Pete Sharma Associates

Wow – what a conference! What can I say….?

A-Z IATEFL

A is for app and Andi, interviewer extraordinaire

B is for Brighton, beach, British Council bash

C is for coffee, curry

D is for Debate, digital and dogme

E is for English360

F is for friends, forums and Four Hundred ideas….

G is Gavin, Graham and games

H is for hotel a million miles away from the conference

I is for Interactive whiteboards and iPad

J is for junk food and (the wonderful) Jo

K is for kissing aforementioned friends

L is for launching of the new book at the LT event

M is for mobile learning – missing the Macmillan party

N is for networking

O is for organisation (amazing)

P is for Pecha Kucha, Petra Pointer, Prezi and PCE

Q is for questions

R is for research

S is for sun, sand, sea, software and Second Life

T is for Thai, technology and tweeting

U is for underwear (“Is your underwear authentic?” asked Jamie Keddie)

V is for virtual presentation from India and video

W is for whisky tasting and withdrawal symptoms

X is for xhaustion and xtraordinary

Y is for “Why must it end?”

Z is for zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz and a well-earned rest

10 reasons to buy our new book

1. It’s hot off the press. From conception to birth, this book, like a Usain Bolt of lightening, has broken all speed records. And that’s what you need in the fast-moving world of educational technology.

2. It has benefitted from multiple authors. Francis Jones is a trainer for Dragonfly and spent years training UK state school teachers in use of the board. Barney Barrett teaches business English and has given TLC to the PSA Smartboard since its arrival in his school. Teachers from a number of countries have sent in ideas. So throw a kush-ball at your whiteboard – how sexy is that? (Idea number 177)

3. It has benefitted from a crack editorial team. From our managing editor to the whole editorial team, the prose has been slapped around till it fairly hums like electricity on the page. I kid you not.

4. You already have a interactive whiteboard in your school. So – get more ideas for your teachers!

5. You might get an interactive whiteboard in your school. So – make sure the teachers have some  great ideas for using it!

6. You are waiting, before buying, for a huge, f***-off touch-screen monitor. Don’t worry – the will ideas all work with a huge, interactive touch-screen monitor. Oh yes, information will be updated on the web, most likely through free .pdfs on the Macmillan Books for Teachers site.

7. You have no interactive whiteboard at all. Remember that many ideas work with a simple lap-top and data projector set-up.

8. You have no intention of ever using an interactive whiteboard while there is still breath in your body. So, buy a copy and see what you are missing (memorable presentations; better language review; helpful for kinaesthetic learners….)

9. The cover is gorgeous. Sounds like a good enough reason to me! (Love the turbines)

10. There’s a discount at IATEFL for attendees of this Friday’s PCE. Just sashay to the Macmillan stand.

11. “It’s brilliant”. (Quote adapted from ‘Bend it like Beckham’ – originally said about Jasminder’s footballing prowess but equally applicable to our book). Yes, I know, I cannot count.

More people have registered for this Friday than any previous Learning Technologies PCE!

Learning Technologies SIG – Pre-Conference Event: Interactive Whiteboards: From Methods to Madness

(Er, shouldn’t that be: from Madness to Methods? Ed)

15th April

9.30-16.30

Venue: Checkland building, Falmer Campus, University of Brighton (see map)

Sessions include:

Get on Board Today I (presentation) Connie Güntelberg

Make a Portable Interactive Whiteboard (workshop) Matt Ledding

IWBs & Dogme (discussion) Luke Meddings

About Icebergs, snakes and the Cutty Sark (presentation) Heike Philp

(Only Heike could dream up such a fabulous title. Ed)

5 x 5 Minute Show and Tell (swapshop)Participants share their ideas

Practical Ideas for using IWBs (plenary) Pete Sharma

Finally:

IWBs – What are they good for? (panel discussion)

Facilitator: Graham StanleyPanel : Paul Braddock / Connie Güntelberg / Matt Ledding /Luke Meddings / Pete Sharma / Peter Williams

See you there!!

Great way to end the conference this afternoon – an essential debate on technology.

The arguments shift, rage on; we develop by thinking. Or do we? Is it all about comfort zones…..failure to recognise when we need to change.

Whatever your views (PRO, CON or healthily sceptical), it was a spirited way to end a great event

An amazing building (fabulous fotos taken), lovely people, a chance to catch up with fellow-PSA Director Byron (man or myth?), great food…..finished by a walk over the Charles Bridge near twilight…..Prague in spring!

Plenary and workshop follow-ups later this week……

When I first heard this question, I was shocked. Upon refelection, it helped me realise the gulf between the so-called ‘digital naitives’ and the older generation, brought up on sequenced syllabi….

There can be little doubt that the components of an ELT course are changing: in the classroom, outside the classroom, for the student, for the teacher, for the author, for the publisher. …

All the major ELT publishers are investing a great deal of time and resources training their in-house staff in the development of digital materials. But who is training the freelancers?

If you are (perchance) a freelance ELT editor or author, do you know how to create, develop and edit these new materials and how to manage the new delivery methods?

If you are worried about being left behind as the ELT world goes digital, then we may have just the course for you….

Pete Sharma and Byron Russell of Pete Sharma Associates are leading thinkers and practitioners in ELT digital development. They have teamed up with experienced ELT publishers, project managers and writers, Rafael Alarcon-Gaeta, Nick Robinson, Jill Florent and Des O’Sullivan to develop a two-day training course for freelance ELT publishing professionals.

The aims of the course are to examine digital products and processes and to future-proof our skills so that we keep pace with the changes in the publishing industry.

Feedback from the twelve participants on the Sept 2010 course was enthusiastic. The course also led directly to employment opportunities from a publisher interested in the participants as people with relevant knowledge of digital processes. So, read on for information on our next course………

Future-proofing your ELT publishing skills in the digital age

When? 21 and 28 May 2011 (9.00–17.30)

Where? The Oxford English Centre, 66 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 6PR

How many participants? 12 maximum

How much? £300+VAT

Interested? For more information, please contact:

Jill Florent (jill.florent@btinternet.com) or

Des O’Sullivan (desmond.osullivan@ntlworld.com).

Want to sign up? To book a place on the course, please contact man-about-town:

Byron Russell (byron.russell@psa.eu.com).

Places on the course will be allocated on a first-come first-served basis. So act now … and book your place in the digital future…..

Click here to download draft programme:  Future_Proofing_May_2011_programme

Can it be empirically proved that using an IWB improves educational outcomes? Clearly, longitudinal studies are necessary before any serious pronouncements can be made. The fact that better presentations are possible using an IWB (Task 1997), kinaesthetic students are catered for (Parkinson 2008) and lesson review is superior (Nostalgia 2004) should, I believe, be largely ignored.

This new book (Publication date: April 2011), however, implies that IWBs can have a “motivational effect on learners”, a serious claim given the absence of adequate peer-review.

A number of teachers teach using interactive whiteboards; most don’t. This new book clearly favours the privileged few, and neglects the hoi polloi. Moreover, the book has a number of serious gaps. There is no extensive Bibliography. There is no section dedicated to making an IWB with an X-Box remote control. Furthermore, the practical teaching ideas can  be used with minimal preparation, which is both misleading and seductive to many busy teachers, implying that such successful and off-the-shelf lessons which are pleasing to students can be trotted out without the necessary adherence to deep-structure, socio-cognitive principles, constructivism and Vygotskian thinking. The tasks and ideas can, moreover, be practised by small groups, and have very little to do with traditional transmissive approaches practised in the hallowed plenary theatres of august institutions.

It has to be said that it is highly likely that this long-awaited tome will succeed in language institutions around the world, and help innumerable ELT-initiated teachers deliver better lessons, thus holding back long-awaited research and ultimately atrophying the advancement of world knowledge through the pursuit of PhD’s into outmoded technologies. The prose is crisp and racy, far too easy to understand, and eschews the long and complex sentences of academic writing.

I trust that only Directors of Studies and teachers in need of a quick fix will pay for this book, which I fervently hope will not find its way onto the shelves of any serious library.

Reviewer: Dr Si Fiction (University of Patagonia)

What a great weekend! It all started in Devon….

Thanks to everyone  who came to my session. Wow – so much to get through so we kinda ran out of time!

If you didn’t pick up a Handout with a couple of practical ideas using the IWB from the Macmillan stand afterwards, you can download it here: handout

If you would like the presentations (in a ‘lite’ vesrion i.e. not graphics hungry, then please click below.

opening-lite

part2-lite

part4-lite

The article – 10 things to do with an Interactive Whiteboard (polite version) – appeared in Modern English Teacher: MET Vol 19 Number 1 January 2010.

Thanks a million to Macmillan for sponsoring this talk, and to the conference organisers.

Afterwards, ma femme et moi explored Devon (Drogo Castle) and Cornwall…..:-)

Pete and I were in Stuttgart on Saturday giving a one-day training day on how to use technology to enhance the use of authentic materials in an in-company teaching environment. It was a challenging day for us, not least because 83 trainers registered for the event! These were all trainers for kmp, based in Sindelfingen, Germany, and there was of course a wide range of skills and experience within the group.

The day appeared to go really well, and it was interesting for us to focus specifically on this aspect of using technology. The event went very smoothly, with a great venue. The organisation by kmp was excellent and reflected very well on them as a company. We are looking forward to following this up with feedback, online information and more.

On Sunday I am making my second appearance at the Virtual Round Table organised by Heike Philp and her excellent team. There were a couple of IT issues last time that meant this is really my third appearance as I ended up repeating the talk last time. I think the technology has become reliable enough now that such virtual conferences have really come of age, and the idea that I can lead a workshop online from my little office in a little village on the edge of the New Forest in Hampshire, England is still quite surreal for me. While I probably still prefer a physical conference, the fact is that many people do not have the opportunity to attend the major conferences, so a virtual conference gives them this opportunity. And I have to say, I find the experience very enjoyable.

My presentation/workshop is an introduction to Moodle, so if you are interested, Google the Virtual Round Table and join in. There are lots of other interesting talks as well.

We THINK the workshop has started well. Scary!

Enjoying leading people into fog (what is a VLE? cuisenaire rods? dogme or DOGMA?) Then pouring light into their lives……ha ha