Pete Sharma Associates

I am enjoying a sneak preview of the latest CALL Review. It’s a bumper edition….

Funny that Russell Stannard writes about Jing, as just this week I downloaded the free version and am trying it out at home. There’s an article from another colleague at Warwick, Duncan Hunter on exploiting corpora.

Fellow PSA Director Kevin Westbrooks has written the first of three articles looking at the digital divide.

You can check out my review of the magnum opus, the Handbook of Web 2.0 Research and Second Language Learning

All this and much more! Impressively laid out by Maurice Claypole….banish the blues and thse bitterly cold flight delays with some engaging reading matter, coming to the IATEFL Learning Tech website near you….

Thanks to Carl Dowse and the BESIG team for uploading my post-conference interview. Also to a fabulous interviewer, Andi White.

You can watch the interview here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsjFLC_osho

Or go to the BESIG YouTube channel and itself – you can also catch an interview with fellow PSA Director Byron Russell. Enjoy!

Just writing up the PCE (pre-conference event) at the BESIG conference Bielefeld for inclusion in the Learning Technologies page for BESIG Issues. Reflecting back, it was a great experience. Here is a picture taken by the English360 team and included in the practical hands-on workshop which formed part of the session. Thanks to Barney for helping me save the pic to my computer- click on it to enlarge!

My to-do list this December is horrendously long: 1. Get to know English360  2. Get a flip video, shoot and edit  3. Record using Camtasia  4. Reduce student fees at British Universities  5. Win the Nobel peace prize. Do-able? Not sure yet….

We are absolutely delighted that the manuscript of our next ouevre has gone to the lay-out and design people. The book is a team effort consisting of four major strands, A-D.  Barney is responsible for a lot of the ideas in the first strand of the book, section A, which looks at integrating  the powerful and exciting tools we can use in teaching today run through an IWB. The second strand of the book, section B, looks at integrating the software tools provided by the manufacturer (Smart, Promethean et al), and is predominantly the work of enthusiast and wizard trainer Francis Jones. The third strand of the book, section C, looks at integrating the digital course book into the language classroom, and is the result of my own love affair with ‘whiteboardable software’. The fourth and final strand of the book, section D, looks at creating your own material for using on an IWB. There are additional  ideas contributed by experts and practitioners  in a variety of teaching situations, plus eight Case Studies. We cannot wait to see the first proofs, and to keep you in a mildy delirious state of AN-TIC-I-PA……TION, please enjoy the fabby cover!!!

To celebrate the latest e-lesson on Presentations, I thought I’d share five moments in my life as a presenter, moments which ‘kicked me upstairs’ in terms of my personal development as a trainer. In no particular order…

1.Plenary at LABCI-ABCI conference

Want to know sheer terror? Seeing five gigantic screens behind a microscopic David Graddol in Sao Paolo as he did his plenary in a room laid out for over a thousand. Gulp. I fled to my room and spent eight hours the following day re-working my material to make it work in context. Need a 20 second-hook to capture the attention of the audience. I found one – the Brazilian wave…..

2. Post-course chat

After one of our courses in Stratford, well-known trainer Seth Dickens stayed behind and spent an hour telling us what makes a good PPT slide. I now fill the screen with my photo, and have become addicted to white text on black backgrounds. PPT will never be the same again – thanks, Seth…..

3. Angst at ESP conference, Stuttgart

Nick Brieger finished his talk and then the computer and projector (sorry, beamer) broke. Just like that. I started my session with no PPT, while someone behind me fiddled with incomprehensible cables. Whatever I do now, knowing what I will do if the technology goes pear-shaped is crucial. Roll on Plan B……

4. De-mystifying digital

Watching my colleague’s presentation on this course made me realise there are two types of people in the world. Those who know nothing about photograph libraries (like me) and those that do. The graphics he used were from a designers nirvana. Slides involving one or two key-words.  I really experienced the power of design….

5. Buying a clicker on Amazon

Buying that wireless clicker has transformed my presentations. Like Mark Powell, I have great difficulty in standing in one place and exuding calm and serenity. (Like it tells you in the manuals). I hop around like an epileptic spider on heat, but secretly, in my pocket, nestles my clicker….

I was baffled as to why you try and stick to the rules (give an overview, divide the presentation into  five parts…) yet all those great TED.com presentations break the rules! So, this e-lesson is about breaking the rules. It is also a homage to a lot of great presentations and presenters I have witnessed over the years which have helped me. You may even guess some of the presenters in there! Hope you enjoy it!

You can download the latest business English e-lesson from Macmillan  - “Best Presentation ever…” here: http://www.businessenglishonline.net/resources/in-company-second-edition-resources/elessons