Pete Sharma Associates

BESIG Bielefeld – PCE

I have long been fascinated by business English teaching materials – authentic, framework, published, digital; even the absence of materials….. for many years, I taught without published materials, then worked promoting in-house materials in one specific organisation.

I became a writer for my sins, and really enjoy writing the In Company e-lesson – one of the things I’ll be looking at during the PCE. So, over the last few years have been sashaying down the dimly-lit paths trodden by publishers. I have been involved in many a digital product (the DVD-ROM for The Business, CD-ROMs for In Company) and I watch with dark fascination as the great publishing houses wrestle with the digital future. Just recently, PSA was involved in a developing a new course for editors, writers and designers.

The PCE I will be running will look at a range of current materials, including the exciting and the innovative, such as the award-winning eWorkbook for Global (Macmillan). One of my contentions is that developments outside of business English – electronic dictionaries, for instance, are often cutting-edge and merit our attention.

I will steer clear of M-Learning, or learning ‘on the move’ as I talk about that on Sunday. The whole venture will be given a twist as the conference finishes with a look at Dogme, published materials and all things digital – I’ll be defending the software.

I love BESIG and hope to see many familiar faces next month in Bielefeld – maybe even at the PCE…

Just received a digital copy of Interactive Whiteboards for Education: Theory, Research and Practice edited by Michael Thomas and Euline Cutrim Schmid for review purposes. Thanks

As I leaf through the virtual pages, I encounter the contribution from our own Byron Russell, Woodstock Publishing.

There are sections on classroom research, professional development, and an afterword from Stephen Bax….boy, cannot wait to read it BUT there are ONLY 24 hours in a day, as Keifer Sutherland may have said……

An essential read (I feel) before unleashing the brain-destroying 400 Ideas for Using Interactive whiteboards, our own brain-melting tome (courtesy of Macmillan), on an unsuspecting world, IATEFL 2011-time…