Technology for Business English
The latest update to our book has just been uploaded to the Macmillan website. It looks at the mimio, New Inside Out Digital and the new on-line Macmillan English Dictionary.
Enjoy - it is completely free to download!
Thanks to everyone who joined me for a coffee in SL. Also to Nik, the interviewer (aka the host with the most). Thoroughly enjoyable, as was my post interview curry.
I wrote about TED.com, in an earlier post which you can read here. This website, which contains a huge archive of presentations from luminaries and experts in a variety of fields, has added someting which will make it even more useful and attractive to those teaching and learning English.
On the right of the video window is a link labelled Open interactive transcript. Clicking on this reveals the transcript of the presentation. As well as following the transcript as you listen and watch, you can then click on any part of the text and the video will jump directly to this point. For an example, have a look at a presentation by the American author Malcolm Gladwell.
Using interactive whiteboards in the language classroom
Pete Sharma
In some countries, no child can go through the state education system without being taught by teachers who have access to an interactive whiteboard (IWB); in others, using an IWB is a distant dream. Almost no other educational tool symbolises and typifies the ‘digital divide’ quite as much as the IWB. This article will look at what an IWB is, describe four approaches to using interactive whiteboards in language teaching and mention some issues surrounding IWBs.
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For the complete article, please see the latest English Teaching Matters, the Journal for English Language Teacher in Germany Volume 10 Number 2 Summer 2009
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Yikes. This Sunday I am being interviewed in Second Life by Nik Peachey. Gulp….
I am Barcelona, enjoying this wonderful city..
Thanks to Macmillan for organising such a wonderful event yesterday - it was great to see so many teachers with a copy of …our book!!
Here is a ‘lite’ version of the Power Point - it is ’stripped’ of a few photos just to make the file size a little smaller - enjoy, if anyone wants it - and feliz cumpleanos a Roser….
There are still places on the second Blended Learning course in Stratford. Visit www.psa.eu.com to request a booking form…
Just received the I-Pak from OUP. Still awaiting Longman software, Total English. New Inside Out Digital coming out this month from Macmillan. We already have the full range of face2face from CUP…So, there should be a chance to evaluate the full range of IWB software from the Big Four….
We have just sent out our latest Newsletter. We hope you enjoy it!
(If you haven’t received it, please check your spam; drop us a mail if it isn’t there, as I may not have transferred your original request into our database).
Just found the following review in Language Learning and Technology, February 2009.
New technology continues to advance at a rapid rate. What effect is it having on teacher training courses?  This article explores the uses of a number of technologies on teacher training in ELT, and in particular, Master’s courses.
For the rest of this article, Training goes mobile, by Pete Sharma, please see the latest EL Gazette.
Thanks to everyone who attended the session last weekend on new technologies and pedagogies in language teaching at the BAISC conference last weekend.
Here are the Power points:
Pedagogies for the digital age
I look forward to meeting any conference participants again …. perhaps on future PSA courses later this year!
New technology and ELT: the state of the art
Pete Sharma
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There can be no doubt that new technology has forever changed the teaching and learning of languages. Why then is T.E.L.L. (technology-enhanced language learning) such a controversial area? This article provides a ‘snapshot’ of technology in ELT today. It describes some ways in which using educational technology has benefitted language teaching, and then explores some of the controversies.
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For the rest of this article, please see: New Routes May 2009 Number 38 ISSN 1516-3601 Distributed in Brasil by Disal
In the Learning Technologies page, Barney Barrett looks at two exciting developments in the world of electronic dictionaries. Then, Pete Sharma shares his experiences of ‘process writing’, based on his involvement in authoring some of the multimedia content of The Business, a new advanced level DVD-ROM.
For the rest of this article, please see the latest BESIG ISSUES.
It also carries an article on Reflections on the Online Cert IBET by Candy Van Olst with Pete Sharma.
Enjoy….
I am delighted to say that the latest CALL Review is now available on the IATEFL website. It includes the following articles:
The future has arrived: a new era in electronic dictionaries - Michael Rundell
Blended Learning and Current Thinking in TEFL - Simon Buckland
Tweeting in a language teaching and learning environment - Mercedes Castro
Where Daleks fear to tread - Maurice Claypole
The Skype’s the limit! Practical uses of Skype in the classroom - Richard Turnbull
A Wireless Ready report - Gary Motteram and Pete Sharma
The LEAP - Tim Kelly
Enjoy!
Macmillan have now made the webinar available to download for people to view on their iPod/iPhone. They can also watch an edited version that streams right on the webpage.
The direct link for this is here: http://www.macmillanenglish.com/Course.aspx?id=43864.
You can also get to this now from the webinar page at www.macmillanenglish.com/season.
Thanks to Matt Kaye and the team.
Here is a recent message from Nik Peachey:
for those of you who weren’t able to get into Second Life for these chat shows, you can find audio recordings of the interviews here.
Scott Thornbury
http://tinyurl.com/dzd5xa
Jeremy Harmer
http://tinyurl.com/dgvghz
Sound quality is far from perfect , but not too bad.
Hope you enjoy these and try to get along to hear Pete Sharma on June 7th.
Best
Wondering how to use an Interactive whiteboard? Or how to exploit podcasts, blogs and wikis in the language classoom?
Join us for one of our three UK Digital Days in May. Brighton, Edinbirgh and Bournemouth.
Barney and myself, aka. the dynamic duo, will soon be in Edinburgh.
For more information, please visit Macmillan worldwide.
The Macmillan English Dictionary Online has been in existence for some time but previously, it was only accessible to those who had already bought a copy of the MED in paper form.
What those who are not on Macmillan’s emailing list may not know is that this online resource is now available for everyone to use.
Like all free versions of CD-ROM dictionaries, it does not have the same functionality of the full product. However what you get is:
I’ve been using in the classroom recently - sometimes alongside the CD-ROMs of the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary and Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English and, sometimes on its own. It has been getting an enthusiastic response, especially from those of our students whose company laptops are set up to prevent them from installing any software not sanctioned by their employer.
It was fantastic to be involved in the first Blended Learning course run by Pete Sharma Associates last weekend. We had 12 participants, a perfect number to get the diversity of experience we craved.
Thanks to guest trainer Julia Glass from Promethean who among other things demonstrated Learner Voting Devices. Also to PSA trainer Francis Jones who enthralled us in the Smart board workshop. Wealso  put a Mimio through its paces.
Co-trainer and PSA Director Kevin pulled out the stops on podcasting, blogs and wikis and Moodle. Course participants are usig Moodle post course, making it a real Blended Learning course, with format mirroring content.
Barney - site builder, co-author - was as wonderfully helpful as ever, walking the fine line between omni-presence and invisibilty he treads so well. His fan club, like a mushroom in the dark, grows steadily.
A great weekend and I have blogged events on the British Council / BBC Teaching English site.
If you are thinking of taking the next course in June, my advice is to get your application in early as it is likely to prove popular.
You can now see my most schizophrenic moment, the Jekyll and Hyde Pecha Kucha presentation at IATEFL Cardiff. The presentation starts (roughly) at 56 minutes. Rumours that I took of my shirt at the end are true. Thanks to the great people at IATEFL on-line who made the on-line event happen, and of course to the host with the most, Lindsay C.