Pete Sharma Associates

I once gave a training session on technology to a group of language teachers and issued a typical participant feedback sheet at the end. The first comment I read was positive, as I expected: “Great; useful”. The next comment came as a shock: “What was the point of that session? We have no time to implement any of it.” As the trainer, I was confused. Had the session been a success, or not?

This article looks at training teachers to use technology in language teaching. The first part explores several core issues which make this an especially challenging area; the article then provides some useful ‘principles’ on which to base training; and finally, it concludes with some practical training ideas.

To read the rest of this article, please see: Technology training for language teachers, Modern English Teacher Volume 18 Number 1 onlineMET

Thanks to everyone in Nagoya who attended the real world presentation today – and to those who attended virtually in Second Life! It was a great conference – and I feel I finally understand the term Web 2.0 in a language teaching context. More to follow in our next Newsletter. Just off to join Twitter.

Download the handout.

If you use Firefox to browse the web you will probably know that it features a search box on its tool bar. This is usually set to Google when you first install the browser. However, if you click on the tiny down arrow next to the Google icon, you are presented with a list of other search providers. You can add to that list by clicking on Manage Search Engines at the bottom of the list. This gives you a dialogue box which includes a link inviting you to Get more search engines.

Click on this and you are taken to the Firefox add-ons website. Scroll through the list of search for Longman and you will find the add-on for the Longman dictionary. Click on Add to Firefox and you will be able to search the online version of the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Dictionary via your toolbar.

The fifth update for our book Blended Learning is now available on the Macmillan website.

So, if you want to revisit Power Point and read about the latest developments on Google! just download you free update!

Many thanks to Lindsay Clandfield for including this offering on his blog: six things

Do visit the blog – it’s one of the best six around……