Welcome!

In computer-mediated communication, connections are everything. We connect because of shared personal or professional interests, similar points of view or opinions, common contacts, preferences in books or films or music, involvement in the same (or closely related) professions or projects, or in a hundred other ways.

International, intercultural connections are particularly meaningful to me. I value my friends and colleagues from parts of the world other than the corner that I call home immensely, and I've created this blog to serve as an online meeting place with them.

Please leave your comments by clicking on [number] comments below.

International Connections through Collaborative Projects

I'm fortunate to have been involved in international collaborative projects with colleagues in México, Brazil, Kuwait, and Portugal.

On Monday, October 25th, I'll be beginning a new collaborative project, E-Tutoring, with my dear friend Carla Arena, and I'm greatly looking forward to it. Carlinha is Educational Technology Supervisor for Casa Thomas Jefferson, the Brazil-U.S. Binational Center in Brasília, Brazil.

Carlinha and I met five or six years ago during a class we were both taking as part of the TESOL, Inc. Principles and Practices of Online Teaching certificate course. We immediately hit it off, and collaborated in an intercultural blogging project, "An International Exchange," that lasted for about two years and involved us and our students in Brazil and the U.S. Since that time, I've assisted with other courses Carlinha has done for Thomas, and we've also been part of the Electronic Village Online Seminars presented for five or six weeks prior to each year's annual TESOL convention. Carlinha is engaging, forward-thinking, energetic, incredibly productive, highly creative, and fun . . . so working with her is always a joy.

October—A Month for Renewing Connections

I was fortunate to renew connections to six old friends this month and am delighted to be in touch with them again. I'll also be beginning a new collaborative project with my dear friend Carla Arena in a couple of days, and I'm equally pleased with this development.

Among the six old friends, at least four (and possibly five) have a connection to ELS, where I worked from late 1972 until early 1983. Two of my ELS connections are in Oregon, one is in California, one is in Texas, and another is here in Phoenix. The last old friend may well have an ELS connection, but I remember him most from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, where I did graduate work in ELT and Applied Linguistics in the early 1970s.

The Oregonians are the wife of one of the founders of ELS and a talented video editor whom I worked with on the Oregon Coast and in Portland from 1983 until 1990. The Californian was the CEO of ELS until it was sold to Berlitz and now owns and operates an ELT-related company that sets up schools and has developed a very fine English language proficiency test. The Texan was a regional director for ELS when I worked in the company headquarters in the L.A. area, and the Phoenix connection was once with ELS but is now involved in an entirely different field.

It's only natural that friendships sometimes go dormant over time, but it's wonderful when they're reawakened. I hope these renewed contacts remain vital for a long, long time.

The Tea Bunch: A Judson School Connection

During 2008, I got a phone call from a dear friend and colleague, Lisa Schwantz. At the now-defunct Judson School (where I once worked), Lisa was officially the Japanese Student Advisor but unofficially the "surrogate mother" for all the ESL students. Lisa said that she had recently been talking to another friend and colleague, Debbie Kade (who had been one of the librarians at Judson). In the above photo, Lisa is standing on the left, and Debbie is standing on the right. Masayori (Masa) Hashinaka, a former Judson student who has stayed in Phoenix, is seated on the right.

Lisa then told me that she and Debbie had a proposal: that, to renew our friendship, we would start a tradition of meeting at least once a month for tea and conversation. I enthusiastically said I was interested, Lisa started organizing things, and not long after the call, our meetings began. They've continued very regularly on at least a monthly basis and have been wonderful.

In the meetings, we catch each other up on what we've each been doing, report whatever news we've heard from former Judson staff and students, give each other small gifts, share Judson mementos, and much more.

We sometimes have additions to our group. For example, as shown in the photo above, Masa Hashinaka frequently joins us. A former non-Judson student of mine, Tomoko Marafi (who now lives in Kuwait), has also been our guest.

How I enjoy these get-togethers! Thanks, Lisa-san and Debbie, for showing me the enduring power of friendship and bringing so much warmth and happiness to my life!

One Connection: Common Projects

Another source of connections is ideals and projects that online colleagues and I have in common. One example is reflections on poverty—the theme of Blog Action Day 2008.

On October 15th of this year, bloggers from throughout the world were invited to post their thoughts on this topic. In response to this invitation, over 14,000 blog posts were made. My online colleagues and friends Mary Hillis (Japan), Cristina Costa (UK), Carla Arena (US / Brasil) and I were among them. Here are links to Mary's, Cristina's, and Carlinha's posts:

Mary
Cristina
Carla

My Blog Action Day post follows this one.

Poverty (Blog Action Day 2008)—October 15th


Like many who lead a comfortable life, I'm concerned with poverty, and like many who are concerned with poverty, my reactions are not at all a good match with my concerns. Can blogging about it make any real difference?

Actually, the answer is yes—because blogging about poverty (or any topic) requires us to focus our thoughts (though perhaps only momentarily, perhaps only superficially, perhaps without any commitment at all to go beyond merely thinking about it).

I'm reminded of several encounters with poverty in my own life.

One happened when I was in elementary school. A teacher thought it would be a good idea, when classes resumed after the Christmas break, for all of us to bring our favorite present to "Show and Tell." One classmate was known to be poor, but brought in a walking, talking doll that was almost as tall as she was. When my sister and I asked wat home why the classmate got such a big present when we received much more modest ones, my father said, "Her parents didn't buy the doll for her: it was a donation. That was OK, though, because it made her feel better off than she actually was. It made her proud for a few minutes." I had never really thought about poverty until then.

Another happened when I was a young man just beginning my professional career. A homeless person approached me on a busy street in Dallas, TX and said he was hungry, but I just waved him aside and hurried off to what seemed more important at the time. I felt terrible afterward and still do.

A third happened within the past several years. I was at a stop sign before a freeway on-ramp and a very thin, shabbily dressed middle-aged man was holding a sign that said, simply, "Hungry." I passed him a couple of dollars through my car window just before I drove onto the on-ramp. He looked at me with tears in his eyes and said, "God bless you. I was once too proud to accept any kind of charity, but hunger kills pride every time. Now I have almost enough to buy a hot dog and a cup of coffee at that Quick Stop across the street at the top of the hill."

Nothing, however, is absolute. Mae West, for example, is supposed to have said, "Love conquers all things except poverty and toothache," and there are also the thoughts of New Orleans Times-Picayune columnist James Gill. Click HERE to read them.

____________________________________________________________
This post is part of Blog Action Day 08 - Poverty

Other Connections: Common Projects

Travel: Although I'm not able to travel very far from home today, I'm lucky to have gone to many wonderful places over the years. Just before I graduated from undergrad school, for example, I was fortunate to be chosen to participate in a musical group (School Band-School Chorus of America) which made a whirlwind tour of parts of Western Europe (England, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Monaco, Italy, Germany, Austria, Switzerland) in less than a month, and while on the tour, I had the very good fortune to spend time with an aunt and uncle who were living in Weisbaden (they took me on a great trip up the Rhine). Later, after I had begun my professional career, I traveled to my first Mexican border town—Nuevo Laredo. A little later, after I changed my career to ESL and was working for ELS, I visited Mexico City, Tijuana, and most of the U.S. (mostly for short trips) and also made a memorable trip (1982!) to Beijing and Tianjin, PROC. Still later, after I moved to Phoenix, I visited several non-U.S. embassies in Washington, DC, traveled to Taiwan and Korea, took short trips to more Mexican border towns (Ciudad Juárez, San Luis Río Colorado), and visited Beijing (China) again (in 2001: what changes I saw!). There are many more places I'd love to visit (Brazil is one), but these trips will more than likely be virtual, not real. I'd love to hear about places you've visited, too. Tell me about them in a comment.

Materials Development: I've been developing materials ever since I started teaching. At first, they were hand-drawn, typed (on a typewriter, not a computer), and copied via carbon paper, stencils (Who can remember those foul-smelling things?), and dittomasters (Is that what they were called? I can't remember). Later, they were photocopied, usually in black and white. Still later, they were downloadable from the Web and often linked to online graphics and audio files. I also see a great potential for downloadable exercises linked to online video files, but I haven't played around with that very much. In addition, I've developed materials for websites such as Rong-Chang Li's Learning Oral English Online, Dave Sperling's ESL Cafe, and the Internet TESL Journal's (Charles Kelly's) Activities for ESL Students. If you're interested in seeing more information on these and other materials I've created, let me know in a comment.