Archive for the ‘Technologies’ Category

Music for podcasts

Sunday, 18th July 2010

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 ...

Paper books vs. e-readers

Wednesday, 7th July 2010

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 ...

Tools for the 21st Century Teacher: free eBook

Wednesday, 16th June 2010

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

Augmented reality – a new podcast from Pete & Barney

Wednesday, 31st March 2010

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 ...

Interactive Whiteboards – two new articles

Sunday, 17th January 2010

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 ...

IWB: set-up

Sunday, 1st November 2009

Suddenly realised that I have  yet to post my first thoughts and experiences of using an interactive whiteboard.  This is probably more a result having too much fun learning to use it and not spending enough time recording what I've done. Setting the board up had been one area that I'd ...

Interactive whiteboards and learning curves

Saturday, 26th September 2009

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 ...

New addition to te4be homepage

Friday, 7th August 2009

If you've been to the homepage of psa.eu.com in the last 24 hours, you'll have noticed the addition of a box on the left supplying a steady stream of Pete's Twittered thoughts. Pete will be blogging and Twittering more abotu this soon.

Learning Technologies Page – Business Issues

Monday, 3rd August 2009

The Learning Technologies page looks at using Wordle in the business English classroom. It then focuses on a new development in the world of electronic dictionaries and concludes with a few lines on digital materials.     To read the rest of this article, please see Business Issues, the Newsletter of the IATEFL ...

Article in the Guardian Weekly

Thursday, 16th July 2009

The Interactive whiteboard in language teaching Pete Sharma Nothing symbolises the ‘digital divide’ quite as much as the interactive whiteboard, or IWB. The divide is not just a gulf between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’; it is an ideological divide. This article sets out how the two opposing camps - the ...

Blended Learning – update 6

Thursday, 25th June 2009

The latest update to our book has just been uploaded to the Macmillan website. It looks at the mimio, New Inside Out Digital and the new on-line Macmillan English Dictionary. Enjoy - it is completely free to download!

“The times, they are a-changin’…..”

Thursday, 11th June 2009

Using interactive whiteboards in the language classroom Pete Sharma In some countries, no child can go through the state education system without being taught by teachers who have access to an interactive whiteboard (IWB); in others, using an IWB is a distant dream. Almost no other educational tool symbolises and typifies the ...

BESIG Newsletter

Friday, 15th May 2009

In the Learning Technologies page, Barney Barrett looks at two exciting developments in the world of electronic dictionaries. Then, Pete Sharma shares his experiences of 'process writing', based on his involvement in authoring some of the multimedia content of The Business, a new advanced level DVD-ROM. For the rest of this ...

Webinar

Thursday, 7th May 2009

Macmillan have now made the webinar available to download for people to view on their iPod/iPhone. They can also watch an edited version that streams right on the webpage. The direct link for this is here: http://www.macmillanenglish.com/Course.aspx?id=43864. You can also get to this now from the webinar page at www.macmillanenglish.com/season. Thanks to ...

Interview in Second Life

Tuesday, 5th May 2009

Here is a recent message from Nik Peachey: for those of you who weren't able to get into Second Life for these chat shows, you can find audio recordings of the interviews here. Scott Thornbury http://tinyurl.com/dzd5xa Jeremy Harmer http://tinyurl.com/dgvghz Sound quality is far from perfect , but not too bad. Hope you enjoy these and try to ...

Macmillan Dictionary Online

Tuesday, 28th April 2009

The Macmillan English Dictionary Online has been in existence for some time but previously, it was only accessible to those who had already bought a copy of the MED in paper form. What those who are not on Macmillan's emailing list may not know is that this online resource is now ...

The first Blended Learning course

Friday, 24th April 2009

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 ...

Webinar

Monday, 23rd March 2009

I'm delighted to be speaking next month on a Macmillan webinar. If you want to sign up, just visit the Macmillan site. It's free to view, but remember, you have to pre-register!

Modern English Teacher

Wednesday, 25th February 2009

I once gave a training session on technology to a group of language teachers and issued a typical participant feedback sheet at the end. The first comment I read was positive, as I expected: “Great; useful”. The next comment came as a shock: “What was the point of that session? ...

Longman dictionary and Firefox

Saturday, 14th February 2009

If you use Firefox to browse the web you will probably know that it features a search box on its tool bar. This is usually set to Google when you first install the browser. However, if you click on the tiny down arrow next to the Google icon, you are ...