Pete Sharma Associates

Many Business English language learners need to give presentations for work and professional puprposes. This blog post looks at some of the techniques and technologies they can use.

For the rest of this post, please visit:

Linguarama blog

It’s been a good day on the IWB front, for three reasons.

1. I was chatting (through the keyboard) with a colleague with a brief to buy an IWB and I was interested in learning what his choice would be. SMART? Promethean? Hitachi? He went with a Panabord (from Panasonic), mostly for the local support offered (Kalyan works in India) and looking at the info, I think he made a good choice.

Wanna check it out? Click here:

http://panasonic.com.au/Products/Electronic+whiteboards/Interactive+whiteboard/UB-T880/Overview

2 I managed (all on my ownsome) to download Promethean’s ActivInspire software onto my new Mac in advance of the English UK Training day on IWBs. The Wimbledon school of English, the host school, has Promethean boards. First impressions: the interface actually looks much easier than the older version (Active Studio)

3  I even found time to watch half of Barbara Garner’s recent webinar – Cool ideas for IWBs. Isn’t that a great thing about recorded webinars – you can watch them as and when you wish to. Second half tomorrow, yeah. If you are a member of the IATEFL LT SIG, you can watch the webinar for free. If you aren’t, join.

http://ltsig.org.uk/

How are you going with your IWB? Are you in full flow, or is it gathering dust? If it’s the second scenario, there are still places on English UK’s Training Day 11th February in London. For more info, visit: http://www.psa.eu.com/event/getting-the-most-out-your-interactive-whiteboard-approaches-and-pedagogies

I’d love to see you there!

I am really delighted to say that the first in a new series of blog posts has just gone up. These posts are written for the language training organisation marcus evans Linguarama. These posts are available to everyone in the language teaching profession on the Linguarama blog.

Over the coming months, this series of posts will be looking at technology in language teaching, along with other aspects of business English and language teaching.

Visit: http://blog.linguarama.com/

I’m just about to review Sounds – the Pronunciation app from Macmillan for the ELTJ.

It is for iPhone and iPad, and adds a new dimension to Adrian Underhill’s well-known Sound Foundations chart. It is easy to use: simply tap a symbol to hear a sound, tap and hold to hear a word with that sound. It is best to rotate the screen to see the chart in a whole page view.

Students can gain practise in four skills. The app contains 340 useful words they can listen to, practise copying / repeating (i.e. speaking) and compare their effort with an original. They can read a word and then type it in phonemic script (writing); listen to a word and type it; or read a phonemic transcript and type the word itself. A nice feature allows you to import writing in phonemic script into programmes like Notes.

Looks like great value for students and teachers alike! I’m enjoying putting it through the paces for the full review. So far, ‘app-iness

You know how you are waiting for a bus and then two arrive…

Today the PSA Kindle arrived……….and the wonderful Jo at Macmillan lent us an iPad for the weekend’s course session on M-Learning (NOT to mention a Sony e-book reader which is currently charging)

Revert to boy surrounded by gadgets – hard to use touch-screen and simultaneously explore the Kindle – a bit like learning Moodle and Blackboard at the same time..

OK – back to preparing the M-Learning session….

The next question: are e-books addictive?

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!

A recent survey suggests that it is faster to read a book on paper than using one of the popular e-readers on the market.

The environmental blog TreeHugger was skeptical about this and had a closer look at the research.

The jury is still out but it is worth bearing in mind that new and better e-readers are hitting the market every year.

Came across this free eBook from Michael Zimmer. Thanks to Chris Stanzer for the original tweet, and the free technology for teachers website.

What is ‘augmented reality’? Click on the link below to listen to our latest podcast and find out!

The podcast (created by Pete and Barney as an example of a teacher-produced podcast) is a three-minute clip from a business programme and is based on a forthcoming e-lesson, to be published by Macmillan next month.

This podcast is not meant to be used with students but was just the result of us trialling microphone and editing with Audacity – and to provide a taster of future ELT lesson material! Enjoy listening!

Augmented Reality – podcast

Two very different articles are published this month, on the same subject by the same author (Pete Sharma)

Article 1

The rise and rise of interactive whiteboards

“I love my interactive whiteboard (IWB) and my students love it too”

 “What’s the point of spending our budget on interactive whiteboards? Can you prove they make learning better?”

Once again, a battle rages in the world of language teaching. Although the IWB has come to symbolise and typify the ‘digital divide’, this is more than just a battle between the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’,’

For the rest of this article, see: English Teaching Professional Issue 66 January 2010

Article 2

Ten things to do with an interactive whiteboard

As the virtual dust settles in the latest battle about interactive whiteboards (IWBs), – “to use or not to use?”- played out on on-line forums by passionate supporters and equally passionate detractors, Pete Sharma looks at ten things to do with….an IWB.

1 Don’t buy one

For the rest of this article, see: Modern English Teacher Volume 19 Number 1 January 2010

Enjoy….