" I explained I was posting jobs on the Cafe. \"Is this how you run the Cafe?\" \"Yeah,\" I said with a grin. They had envisioned a big staff, office building, etc. All I need is a telephone line and my laptop. I can work on the Web site from just about anywhere, and no one knows the difference.
How much time do you spend on the Cafe?
The Cafe takes several hours a day. My routine starts at 5:30 or 6:00 in the morning. With a hot cup of coffee nearby, I work on e-mail for an hour and a half. Then I take a break to cook breakfast for the family, shower, dress, and take my son to school. After more work on the Cafe, I break to walk my dog, Alby.
Daily Cafe work includes lots of e-mail, updating pages, posting graffiti onto the Graffiti Wall, posting answers to my Question Page, posting new jobs, screening submissions to the Job Discussion forum, logging onto the Cafe\'s Chat Central to make sure everyone is behaving, validating and adding links into my Web Guide and fixing various areas of the Cafe.
When I actually add a new page to the Cafe, it can take 15 or more hours per day, and I literally don\'t sleep! It\'s easier now than it used to be, however. If I made a programming mistake in the past, it could take two hours to find and fix it. Now I can usually remedy a problem in a matter of seconds. More processes such as deleting postings are now automated, too. The Cafe can be a lot of work, but I really do enjoy it.
作者：烤米粒 在 海归商务 发贴, 来自【海归网】 http://www.haiguinet.com
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