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tell me the history of instant
english
...for more information email:
iconlang@core.com
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I began using icons in the
1980's--at first just for nouns and |
In 1990 I discovered
WordPerfect and instantly saw a solution to the cut and paste problem.
I thought: "Wow! If icons were added to a spell check program,
the teacher could just select a word, and clicking a tool, select
an icon to pop up over the text."
I bought a SyQuest drive because
I couldn't afford a computer. I took the drive to Kinko's, piggy-backed
my drive up to the store computer and began to make icons in McPaint.
I bought my first computer- a IIci in 1991. I died and went to heaven. |
1992: I had been
struggling with how to show tense. I didn't want to use a symbol
on top of a symbol. On the computer, when a file is not available
it appears in gray, So I put a paste-on screen over the icon to
make it look "not active". I continued to use artists
"dot" screens until I discovered Quark, which could produce
a gray background with a simple click. It was a small leap to reversing
the foreground /background colors to create a participle. Shading
and reversing--singly or in combination--produced all the tenses
I needed. It was this that earned the patent. |
| verbs, then for every part of speech. I drew
the icons on the board: long soap operas in icon sentences; stories
about emergencies, family conflicts, and all the angst of modern
life. Students loved it.
I drew icons in ink and cut and pasted them on lessons. I also created
color-coded paper tiles, and magnetic tiles with the icon on one
side and the word on the other. |
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| programmers!
lawyers!
investors!
oh my! |
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| In 1992, I became friends with
Bertha Mayorov, a lab tech at Truman College.
I showed her my paper
lessons and asked her if a computer version was do-able. She was fascinated
and and made a simple demo using SuperCard. The first demo had three English |
and three Russian lessons, but it had no author, so every lesson had
to be hard-wired in code. This was not useful to teachers, but it
was a big hit in the lab where beginning students tried it out. It was moving to see older, non-literate adults cry with |
pleasure at their ability to understand an icon sentence and hear
it over and over.
A Russian singer made the voice files for the Russian lessons and those lessons were used to show English speakers how it felt to be a second- language learners. |
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| Next
was DOS. The
editor was crude, there was no way to show past tense and files were
a nightmare. Thousands of icon and sound files were all in one directory
with 8-letter names. I had spent the few pesos I had on programmers who had no talent for multimedia concepts. |
In
1993, I filed for a patent. The lawyers gave up on me, because the
project was too doubtful and complex for the small fee I could afford.
I went to D.C. and was mentored by the same agent who had rejected
the application for five years. Apparently, seeing is believing. I
received the patent in 1999. |
I
met Suzie Issacs in 1992. As a CEO of a multimedia publisher for elementary
schools, she understood and loved the concept. She continues to be
a mentor and advocate for Instant English. In 1993 I incorporated
and looked for funds. But everything is harder than it seems at first.
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January, 1994--a great gift from JVS!--a young
man just two weeks here in the U.S. Dennis Startsev worked for
Apple in the Ukraine. Dennis saw the demo and with his
great visual imagination, designed a teacher-friendly, modular suite.
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Dennis had a intuitive feel for
a visually elegant interface and worked as only a teenager can,
--all night long on my new Mac IIci. But then, inevitably, (it was
the dot.com era), Dennis got busy and the program crawled along
between his degree, his |
mom's programming career, and hang-gliding with his friends.
He married, bought a motorcycle,
a home for himself and his mother, and some elegant euro-looking suits.
His latest work of art is a beautiful daughter. He is living the American
dream. |
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In 1996, I despaired of finding a business
partner. According to monied advisors too numerous to mention, I had
no "management team", no "marketing strategy"
and no "numbers" (whatever that means). I needed a Windows
version, but how to pay for it?
I began to identify with the little
red |
hen who surely must have
been thinking of investors.
In 1997, The
City College presidents and the Chancellor saw the program and loved
it. With the help of Truman president Phoebe Helm, CCC agreed to
pay for the Windows version.
Dennis went to work
again with a brand new design. We now had a stable, |
completely
modular, suite of
applications with many
customizable features.
Any user could edit any element, including the menu page.
A patent was published
in 1999. The system is the first to use icon sentences and an icon grammar to teach a second language. |
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"Once I saw that Instant
English worked, I knew I would have to have an environment to test
it, install it, add to it, watch how students used it, train teachers
to use it and, and in general just learn how to make it really useful." |
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Spring, 1999. Teachers started using the program in the lab.
They were delighted when older students began to speak up in
class. Their only demand was for more lessons. President Helm
encouraged training on Instant Author, but we learned that few
teachers want to tackle the back end of technology.
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| In 1999, 3 TV stations came to
the lab and filmed students using Instant English. |
| In July, 1999, I became friends
with a homeless hacker who hung out in the lab. He added an
animated lesson to the webpage and designed the forum. Then
one day I went to the parking lot and couldn't find my car.
When I got home, my laptop and my friend Alex, were gone, with
my car. |
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| In
January, 2000, Truman bought laptops and we began to use Instant English
in the classroom. For the next two years, grants paid for new e-classes
where non readers could begin to learn English using computers all
the time, instead of once in a while. |
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The
e-classroom is both lab and classroom. It permits an easy flow of
activity from group to individual. Student
naturally take over the management of the e-classroom. It becomes
a kind of studio where projects are always in progress. The best e-classroom
draws heavily from Montessori and learning community concepts. |
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Environmental
controls are far more effective in solving problems than personal
authority. For example, trees and plants will raise humidity
and reduce static, and will also create an beautiful space which inspires
care and respect. Sofas, coffee, and open storage increase student
autonomy and time on task, and prevent discipline problems. |
| Community grows in spaces for small groups, conversation,
research and art. Don't crowd tables. |
Beauty:
Learning
spaces should reflect elegance, convenience, and comfort. Ambient
lighting creates mood. |
Structure:
Visual order maintains a professional environment without the
necessity for explicit rules.
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| Respect:
The learner is not second-guessed. We assume
that the learner's initiatives are legitimate. |
Hospitality:
Materials and amenities are there for and at the discretion
of the user. A doffee pot is inviting. |
Dignity:
the generosity of the staff and the natural courtesy of learners
provides mutual learning. |
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archeworks.org
women's
venture fund |
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2001
was spent with a team of Chinese programmers to build a web version,
but unsuccessfully. Perhaps it was the long-distance communication
and the language barrier. Perhaps it was the absence of any money
for all the work being done. |
| In
2002,
Lisa Fu, a colleague at Truman, brought us Xun Ding, a young woman
studying at UIC, and her friend, Leo Kong. They completed a CD "fix"
for Windows 98, ME, 2K and XP. This brought us a new lease on life
in the school where computers had been upgraded. The young couple
married and are now expecting their first child. Leo started work
on the Internet version of the program and so far has completed one,
hard-wired lesson that works perfectly on the web. |
| In
2002, the program got the attention of Archeworks,
who gave it a David Award for a design that is disability
friendly. In 2003, the Women's Venture Fund, gave Guinan it's Highest
Leaf Award, which honors women entrepreneurs. |
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We need help! Instant English
is a set of tools. If teachers around the world can access these tools,
we will be able to collect thousands of lessons and have a international
curriculum for ESL literacy.
You could help... |
- with other
languages. We need a Spanish version!
- create lessons
from songs, poetry and folk tales.
- create new
icons for abstract words. …Can anyone think of a good
metaphor for "use"? (usable, used, useful, user, useless,
unused…)
- Please use our
Instant Forum and let us know you're out there.
- Use any of the
5,000 icons on this web site to create your own icon sentences.
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...to President Phoebe Helm
for supporting development, to Therese Turnipseed for supporting
use of the program, to Clifton Truman Daniel for getting attention
from the media. to Suzie Isaacs, multimedia exec, who has watched
and pitched my program for the last 8 years, and to my family and
friends who constantly proivde small loans. |
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ILS > 940 Michigan, Evanston, IL 60202 > phone: 847-328-9525 |
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