Pete Sharma Associates

We are delighted that the next update – the tenth – is available.

The update, which is free, focuses specifically on Interactive Whiteboards.

To download the update, simply visit: http://www.macmillanenglish.com/methodology/books/Blended-Learning.htm

Enjoy!!!

The good people behind GLOBAL (Macmillan’s course book) have just posted a podcast. The listening is the author (moi) of the essay on this topic in the Teacher’s Book.

Click here to visit the page and listen:

Podcast on Blended Learning

Pete Sharma examines a new platform for producing top-notch web-driven business English programmes.

Many business English providers believe that ‘blended learning’, combining face-to-face teaching with online support, is best. But creating such a course is far from easy. What happens after the needs analysis tells you that your students need to prepare a presentation on exhaust-pipes for the Minneapolis trade-fair? Do you issue a course book, with a CD-ROM at the back? Unlikely. Do you create the course from the students’ own materials, with scissors, glue and a photocopier? It’s time-consuming, re-inventing wheels. In the digital age, should we go on-line, search for, download and customise authentic material from the web, and blithely ignore the copyright issues?

[To read Pete's complete review of English360, please see the latest EL Gazette article May 2011]

Delighted that the next update for Blended Learning is now available on the Macmillan Teacher’s Resource site.

This free update is a bumper issue!!! ENJOY………..

CONTENTS

The ninth update focuses on three developments in the area of business English

• the e-lesson warehouse
• English360
• Market Leader Activ Teach

It continues with:

• a brief update on the MED (Macmillan English Dictionary) for the iPad
• the new look Macmillan English Campus (MEC) plus
• an introduction to the YouTube downloader

Delighted that the next Key Concepts in ELT in the ELTJ is on Blended Learning.

You can access this here: Blended Learning.

Enjoy!

One of the most popular sessions on the PSA Blended Learning courses is on how to make your own podcasts. Recording and editing voice is straightforward. Adding music is also easy to learn. However, the question that arises with music is always the one of copyright.

Most people know that if you use a clip from a song by your favourite pop singer then you are likely to be in breach of copyright rules. This doesn’t mean you have to dig out your old Stylophone and tamborine and record your own. There’s lots of music available on the Web which is covered by the Creative Commons licence. The folks who have written and recorded these tracks are more than happy for you to use them or parts of them as long as you follow the rules of the licence and give them due credit.

Here’s a ready made list of Pod-safe instrumentals from the wonderful Free Music Archive to get you started. Have fun!

We are delighted to say that the next update for Blended learning is now available

This focuses firstly on M-Learning – mobile learning – and then provides a practical, step-by-step guide on how to upload videos to the popular website YouTube.

To download your free .pdf of this 5-page update, please visit the Macmillan website.

Enjoy!

Please note that this course is now scheduled to run in Oxford on 25th – 26th September 2010.

Thanks to all the teachers who came to the session in Madrid at the Macmillan Teacher’s day. It was great to be there!

If you need anything from the talk, just drop me mail!

Hope you had a good rest of the day….and apologies for Messi….:-)

Review copy of Maurice’s new book has just crossed my desk.  No real question as to the two chapters I look forward to most:

The best of both worlds (Implementing blended learning in ELT)

Second Life comes of age (Teaching English in a virtual world)

And the award for the chapter with the most intriguing title? Teaching the language of sex…