Pete Sharma Associates

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!

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

A short note to say thank you to everyone who attended the PSA Blended Learning course at The London School in Thiene in Italy last weekend and, of course, a special thanks to Julie for organising it. We had a great time and were challenged by a dynamic group of teachers to present our information and opinions as clearly as possible and then to help them realise some of their ideas and plans using the technologies and tools covered on the course.

We were royally looked after with endless cups of tea and wonderful cheese sandwiches which kept us from flagging during our demos and discussions of blogs, podcasts, IWBs, Moodles and all the other things that the course covers.

There were many questions we were not able to answer due to time and, sometimes, the fact that we had not thought about those issues ourselves. The answers to questions should start to trickle through very soon.

So, interactive whiteboards!!

This is a subject that both Pete and I have brought up on this blog and is an important element in both the Blended Learning book and PSA‘s Blended Learning training weekends. In fact, even as I sit here typing this, Pete is across the corridor leading a session on using IWBs. He is able to do this because PSA have acquired one for this purpose.

Here I have to make a confession. I have had very limited experience using IWBs. I know the principles and theories or teaching with one and I’ve seen other people in action. But, I’ve not been able to get my hands on one for long enough to really develop any skills or to use one with a group of learners.

This is about to change. The PSA whiteboard has found a home at the school where I teach on a daily basis and I hereby resolve to take advantage of this fact and to blog my efforts.

There is very little to tell so far. The whiteboard is a 600 Series Smartboard and we have installed the Smart Notebook version 10 software to use with it. Connecting the board for use is remarkably simple. It needs to be connected to the computer using a USB lead and then a projector (also connected to the computer) has to be set up to throw its image onto the surface of the board. You then run a little program called Orient which projects a series of crosses onto the board the centres of which you have to gently press with the tip of one of the pens. Once that is complete the board is ready to go.

More to come once I’ve had the chance to learn a bit more.

There are still places on the second Blended Learning course in Stratford. Visit www.psa.eu.com to request a booking form…

Just received the I-Pak from OUP. Still awaiting Longman software, Total English. New Inside Out Digital coming out this month from Macmillan. We already have the full range of face2face from CUP…So, there should be a chance to evaluate the full range of IWB software from the Big Four….

Thanks to everyone who attended the session last weekend on new technologies and pedagogies in language teaching at the BAISC conference last weekend.

Here are the Power points:

Pedagogies for the digital age

Focus on three technologies

I look forward to meeting any conference participants again …. perhaps on future PSA courses later this year!

It was fantastic to be involved in the first Blended Learning course run by Pete Sharma Associates last weekend. We had 12 participants, a perfect number to get the diversity of experience we craved.

Thanks to guest trainer Julia Glass from Promethean who among other things demonstrated Learner Voting Devices. Also to PSA trainer Francis Jones who enthralled us in the Smart board workshop. Wealso  put a Mimio through its paces.

Co-trainer and PSA Director Kevin  pulled out the stops on podcasting, blogs and wikis and Moodle. Course participants are usig Moodle post course, making it a real Blended Learning course, with format mirroring content.

Barney – site builder, co-author – was as wonderfully helpful as ever, walking the fine line between omni-presence and invisibilty he treads so well. His fan club, like a mushroom in the dark, grows steadily.

A great weekend and I have blogged events on the British Council / BBC Teaching English site.

If you are thinking of taking the next course in June, my advice is to get your application in early as it is likely to prove popular.

It was great to do this course last week, and to meet the participants.

If you wish to download the Universal podcast worksheet which was mentioned, just click on the link.

Good luck to all participants and all success for the future!

This is the last few days to catch the ‘Early bird’ registration for the Blended Learning course in Markdorf, Germany.

You can download a sample programme for the course.

Thanks to those booked on the course and the interest from others – just mail Paul East at Pyramid if you are interested!

Hope to see you soon – both f2f and on the Moodle support platform for the course!!

Pete

You can now download a sample programme for the Blended Learning course in Markdorf, 31 March – 4 April.

 Visit the Pyramid website.