|
 |
Having been asked so many times "Who is Pen-friends?" I decided to produce this page. My first homepage "interests" was launched on GeoCities.Com in early 1997 and I was so proud of it. It was based on frames, it had heaps of graphics, a variety of midi tunes to amuse, animations by the score, and of course some java scripts. I still maintain the site just to remind me "not to forget" what the Internet is really about - COMMUNICATION, "quick access to information" (but I did get rid of the frames, midi files and java scripts because they were just too irritating). From my personal "surfing of the Web" I quickly learned how frustrating it is to enter a site and have to wait five minutes for a sign that says "welcome", or to be confronted by a useless "Java pop-up window" or "scrolling text", or wait for "rippling waters" or a midi file to download. People tend not to revisit these sites, and often go somewhere else before they completely download the first time. Many new sites using "Flash" also fall into this trap - Using the Internet is a Learning Process!.
I have worked with computers since the early 1970's but in those days they were too slow and limited for effective communication purposes (unless you had unlimited finance). However, in 1996 I began to be impressed by their improved capabilities and the variety of interesting information appearing on the Internet. Because of my renewed interest in computers and my ongoing interest in language learning I created a "Language Technology Homepage" which has since become my Education Laboratory site because of the need to discuss some basic issues related to education and technology (appropriate) in Indonesian schools. I now have 6 computers and I seem to spend most of my time over a keyboard. If you are interested in Indonesia please visit my Indonesian Education Network at: Pendidikan.Net ("Pendidikan" is the word for "Education" in Indonesian/Malay). I am a teacher of Electronics and English language (however, you will still find spelling mistakes - I need a spell-checker for notepad). Having decided (in the early 90s) to live in Indonesia I went back to university to get myself better prepared. I majored in vocational teaching and also human resource development (HRD), and I would like to eventually find a role in the HRD field here in Indonesia. Currently I am working as an education consultant in Jakarta. When I taught English language in Australia I started teaching my students how to use the Internet to communicate as a means to improving their writing skills and we formed the ESL Internet Group. I found the concept of people being able to easily find other people in other countries for the purpose of sharing ideas, cultures, and for practicing second and foreign languages to be most useful, hence the concept for the homepage (listing by country). The pen-friends section (now Pen-friends.Net) of the ESL Internet Group homepage became such a success that it is now the main site (in fact more people were registering than I could keep up with and that's why the registration forms are only to be found by people genuinely serious about registering and "search" for them).
Pen-Friends.Net is also useful for people (like myself) who like to travel. You can establish contacts and collect information about countries that you intend to visit. Letters of thanks have confirmed that many people have also been successful in forming good friendships and even relationships through these pages .... great !!! I love it when someone asks me to remove their name because they have found someone special through my website, it makes it all worthwhile. Pen-Partners.Com, our new Pen-friends and Matchmaking facility (with photos) is also good for establishing new friends and contacts, and perhaps a little more! We are now developing a Southeast Asia Education Network (SEAEdu.Net) in an attempt to improve the sharing of education resources and information within the SEA region.
I hope you enjoy your visit! Warmest Wishes
|
